The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity. - Arthur Schopenhauer

Before even attempting to review this game, I must say that The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything is one of the most successful existential satires that I've ever come across, more so in a PC game. In its brilliance to take note the whole awkwardness of human nature and history, it never becomes boring. It is both a parody and a genuinely marvelous critique of the humankind itself. It is surprising, extraordinary and straight up hilarious in a bitter way.

If we are to present a vague baseline for out setting, our character is the member of a seemingly primitive society, residing on an island. We've lived here for all our lives in relative peace and prosperity, if you do count the occasional natural selection out. This idleness is bound to be lost though, the moment we discover the remains of a space rocket. Now, considering that the collective IQ of this limited society is below room temperature, they'll need some guidance for that kind of achievement. Luckily there is someone who isn't flat-out pre-neanderthal around: a mysterious gentleman named Drake. It will become your quest to aid Drake for the sake of your species, if we'd like to see some progress not based on the scale or pace of evolution. For the long run, keep in mind that humankind is supposed to be a malfunction in evolution itself though.

Without presenting spoilers - because it is pretty easy to do so by describing the narrative or ranting about the collection of topics tenderly noted in game - I may describe this short point & click adventure as a philosophical experience, an invitation to observe the contemplative process of the developer himself; about nature, about politics, about social dynamics and a bit about himself. It is bold and refreshing, and completely relatable, at least for me.

The artwork consists of patchwork collages with exaggerations. It is not elegant, neither satisfying to look at. I personally think that it is a conscious choice to invoke some kind of discomfort to accompany the topics discussed in the game. Art itself alarmingly signifies the ugly nature of the creature we all know as human, dropping a clue about the whole progression of the story. You see, artistic aesthetic isn't the aim here. It aims for you to get annoyed, or at least get you to identify your already well founded annoyance about many things. The title of the game contains all that there is: The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything. The whole journey that we've taken so far, and all of its side effect; its consequences. It all is grotesque, curious and absurd. And you know what? As a species, given a new chance, we'd do the same thing again.

About the gameplay... there is not much to say. It is a very basic point & click adventure with a scrolling background and some areas within the island. You interact with people and objects - sometimes not in the most intellectual manner, I must add - and hope to make progress. Every little absurdity out there is for you to discover, and I must say that discovery has its own rewards in this game. The game autosaves when you manage to make some progress in game and reloads to that autosave when you return. It is possible to die via many unexpected and imaginative ways, all parodying some social standing points yet the autosave returns to your aid for you to keep trying uninterrupted.

At the end of the day, I think The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything is a wonderful gem for your enjoyment, and it would worth every penny to check it out. It is a one man indie game, with some brilliance stored in it. As a side note, it has achievements and a cameo appearance from many game streamers, including PewDiePie.

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"Do you enjoy the grotesque and satirical works of Francois Rabelais?"


Bottom line at the top: This game is weird, ridiculous, and just plain silly. So its an obvious must for P&C adventure fans!


Pros
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-Hilarious Monty Python-esque satirical nonsense humor, which is right up my alley.
-Bizarre character design with simple looking sprite animations that somehow end up seeming higher quality than they probably are.
-High resolution backgrounds and sprites.
-Really good sound effects and music that adds to the overall surreal atmosphere of the game.
-Funny take on verb interface. Lots of stuff to disrespect.
-Built in hints.


Meh.
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-At 2 hours game play this game is short and at $7 regular asking price is pricier than I prefer for most games. Overall it was a unique game and I was able to pick it up on sale. I suggest those wanting to check this game out do the same.


Cons
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-Couldn't get it work in full screen or windowed mode. I also couldn't find any kind of online documentation or troubleshooting to fix the issue. I eventually found a config file in the game folder, but even after trying various tweaks I the best I was able to do was get it to play in a mode that took up about 80% of my screen locked to the upper left hand corner. I ended up playing like this because the game is cool, but it was very distracting the whole time and I clicked on the desktop and on more than one occasion. There was an email provided in game to contact the developer with issues, but I didn't feel like waiting for a reply.
-Had a few bugs here and there, one of which required restarting the game.
-No save slots, continue function only.


This game pokes a lot at modern day society and has some good pseudo-philosophical satire. Overall however its really just a strange little P&C game from a very talented single developer. If you like this game I highly recommend Joe Richardson's other game Four Last Things. Both games are excellent and I look forward to his upcoming title The Procession of Calvary!

Or you're making a japanese game. That said, TPAoE is a very conventional and unconventional game. From the technical and mechanical side, it's an adventure game. You strip the plot and aesthetics, and it's a normal game with very, very dated mechanics (basically could be dated as far as the first Sierra games).

But TPAoE shines in its weird storytelling and unconventional 4th wall approach. The basically tells the whole history of humanity in an hour (give or take an hour or two), in what I feel it's the best way to show it: just make humanity ridiculous, because it is. Corruption, public shaming, politics, dumbness and general things that plague humanity.

