Always Sometimes Monsters

Always Sometimes Monsters isn't the first game to get clever with morality. It's not the first game that's had a few grey areas. It also isn't about either of those. It's about perspective. It's about empathy. It's about who we are and why we do what we do. That narrative is one of contradiction and hypocrisy, because that's what real people are about.

Always Sometimes Monsters is probably one of the best narrative driven games of the year. It talks about choices and morality, love and hate, life and death as few other games have done till now.

Always Sometimes Monsters is one of those independent, cult-classic-to-be, games that fans of narrative storytelling should really give a chance.

A mature adventure game that challenges you with hard choices and puts you in real life situations. The writing is not always at top level, but when it works it's great.

Always Sometimes Monsters will not impress anyone by their technical execution nor by their tip-top graphics – but by a strong emotional experience along with an almost philosophical theme that will make you think about your life, and play it again.

It is not an happy game, it will not make you feel better, and probably it will not entertain you. So, why do you have to play Always Sometimes Monsters? Because, in a nutshell, it has one of the best narrative we've seen these days.

One of the few games that doesn't sacrifice its core mechanics to tell a story.

It's an earnest look at life under tough economic pressure, at love when things don't go according to plan and at a creative career during its shittiest lows. It has a lot to say, and importantly, it speaks from the heart.

A convincing examination of player choice set in an all-too-realistic modern world.

Without the well-established relationships in Always Sometimes Monsters, the game would be a disaster. It would be an exercise in tedium and starving artists – but the writing makes it all worthwhile. Yes, even the act of making tofu burgers. In the end, love – even just the chance of it – is worth it.

A game that is from start to finish filled with difficult choices, and demands multiple replays in order to fully appreciate all of the different possible paths through the narrative.

Sometimes Always Monsters is a surprising "road movie game" with a lot of choices to make that will significantly change the story.

A game for self-reflection and the melancholy. [Aug 2014, p.78]

The best thing about Always Sometimes Monsters is that it shows that videogames can tell everyday stories with an astounding proximity.

It manages to provide an intimate journey for each player despite the breadth of human diversity.

Even though this game did a good job at focusing on choices, relationships, and the outcomes of the decisions you make, the simple controls and monotonous tasks really ruined it for me in the end. Overall this game will find an audience, but to tell you the truth it’s going to be a hit and miss affair if you will be the one that the game is meant for.

If you're a gamer who likes action, then you'll probably want to skip the game, but if you want a game with a story that explores the human psyche, then Always Sometimes Monsters may be right up your alley.

Always Sometimes Monsters is an intellectual RPG-like variant in the Choose Your Own Adventure genre. Unfortunately, the game is not as clever as it wants to be. The ethical choices seem to have a big impact, but afterwards you find out you have only chosen from a limited number of flavors. Moreover, the annoying RPG Maker engine causes the real potential of the game to be absent.

A strange curio that offers something different, and what it gets right should be applauded.

Always Sometimes Monsters falls short of its potential.

Always Sometimes Monsters again shows up that ‘game’ is a word whose time is done. There is nothing playful about this experience – it’s a mixture of repetitive tasks that riddle your fingers with despair and increasingly-depressing plots. This then is a ‘life failure’ simulator, like Cliff Harris’s sandbox Kudos 2. Like that, it’s compelling, enlightening and moving – but hard to call ‘fun’.

Always Sometimes Monsters is a unique and distinctly powerful experience, but it is also deeply and undeniably flawed.

The camera's viewpoint, an otherwise awkward mash-up of overhead and axonometric shots, reveals all the pixelated squalor, all the detritus and homelessness and violence that so often goes ignored by the upper crust. The RPG feels at home here, among the dregs of society, like it did back in the Midgar slums of Final Fantasy VII. The genre's old mainstays--fetching, bartering, and grinding--are much more suited to a blue collar than they are to plate armor.

Poor pacing, clumsy scriptwriting, and an overall lack of polish (even by indie standards) make it all to easy to bow out before this monster can sink its claws into you.