A controversial topic nowadays is whether or not Undertale is good. Now, unfortunately, the concept of good and bad has been blurred by the community's incredibly inane acts. It's reputation skews the concept of the game to a point where a lot of people denounce the game on account of the fact that the community is the most vile one since the Five Night's at Freddy's fandom, which committed the same acts or similar. What someone needs is for someone to review it from an unbiased, mostly objective position, and I'm taking that upon myself. Now, bear in mind, I will be giving my own opinions after I describe it objectively. Another thing, I will be adding a few new categories that most people probably wouldn't add. With that in mind, let's get right into it, shall we?

In September of 2015, the gaming industry was blindsided by the overnight success known as Undertale. Many people praised it for it's allegedly revolutionary design, reining in positive reviews ranging from a 90/100 score to 5/5 stars. Popular for it's "choices matter" design, many people might say it's the best game ever, and it got many Game of the Year awards already.

However, there are some core flaws that no reviewers pointed out, due to some unknown reason. Rather than listing them one by one, I'll list them when necessary as I go over and rate the various categories. A reminder, the ratings are subjective, but I will be talking objectively about it most of the time. If it is subjective, I will say as such.

Graphics and Design: 4/10. As some of you may know, Undertale takes after an 8-bit pixel-art artstyle. However, this does not excuse the poor quality of the graphics. There are many games with superior quality while still maintaining the 8-bit graphics style, and this is very apparent in contrast to such games as Stray Cat Crossing or other various games that run on a similar engine. The characters aren't pleasant to look at. They're ugly, they look deformed most of the time, and the detail is nearly nonexistant. If it wasn't pixel only, it would probably look more like a CDI game. While the idea of it being ugly is merely my opinion, the fact that it pales in comparison to other games is a fact. Simply put, this game would be a lot greater if the design was a bit more refined. I suppose it's good that it runs on more low-quality computers, but I do wish it were a bit more pretty. The character's designs as far as personality go are pretty generic too. You have a lesbian otaku professor, a lesbian fish knight, two skeleton brothers that just kind of exist, a ghost with no motivation, and goat people. Oh, and a flower that tries to kill you. Other than that there's nothing really deep about them. There are several fan theories about one of the skeleton brothers being depressed and another non-canon, fanon version of the same skeleton brother which doesn't fit his personality at all and is pretty much dumb. Not even the fanbase could create a decent personality, evidently. (Clarification, I'm only including the fact they are lesbians because it's literally the main focus of their personality and pretty much a plotpoint, at least in the less important part of the game.)

Music and Sound: 10/10. Now I know this is a bit high, but trust me, the music is the ONLY place that Undertale truly shines. Consisting of mostly chiptune, a genre that was previously unpopular, it inspired many people to try and take the same route and go with chiptune. Unfortunately, their aspirations fell a bit short as nothing quite compares to this game's soundtrack. This soundtrack was so popular to the point where a particular song, Megalovania, was the #1 most repeated song on Listenonrepeat for the US for quite some time. The craze for the game's soundtrack continues even today, with plenty of remixes, mashups, and the like. The soundtrack has many tunes from many genres, making it practically perfect for nearly everyone. Though, after a while, it might get a tad repetitious and you'll want to switch to something else. But the soundtrack is always something you can come back to once in a while, and that's really nice.

Addictiveness: 4/10. Ehhh... It's kind of complicated. For a multitude of reasons that will be explained in further detail further into this review, but I'll give you the jist of why it's so difficult for this to be addictive. For one thing, the depth is a bit lacking. Were it longer, it would be a bit easier. But sadly, it only has a gameplay time of a couple hours. RPGs are supposed to be longer, and that's what I was honestly expecting when I played this game. Needless to say, I was thoroughly disappointed that it wasn't longer. It might seemingly make up for it in ways not yet mentioned, but there's a fatal flaw in the design that makes it null and void, which I will explain later. Point is, limited amount of gameplay makes for a limited experience and limited addictiveness.

