"What if we discovered, here on Earth, other unexplored worlds, where everything would be possible?
The same planet in parallel dimensions.
I found the passage"... and it's called What Lies In The Universe, a humorous 2D puzzle platformer co-developed by Studio Voyager and IguanaBee. Thank you for your input while I I was in the bathroom, Wade.
In What Lies in The Multiverse, you play as a young boy, a computer genius who has managed to develop a program capable of simulating any dimension.
Unfortunately for him, his first attempt will attract the attention of an eccentric scientist named Everett who not only will have to help him get home, but will also have to repair the damage that this simulation has caused. .
Quickly, you will become Everett's assistant and will be vicariously endowed with his ability to travel between dimensions (only 2 at a time and which will depend on the moment of the story) in a narrative adventure in which you will be more of a spectator of what is happening around you, sprinkled with puzzles whose resolution will be based on changes in dimensions and other not very complicated mechanisms. The whole thing has a pleasant aftertaste of Guacamelee, less the fights and more variety of dimensions. But the comparison stops there, since the game that interests us today does not offer any combat. Just puzzles, platforming and situation comedy.
But don't be fooled by the light tone of the game since the more you progress, the more serious the theme will become to become quite heavy at the end. The narration is relatively well controlled and the change is done in a rather natural way. Especially since it still retains this lightness from start to finish so as not to become too indigestible and even tries to have a moral. What to embark on a bit of personal reflection...
Besides, the game even encourages killing its protagonist again and again in different ways, to earn achievements. It is even possible to make it vomit at will by constantly changing dimensions very quickly. Again, it is absolutely useless apart from getting a success and making the player smile.
On the lifespan side, it will take half a dozen hours of gameplay and cutscenes that will be far too predominant at the end to the detriment of things to do.
This is perhaps why the handling, although simple, can be problematic because ultimately not a priority in relation to the themes that the game wanted to address. Indeed, there is a slight delay between the button pressed and the character reacting. It's not huge, not even half a second, but it's enough to have to repeat some jumps and climbing phases. Moreover, in the same vein, it is thus possible to make jumps in reverse while taking advantage of this delay. It's pointless, it's just fun, but exploiting this delay makes moving around in settings that lack life in many chapters less monotonous.
The reason ? Well, all parallel dimensions are sorry dimensions in one way or another. This does not take away their specificities for solving puzzles, but having a few environments full of life to break up a certain visual monotony would not have been a refusal.
On the bug side, not much to say apart from this small delay, as well as the annoying success bug which does not necessarily unlock when the conditions are met. Nothing fatal, but I would have liked to have my achievement "T'es Mort" when I died in every way possible in the game and I have the achievements to prove it.
Note that the French adaptation, even if there is nothing dramatic, is full of typos, especially with regard to gender agreements (male and female) making certain passages very confusing as to the sex of certain characters. visually already ambiguous.
Let's be clear, What Lies In The Multiverse is not a must-have that will revolutionize everything, because the player is relatively passive in his own adventure without great difficulty, but it remains a very nice and pleasant title to play that will manage to please a majority of fans of games of this genre. Me first...
- Xbox (version testée Xbox Series X)
- Playstation
- Steam
- Switch
