Some games want to hold your hand, to be there for you and tell you that the world is a good, safe place. Sometimes these games convince us of this and we find ourselves believing it. Hey, sometimes we want to believe all these things even though we know they aren’t really true. And sometimes we play a game that doesn’t pull any punches and we’re suddenly confronted with a much harsher view of the world. Always Sometimes Monsters is definitely the latter.

For every Mario Kart that comes out, there is an Always Sometimes Monsters by Toronto-based developer Vagabond Dog that dredges up every uncomfortable, depressing, or frightening moment we can imagine and forces us to play it out. In many ways, it shows why video games are such a powerful storytelling medium; we participate directly in the lives of the protagonist. More so than any other form of entertainment, we get to step into the main character and, through them, live out a second life. Or a third and a forth, depending on how bad your choices might be. And don’t be mistaken: Always Sometimes Monsters is all about choice. Every decision you make will be felt as you travel across the country to try to reclaim your lost love before he or she marries another person.

And sometimes, those decisions really, really suck. Do you help your recovering addict rock star friend calm his nerves before a big show with some drugs, even if it means he might relapse? Will you stand up for the kid whose drug dealing uncle catches him stealing and threatens him with a shotgun even if it means possibly getting killed yourself? Will you steal and lie so you don’t have to spend the night on the street with the threat of being stabbed as you sleep looming over your head? This game gets deep. It gets dark. Most of all, though, Always Sometimes Monsters relies on you, the player, to make a choice and each one feels like it has weight and consequence, no matter how mundane or simple it might feel.

Don’t get too down, though. There are some legitimately funny moments in the game. Listening to the developers, in the game, talk about where they are in development and wax poetic about their art surprised me with how amusing it was. Little digs at a certain Toronto mayor come up and will give you a chuckle. The writing in this game is poignant when it needs to be and amusing when it wants to be and is, all told, a real asset to the game as a whole.

Gameplay is fairly straightforward and simple, but never boring, at least. You mostly walk around town, talking to people and trying to earn, borrow, or steal enough money to make it to the next leg of your journey across the country to interrupt the wedding of your lost love. Gameplay is similar to To The Moon, with a top down exploration dominating it, with small mini-games that try to break up the simplicity of just going about your day to day life. In many ways, the monotony is a good reflection of the lives of average people. The actions we undertake might be very simple and unglamorous, but the stories we have to share and the consequences of all our actions can be far greater than we realise.

Life is hard in Always Sometimes Monsters and you learn that pretty quickly. You’re kicked out of your apartment because you’re too broke to pay the rent. You start taking odd jobs where and when you can just in the hope of not having to spend the night on the street, where a not very friendly man threatens to cut you for no real reason. There are jobs to do, such as forming tofu steaks or slaughtering pigs, and chances to indulge in some petty crime to help pay the bills. Each night you’ll have to find a place to sleep, earn money to eat, and figure out where to go next, all while being drip fed the next bit of backstory to your predicament. What did you do to lose the person you love in the first place? Why couldn’t you write the novel that promised to make you rich and famous in the game’s opening sequence? This is not a game for action junkies or for those without the patience to enjoy a slow buildup, but the reward and the payoff is worth it.

The only real criticism I can lay against Always Sometimes Monsters is that it feels like it relies too heavily on a “learn by doing” philosophy. You’ll spend the first few minutes of the game scratching your head, trying to figure out what you’re meant to be doing and how you’re supposed to accomplish it. In fact, you switch characters and viewpoints so often in the first few minutes that you might not even realise you’re actually choosing the character you’ll play the game as until it is too late. I know the game doesn’t want to have the training wheels on, but a little bit of help wouldn’t go amiss at the start.

That said, there is a lot of positive things to say about Always Sometimes Monsters. With sharp, clever writing, a simple but effective art style, and a real sense of weight to every decision that is presented to you, it is definitely worth a grab. It is hard to tell if it is going to be the next big indie game to really set fire to the industry and get everyone talking, but at only £6.29 on Steam this week, you’ll more than get your money’s worth on just the first playthrough, with multiple playthroughs with different choices to make simply adding to the value for money.

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