I hate this game and everything it stands for. Goat Simulator represents everything that is wrong with 2015. Much like every occasion when a creatively bankrupt marketer tries to deliberately entice the internet meme brigade with something “so bad its good” and utterly misses the point, this is an unfunny joke taken to the unbelievable extreme.
I've enjoyed my fair share of silly things; I like a number of cringeworthy youtube videos. Don't get me wrong, I can even see the appeal in physics-based shenanigans and silliness in open world games. The thing is, the appeal in seeing ragdoll physics go wrong in games is the juxtaposition with the game's attempts at realism.
I've spent much more time than I'm proud to admit cutting about Grand Theft Auto's cities terrorising folk, but the appeal was seeing my idiocy impact a reactive world. In Goat Simulator, the humans stand inanimate until you butt them with your head. Sometimes, you'll watch somebody in the distance suddenly lose their legs and drop over for no reason.
I know what you idiots are thinking. “Luke, that's the joke. You just don't get it.” Shut up you brainless cretin. This isn't a joke. Simply copying something shit isn't a parody. There's no commentary or subtlety here. This is the equivalent of latter-day Scary Movies, where they swapped out jokes for direct, verbatim references to horrors. This is the Family Guy, Peter Kay, youtube videos of people recreating other people's jokes school of comedy. I hate it.
Goat Simulator is a tech demo that doesn't quite work, which somebody put a goat into for a laugh. I'm sure it was a good chuckle when they were emailing eachother back and forth, but this is not a good quality piece of software that people should be charged money for.
The game presents itself as a kind of Tony Hawk score-attack playground but the control is unpleasant and awkward (it's so funny!), the gameplay has no flow to it (what a funny joke) and the graphics, though technically competent, are flavourless and dull (lol look at that person done fell over lol).
At the end of the day, you have to ask this question: Does something being deliberately crap excuse the fact that it is crap? If you say no, don't buy this game. If you say yes, fuck off.