Universe For Sale – PS5 Review

0 0
Read Time:7 Minute, 59 Second

Universe For Sale is a multi award-winning narrative point-and-click adventure from small Italian indie studio Tmesis Studio. Originally released on PC in November 2023, Akupara Games has now extended that to Xbox, PlayStation, Switch. The game is also available on mobile devices via Apple Store and Google Play Store. For the purposes of this review, I’ve been playing on the PlayStation 5.

Drops Of Jupiter

In a small colony situated in the clouds of Jupiter lives Lila, a young woman with the amazing gift of being able to conjure universes from mundane ingredients. Universe For Sale explores the story of Lila meeting a mysterious stranger who has an odd fascination with her. The stranger is part of a space-cult in which members sever body parts in order to reach enlightenment.

Who is the strange, bony cultist known only as Master? Why is he determined to continue crossing paths with Lila? Why does time seem to be muddled? As I’ll expand on below, the story is far from straight-forward.

The story opens in a child’s bedroom. Instantly, the art of the game makes an impression. The scene is beautifully drawn and coloured. We’re introduced to a small girl named Lila as her mother reads her a bedtime story. Cutting to a different scene, we join a cloaked individual as they awaken on the floor of a rain soaked bazaar. Groggily, they stand and make their way to a small tea-house nearby. It’s here that we can start to learn more about the setting of Universe For Sale.

Screenshot from Universe For Sale. Main character's Lila and Master sat having a conversation in Hinon's Tea-House. Lila's dialogue reads “I… Am Not… A God.”
Ah, yes, imposter’s syndrome.

Gameplay

If you’ve played any point and click games, the general mechanics will be familiar. Navigation and interaction is achieved via an on-screen cursor. Environments are essentially 2-dimensional. You can move your character left and right for exploration, and click to interact with items, NPCs, or doorways. Conversations with NPCs will present you with a selection of boxes to choose a response or a topic for future discussion. All of this generally works fine. Although sometimes I felt like some additional cursor changes when hovering over interactive objects would have helped remove some frustration. The typeface also caused confusion at times. Especially when playing on the smaller screen of the PlayStation Portal, as H and N are very similar. I’m not sure how dyslexic friendly the game’s text is.

Selling The Universe

Universe For Sale bulks up it’s gameplay elements with several mini-games. The biggest of these, and a highlight of the game for a couple of reasons, is Lila’s universe creation. At her stall in the markets of the colony, Lila sells small universes to customers, customised to their specific instructions. They may want a certain shape, colour, or composition of materials. Each universe is created by adding 2 ingredients to a bowl and mixing them together. Lila can then apply her special ability to birth the universe. With it hovering above the bowl, Lila can then manipulate it into a certain shape, which can affect the age of the universe, and the rules of time within it.

A collage of 2 screenshots from Universe For Sale where 2 different universes have been created by Lila is her mini-game section. On the left, a universe is depicted with an image of a planet covered in large, broad trees as far as can be seen. On the right, the universe is populated by fish that are larger than planets. They can be seen eating, or about to eat, planets.
Two examples of universes that can be created. The giant, planet-eating fish universe is one of my favourites.

With the options available, it’s possible to create 21 combinations of ingredients, each leading to a different universe. Combine that with the 2 time thresholds of each, and that’s 42 in total to discover. What I loved most about this was the obvious care and thought from the developers that went into each distinct universe. Along with a detailed description of the universe you’ve created, there’s also 2 unique pieces of art to accompany them when you peer inside. Again, the attention to detail here is fantastic, I loved sitting and pouring through the combinations to see every possible universe.

Bugs

Unfortunately, I encountered multiple bugs in the section. Some of these were UI based, such as buttons not updating, but I also experienced full games crashes. The biggest one seemed to occur by using up Lila’s energy — she can only make a handful of universes in each in-game day — and the game not recognising this until I’d made one more universe. Subsequently, the energy meter would wrap around to full energy again. The game would still stop me from making any more universes at this point, but if I went to explore the market, it would close the game and raise a bug report. This happened a couple of times. I also found that sometimes universes would fail to materialise, and I’d have to quit out of the mini-game and go back in to fix it.

