Before I get into anything relating to ‘The Game You Might Have Missed’, I have a confession to make. Over the past few weeks, I had completely fallen out of touch with the gaming world. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to sit down and play, there’s just been a lot on and when I’m finally done with everything at night then I’m just so very tired.
Then we got E3, which came into my life like a defibrillator and just like that I was revived and once again ready to PLAY.
One of the games that came up at E3 was the 2015 PC and Mac game Undertale, which was brought up because it’s now coming to PS4 and PS VITA. Now I’ll admit I’ve been sitting with Undertale in my Steam library for the longest time and I’ve always meant to play it, but there’s always been something else that’s stolen my attention. So last week when the gaming bug bit and I saw Undertale in the spotlight once again, I knew it was finally time.
What is Undertale:
Undertale is a traditional style 8bit RPG, but with a twist, you don’t need to kill a single thing in game, or you can kill everything, the choice is yours. You play a human child who fell underground into a strange world filled with strange “monsters” and is trying to find their way home. Yes, this description does drip with cliche, like a story you’ve played hundreds of times over, but in this case, nothing could be further from the truth.
This is a game that’s all about the journey and not just rushing to the end, talking with the NPCs and taking the time to interact with all the books, signs, and other random items in the environment is where the story really comes to life and the magic happens. Here is the thing, as much as I am bursting to, I really don’t want to tell you anything else about the game. The less you know about Undertale before you play it, the better.
I can tell you one more thing though, every decision that you make while playing impacts the world around you, and that impact is remembered every time you decide to replay the game. I know this because over the course of this past weekend I have played through Undertale not once, but twice, and in that time, I was completely and utterly absorbed by it.
It’s the simplest game to look at, I usually wouldn’t give it a second glance, and yet when I started playing I didn’t want to do anything else, I just wanted to be immersed in this story of friendship, love, loyalty, and compassion it pulled me into. I also REALLY wanted to get through the whole game without killing anything so that I could get the happy, heart-warming ending that I just KNEW was waiting for me. But holy hell is that a tough feat to accomplish. It really, REALLY tests your compassion alright.
The cherry on the cake is that a game so inherently simple, created almost entirely by just one man, gave me an experience that’s on par with much bigger and much prettier games, and then made me push those games aside, so that I can play through Undertale once more… for my third time…
I want to see what happens if I’m evil okay?
Don’t judge me, just play it.
