PC Review Code Provided by Genius Slackers
Taking on heavy subjects such as suicide and how coping the feelings of one’s self through the use of drugs is a task that has to be handled in an impactful and respectful way. Through thoughtful consideration and proper design, Genius Slackers have developed a pretty well-made version of this with What Happened. That’s not to say that it is flawless in design, but the purpose of the game was driven through the experience it provided.
Story
Stiles is a high school student who suffers from depression and suicidal thoughts. In order to cope with these feelings, he finds himself taking acid regularly. These drug-fuelled days don’t actually help him through his emotions though, but rather bring him down a rabbit hole of self-hate and harsh memories. Will he be able to come out of his depressive state before its too late?
Gameplay
Before you get into this game, there are multiple trigger warnings to keep in mind. Flashing colors, light pollution, dizziness, spinning, visual warping, and many other factors take place throughout this game. This can cause headaches, emotional distress, and other negative impacts on players. The reason these are in the game is to properly express how the drugs the protagonist takes is affecting him, but definitely approach this game with caution and be sure to take breaks as needed.
Given that you are able to handle the visuals, you will play through this game entirely in the first person. To make progress you need to find all the items that trigger the story’s continuation and you can’t move forward until you find these. It could be a specific note, a hidden picture, a memory, or a few other trigger points. Typically, you can follow a visual guide, such as a light, to find these things, but there will also be times they leave it to you to find where to go yourself while blocking off some of the pathways to limit the possibilities so you don’t stray too far off.
A lot of moments in this game will come from a mixture of finding the item that triggers the story and going through areas to get a specific item. Light switches tend to be used to jump from one scene to the next and so expect to go finding a lightbulb on the occasion as well.
Not every section is set up the same way though and I would say my least favorite segment of the game was the underwater part with a chasing shark. I felt this area to be more of a trial-and-error setup in design, but other than that I am just not personally a fan of being underwater in games. But through these sections, it was all about figuring out where you need to go and getting there quickly before you get eaten.
Visual
While the graphics weren’t something to brag about, they did a great job with the scenery of the game. The way things were set up, the type of hallucinated locations you would go through, and the portrayal of your character’s emotions are done in a way that metaphorically explains the struggle the story is trying to express. I was more impressed with the various room designs more than anything else.
Sounds
Complementing the visual metaphors that fill this game, they include a number of sounds that are known to affect people and bring out their moods. Other than using these sounds, they had fitting sound effects that brought out the scenery you were in at the time and kept the music to a minimum, only really using it to further pronounce moments in the story.
Replayability
There are multiple endings in the game. While I am not exactly certain what brings about the good endings, I believe it has to do with finding optional items from a character named Rose. The bad ending is the one most will get by default and there is also a secret ending you can unlock early on in the game. Other than getting these endings, the experience is likely to only be impactful on the first playthrough.
What Could Be Better
I understand that you wanted to bring out this LSD-heavy use affect to stress the acid drug-fuelled experience of the main character, but there was way too much flashing lights. I feel there could have been other ways of showing off this experience with constantly making various colors flicker through rapidly.
While there was a decent set up for the player guidance, I feel like some of the areas could have been a bit simpler and were only set up like they were to draw out gameplay time. By this, I mean things like hiding a trigger picture in a random drawer of a classroom when you could have easily just put it on one of the desks. Finding this picture was more of a frustration than anything and pulled away from the overall experience.
Furthering that same note on drawing out the gameplay, there were also moments that I felt like I was just waiting for the game to reach a trigger point. An example of this would be like when the school was filling up with water. At first, I thought I had to get somewhere but I figured out I just had to wait for the school to flood fully before it reached my character’s knees, and then I just had to stand there to wait for it. This could have been a moment you used the LSD in a way that showed time passing faster than normal or something instead.
Conclusion
What Happened is a heavy experience game that shines a light on a real-life issue that many struggles with. While having a specific story to express this emotion may make it difficult for some to understand the deeper meaning, it is a worthwhile experience for anyone who is looking for a proper exploration of how depression and drugs affect one’s mind. It isn’t an easy one to play through, given how harsh the character is on himself, but it also isn’t one I can say is false. I truly felt that this game did an amazing job at providing a memorable and effective psychological horror experience.
