Everhood: Eternity Edition

Have you ever played Rock Band or Guitar Hero and wished that instead of strumming away at the notes, you spent the entire time trying to dodge them? That’s the premise of Everhood, a weird and unforgettable new adventure where a one-armed doll must leap out of the way of oncoming notes in order to survive the musical onslaught. Between the colorful characters, the crazy situations and the occasionally baffling story beats, this game stands alone in a world full of cookie-cutter titles. But does that mean that it’s good, or am I just another casualty on the note highway? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review Everhood: Eternity Edition.

There was a moment about halfway through Everhood when I realized that I was going to need to not only explain this game, but have it make sense. Here’s what I came up with: This is the story of a broken red doll who comes back to life after a Blue Thief steals one of his severed arms. In order to get it back, our hero goes on a long (and often bizarre) road trip where he’ll meet a full cast of colorful characters and deal with their lunacy, all while taking on powerful bad guys by dodging different kinds of attacks on a standard five-lane note highway.

As an action game, Everhood is basically the opposite of Guitar Hero. Instead of trying to hit the note on the beat, the goal here is to avoid them. You do this by either jumping over the single attacks or, if there are too many in a row or a wall in the way, moving the doll left or right on the note highway. You’ll move faster if you side-step the attacks, but it may make more sense to jump over them. The trick is to stay alive long enough to survive the entire song, which is often enough to defeat the bad guy. For some reason.

As simple as this concept is, it actually took me a few plays to break free of the muscle memory built up from thousands of hours of Rock Band. When I see a note coming at me, my instinct is to hit it on the beat. However, you can’t rely on the beat in this game, because this is all about avoiding the musical traffic. And when Everhood isn’t trying to mess with your timing, it will add trippy visual effects to play with your eyes. Even though most fights play out the same way, you truly never know what you’re getting yourself into with each battle.

A lot of that is because the adventure this red doll goes on is constantly changing around him. This is one of those games that starts out about one thing and then quickly spirals in a dozen directions, to the point where the characters start to lose track of why they even started this journey in the first place. It’s a quest where you don’t even bat an eye when a bunch of former villains invite you to play a tabletop adventure with them, sucking you into a game within a game scenario complete with its own unique gameplay quirks. And then, minutes later, you’ll be tossed behind the wheel and forced to win a racing game. There’s a real sense that anything can happen in Everhood.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

It's the writing that helps to keep a lot of the randomness in check. The witty and self-aware dialog links all of this chaos together, often in a genuinely funny way. I loved the reoccurring characters and how they come in and out of the plot at the best times. For a game that is primarily about dodging attacks on a note highway, the bits you’ll truly remember from this game will be because of the writing.

Unfortunately, the core gameplay isn’t as good as the rest of the adventure. While it’s certainly a novel idea of flipping the rhythm genre on its head, I spend the first half of this game a bit underwhelmed by the action. You jump over notes and dodge from side-to-side. That’s it. Even with the cool visual effects and silly enemies, there just didn’t feel like there was enough depth to the combat.

However, Everhood is a game that will wear you down with persistence. There are just so many characters to interact with and songs to play that the game will eventually win you over. And then, just when it feels like the game has run out of gas, it completely flips the gameplay on its head by giving our hero a real attack. This changes everything, and you’ll spend the entire second half of the game experiencing Everhood in a brand-new (and more enjoyable) way. I loved that it was able to shake-up the somewhat stale action, but wished that it had come far sooner. There’s an argument to be made that the battles don’t truly become fun until halfway through the adventure.

The good news is that the music is on point throughout the entire game. There’s a nice mix of types of rock and electronic tunes, each fitting the tone and mood of the villain you’re going up against. The soundtrack is playful and full of the kind of infectious beats you won’t be able to get out of your head. It’s also surprisingly varied, with a great mix of sounds and style that is hard to pin down. The only problem with the soundtrack is that I wished I was playing it in Rock Band instead of purposely trying to avoid the notes, but that’s just something you’re going to have to accept when playing Everhood.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

The visuals are simple, yet effective. There are times when the world you’re exploring looks like it was drawn-in at the very last second, which is something I found to be charming. A lot of the overworld is just a path in the middle of darkness, making it feel like you’re stuck in some sort of never-ending nightmare. And then, out of nowhere, the game will completely change its style and color palette, reminding you once again that you should always expect the unexpected.

And that’s a good way to look at Everhood. No matter if it’s the visuals or the combat or the story itself, this is a game that isn’t afraid to make sweeping changes to keep things interesting. The good-sized adventure is constantly throwing new ideas and scenarios at you, and if you think you know where it’s all headed, I guarantee that you don’t. And just as the experience begins to run out of steam, the developers found a way to shake things up and keep you engaged for hours to come. That’s a tough balancing act to pull off, and I would say that Everhood mostly gets it right.