Usually when I pick up games during the infamous Summer or Winter sale, they tend to be cheaper titles I am interested in, but not so much I want to play right away. Rather they share the fate of falling into the ever growing pit known as my backlog. But sometimes games refuse to stay there long... and then we get things like we have today, a small indie title that refused to stay dormant about life's choices, a guide trying to figure out what yours were long ago, and the fun you can have pissing him off along the way. Come inside.
Story: It has been a century since mankind died off. However, it seems like the species is eternally clever, using the sciences of it's final days to upload their collective memories so that perhaps some might live on in metal form. It is your turn to wake up, but before you can be unleashed onto the world anew, you must first prove you who you are... and that you are actually all there.
To this end, meet Terry, an actual AI who's whole purpose is just this. He is your guide through the checks on your memories of your past life. Follow his instructions and seal your fate in this new world for a basic but complete story which will reflect directly on what you told him about your life... at least according to him. And if that were all this game offered it would be an "okay" plot, if not something spectacular.
Unfortunately for Terry, however, you are human, so you don't always need to obey him... and this is where the writing actually shines. Inspired by The Stanley Parable, the developers wanted you to have the freedom to absolutely drive your guide right up the wall. And while it doesn't offer you half the opportunities that inspiration does, what is here is works great and shows some talent. You will enjoy misbehaving and the penalties for doing so.
8/10
Graphics: Was It Worth It? is an indie game with 2 artists in the credit roll, so you already know what you are going to see here will not match what the AAA industry can do. However, that is not to say the game looks bad in any way. You will play from a first person view as you explore a handful of locations varying from lava-moats and small brick walls preventing you from falling in to underground caverns to forests and the luscious opening of grass and trees around the very valley you start in. They took their time to carve a world that, while it may not stand up in realism, has a stylized feel that looks great even in it's limitations. You will find yourself enjoying the almost cartoony nature it takes on. Hell since the whole game takes place in a simulation created by your host, that may even be the point!
And you will not do this alone. The cast here along side you is limited, but it does exist in the form of robots who you will be able to talk to. Once again, the manpower behind the art here shows it's limits and innovation at the same time since this limited cast still use one basic robot body with recolors and some detail in the skins to separate them, but the model looks amazing (as long as you don't look down... you have it too, but you are a little too close so the resolution of that bitmapping is a little rough on you) and the art used around them is more then enough to make them look like individuals, from color to condition and even a few personal touches the body's owner added. It's not gonna be as varied as you would expect from a big budget game, but you really only notice once you stopped playing a while and think about what you have seen.... and even then you have to note how smart their decisions about it actually were.
8/10
Sound: The first thing this game is going to greet you with in the audio department is a track of it's music, which is underwhelming but with a good beat, making a nice if undertoned first impression. Don't expect a lot more though. This is one of those games that uses music lightly and to hit the mood it's trying to more then anything. Its almost always there, but it's just not important to what's going on... until it is and you realize either by a change in it or it's absence, you might have just done something horribly wrong.
Nor is the game going to give you much in the way of sound effects either. Most of the time, the only one doing anything that could make noise is you, and I don't think I noticed footsteps or clanking around when jumping despite playing a robot. Rather the only real other noises are the voice acting... and I'm honestly not sure how to rate them
Don't get me wrong, the voice work is amateurish to be sure, but it kinda has a charm to it for that. Terry is an AI system that seems to go from (depending on your actions) a guy reading a script he's read one too many times, a sympathetic ear if you choose an answer to one of his questions that he thinks is sad, or even just pissed off when you push him far enough. The problem is the voice actor almost doesn't seem to want to commit to the last point.. but I'm not sure if it's the actor not wanting to blow out his microphone or the AI finally losing it's shit and not really knowing how to express it... I could buy either to be honest. But whatever the case, his reactions will be where a lot of your joy in this game comes from.
And while he is your MAIN companion through this event, he is not the only one... or the best work in the game for that matter. A second character you can find quickly who clearly hates Terry is a bit more believable... which again could make sense as he is supposed to have been human once. Which is where a lot of the others fall... even if the rest seem to have a lot less lines to work with.
Overall, its a soundscape that works well enough for the game, but isn't going to be anything too to special for you the player.
6/10
Gameplay: At it's core, Was It Worth It? is a walking simulator. You will play from a first person point of view as you walk, run, and jump around exploring the simulation Terry has setup for you. There really isn't a lot more the game will bring to the table, at least without you having to look for it. You see, Terry not being the only one here also offers other objectives from his "opposition" and it won't take you long to find his way is not the only way in this virtual space. In fact neither of them are the only way.
And while this may remind you of the game that inspired this one, it is sadly not as rife with alternate paths, even as it executes this idea exceptionally well. Rather you will be given a handful of opportunities (if you can find or recognize them) to misbehave and witness the results. I'm not saying they are bad, cause in fact I grinned manically at the chance to be a mischievous little shit to Terry (and cracked up when he finally lost his shit with me). It's actually a lot of fun, but it's a lot of fun because you choose to misbehave and give your host an aneurism doing it more then any thing you actually do in itself being fun. In essence the fun in this game actually is in the writing, not the gameplay, this time around. So while you will CLEARLY enjoy your time, this... really isn't why.
6/10
Bugs: This is a game that ran just about flawless.. just about. There was one corridor which ends in a door that would glitch out if I moved the right way while looking at it. I'm not 100% sure that it wasn't planned, but it seemed to me like a bug to me.
Digital Rights Management: I am not seeing anything in this game to suggest it has any DRM outside of possibly Steam itself.
Score: I absolutely loved my time with this game. I can not say otherwise. It's rare when a game not only invites you to be a wise-ass at every turn, but rewards (punishes?) you for it like this. It makes for a much more interactive experience then most games of this type, and it is a lot of fun. However, when you realize how limited this game is, it feels more like a tribute to it's inspiration then anything truly special. Nothing wrong with that, and for the price, any fan of the Stanley Parable should probably give it a look. So I guess I can answer the question offered by the title: For the time and cash you will spend on this game, yeah... yeah it was.
7/10
System Requirements:
- AMD Ryzen 3 3200G or Intel i3-8100f
- 6 GB RAM
- NVidia Geforce GTX 1030 with 2 GB VRAM
- Windows 7, 8, or 10 (64 Bit only)
- 4 GB of Hard Drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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