Everything Reviews
David O’Reilly’s Everything is quite the experience and journey to undertake. It’s simple, yet deep. It asks you to think about ‘just being’, but encourages you to explore the thoughts and emotions of other beings in the game. It’s a lightly addictive game that will have you staring at your television for hours and leave you wanting to keep the experience alive for no particular reason other than to keep going, which could be a metaphor for any living creature struggling to know the how and why they exist.
Everything feels to me like a mellow, less aggressive take on Katamari Damacy or Noby Noby Boy, a curious, reflective novelty that, for players in the right kind of mindset, can spark something profound.
No matter if I was playing or watching, every hour I spent with Everything was an interesting one. Much like life itself, there were moments of beauty and laughter, but also sadness. It's undoubtedly a strange creation, but no other game can allow players to listen to Alan Watts discuss the interplay of difference while watching 10 outhouses perform a dance that results in a baby outhouse somehow being born. There's something special about these moments, and it's why Everything will be on my television screen for a long time to come.
Everything provides a mellow environment to explore, with the perfect auditory compliments for your journey. The experience may be lost on some, but that's okay. Others will thoroughly enjoy getting lost in the experience, despite minor frustrations like the needle-in-a-haystack search.
This is an exceptional piece of fantasy fiction, a metamorphosis machine, a toy, a game like no other. It's a work of deep imagination, humor and thoughtfulness. Everything held me captive for many hours, and will continue to do so. It's brave, bizarre, compelling and beautiful.
Everything will no doubt be included in the "Is it or is it not a game?" debate, but it is an interesting space to explore. It's exactly as odd as it sounds, and many may walk away from it begrudgingly. If you stick it out, though, you may find something here that really scratches an itch you never knew you had. The problem is: how long can it be scratched before the itch goes away?
Everything is a grand experiment that manages to inspire and disappoint in equal measure.
Everything is not for everyone, and thus it's a hard game to score. This existential experience is not quite as pretentious as it appears to be, but it will still leave you mindful of your worth to the world – and the universe as a whole. Honestly, if you've ever found yourself enchanted by the sheer scale of space itself, then this game does an incredible job of communicating that through rudimentary interactivity alone.
Maybe it was that little touch, or maybe it was the fact that I was a bleary-eyed mess playing the game at 4 AM, but I felt so connected to… everything.
The sheer scope of Everything is an incredible achievement, and it does offer at least a few hours of entertainment, before it inevitably becomes a bit stale.
The controls take some getting used to, but Everything is easy to understand and play
This persistence in spite of everything is Everything's strength, but it is also to its detriment. It can begin to feel fairly lonely to exist in a universe which isn't affected by your existence, or your changes.
Reaction to Everything is going to be absolutely all over the map, because, well... it's everything! It's a toss up whether any given gamer is going to love or hate it.
Vast ambitions and poor overall quality. Form over substance, which may be appreciated for the magnitude of the virtual world and nothing else.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Everything more than lives up to its name, though its thinly crafted gameplay raises the question if it's even a "game." This one is for niche fans only.
Effective (probably) if not completely unorthodox, and it only works as intended, whatever that intention is, a few times.
At its very core, Everything almost feels like the antithesis of a video game; sure, you’ve got the full freedom to interact with this colossal universe that seems to reinvent itself over and over, but it’s hard to find a purpose to anything that you’re doing. Whilst the lack of a real objective saw the game’s allure wearing thing on me after a few hours, actually seeing this universe and how expansive the interactive freedom offered to the player is was INCREDIBLY impressive and worth the admission price alone. Unless you’re seriously into collecting everything in a video game there won’t be much in Everything that’ll interest you for the long term, but those impressive opening hours alone make it worth checking out. With a fairly low price-point and considering the fact that there’s nothing else out there quite like it, I’d definitely recommend trying Everything just to experience how unique a creation it is.
Everything is different from anything you've ever tried in your life. For this reason, it can split the community and open a debate about the meaning of the videogames, the philosophy behind them, and what can/should be told in a game. The new creation from game designer David OReilly is not suitable for everyone: only if you are willing to get involved, you will really have a chance to enjoy the concept behind it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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.
As an experimental game, Everything is not for everyone, whoever it pushes the boundaries on what a video game can be.
Review in Spanish | Read full review