ultgamerCW
United Kingdom (Great Britain)
 
 
Not really sure what I should write here.
En línea
Coleccionista de juegos
Expositor de reseñas
6,8 horas jugadas
The Upturned is a game I went into with almost no idea what it was about aside from knowing it was a comedy horror game. That alone was enough to make me curious as those types of games are very rare. Having just beaten the core game in under 7 hours I have to say I'm very impressed with it.

The Story:

You are a recently dead human who enters into the afterlife only to appear at a hotel called "The Upturned". Upon entering you meet the hotel owner IK who informs you that you have a room waiting on the top floor. Whilst trying to get to your room however things don't go to plan and you have to keep fixing the broken lift in order to get to your destination. Along the way you face a number of different challenges, enemy's puzzles and other unexpected surprises. None of which I am going to spoil as this game is best played blind going in.

The tone of this game isn't very serious. Characters like Ik will often make jokes and there are many moment of horror cliche's being twisted or mocked in a fun loving way. It kinda reminds me of undertale in that respect in how it messes with it's own genera and the player by extension. That said there is also enough horror in this game to create some tense and frantic moments. Whilst I wouldn't call this game 'Ultra scary' or anything it can make you panic when running from enemy's due to the loss of progress that comes with it. There isn't anything that would make you turn the game off in horror though even if your tolerance for fear is very low. The scares are less cowering behind a pillow saying "Help me mommy!" and more "Oh god! Not you! Not now!" If that makes sense.

The Gameplay:

The Upturned is best described as a physics based third person puzzle plat-former which uses the simple mechanic of being able to throw almost any object in the environment. Almost everything in the game uses this simple mechanic but it works so well. You'll be using it from everything from fighting enemy's, platforming, solving puzzle and so on. Aside from the ability to pick up and throw objects you also have a flashlight with limited charge that refills over time. Other tools at your disposal mostly come down to environmental details such as med kits which heal you, bonce pads that send you flying, red barrels that explode and way more.

There is also a selection of enemy's you fight though I'll only mention a few of the early game encounters as to not spoil the later levels. Most basic enemy's can ether be killed or stunned by throwing objects at them, though some are immune and can only be escaped from by running away. Enemy's like the statues, the fat man and the water slug are unkillable so you have to plan how to deal with them rather than just fighting them head on.

Some levels also have there own gimmicks and original mechanics. One that comes to mind is using a crow to glide longer distances than normal kinda like in an old spyro game which was a lot of fun, though I do feel it was underused as we only see some of these creative mechanics for one level and never again. Which is a shame.

There are also secrets and lore details you can find hidden in levels such as chocolate bars. Though these items only seem to unlock extra levels and they don't provide any extra rewards for completing them. Personalty I wasn't bothered about getting them all but if your a complitionist then that's something for you to enjoy.

Visuals:

The game has a clear retro influence which reminds me a lot of older ps1 titles with it's pixels and low poly count cartoon look. Oddly enough some aspects of the design remind me of an old Rugrats game I played as a kid mixed with that hotel level from the 2008 ghostbuster's game. I know that's a very nesh description but those two games are the closest I can think of. The further you progress into the game the more wild and outlandish some of the areas and you quickly learn this isn't like any normal hotel. There are plenty of set pieces to keep you second guessing what's about to happen next and some really creative ideas for environments. If your worried about each level looking copy pasted because of it being in a hotel, well worry no more.

As for animations and other aspects of polish well they can be pretty simple but they are charming, They are far from winning any visual effects awards but I find some of the jank of them to be charming and blend will with the tone the game goes for.

Other stuff:

Some aspects of the game that I will mention quickly that are a little strange are things like the lack of a main menu. When you start or finish the game you don't have any menu, it just drops you in. Whilst I didn't mind this some people might be annoyed that they couldn't sort there options out before the game loaded in. Speaking of options there aren't a great deal of them in this game. I never had any problems with it but some people might be turned off by that. Also for my personal note about the ending which I will be very vague with due to spoilers, it kinda felt a bit rushed. It was going so well and then you see *It* bathed in bright light and the credits role which felt very sudden. I still had a lot of unanswered questions. Not sure if that's meant to be a hint towards a second game or if it was left that way for speculation but I would have liked to have had just 5 more mins of playtime to wrap things up.

Overall:

I very much enjoyed my time with The Upturned. It was a nice mix of laughs, a few tense moments, many puzzle and a lot of fun. Would happily recommend this to anyone who's a fan of physics based puzzle or platforming games along with horror fans who are looking for something very different. If your not a fan of quirky humour or lots of puzzles however then you shouldn't play this. I'm very happy with what I played and I'm exited to check out more of this developers stuff in the future.
Comentarios
raw maw 13 ENE 2023 a las 8:00 
always fun to play alongside in TF2 :auyay:
raw maw 23 SEP 2022 a las 9:31 
Cool dudeski with neat reviews! :GreenRaptor: