What Lies In The Multiverse An Interesting Adventure Across Worlds

 Note: I received a game code for What Lies In The Multiverse for my review. Thank you to Untold Tales for the game code. 

What Lies In The Multiverse starts with something that I appreciate, a trigger warning about flashing light patterns and the fact that the story talks about death and loss. Not many games do that so that showed genuine care for people who want to play the game. I was able to adjust the volume and game settings on my Switch comfortably. After that, I was ready to begin the adventure. The story introduces us to the hero who we only know as Kid, sitting at his computer writing an algorithm that will let him travel and explore other universes. The computer glitches and sends him to a new universe. Kid doesn't know where he is and explores this new place and meets Everett, a laissez faire scientist who can switch through dimensions at will with his cane called The Voyager. 

Kid meets Everett. 

Kid finds Everett fascinating and asks to come with him. Everett says okay and the duo travel together across a charming and unique puzzle platformer that tells a fantastic story along the way. The main mechanic of the game is using The Voyager to swap dimensions. Kid can't jump very far and has pretty limited mobility. The whole point is to switch dimensions to solve those puzzles to help create a path that he can follow. I found myself enjoying figuring out to get across a vast chasm I had to quickly jump to a dimension that reversed gravity so I could walk upside down on a platform to cross and then switch back to the previous dimension. If I didn't switch back quickly enough, I could fall upwards into the air and die. Honestly, that led to some hilarious results and game deaths before I got the hang of it, but all of it was fun. 

Reverse gravity dimension was fun! 

The pixel artwork for What Lies In The Multiverse is charming and the music for the game really fits each chapter and setting. What really stood out for me was the story. Initially, Everett isn't really keen on Kid being his assistant and briefly alludes to the fact that he had an assistant before, but something happened to him. Exploring everywhere, I would find journals and notes about the various dimensions and frankly, some of them were dark and disturbing. However, it added beautiful layers and nuance to the story and as Kid and Everett continued their adventure, I got to see them start to get closer until eventually they considered each other friends. There are humorous moments with what can only be described as a group of dimension time cops, ZENITH who know Everett and while they're the "villains" they're not so bad and a few of them seem to genuinely care about Everett and want to save him from himself. Those moments made me laugh with some of the silliness and comedy of errors that happened followed by Everett telling Kid to run. I wanted to know more about ZENITH, but the story only gives you a few crumbs here and there about each one so it never felt like you were getting the whole story which is a shame because there were a couple among them that were my favorites. 

This was really silly and hilarious at the same time. 

As the adventure continued, the puzzles got a little more complicated and sometimes it would really make me rack my brain for the solution. This could be a little frustrating at times, but it wasn't too bad. I felt that some puzzle dimensions were better than others. I loved the reverse gravity dimension and the one with climbing vines and interferences, a cool way to switch dimensions for half a second and then back. I really didn't like the ice dimension or the puzzles where the boxes were so fragile they broke the moment you dropped them. 

Climbing across some vines and ready to dimension jump. 

The game itself is not very long; I was able to finish it in about six hours. I didn't know what to expect when I started What Lies In The Multiverse, but by the time I arrived at the end of the journey I realized that I had a wonderful time with it. The story and game mechanics created an interesting adventure across worlds and gave us moments of drama, humor, and understanding about how we process loss and how we hold onto the relationships we hold dear. What Lies In The Multiverse told a beautiful story while having a good time along the way. That makes it a delightful indie gem. 

A beautiful setting in the game.

*What Lies In The Multiverse is now available on: Steam, Epic, PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch

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