What Happened Reviews
What Happened is a game chews you up, spits you out, then goes back for seconds. And that’s kind of the point.
What Happened sacrifices almost everything to achieve an impressive story, but in the end, it's not worthwhile.
What Happens is an interesting and mostly successful addition to the growing field of games that focus on mental health issues. Most of what it sets out to do works well despite the glaring issues with polish and acting ability. There were moments which were more successful than others and it would benefit from making it clearer where alternative approaches were available. It is clear that Genius Slackers' ambition is greater than their abilities but I applaud the attempt to use gaming for such a vital and powerful message.
Overall, What Happened delivers an impactful, thought-provoking experience that exemplifies the eccentric dangers of mental illness.
More often than not, What Happened is a better sight-seeing trip than it is an exploration of anxiety and depression.
Without any unique selling point that it handles at least competently, What Happened is ultimately hard to qualify as anything more than awful.
A more succinct journey would have been more effective, and some gameplay elements don’t quite pay off, but to say it’s been created by a small team, What Happened deserves to be praised.
What Happened by showing the problems of people suffering from depression and other internal and mental problems not only leads them to new horizons but also provides new concepts for other players. At a time when most iranian game are reduced to short-term mobile works, this title has some respectable ideas. What Happened is admirable thanks to its excellent art design and appropriate use of sound and music elements. However, the overly simple gameplay , the lack of challenge, the very ordinary storytelling and the poor characterization, rejects some players to enjoy from game and prevent it from reaching the point that the creators expect.
Review in Persian | Read full review
For all its faults, it’s hard to argue against the intent and ambition of What Happened. It doesn’t always get things right, but it clearly has good intentions to deliver an engaging and heartfelt depiction of mental health issues and a nauseatingly effective drug trip. It’s to the credit of the developers that it succeeds on the latter at least, and shows potential in the former.
What Happened gives you very little reason to even care about answering that question. The narrative is consistently flimsy as you dive into the mind of an unlikeable protagonist. There are very few moments of redemption with some well-detailed environments and clever transitions, but that is not nearly enough to keep you invested. If the motion sickness doesn’t get you to turn the game off, then the self-deprecating storyline and in-your-face symbolism will cause you to roll your eyes to sleep in no time.
What Happened has some neat ideas for the way it handles mental health, but poor gameplay design and a narrative that overstays its welcome made me want to give up halfway through.
What happens when psychological horror and tedious, often plodding narrative gets thrown in a blender?
It' s appreciated that Genius Slackers have tried to delve into a topic like this, but sadly, the idea is terribly executed in all its aspects.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
What Happened is a great idea on paper, but it ends up being poorly executed by staying too close to video game conventions.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
What Happened is a wonderful tale of the consequences of dealing with drugs, relationships and much more at the same time, leading into a hell of emotions that may be shown in the wrong way and maybe too many times.
To be honest, I racked my brain to TRY and find something positive to say about this game. I can’t begin to imagine how much work goes into creating and executing a video game, and I don’t WANT to shit all over someone’s art. However, I also just can’t bring myself to promote something that is so irresponsible. What Happened had the potential to be an important commentary on mental illness, personal struggle, and hopelessness. Instead, it was a hopeless mess.
What Happened was confusing, shocking, depressing, and increased my anxiety, which I believe was its goal from the start. Step into the shoes of a young mentally ill teenager who has just lost his father and finds comfort in drugs, it’s an experience unlike any other as you delve into his thoughts and emotions, visualising his fears and paranoia as disturbing manifestations. Although I found it hard to understand what was happening at times, the game made me feel lost, confused, helpless and alone, pulling me further into the world of Stiles and how he was feeling. The story felt like it was a little too long as there were a few sequences which dragged out the game without adding context, but overall it was a thought-provoking game which I can’t wait to re-experience on consoles in the near future.
I know it sounds like I’ve been hard on What Happened, but that’s because I feel like it had so much potential. With its outstanding artistic direction, creepy atmosphere, and unique premise, I had high hopes for the game. And while it occasionally managed to pull me into its world of drug-fueled hysteria and desperation, its repetitive gameplay and painful writing had me eager to reach the finale. My playthrough of the game took me just over five hours, but I feel like the story could have reached its conclusion in half that time without taking anything away from the game’s experience.
What Happened starts from a much-needed premise, but it ends up being excessively long, tedious and boring, destroying its main objective. The numerous graphical and programming errors are too heavy, in addition to an excess of filling and repeatability that does not help improve the experience. Despite all its flaws, it should be played at least once in order to understand depression from within.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Having someone tripping on LSD for an entire game was not the wisest move. Depicting someone in an altered state of reality or suffering from mental health issues can be very tough to pull off without being offensive. That being said, it has been done before.