What Happened Reviews

A game for the ages. Some games are played for fun. Others played for the sake of escapism. Once a generation however a game comes along with social commentary so powerful that it rocks the very foundation of the fabric we consider to be reality. What Happened? The titular theme theme of the game in question. Now a personal anecdote. I was at my wits end. I make content that no one watches. Unsure of where to go or what to do I decided to stream a video game and it was to be my last stream ever. That was, until I discovered What Happened. So many people showed up to my stream that evening with positive messages of kindness and affection that it turned my life around as well as my stream. God bless you devs and God bless America. A life of crime and drugs is not a life worth living and I see this now. Take care of yourself and each other. Urinary Tract Infector out. Thanks again.

Really liked this. It is visually stunning all the way through. It has frustrations though. There needs to be more guidance on how to progress in these types of games. A lot of running around in circles.

The game is just ok. The story is great and paints the picture. The issues I have with the game is the lack of direction as to how to progress, lack of clear choices that can be made to either save Stiles' life or let him die, and the audio for the game cuts in and out frequently. The audio could have been a specific case for me but it really took away from the experience especially during key scenes. To see what I mean I'll link my playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkJGA9xtgxjPJJgVygY7HP058n1xLjwzf If you have any constructive criticism, please leave some.

Well I just finished the Game in 4.5 Hours playing in the dark with headphone on Ultra 4K settings. This wont be an experience i will forget anytime soon. What a seizure inducing psychosis driven LSD trip. Awesome game if you can get through getting punched, stabbed, and sweared at for 4 hours straight, with strobe light LSD visuals, and a character in the game contemplating suicide constantly. Thats really what the game is like Im not embellishing it. All in all tho its very well made with an original atmosphere and an experience you will never forget, IF IF IF you can get through it first.

It's quite a shame that this has so few reviews and not the highest score either when it's clearly a labor of love and has been expertly crafted. I did balk at the price to be fair but the steam winter sale made it affordable. I'll start with the positives. The world looks great. It really does. The fidelity and realisticness of the school setup you start in was fantastic. Granted the characters animate a bit stiffly but still much much better than most indies and not too far behind some triple A stuff. And the story in general is executed well. Basically the whole aim of the game is to tell a story of regret and sorrow and self-pity through the lens of a grief-strucken teenager going on a drug-fuelled bender. Quite a unique premise, and the environments and scenes you pass through reflect that. I won't elaborate much more than saying this game takes you to some dark places and some trippy places, often at the same time. Where I do have complaint is that I feel that this game was put together by far too many artistic designers rather than game designers. I'm struggling to think back now even though I've just completed it, as to what gameplay mechanics and activities I engaged with beyond switching on and off lightbulbs, and moving lightbulbs around. Now that's not the biggest critique as some walking simulators have even less gameplay. But in addition, for the length of the game I sure felt I spent a serious portion of that trapped in cutscenes, with these edging more towards a movie at times than a game. And speaking of length, sometimes I felt some points were overlabored and scenes. Granted likely this is part of the artistic vision of this game, they want to show how being stuck in the head of somewhere where their brain hates them and constantly reminds them of awful things, is certainly not a nice place to be. And that there is no break to this spiraling repetition of awfulness. But when you do that to the extent where the player is actively being put off your game is to the game's detriment. Honestly I think they could have trimmed it a bit more to allow you to complete the game in a single sitting. As I found going back to it the second night I wasn't overly relishing going back to that same negativity over again. But I'll allow it given what the story is trying to convey, and also because the game had sunk enough of a hook in me that I was able to grit my teeth and sink back into the grim and bleak murkiness of it all. And speaking of story, I thought it was an odd choice to focus on a love-sick teenager to tell a story about depression. I'm sure most people go through teenage blues, some worse than others. But I'm not sure how relevant this would be to most players who play this who will likely be adults and will have left this part of their life far behind. I think they could have taken even a similar story and worked it in to an adult's telling and I think that would have found more common ground with players. As there were at times when the character was being a bit over melodramatic, and like a typical teenager and my reaction in my head was more or less "grow up". I think I would have been more able to empathise with someone who has reached emotional maturity but is still cripplingly depressed and is having a hard time. But those critiques aside, it's clear there was so so much effort put in to this, and it is quite a treat for the senses altogether, so I strongly recommend you to pick this up.

