Parents' Guide to Everything

Confining this game to claims of "good" or "bad" would miss its point, as it's open to interpretation, not traditional approaches taken to other video games. That is, the game will "penalize" you for playing too long at one go (about two hours) with an instituted "Looney Tunes"-style "We'll be right back!" screen to give you a breather. That's part of the game's total appeal, which is that it's not a game but instead a weighty experience that allows you to explore, discover, and understand its depth at your own pace. Indeed, the game doesn't even really "need" you: If you let the controller sit idle long enough, it will play itself. Obviously, when you take agency and play the game yourself, it will feel more like you're actively understanding and mining its meaning -- but there's also something to be said for sitting back and observing from another perspective. That's the point of Everything, which is that we're all observers and participants in something bigger (or smaller) than ourselves.

Are there things the game could do more smoothly? Sure, but these are nitpicks. Arguably the lengthy Alan Watts quotes are superfluous -- a somewhat clumsy implied notion that the player isn't "smart enough" to understand the themes being explored here and needing them to be laid out literally for you to listen to while you play. But Everything implements these clips smoothly. Otherwise, the on-screen text can be too small. These are the only strikes imaginable against the game, as it really is a sublime, involving, and relaxing experience. You can go at your own pace, see what you want to see, and return to your life feeling better about yourself or better understanding your place in it. It's hard to grade that, other than to say it's definitely a positive.