Eversion (PC)

Freeware and flash games often have a major edge over more traditional game releases when it comes to deceiving their audiences about their true nature. Finding a game on the internet for free rarely inspires the same level of research a purchasing decision might entail, so these titles can better masquerade as something more innocuous before the layers peel back to reveal their unusual twists. Eversion had this aspect going for it after its initial release, but like many games that become famous for their deception, most people who will find it now will at least be expecting some big reveal to take place. While I won’t give the whole game away, I will reveal about as much as the game’s own Steam page reveals through screenshots since it allows me to cover most of the important details, and while plenty of people want to play along and say this is a completely innocent game with nothing untoward about it, the game opens with an H.P. Lovecraft quote and a disclaimer for those faint of heart so you’d have to deliberately ignore parts of the game to not expect at least some sort of swerve down the road.

The main facade of Eversion is that it opens with an incredibly saccharine platform game level, the 2D action seeming to be similar to hundreds of games when it comes to the simple goal of reaching a level’s end safely in your quest to save the Princess Nehema. The main character, Zee Tee, has a body shaped like a flower with two feet and giant eyes in its center, and that opening impression throws in smiling round enemies, bright pink blocks, and a lovely grass land all to really play up the supposed innocence of this title. However, the word eversion refers to something turning inside out, and the main gimmick to this seemingly straightforward platformer is its eversion points where this cute and colorful world can be flipped into something entirely different.

When a level is everted, the overall tone of the location changes. The colors might dull, the enemies will shift in appearance, and certain things like plants may wither and die. These alterations to the world are almost like alternate dimensions, each eversion layer coming with it different opportunities. In one layer clouds will become solid platforms you can leap up onto, another might have enemies shift from bumbling characters going about their business to lifeless lumps or aggressive pursuers. Beating a level will require swapping the layers you’re in to make use of the changes to platforming opportunities and eliminating potential obstacles in your path, and the game has some decent ideas how to execute this like certain platforms becoming brittle in one layer so you can break through. While each layer is definitely a step down from the cheeriness found in the first version of the first stage, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re sinking into deeper and deeper layers of subverting that tone. A layer may appear washed out, run down, or just deliberately plain, but as you do start going deeper into the eversion layers you will notice the background turning unusual and the alterations to enemies and obstacles favoring more hostile designs. A red clawed arm might pop out of a hole with a scream and your previously innocent jumps atop enemy heads soon come with a bloody burst, and it’s clear this constant peeling back of the layers will continue to explore these darker themes as you reach the later levels of this game’s rather small stage selection. While it never hits any extremely macabre points in the design subversions, Eversion is definitely made more interesting by seeing how deep the game will go on plumbing this ever darkening tone.

Eversion points are a key part to puzzle structures for these platforming stages. While there are moments where speed is required like one level where you outrun an approaching wall, mostly you’ll be able to move at your own pace as you figure out how to flip layers to make progress. When you aren’t standing on an eversion point, pressing the X key will cause an eversion point to pulse if it is nearby provided it is in an early level. Later stages instead want you to notice unusual design aspects of the world to figure out where these points could be, clues like atypical arrangements of blocks or cordoned off areas meant to be a more natural way of finding them rather than using your pulsing power like a sloppy radar.

To make levels more intricate, there are gems scattered about that go towards unlocking a special ending. Merely making it through the game’s levels and seeing the default ending isn’t too hard and doesn’t ask too much of the player, but grabbing all the gems requires seeing the bigger picture of a stage and its many eversion layers to effectively grab all the gems needed to unlock a special ending. Some achievements do require unintuitive ideas like altering the game files, but grabbing the floating collectibles is a pretty good secondary objective and one that grants the player a chance to experience a new area with some interesting ideas on how it treats eversion points and progress. Given its overall short length, exploring for these extras definitely helps Eversion be a meatier experience and one that plays into the same curiosity about what hides deeper in the game that likely lead to a player purchasing this 2010 remaster of a 2008 freeware game.

However, one thing about Eversion is that, despite some decent puzzles involving its layer peeling action, its attempt to look like a generic platformer at first lead to a lot of the actual experience being a bit of a generic platformer. The world and enemies start to look more interesting over time and a few unique new things can be added in eversion layers, but mostly you’re running and jumping through the levels without the act of doing so being particularly challenging. When the game forces you to be fast about it or springs an unexpected clawed hand out of the ground as you get read to clear a gap then things can be a bit more difficult, but the action is most often simplistic. Its straightforward platforming play is decent enough despite a few moments where you need to finagle a jump to a platform right overhead, and the puzzles at least make you think about eversion as a vital tool instead of just something to see new sights with, but other than the aesthetic twist, Eversion isn’t packing anything too innovative or unique to make its gameplay as compelling as seeing what the much ballyhooed twist will be.

THE VERDICT: Eversion’s nifty mechanic of switching between eversion layers does spice up its action some, but besides altering the world around you to better help with platforming and puzzle navigation, Eversion’s gameplay elements aren’t doing much to stand out. Instead, the gradual revelation of what lies deeper in the altered dimensions is likely to be the player’s main drive to play this short adventure. The gems and alternate endings give you something to shoot for beyond the basics of level exploration, but the game’s reputation means most will find it expecting some sort of intriguing twist. Eversion manages to handle its shifting tone well enough with a simple but effective gameplay framework that it is decent enough to play through to indulge your curiosity despite lacking anything too exciting about its fundamentals.

And so, I give Eversion for PC…

An OKAY rating. Eversion may not be able to pull off its innocent mask perfectly in the full retail release, but there’s just enough to the namesake layer traveling process that ensures that Eversion isn’t just a game all about the big twist. Figuring out how to navigate a level depending on the layers adds a tiny but appreciated level of depth to making progress, but the simplicity of the entire experience is definitely what holds it back from getting higher praise. While shifting the state of blocks and objects and adding in a few rare new items and enemies like the clawed hand do a bit to make these different layers feel diverse, the game does feel like it needs points where the layer has a greater impact on the action so that the eversion layers could really feel like breaks from the norm beyond their aesthetic variation. In fact, the dark twist is almost quaint compared to what other games try to do with the early game deliberately hiding the truth of the game’s content. Instead, Eversion sticks to its basic design as the world around it shifts a little bit with each level and layer, the shifts never drastic enough to really wow the player but still adding enough to do to the game that it’s not just about getting to the end of a stage.

Despite many gamers trying to be coy in recommending Eversion, the fact is many gamers will already be aware the game features some unusual subversion when they purchase it through Steam. Being defined by its twist means that Eversion isn’t trying to innovate much on its gameplay mechanics despite the promise of the world having various layers where functions shift around, but it still has the basic DNA required to make for a fun little platformer with a simple puzzle gimmick. While the mere existence of a surprising twist to a seemingly friendly and innocuous little indie title feels like the heart of this game’s appeal, Eversion isn’t endeavoring to be much more than a decent adventure with an artistic approach to the way this particular princess-saving journey manifests.