EVERYTHING

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. Glixel
    Mar 31, 2017
    Everything is not a puzzle to be completed or a solution to be deciphered, but an invitation to think about and commune with the universe of things that has been piling up alongside you all along. What other video game would have dared to dream such a thought?
  2. Kotaku
    Mar 22, 2017
    There’s another lesson in Everything, too. Even in the face of unimaginable grimness—of the hell that is difference, actual or perceived—there’s still room for wonderment at the miraculous gazillion-piece jigsaw puzzle that is the universe. It’s OK to believe that we’re all part of something, that no matter how fragmented things can become, there are still innumerable connections.
  3. TheSixthAxis
    Mar 27, 2017
    What you get out of Everything will depend entirely on you. You may get bored within minutes just as easily as you could spend hours wandering around alien continents as a slice of pizza. I’m not sure it can be described as fun in a traditional sense, and it sometimes feels like you are being forced to sit through through a complex lecture mixed with a dash of group therapy, but other times it can be utterly hilarious as you make baby tractors by dancing.
  5. Wired
    Mar 29, 2017
    O’Reilly told me that Everything is designed to run forever. He described it to me as an “organism that keeps going.” Left its own devices, it will, in fact, play itself, running in an autoplay mode based on settings that you can calibrate to your own whims. Strangely, this might be the most remarkable showcase of Everything‘s power: watching the perspective tumble through O’Reilly’s pocket dimension like a sort of high-tech nature documentary, moving from thing to thing until you discover something you’ve never seen, an object whose life you need to learn more about, and you’re moved to pick up the controller all over again and take it for a spin.

Awards & Rankings

64
#64 Best PS4 Game of 2017

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 52 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 52
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 52
  3. Negative: 12 out of 52
  1. SuperkenGaming
    Mar 21, 2017
    8
    Everything
    One of the strangest and most relaxing games I’ve ever played.
    Everything is a game about everything about perspective, and it    Everything
    One of the strangest and most relaxing games I’ve ever played.
    Everything is a game about everything
    about perspective, and it does perspective in a near perfect way...
    You can become anything and everything…
    rolling around as an animal, listening to the thoughts of other plants, animals and items…
    sing to them… bring them with you... dance with them…
    Ascend or descend into them…
    and depending how far up or down you go, the perspective of the world changes almost completely…
    the giant world is a blur when you’re running around as a lady bug or rolling around as a pinecone..
    And changes again when you’re a penguin, or a mammoth… even a continent…
    visit the ocean... the stars...
    become a star...
    become a planet... descend into that planet and explore its lands…
    find recordings in the world that make you rethink everything there is to rethink
    It was calming doing nothing but exploring and listening to and reading philosophy as I transformed..
    You’re also free to change into any item and anytime you’ve transformed into before... including bringing a planet into another planet…
    There’s not much to say about this experience other than its one worth having.
    Nothing to worry about here…
    No tasks... no enemies…
    just enjoy…
    I give everything
    a 7.5/10    … Full Review »
  2. AndersMorales
    May 5, 2017
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. O'Reilly's "Everything" is fantastic. I had high expectations for this title, and it delivered right at a moment that I probably needed it to. With so much shifting and solidifying in the gaming industry, it's fun to watch a pronounced gaming experience really live up to its hype.

    I will agree with some reviews here that there's a lifespan to the game, however. For example, there's a clever environmental-repeat device that is seamlessly subtle and unnoticeable to start, but it becomes obvious and caging once you know what to look for. Traveling in a straight line only to realize that you're going in circles helps the messaging of the game in a way (existence is cyclical, etc. etc. etc.), but I very quickly became, for lack of a better way of describing it, claustrophobic. Once you notice the effect, there's no going back. The illusion shatters.

    And then there's Alan Watts. I love Alan Watts. I love the use of his lectured material as you amble through different levels of tangible and intangible magnifications. However - and I might have this wrong for not exploring long enough - the little recording nodes eventually seem to stop, and you lose that vastly important companionship in the game. I would've preferred the material to simply restart. Once they're gone, you're alone in a way that feels boring.

    And then there's this: the way you bop into different worlds a few levels down or a few levels up to find that transformations you had left in your wake remain, it just isn't ideal. I suppose that this makes sense for players looking to keep and eventually return to their assemblages, but I found myself feeling, again, pretty claustrophobic. Once I realized that it was a thing, I realized that the procedural infinitude I was perceiving was actually merely a handful of different ID'd zones that I could probably count if I gave myself to the effort. Granted, if my focus and interest were to worldbuild, I'd probably love this as a feature.

    All of that said, I just completely loved the scoring. There's a wonderful homage paid in music to much of what you're watching as you play, especially in the use of Glass-esque arpeggio and build. As a point of taste, though, I will say that there were some tracks that I didn't enjoy quite as much and did find myself sort of hoping for the ones I did like more often than not. I actually found myself at points trying to time Alan Watts recordings to play during the really good musical numbers. Pretty funny...

    Anyway, this title is outrageously fascinating. And that's really the word for it - fascinating. By the end, the formula is simple, and you're left to exist within a patterned series of repeating worlds and object sequences, but this game has a brilliantly memorable unfolding from start to finish. The confluence of musical wandering, natural abstraction, and in-scope-out-scope is powerful and symphonic, and it will stick with you for a good while if you give it time to do its thing. This game is total art.    … Full Review »
  3. Metog
    Mar 23, 2017
    10
    What is Everything? Well, according to Alan Watts, I am Everything. You are Everything. And I wouldn't even know who Alan Watts is if I didn'tWhat is Everything? Well, according to Alan Watts, I am Everything. You are Everything. And I wouldn't even know who Alan Watts is if I didn't buy and play this game. Everything is a journey about Everything. You can be anything you want to be. Including an army of fifty foot penguins. So because of that last reason, I am forced to give this game a perfect 10. If this wasn't helpful at all, it is probably because Everything cannot be explained. I am eight hours in and am planning to play al least a dozen more.… Full Review »
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