Story: 4/10. It's hard to talk about this because of spoilers, but I'll give you all you need to know before playing the game. Long ago, humans and monsters fought in a war, and the humans won and sealed the monsters in a mountain called Mount Ebott A kid falls into the mountain into a place called the "Underground" which is where all the monsters live. From here, you meet a nice woman named Toriel who invites you to her home. But that is short lived, for your adventure is just about to start. Toriel guards the gate to the rest of the Underground, which means you'll have to...

Depth: 2/10. Ohhh boy, here we go. So, this game is already short enough having a gameplay time of a little under a few hours, and not to mention -- get this, limited enemies to fight. That's right, you can kill everything. But the thing is, the game PUNISHES you for using the battle system. That's right folks, if you use the battle system (it's an RPG, remember this) and you kill everything, you're shoved into a gameplay mode where everything is increasingly harder and unfair. This is called the "Genocide" route. You see, your choices determine what route you take in the game. By default the first route you take is the Neutral route, which is probably the best route as it's one that feels more like a true RPG. Yknow, the thing the game is trying to be? It's not revolutionary because it's restrictive. That's not how things work. The game not only forces you to redo the game just for a new ending, not only restricts you to what you can fight, but even goes as far as to force you NOT to use features intended for use, essentially making it to where you're only playing half of a game you paid full price for. The third route, the "Pacifist" route, makes it to where you have to not fight anything. This will be explained in greater detail, but let's just say you have to talk down or flee from everything. Failure to do so will cause you to instantly revert to the Neutral route.

Moreover, you're forced to play all the endings if you want to know the full story. And another thing, each ending is canon regardless of the fact that they're entirely different from each other. It's bad design, in my opinion. Oh, and let's not forget how if you don't kill exactly everything in the genocide route, you're forced to revert to the neutral route. Make one mistake and you'll lose it all. Oh, and the thing is, the game even goes as far as messing with your save file if you take the genocide route. It has irreversible effects that can only be fixed if you use a fan-made tool. The game tries to keep you from it's practically nonexistent depth and that's bad design. A game is meant to be played.

Gameplay: 6/10. Believe me, I'd rate this at least a 9/10 if it weren't for the fact that it punishes you for using it. Every time you kill an enemy it just makes it harder for you in the end. The game gives you the option but says "Don't touch". Your other options aside from Attack are Item, Act, and Mercy. Act basically gives you the option of doing something that doesn't directly hurt the enemy, and actually makes them surrender so you can give them Mercy. This is the core design of the Pacifist route. In the Neutral route, you'll want to kill most of everything though, since you need the health for the final battle but still keep enough things alive so you don't go Genocide. This was annoying to deal with. The Attack button brings up a bar going left and right which you try to stop in the center to deal maximum damage, and defending turns the game into something along the lines of a bullet-hell shooter except you only dodge. This can range from platforming to using a shield, and sometimes even something reminiscent of Frogger. Every enemy has their own attack pattern that you must memorize to effectively dodge. Similarly, every enemy has a certain process in which Mercy can be achieved. It's not smart to mix mercy with attack in neutral, and its completely outlawed in the other two game modes, so that's a bit of a turnoff. As disappointing as that is, it only gets worse when you're met with incredibly boring humor that never made me laugh even once.

Difficulty: 2/10. Well, it's an RPG with practically no fighting. That means there's not much difficulty to it. The attack patterns are easy to read, the puzzles in the game aren't impressive, and the Acts you must do to achieve Mercy can be figured out with common logic and understanding of some of the characters. With that in mind, I managed to pretty much beat the game in a few hours the same day I got it. I had fun, but I could have had more if this game was a little more refined. For example, Golden Sun is a very refined RPG and I managed to sink over 24 hours of gameplay into it. If it tried to be better it could, but it wasn't feeling up to it I guess.

