Everything you need to know about Everything

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Everything is a game in which you can quite literally control any and everything. Where No Man’s Sky failed to deliver on its galaxy-hopping ambition, this indie project makes good on its titanic promise and is constantly impressive as a result.

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​by Sam
​Sant

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​@SlamShotSam

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Developer: David
OReilly
Publisher: Double Fine
​Presents
Platforms: PS4, PC &
​Mac
Players: 1

A multitude of worlds are nested within Everything; in the space of a few minutes I’d explored pollen spores on a molecular level, become the bee that carried the pollen and ascended from amongst the flowers, taken control of a chimpanzee and rolled down a hill, switched to a grazing horse, transferred my conscious into a grand old oak, become the continent, become the planet, the sun, the galaxy, another galaxy, a new planet, another continent, then descended to explore a foreign ecosystem.

This explorative and seamless gameplay loop never ceased to blow my mind, especially as the universe developed and regressed with the passage of time, but the sheer freedom won’t be to everyone’s taste. You’re immediately set loose on the open-world, completing a few tutorials to learn the sparse mechanics before being left to explore for long stretches of time.

You’ll interact with creatures and objects through song, as well as bonding with members of your species to become a pack and dancing with them to reproduce. It can feel aimless as you wonder whether you’re progressing in a traditional sense, but embracing the game as a therapeutic experience - should you be able to accept something so fundamentally different - will work wonders.

Excerpts of powerful talks from late philosopher Alan Watts were enough in themselves to fuel my continued universal pottering; they appear seemingly at random and in chronological order, so the search induces no stress, each audio log serving to bestow wisdom in place of narrative. While you might not always agree with Watts’ worldviews (he says anyone that believes their life begins with birth and ends with death - as I do - might as well commit suicide, for instance), they’re always delivered with such consideration and gravitas that they’ll engage your brain and challenge the way you think, which is the important thing.​

Everything's explorative and seamless gameplay loop never ceased to blow my mind, but the sheer freedom won’t be to everyone’s taste.

It’s tonally odd then that this poignance is juxtaposed by bizarre animations and simplistic models that make traversal somewhat comedic. Ground-based creatures either glide along inanimate, wiggle as though a child were manipulating a toy across the floor, or, most amusingly, move in 90-degree increments (upright, flat on their face, standing on their head, lying on their back, then returning to the upright position). It makes for close comparison to the outlandishly bonkers Katamari series, which is interesting, because while Everything isn’t nearly as “video game-y”, they each convey a strong environmental message.

All things are sentient and capable of thought in developer David OReilly’s world: rocks worry that nobody will remember them once they’re gone, bugs wonder if their home will still be there when they return, and household objects lament not having spent more time with family members while they had the chance. When combined with the ability to see the world from new perspectives - for example, how powerless a blade of grass is as creatures tower over and threaten to trample it - the game’s purpose becomes quite striking. All the weird and wonderful things in our world are sharing in life together, so, whatever may happen, live and let live whilst enjoying what you have as best you can.

At this point, when the game has lodged its foot in your mind’s door, it proceeds to kick it all the way open, and the mindset you've been conditioned to adopt means you’ll very likely take it in your stride. I’ll avoid any specifics for fear of spoilers, but the game has no end and in time you’re given additional tools that allow you to wreak havoc on your perceived reality to some interesting effect.

As I reach my conclusion and declare that Everything is fascinating, technically astounding, even breathtakingly beautiful in spite of its simplistic presentation, but isn’t necessarily a great video game, you might wonder why this piece is listed as a feature and not a review. Sometimes a game defies being neatly defined by a numerical score - I thought State of Decay did in much the same way - bringing about an uncomfortable catch 22 as one conclusion does disservice to the artistic work, while another misleads the consumer I’m striving to advise. It’s in this situation I decline to do either, and part by recommending you give Everything a fair try should you find its concept intriguing.

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​Everything is available now for £11.99 from the PlayStation Store and hits Steam on 21 April.