As an Iranian I was impressed of what was done in this game (or I should say experience). But I have to say what I really feel here: I'm one of those players that would like to play more than to see clips or bits of animations. So I think it was not my cup of tea. BUT I can say what I feel if I was a fair critique. This should be a different Genre than Game. Is is more like an interactive cinema or horror thoughts life simulation. The problem with this sort of "game" is that if you stop playing then nothing will encourage to continue it later after couple of days. Because you forget the story or not interested anymore. Story is far more important in this experience than having an interactive experience. There is not much of a challenge in the first 1.2 hours of playing it and I am not sure what happens after that. I might not continue playing it anymore. The cinematic aspect of the game is awesome. I was creeped out at the end and shows how good the effects are. They might not seem so graphical but they have their own effects. Overall I liked playing it and I felt how much the creators cared about the story. And that I think was a good money spent to support the creators.

I struggled to play through this game. Not because of the subject matter, but because of the confusing story, annoying game play structure, and pacing of the game. I would only recommend this to hardcore horror fans. + Absolutely gorgeous graphics + Fairly short game - FAR TOO MANY CUT SCENES. You would walk for 1 min, have a cut scene. Then walk for 2 min, have another cut scene. This really annoyed me as this felt more like a movie than a game, as a result it struggled to keep my attention. - Drug taking, self harm, and abuse is constantly thrown into your face. Which I understand since this is the main subject of the game, but there are far better ways to handle this. - Stiff voice acting - Confusing game structure, I wasn't sure what to do or where to go half the time, resulting in me dying multiple times.

I really wanted to enjoy this game. It looks good. It's just too buggy. A little more time and effort to fix the issues and it could be great. Developer play your game, see the flaws and you will have a great game here and get better reviews. This does deserve more, the story has potential etc. I have bought this game twice and refunded twice, I wanted it to be great!

Massive soundproblems, which are really a problem. Every part you start, sound gets off and you have to restart this aprt again. It happened like 5-10 times in 40min and I can't bother to restart the game over and over again. Apart from that, it's basically just cutscenes, at least the first 40min feel like you would only watch a movie and don't really do anything apart from turning on lights. Then you have some "puzzle" which is so annoying and takes you looooong because it's not really good explained how the controls work in it. Feels like a filler to get some more time. Can't recommend it.

