GeoGuessr… Ahh, I’ve waited so long to delve into this one. I present to you today a non-traditional game review to showcase a game that is on the fringe of traditional games but so fresh and fun that everybody is finding out about it. GeoGuessr is a browser-based game that uses images from Google Streetview.
You are dropped off in a random lat/long on Earth or whichever area/theme you specify and you use clues from your surroundings to find out where you are. Any person could easily bend the rules to win. For purists, on the other hand, it’s a wonderful way to use reasoning and deduction to sharpen your geography skills.
GeoGuessr: The Beauty in Simplicity
This is certainly a different type of game for my site. Most of my reviews as of this date are generally executables of the graphic-powered game dev variety. There’s so much opportunity everywhere though. And that’s where I’m taking you, everywhere.
GeoGuessr.com is incredibly easy to sign up for. If it sounds kind of weird or obscure, have no worries! It’s been going since 2013 after a Swedish IT consultant created it. You can either play 5 rounds a day for free, or you can pay a nominal fee to play unlimited. 5 rounds are usually enough for a casual daily distraction. You can definitely get really into it though and play long sessions.
There are several other ways you can play too. The fully supported versions or GeoGuessr released map categories. These are the most played selections like World, Famous Places, Europe, or United States.
You can also play user-made categories like landmarks, cities, and everything else you can imagine. Our favorite here is the non-blurry United States maps. There are at least 10,000 starting points and you can make sure you won’t be stranded somewhere with Street View areas that have blurry photos. It’s a personal preference, but it helps.
Some Tips for Playing GeoGuessr
This game isn’t super hard. There are certain techniques you can use, however, to make your playtime more enjoyable. USE CLUES. If you’re around my age you may be familiar with the old Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? game and TV series. You often had to track down clues to figure out where Carmen’s henchman fled to so that you could catch them before time runs out. There’d often be riddles and such that would reveal allusions to places like the Sydney Opera House or Taj Mahal.
The easiest clue: read signs. You can often derive a lot of information from street signs, advertisements, and, my favorite, utility vehicle doors. Sometimes they’ll just straight up tell you exactly where you are. Although be advised, that even if you have a town name and a region name, you could be anywhere! The best thing to overcome that is to look for major highway or freeway signs. They generally have a different shape so that’s a good thing to know.
Other clues: telephone numbers or website URLs. In the United States, there are some area codes that I will always remember. I know quite a few country codes too. These may not always be available or even helpful when you find them, but the “.SK” on a Slovakian business ad URL might just be the clue you need.
Also, one thing which might seem obvious but isn’t always is to use the ecology of where you’re looking to determine where you are. There’s a ton of difference between the countryside of Lafayette and the boardwalk of Bergen. If you just want to play a certain region though, that is totally possible.
Take a Look Around
I’ve said this before, but I’m very not much into competitive gaming at all. There are tournament boards for all the maps with who found their locations the fastest and most accurate and everything.
I honestly am not really sure why they have this, since you literally can just open a new tab with google maps and find where you are in 10 seconds. What would even be the point of that? It’s cool if you’re competing legit, but I’d rather just have fun and test my skill. Play as you like though, there are pretty much no rules in Geoguessr. And I think you’re going to enjoy it.
I really enjoyed writing this. I hope you like the photos up above from my “travels.” We’ve seen some bizarre stuff so far, and I guarantee you’re probably going to find yourself laughing at certain things. It’s a blast.
Thanks for reading MrDavePizza.com. There are many reviews here and a variety of topics. Have a look around, and enjoy!
