Platform: PC

Developer: Anton Wallén

Release Date: May 9th, 2013

Genre: Puzzle

Nerd Rating: 9/10

You’re alone in the South African Desert . . . or is it Australia? Or maybe you’re in the American Southwest? That is the question isn’t it? With GeoGuessr, you’ll soon learn that the world is a very confusing place when you don’t know where the hell you are.

GeoGuessr is a browser-based game that has been my favorite procrastination tool as of late. In GeoGuessr, you are plopped onto a random point on Earth that has been mapped by Google’s Street View car. Your goal is to try to figure out where you are based on your immediate surroundings.

This game is completely based in Google Street View, meaning that if Google’s been there, GeoGuessr can strand you there. Once GeoGuessr gives you a location you can move around the area like you can in ordinary Street View until you find a spot where you think you know where you are in the world. The game will then score your guess from 0 to 6500 based on how close your guess was to the actual location. There are five locations per round.

GeoGuessr is insanely addictive.  One moment you’re telling yourself you’ll get back to that paper that’s due tomorrow and will only play one round and the next moment its 3 AM and the paper still only has one sentence written. You have been warned.

Let’s play some:

Location #1:  Alone in a Virtual Desert

This first location is in a desert somewhere. It’s most likely in Australia due to the all-white road markings and the use of kilometers on directional signs.  Road signs are in English, which only further verifies my hunch. I continue on further down the road because I still have some doubt since other countries (like South Africa) will also use English on their signs.

Eventually I happen upon a town sign that reads Vrendendal. I re-think my hunch and decide to place my marker in South Africa, as the environment in South Africa can often look like that of Australia’s.

How did I do?

Second guessing myself paid off. My randomly placed point (As seen in orange) was 103.7 km away from the actual point (labeled as the black flag), earning me 4673 points.

Location #2: The One-way Road to Nowhere

The second location takes me to a narrow road that is surround by hills and snow. Power lines run along the road, meaning that there is probably a town somewhat close. Turning around, I can see a road sign. I back Street View up for a closer look. The sign has a distinctive non-American look and the measurement is in metric. I’m probably in Europe, which doesn’t really narrow it down a whole lot, but its a start.

Going further down the road I eventually reach a little rural town. Beyond that, there isn’t much information that I can see; no shops, no flags, and no signs.

I’m thinking I’m really far North in Europe since there isn’t a large amount of tall or dense vegetation. The surrounding land has hints of tundra but still has “warmer” weather vegetation. I decide to place my marker close to the Southern boarder of Norway and Sweden

How did I do?

You get the gist. This pattern goes on until you have done 5 locations and it lumps your score into a total. You can then share this score on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to challenge your friends and followers to beat your score.

Deserts make me die a little inside

The biggest problem that I have with this game is the frequency in which the point is placed in a desert or rural Russia. The point has yet to be placed in the same exact place but I can’t tell you how many times I was landed in the desert lands of Australia (Hint: Too many). The world is large! Why is it that GeoGuessr is making it seem like only a handful of countries exist?

Don’t feel like taking on the entire world just yet? If not then there are different restricted maps that you can play on ranging from the size of the entire United States to Saint David’s, England’s smallest city. I don’t find the smaller scale settings any easier than world setting because it is much more precise. With the world setting you won’t be penalized as much if you are a few miles off whereas with the regional settings you need to get your point very close to the actual point in order to get a decent score.

Any way that you play it, GeoGuessr is a great way to see the world from the comfort and safety of your home. If at any point your bored (or just want to put off work) I highly recommend checking out GeoGuessr here (and better yet its FREE).