Everything is a strange game about being everything. It asks you to look at a speck of dust and see a galaxy. It asks you to look at a galaxy and see a speck of dust. That ambition is the whole game, and it mostly works.
Trailer, via Double Fine.
Being Something Else
In Everything, you are a consciousness that can inhabit almost anything. A grain of sand. A car. A planet. A galaxy. You switch between these forms constantly, and the game rarely tells you why. There is no story in the traditional sense. There is no goal beyond exploration and discovery.
The core mechanic is simple: you press a button and become something else. You move through a world made of nested layers, each layer containing smaller objects you can enter. Inside a house, you might find a cat. Inside the cat, you might find a flea. Inside the flea, you might find a cell. Inside the cell, you might find a molecule. The game never stops.
The Worlds
The worlds you visit are abstract and painterly. They are not realistic in the way most games are. They are flat, colorful, and often surreal. Some levels are based on familiar locations, like a city street or a forest. Others are pure abstraction, with shapes and colors that seem to have no source.
The music shifts with your scale. A small object might hear a high-pitched hum. A large object might hear a low rumble. The sound design is subtle but effective, giving each form a distinct identity.
The Feeling
There is a quiet wonder to Everything. When you shrink down to a tiny particle and watch a hand pick you up, it feels intimate. When you grow to a massive scale and watch cities shrink to pinpricks, it feels awe-inspiring. The game uses these shifts to make you feel both insignificant and powerful at once.
It is a strange balance, and it takes some getting used to. The game does not explain itself. It does not hold your hand. It simply presents you with a world and lets you wander.
The Problems
The lack of direction is also a problem. Without a goal, the game can feel aimless. You might spend an hour exploring a single level, finding new objects to enter, and still not know what you are looking for. The game offers no guidance, no hints, no objectives. This is deliberate, but it means the experience can drift.
Some of the worlds are more interesting than others. A few levels feel thin, offering little to discover. The game is at its best when it is dense, when every object hides a new path. It is at its weakest when it feels empty.
The controls are simple but occasionally frustrating. Moving between forms is quick, but navigating the world can be slow. The camera sometimes struggles to keep up with your changing size, leading to moments of disorientation.
The Joy
When Everything works, it works beautifully. The moment you first enter a new object and see the world from its perspective is genuinely thrilling. The game rewards curiosity. It rewards paying attention. It rewards looking at the ground and seeing a universe.
The multiplayer mode is a highlight. Players can join each other’s worlds and explore together, becoming anything they want. It is a clever idea, and it turns a solitary experience into a shared one.
The Verdict
Everything is a game about perspective, and it delivers on that promise. It is a game about the scale of existence, and it manages to make that abstract idea feel personal. It is a game about being everything, and it succeeds in making you feel it.
It is not a perfect game. Its lack of direction will frustrate some players. Its uneven world design will disappoint others. But its core idea is strong enough to carry the weight of its flaws.
The game offers a few concrete activities that stand out:
- Shrinking down to a particle and watching a hand pick you up
- Growing to a massive scale and watching cities shrink to pinpricks
- Exploring a city street or a forest at human scale
- Entering a cell and seeing a molecule inside
- Joining another player’s world in multiplayer
These moments are what make Everything worth playing. They are the reason the game succeeds despite its flaws.
The score is 7.2 out of 10.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
