Everything

Reviewing Everything feels so embarrassing. After discussing it for a few minutes, I feel like I want to thank you all for coming to my TED talk. That’s because it’s so impressionistic, existential, philosophical … all the things people invoke when they want to convince you that video games can be art. But Everything has a leg up on a lot of those art-installation-as-games. Everything is also a lot of fun!

Given that this is a port to a console, and the Switch has consistent hardware specs across the board, it’s clear the game’s stability wasn’t re-examined prior to its Switch debut. No cheeky philosophical quip is going to make that look anything short of lazy.

Everything is a philosophy lecture turned into a game, and if you’re looking for some new insight on life and a sandbox to play in while you listen, it’ll provide. While the game offers up hundreds of choices of objects to become, it comes at the sacrifice of everything feeling the same.

A solid game, but not for everyone, Everything is all about exploration, curiosity, and looking to what's around the next corner. If you're not worried about scores, the big boss fight, and want a game that you can chill out with while you listen to great music, then Everything is for you.

After playing this title for two or three hours, you can learn something interesting: you have been informed of a useful interpretation of the Big Bang. However, you also feel that they have told you a lie. It is the balance you usually perceive in the most modern museums.

Playing Everything left me kind of empty feeling, which is almost definitely not the intention. I feel as though it is meant to leave you feeling in awe of how connected everything is. The trouble is, I’m already a hippie vegan with an interest in quantum mechanics. I already know everything is connected. So, I can only conclude that it’s not for me, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing because of that. It isn’t a game though, it’s just a thing to start up and experience. Just don’t play it while on drugs, I feel like it’d do a lot more harm. Also just don’t do drugs, go and do push-ups and read about quantum entanglement or something.

Everything really does deliver on its abstract concept, but only if you’re willing to boot it up with an open mind. There’s no action, or even a cohesive plot. There are no XP bars to fill or loot to collect – just a universe and you, and a desire to determine just who ‘you’ really are. The basic textures and colours (and the hilarious way creatures just roll about like possessed statues) might stifle some, but Everything’s worth is more than skin deep. It’s a risky game – some will love it and some just won’t get it at all – but it’s an experience well worth undertaking, regardless of where you end up.

Yes, the lack of pulse pounding action might put off some, but I think most will appreciate Everything as an interesting way to examine a unique philosophical perspective in a manner that is clever, relaxing, and often humorous. No, it’s not even remotely for everyone, but it accomplishes exactly what it wants to just about perfectly.

I respect the idea behind Everything, and I’m glad that developer David O’Reilly decided to try something experimental with an interactive medium. I can appreciate a game that hides meaning beneath its surface, but Everything doesn’t have a surface-level story for that meaning to hide under. Alan Watts’ philosophy lectures are intriguing, but it’s not very interesting getting from one lecture to the next. I was never able to be engaged or immersed in the world. Despite being a game about how all things are related, I found the silly, empty experience of Everything very unrelatable.

Everything rejects everything that you’d usually consider a video game. Yet this interactive experience is coherent in its mission of providing existential exploration and gets pretty close to its promise of allowing you to control everything; even a hat.