[code]Curator page here-->[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37670120/] DaRevieweD 56 [/url]<-- [i]New review every Sunday[/i][/code] [b]Genius Slackers[/b] debut is loosely based off a real-life tragedy where a neighbor of game director Arash, took his own life. The incident left family and friends lost for words as everything seemed fine with the victim. And to think I only got knee deep in research because [i]curator connect[/i] offered it to me- otherwise I wouldn't even realize I already possessed it from a previous sale XD. Granted, themes dealing with mental health are more widespread in video games. Though they tend to revolve around fictional premises (up for debate) such as in [b]Town of Light, The Missing or Detention[/b]. Usually handled with respect and educate us on lesser known intricacies of mental disorders but others exploit or phone it in by slapping them with "psychological horror." [b]What Happened (WH)[/b] is smack dab in the middle of that spectrum. It began with great intentions except it didn't stick the landing after all the huffin' and puffin', believe me it's a lot~ [h1]"Enjoy It- While It Lasts..."[/h1] [u]The Gist:[/u] Stiles is your everyday angst-filled and depressed teen trying to survive going through the motions in high school. For the past year however, things have been escalating and on one fateful day- he spirals. A dear old companion, cheerleader and devil's advocate emerges and together they go on a trip of deja vu. [spoiler] ! Be mindful of your actions! [/spoiler] [h1][+] PROS;[/h1] [b](a) Your Mind on Drugs![/b] Not much in way of gameplay and so it's fair to call it a [/i]drug simulation[/i]. Your alter ego being your guide on what to do, judging you and taunting you- the bumbling introvert. There are venting journal entries to be found too, shedding light on his struggles. Pretty soon, he descends into incoherence and tasked with locating light bulbs while getting lost in the maze that is the drug-addled mind. There aren't a lot of ways to die but when you do, you enter multiple versions of "Limbo" and you have to seek the way out. Ultimately, the endings are the incentives to continue playing and they can actually be achieved in one go, provided you inspect carefully! Fortunately for me, I managed to uncover the alternate "bad endings" and then I simply 'continued' from the main menu. [b](b) Take It All In[/b] Now, the sheer amount of time, hard work that went in to the design of the school is obvious. Be it the variety of posters plastered throughout or props that cater to different classrooms! All wonderfully detailed and I must've spent the first hour admiring them. It's a living, breathing school so kudos!! The creative input is just nothing short of endless, creating almost unique set pieces to throw at you that you can't help but stop and stare. Since Stiles' school acts as his anchor, it only makes sense to revisit it a lot and it's spruced up each time to convey a different state of mind. Another gorgeous illustration of its visuals go into the [b]Layers of Fear[/b] manipulation of "reality" where once you reach a dead end, you turn around and something's changed! This is done a lot and I couldn't keep up. It's sure to leave you satisfied!! The mirrored effects of drugs kicking in start off slow and psychedelic-like but amp up in intensity. So just take a break every now and then~ [b](c) Don't Feel- Just. Do. It.[/b] In keeping with the theme of the game, I'll let you find out WH for yourself! Instead, I'll go into what I liked a.k.a. what I found scary~ Firstly, the idea of a darker version of yourself is very much a nightmare. It knows everything about you, it ridicules, second guesses and clouds your thoughts. Technically it's still you in control but we all have our fair share of the bad, don't we? Secondly, I have to point out a character that I just loved; whose performance was natural and sweet. It's Rose! I absolutely fell head over heels because of what she and the flower represents. You'll see single roses throughout the ugly tripping and it's somehow reassuring. The phrase 'every rose has its thorn' couldn't be more true because like[spoiler]Stiles, or rather you[/spoiler] just don't appreciate what you do have. Thirdly, I liked how it was on the nose about the people's tendency to overreact and replay that same moment of regret. It's tough to see someone going through it but what about those who keep it hidden? Makes you wonder... Finally the title, "WH" depending on the intonation or punctuation can imply many nuances. Is it out curiosity, a blaming tone or just explanatory? [h1][-] CONS;[/h1] [b](i) A Bad Trip[/b] Disorienting is an understatement for that initial gimmick of colors grows into unbearable and nausea-inducing the further you go. It's like they wanted to see how many filters and novel ways to rotate the camera could be fit in until people hurl. Then the angle suddenly zooms and jerks all shaky cam to direct your attention. Oh and head bob can't be toggled off so rest up every hour. [b](ii) Out of Stile[/b] Stiles is the protagonist but he's...bland and reserved. I liked the "Mind" / alter ego but he's just dying to be edgy and dark, comes off as a try hard. Other characters were standard teenage drama fodder, who we don't learn enough of to actually see them favorably... Also, the depiction of self-harm got so gratuitous. I'd rather not be shown any and just told (on second thought, talked my ears off too). Moderation, that was missing!! [b](iii) [i]'High[/i]' School!? Dude...[/b] Alter Stiles is like a preacher- that is if they were the ones telling you to give in to [spoiler]the dark urges[/spoiler]. What we are treated to, is preachy, beating that dead horse over. Kid you not, by the end- I questioned what was the point of everything?! The game was better off cutting its price and runtime by half, which I think would have conveyed its message just as fine. [b](iv) Good Luck Unseeing That[/b] Some nitpicks are the notes which are somehow randomly generated? Because every time I locate one, I make a habit to leave that drawer open. But next time I came back, it was moved to a different drawer!? Plus, an achievement bug, where it said I "collected all notes" but then being the rebel I am- I found more! The amount of phasing objects were off-putting. A note standing on its own protruding out the cabinet or grass and other foliage coming through drawers. The game may question reality but that's just sloppy. Even some objects are placed too close to another and when you open the drawer, it goes into the other object. Little things like these can be damning! [h1]"More Like, What COULD'VE Happened...."[/h1] Prognosis? WH came from a wholesome, noble place by not victimizing those who have considered suicide. Bringing that vision to life proves arduous- ending up mundane, overstretched for the most part though it has its moments of clarity. I am an immense advocate for mental health so I can appreciate the sentiment and was really hoping it'd be something special (which it is, just not all the way). What it did exceptionally is in its breathtaking visuals of a life-like school setting and unpredictability of Stiles' being under the influence. However, such a momentous stride to mental health awareness calls for impeccable execution and a certain degree of sensitivity that was just not present. And with a dull and one-dimensional cast, it's challenging to like let alone care for them... The same goes for the at first alluring transitions that became obnoxious and induced in me enough motion sickness for my lifetime. Though I "don't recommend it", I'd advise picking it up when its price is slashed as it's still fairly enjoyable and an innovative piece of entertainment- I guess that's why it hurt even more~ [h1]5.8/10[/h1] [b]WH churned my stomach for all the wrong reasons, but I can't wait for what follows![/b]