Overall: 5/10. It's an average game, it's fun if you don't pay too much for it, it's fairly short and for the most part it's a unique experience I guess. Although the concept such as "humans are the real monsters" are tired and done with, looking past it you can get a game with an amazing soundtrack. Undertale for the most part was sensationalized to the point where everyone had to try it, but then after everyone tried it, it kind of died out. The only part of Undertale that still exists is probably the people who make the remixes, otherwise the sensation is over and people are going to move on. Just like they did with Five Nights at Freddy's, and just like every other sensationalized game. The only thing I can really say about this game is this:

Restrictive does not equal revolutionary.

This was a breath of fresh air man. I've never played the game and I never will. Seriously, not even if it's free, for various reasons, none of which I will get into now.

The opening, especially the first paragraph, is exactly what I've grown sick and tired of to be honest. I don't even like the game community as a whole anymore because of stuff like this. Some sub par game comes out and for whatever reason one "important" person likes it so everyone decides that they must like it as well, and it's all you hear about for a year. As for why the reviews? It's pretty obvious that reviewers anymore (professional ones) take the popular opinion and make an echo chamber all repeating what each other says while ignoring glaring flaws. Seriously, look at ANY game that comes out. The reviews are almost all in agreement with one another, and this from people who can't agree on what color the sky is. It's all about saying what people want to hear.

And I'm going to say this, and I hope everyone can forgive me, but this is a huge part of what the Steam community does. I don't see this unreasonable sensationalizing going on among consoles, handhelds, or other PC gaming communities thankfully, but sadly that community makes up the majority of most websites you'll check. This is one reason I detest Steam. I could list more very solid reasons but again, this is already too hard hitting, and I do sincerely apologize to the resident Steam base here. I know you guys aren't a bunch of annoying punks like I described otherwise I wouldn't have befriended you or stayed here, but this site doesn't make up even a tenth of Steam's community.


Anyway, very well written review, and I appreciate your honesty and that you didn't echo the popular opinion, but shared YOUR opinion and thoughts.
All of these sensationalized games don't seem quite so appealing after they leave the spotlight of famous YouTubers, do they?

yoshirulez! : Definitely a more vaster route I've seen most people take towards game and can easily say that I understand your guy's point of view and wouldn't null&void it like so many people on steam/youtube/and yes even Vizzed would by calling you a lying hater on the game. Everyone has different opinions on the game and more people can open/subjective to certain sides of games.

Take me for example: I just "CAN NOT" get into Earthbound or really any RPG series that are deemed AMAZING, WONDERFUL, and a MUST PLAY game by reviewers for endless years. I just....can't get into appeal of it, just feels like am playing a game of cards or something...sometimes I get screwed over by enemies and sometimes I fly by? I feel like am doing a checklist instead of having fun with the adventure of the game (especially ones with dumb "Random" encounters instead of seeing enemy beforehand). I can see the appeal to them but for life of me just holds no interest besides musical quality and Story. Yet for some reason I am able to get into Paper Mario, Xenoblade Chronicles, and yes "somewhat" of this game.

Would I pay for it on steam? No...not really for 10$ since it's not worth paying for something I'd only get 1-2 playthroughs out of. And am not masochistic enough to try the Genocide route just...no....waste 4 dang hours on one boss after 15+ attempts of almost insta-death moves? No thanks. If was given to me for free? I may try it out but it's not something I'd play a lot like Borderlands, Zelda, or other series home to me. Is it awful? (the fanbase sure is) but it's better than a lot games have seen come out of steam by indie/one-time/company developers. Goat Simulator is an example to me personally as something less worth the time and money than undertale but a game like Binding of Issac/Super Meat Boy/Broforce are worth it far more than Undertale. This is just my personal opinion though of course and wouldn't impose as "truth" on anyone but more so instead my personal thought/facts.

It's a average-good game, though is like said more like a one-two timing thing mostly and then move on from an objective view. Though do feel FNAF earns more of a wrap than this one ...a game about waiting and clicking.....really? Play the "push the button" flash games online instead.