It builds up, and finishes with one of the best endings I've experienced in a long time, which makes a lot of sense considering the medium used to tell the story. Like, there's no other way to make this story work except on a videogame.

And that deserves a praise, even though the game mechanics are very, very dated. Play the demo, also, and use all the options. It just works.

A truly ridiculous point & click adventure game, which isn't a bad thing at all. Fans of the genre will find a lot of novelty here, as the game takes some creative risks you don't see very often. Unexpected themes include oddly-child-friendly casual nudity, existential/societal angst, meaningful playing at dress-up, and amateur planetary exodus.

This sounds like nonsense, and it is, but it all comes together into a package that works surprisingly well.

If you don't agree, at least there will be plenty of marshmallows. Go for it!

A common tagline on horror games is: "best played alone at night with the lights off and the sound turned up." Well, TPAoE is best played... when you feel totally isolated through distrust in society and don't want to talk to anyone, with political candidates' attack ads, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reality TV, or the 24-hour news cycle droning in the background. Remember the South Park episode where there's a vote on what will be the new school mascot: a giant douche or a turd sandwich? TPAoE sort of explores that balance of playful despair in confronting options that all seem awful. If you're in the right mood, it's awesome. If you're not, it probably sounds preposterous. Really, it's both. I don't know what else to say beyond a few bullet points:

• First and foremost: don't let the bizarre aesthetic turn you off too much: if you've played P&C games it's very easy to start feeling at home in TPAoE -- the garish graphics aren't too distracting for too long, and there's not any explicit nudity aside from the occasional butt. EDIT: SO STOP APPLYING THE "NUDITY" TAG TO THE GAME! Steam is recommending all sorts of hentai ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ because I played this.
  
• The story is a set of commentaries on existence and society, mostly delivered through massive/dense walls of text (which TPAoE mocks itself for using). You won't get much out of the game if you aren't willing to do some reading. Even then, you've got to be in the right mindset. The main thrust of commentary isn't especially subtle, but there's an unflinching deep-dive quality to the commentary that can feel draining at times. I spam-clicked through a few of the commentaries myself.
  
• There are a few interesting P&C-style puzzles here that should have you scratching your head a bit, but the P&C interface is mostly a vehicle for the commentary, and processing the commentary was more cognitively taxing (and rewarding) than completing many of the puzzles.
  
• Ultimately (I think) the message of the game is uplifting and it gave me the warm fuzzies, but getting there required navigating a minefield of despair-inducing cynicism. The bulk of the commentary (and the many "bad endings" along the way) can sound pretty depressing. That's life, I guess.
  
• Sound design is a mixed bag. There's no voiceovers, sound effects are pretty basic, the music is sometimes repetitive and will probably be divisive -- I found a few tracks pretty groovy, but TPAoE actually made fun of me/itself for it.
• On the title screen, there's a button marked "Cat pops up" that you can press to make a cat pop up. Solid.

While I can see the appeal, this game wasn't for me. I guess that's the point of experimental games though, huh? To be weird and out of people's comfort zones.

The trailer for this game does it a tremendous disservice. That's too bad. And I suspect it has much to do with the limited number of players. Shame.

I am glad that I played this game before seeing that trailer, otherwise I would never have purchased this game.

The Preposterous Awesomeness of Everything is quality irreverent funny stuff and the point-and-click mechanics are more telltale than monkey island. That is to write that this is a good game folks who don't care for point-and-click style games with all that silly logic and trial-and-error game play as there's none of that in this title, but are also clever enough for the supercilious humour.

Get this game before it gets delisted lol

I kind of loved this game, I think this game must be one of my guilty pleasures! I enjoy point and click adventures and I hadn't played a point and click game for a while. So maybe that is why I really loved this one so much.

I think this game is original and unique with an equally unique and really effective art style. The story is fun and satirical, but in an intelligent way. It feels very well written and crafted and not just random silly ideas thrown together in a rush.

Point and click games can get very frustrating as it is very slow to walk from one area to another and to another to try different things. As this game is short, it does not get too frustrating.

The puzzles are pretty logical which I really like. Often point and click adventures with a comedy element have some comedy illogical solutions which can spoil the experience for me. When you get stuck in that type of game you don't know if the solution is so stupid you need to look it up. The only thing that caught me out was a timed puzzle. You need to click through the dialogue quickly to be able to perform the next action in time.

I would totally recommend this game to any point and click adventure fan. There is even a demo you can try. It took me about 2 or 3 hours to finish and I did try out every dialogue branch. Some people may want to take that into account.

I think the art style is fun and original and I would love to see some trading cards added to the game!

An amusing satire, well worth a play :)

everything about this game is preposterously awesome

BECAUSE OH MY GOD MY MANS JOE RICHARDSON USED THE THIRD MOVEMENT OF WEBER'S FIRST CLARINET CONCERTO DURING LIKE THAT ONE ACT 2 SCENE WITH DRAKE AND I WAS LIKE RRRRR BARK BARK BARK WOOF RAWR WOOF BARK BARK BARK