What Lies in the Multiverse Review

Trigger warning: What Lies in the Multiverse has moderate mentions of death and grief, these are not present predominantly throughout the story; however, they are more prevalent near the end. The game also depicts a transphobic comment from a mentally unstable character. For a mode in-depth look, the last paragraph in the review speaks more about how these are presented, it will be tagged with a spoiler warning.

I don't love the concept of the multiverse. It's not that I have a problem against it but rather that it isn't something that entices me, as it is often used in forms of media to break continuity and rules set within the universe. So when I saw What Lies in the Multiverse; it intrigued me. I wanted to know if this would be a title that could change my viewpoint.

What Lies in the Multiverse is a story-driven puzzle-platformer with a lot of comedic writing in it, and the Steam page claims that it has a "deeper story" to it, easily some of the most crucial qualities in a game for me. Did my personal quarrel with multiverses in stories ruin what should otherwise be a perfect game for me?

The story begins as you look at the protagonist, a young child whom everyone calls “kid” who figures out an algorithm that can simulate the multiverse. As he boots the program, the computer starts glitching. After a short moment, he is teleported to an alternate universe that works like the game's tutorial. While in this alternate universe, sometimes the reality will shift into what seems to be a future version of present time where all of the characters that are present (some monks that speak about time happening always and never) are replaced with skeletal forms. It is at the end of the short sequence that you meet one of the most important and hilarious characters in the game — Everett.

Everett can freely travel among dimensions, as he complains that the protagonist has seriously messed something up. To return to where you were, you will need to use your newly-unlocked skill to travel between both dimensions at will. Once you've reached the beginning of the dimension again, Everett will force the protagonist whence he came. However, right before he gets to leave, the protagonist asks him to take him through the interdimensional journey as his "assistant"; Everett accepts.

The interactions between both the protagonist and Everett are absolutely golden, and I loved practically every bit of dialogue present throughout the game; my wife and I were laughing throughout most of the journey. 

Gameplay-wise, I found What Lies in the Multiverse an absolute delight to play. The story spans several chapters and with each new one, Everett will pick a brand-new dimension to traverse the chapter; these dimensions work as the main gameplay mechanics for each of the levels. For instance, in the second level, the alternate dimension is a frozen wasteland that allows the player to gain a lot of momentum before making a jump, allowing them to make it across wider gaps. These mechanics were a pleasure to play with, as each new one brought an interesting twist and mechanic that I needed to get used to. I was afraid of one of them being very annoying; however, thankfully, all of the systems were implemented smoothly.

One of my worries early on in the game was that, after clicking the jump button, it felt like the character jumped about a millisecond later. I thought this was going to become an annoyance in later levels with more precision, however pretty soon after beginning my run I stopped feeling the delay altogether. The platforming is fun; however, since the protagonist is a mere child, he'll often hold onto the ledge (with a very funny animation) and climb back up. Although the platforming was good, the real highlight of What Lies in the Multiverse are the numerous puzzles involved. 

Early on in the game, you learn of the existence of ubiquitous objects, items that are present in both versions of the universe in that chapter; they didn't appear nearly as often as I'd like them to. In fact, a lot of the puzzles later on in the game were simple, especially leading into the later levels because each of the new chapters involves a new mechanic, thus you have to go through a new tutorial over and over again. Although this sounds tedious, it isn't as much so in practice; however, it did take away a lot from the difficulty surrounding the game, and thus this leads me into my main quarrel with What Lies in the Multiverse: its endgame.

As you near the end of the game, the puzzles don't steadily get harder — in fact, they don't get hard at all. Aside from the occasional (and very fun) difficult puzzles here and there, they stagnate in difficulty at a basic level. 

Lastly for all of the core features in-game — and most importantly — the story. Although I loved the interactions between Everett and the protagonist, with Everett being one of the greatest deuteragonists I've had the pleasure of watching, I had a problem with the rest of the cast. The other characters feel lacklustre; none of them have any 'traits' aside from their friendliness and are far too obsessed with Everett without any explanation as to why; they feel almost barebones, yet we're expected to care for them. They are presented as a group of friends, yet none of their connections or interactions are really explained, making their friendship feel forced when Everett reacts negatively to some of them. 

In a game where you get warned early on of potentially triggering themes (which I really appreciated), the characters feel almost too chipper with what essentially boils down to Armageddon-level catastrophes. The entire cast of characters is far too friendly to be considered tangible in a story that is touching very serious topics, especially when considering the comedic relief that is placed that can oftentimes feel too common and misplaced (such as some of the interactions with Nash).

Alas, What Lies in the Multiverse's most disappointing feature is its ending, although I cannot explain too much about it in hopes of avoiding spoilers. The game leaves a lot of questions unanswered, which seems to be hinting at some form of a sequel; although I wouldn't mind revisiting this universe, it certainly made the first game's story and ending feel lacklustre. 

What Lies in the Multiverse's gameplay gets most things right as the platforming elements and mechanics are incredibly fun, but they get stagnated in difficulty, which slowly makes the game way too easy once you've understood the flow of the game. Although the characters were all very friendly and likeable, they are out of place in a world that feels like it is trying to touch on more serious topics, making the cast feel disconnected from the reality they are living in. And last but not least, the game's ending was confusing and partly predictable; some elements within it felt out of place, and like a lot was trying to get crammed into one final stretch, making the game feel needlessly elongated.

I really enjoyed my time with What Lies in the Multiverse up until the ending, and if the story and characters had not felt so out of place in an otherwise light-hearted bundle of fun, this might have been a near-perfect score for me. Alas, all of its downfalls forced me to lower the score, despite the hours of fun the game provided.

In-depth Trigger Warning (Spoilers) The character Everett is grieving over the death of his best friend. The character Nash — who is vaguely mentioned as mentally unstable and unwell — makes a censored transphobic comment towards the character Barres.