Order In The Universe

As you progress through the plot of Universe For Sale, you’ll quickly realise something isn’t quite right with the flow of time. Master seemingly meets people for the first time more than once, and Lila will not remember certain events. Make sure you pay attention in these confusing moments so you can start to piece together the true order of events — you will be quizzed on it later. On my first play through, I reached the point of having to work out the correct order of events, and I couldn’t do it. The game offers very little help at this junction, so my only choice was to go back through the story again. Thankfully, it’s not massively long.

Doing this did give me a better appreciation for the story. In particular, I think I had an easier time parsing the bedtime story that young Lila is having read to her. I also realised that the events of the game can be experienced by the player in different orders based on which directions they choose when waking up as Master in the market each time. On the second play through, I even played 2 events in chronological order, which was commented on by the characters. This was a nice touch.

Screenshot from Universe For Sale. Lila and Master sit atop a building, looking out to the orange hues of Jupiter's cloudy skies.
Views on Jupiter are somewhat… cloudy.

 

While the setting and characters created by Tmesis Studio are really intriguing, I think parts of it could be more fleshed out given more time and a different approach to delivery. I’m not sure how much having the story events out of sequence serves the narrative. Nor if it obfuscates important information for the reveal towards the end. Even with the events in the correct order, and more detail to character motivations and surrounding lore, I think the story and twists would have worked.

Graphics & Audio

It’s games like this that make me wish I’d paid more attention in art class so I could better describe why it looks so good. Universe For Sale features a richly coloured, hand-drawn art style that’s absolutely divine. Each scene has great depth and detail, making the world feel alive. While the locations explored each day are only fairly small, the variation makes the world feel larger. I mentioned the art for the different universes above, which is a stand-out element of the presentation, along with some larger shots of the colony, and the stained-glass windows in the church.

For a lot of the game, the background ambience is atmospheric environmental sounds, rather than musical numbers. It isn’t completely devoid of music, though, and the pieces that are included are well suited to the scenes and settings. If you enjoy the soundtrack, it can be purchased via Steam, and there’s a lo-fi girl style video on YouTube.

Screenshot from Universe For Sale. A crowd is gathered in a public square in protest. Some are holding weapons aloft, while others simply have their fists raised.
Viva la Jupiter!

Longevity

Universe For Sale is around 5–7 hours long. This does depend on your reading speed and how much of the optional conversations you want to engage with. The achievements or trophies can mostly be earned in a single run, though a few can be missed by not performing mini-games perfectly. Additionally, a choice early in the game with 3 options has a trophy for each, so you’ll need to run that section a couple extra times to get them all.

Final Thoughts

My feelings are mixed on Universe For Sale. As a point and click game heavily focused on narrative, it has an understandably light touch on gameplay. I enjoyed the mini-games, particularly the re-wiring activity in the market. The universe creation was my favourite aspect of the gameplay, though this was slightly marred by my buggy experience. In terms of the story, it’s serviceable. But I feel like sometimes certain elements were not explored far enough, and I was perhaps overly confused on my first play through. Especially in regards to the sequence of events. The art throughout the game is the most outstanding element. In fact it’s perhaps reason enough on its own to check the game out.

Ultimately, Tmesis Studio’s first game has put them on my list of developers to keep an eye on. Universe For Sale signals that this team have the ability to create gorgeous games. They have some interesting world-building ideas floating around that just need a little more refining and some more room to shine. This talented group have a bright future, and I’m excited to see what they will move onto next.

Universe For Sale receives a Thumb Culture Silver Award.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

Thumb Culture

YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Discord | Podcast

 

About Author

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *