Ratings: 8.4/10 from 14,936 users Metascore: 7.4/100
Reviews: 398 user | 211 critic | 98from Metacritic.com
Welcome to UNDERTALE. In
this RPG, you control a human who falls underground into the world of
monsters. Now you must find your way out... or stay trapped forever.
Genre:
Role-Playing
Role-Playing
Developers:
Tobyfox
Awards:
#2 Best PC Game of 2015 (Metacritic.com)
#6 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2015
Platforms:
PC and Mac
#6 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2015
Platforms:
PC and Mac
As a reviewer, the most difficult part about communicating Undertale's
greatness is the fact that it works best when you're not aware of the
many surprises packed within.
On the surface, Undertale appears to be a loving sendup of the Japanese
RPG genre, with many cues taken from Nintendo's EarthBound series of
RPGs—specifically, Mother 3, a 2006 Game Boy Advance release that never
reached our shores and developed a cult following as a result. But, soon
after the tutorial dungeon, Undertale reveals itself to be something
much greater than a clever homage. While it uses the grammar of a
Japanese RPG as its basic framework, Undertale doesn't aspire to be an
especially straightforward take on the genre.
Instead, creator Toby Fox throws RPG fans into a world of intensely
familiar commands and tropes, if only to find new ways to play with and
subvert them at every possible opportunity. While its understated, dry
humor gave me countless smiles, the many times Undertale absolutely committed
to some completely unexpected gameplay style or new mechanic for the
sake of a single, inspired joke had me breathless from laughing fits.
It's the kind of game where, after finishing it, you need to immediately seek out someone else who's reached the end, just to share stories of the many weird things you encountered.
For all of its inventiveness, though, the story of Undertale is
extremely simple: your standard mute JRPG protagonist falls into an
underground world where a race of monsters was once banished long ago,
and things take off from there. This simple premise sets the stage for a
tour of the monsters' strange world, which feels a bit like a
friendlier version of EarthBound's enigmatic Moonside. Of course, a lot
of these monsters bear some hostility towards humans due to past events,
and you'll find most are willing to fight first and ask questions
later.
And this is where some of Undertale's most inspired mechanics come in.
These enemy encounters play out through a turn-based battle system where
you're tasked with stopping a meter in the right spot in order to pull
off effective attacks. And while we've certainly seen concepts like this
play out in previous RPGs (and countless golf sims), dealing with enemy
attacks presents an idea I've never seen before: When a foe makes its
move, your attention is immediately drawn to a small box at the bottom
of the screen. Here, a sort of WarioWare-style microgame plays out,
where your avatar—portrayed in the form of a tiny red heart—has to
wrangle with a visual metaphor representing the enemy's attack. While
dealing with these moves mostly involves dodging a sea of projectiles,
Undertale finds a nearly endless amount of ways to play with this very
basic concept. And since you only encounter the same enemies a few
times—an incredibly smart choice—you won't have to deal with these
microgames long after you've already figured them out. Random encounters
in most RPGs don't garner much enthusiasm; in Undertale, they typically
present an opportunity to see the next weird thing.
If Undertale's battle system only amounted to the mechanics listed
above, it'd still be an incredible amount of fun. What pushes it even
further, though, is the fact that you don't necessarily need to fight
enemies in order to win battles. Within each enemy encounter is a sort
of "combat puzzle" that involves pacifying your opponent through
non-hostile means by figuring out ways to address their various (and
vocalized) insecurities. And, since each enemy adds their own unique
commands to the battle menu, it can often take a few turns to figure out
just what to do. Some of these are easy to figure out, like having a
flex-off with a flirty bodybuilder, but others take a little more work:
In order to dispatch two intimidating canine guards, I had to get them
to think I was a puppy who knew how to pet other dogs—all within the
context of a turn-based battle system. That may sound absolutely
nonsensical, but it makes total sense within Undertale's strange world.
When you're dealing with this kind of gleefully absurdist humor, it's
easy to cross the line into obnoxiousness. Thankfully, Undertale tries
to keep things low-key, and mostly knows when to pull away from a joke
before it wears out its welcome. And it certainly helps that the game
has a real world-weary Vonnegutian heart beating under all of its
madness. Most of the monsters you meet are emotionally wounded in some
way, and you often play the victim to their many insecurities—especially
because so many of them develop a needy fixation on you. After meeting
Undertale's cast and getting to understand their problems with humanity,
it's pretty difficult resorting to those simple, hostile combat
options. (Even if some content is sealed off if you choose to take the
peaceful route.)
Again, Undertale presents the tricky problem where describing specifics
can absolutely ruin the fun for new players, so I'm left with the
unfortunate situation of having to be vague but still meaningful. So
many of those special moments I've written in my notes definitely
shouldn't be shared here; if someone spoiled those slices of Undertale
that left me slack-jawed with bewilderment, I doubt they'd have the same
effect on me.
But it's more than just this novelty that makes Undertale special: It's
loaded with smart puzzles, and its many boss battles and special enemy
encounters are invariably complex, multi-stage, and harrowing. Undertale
could have easily skated by on its EarthBoundy charms alone, but, by
overloading this RPG with almost Too Many Ideas, developer Toby Fox
transcended his inspirations and created something equally great—and a
lot more daring. It's already one of my favorite games of the year, and,
unless you hate fun, it's hard to imagine a scenario where it wouldn't
be one of yours.
Review From USGamer
No Special Requirements For Undertale game
Any PC Running Windows 7 and Mac
Can Run this game
OR
No comments:
Post a Comment