Game Review: Undertale (Steam)

Before I fully get into this, I just want to say Undertale is definitely one of my favourite games, I’ve spent over 50 hours on it. The amount of times you can replay this game due to the different endings is amazing. This is one of the main features I love. It has many different areas and each area introduces a new character.

During the game, you control a small child who ends up in the underground where the monsters reside after a great war, where the humans trapped all the monsters underground using a spell. Your goal is to get out of the underground, you can choose to kill everyone, spare everyone, or just be neutral and kill/spare some of the monsters you encounter.

This game doesn’t focus on graphics at all and is in a completely 8-bit style. This creates for a wholesome setting, like nothing is that serious. Everything still looks quite visually pleasing though, all the characters have their own styles and looks.

Once you leave the ruins (which is the area for the tutorial) you can explore the underground and meet lots of different characters. There is a lot to do, you can speak to the different NPC’s to see what they’ve got to say, or you can ignore them all and progress through the story, going into shops, buying food, weapons and armour.

One of the main features of the game are the fight sequences. This is where you can: fight, act, use your items, or use mercy. You can kill the monsters, by clicking the fight button. Or you can act. Now the act button is very creative, every monster has different things to do in the act button. Put simply, you can act until you convince the monster not to fight. You can then use the mercy button to spare them.

I really like the amount of choice you’ve got when it comes to the fight sequences and how it’ll make the rest of the game pan out. Every action has a different dialogue sequence and it really creates an impact, knowing every move you make, every monster you kill will, in the end, have a consequence, as stated at the end of the game. Where one of the main characters judges you for your actions. Whether you killed everyone or spared everyone you will still be judged for your every action.

Probably one of the most important things you have to speak about when reviewing Undertale, is the music. The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful and composed entirely by Toby Fox, the game’s creator. Each character has their own music and different variations for different zones. Depending on what choices you’ve been making when it comes to fighting monsters, these will change. Each area has its own music but can also change due to murdering everyone in your path. Every action has a consequence and it will remember when you do something wrong.

Personally this is the best money I’ve spent on a game in a long time.