Ben Barrett

Always Sometimes Monsters

Rock Paper Shotgun

May 26, 2014

unscored

Much like life, Always Sometimes Monsters is brilliant but flawed. There’s strong stuff in there, made only better by its rarity within games. Those who have experienced homelessness, extreme poverty, lost love or most other hardships will likely find something to identify with. There’s a soundtrack to rival Hotline Miami chilling throughout and some of the illustration is superb. But there will be times when its minigames will remind you there isn’t a good game under all that writing, and the repetitive money-grinding activities required for better endings will anger, even if intentionally. You’ll love it until it drops its own name egregiously into a climactic finale or hate it until it makes you laugh and cry.