Always Sometimes Monsters is an interesting game to say the least. You’ll need to make difficult choices to get across the country to attend your Ex’s wedding.
After I initially finished Always Sometimes Monsters, I didn’t know if I wanted to write on it or not. A bit after finishing it, maybe a couple weeks after, I decided to take up speedrunning it. Through routing it I realized just how many messed up choices one could make to make it to the end. To say the speedrun makes you be a complete jerk is a bit of an understatement. Now that I’ve completed a couple runs of the game, I feel like I’m ready to finally say something on it. Please note that there will be story spoilers included, though I’ll try to keep them as clean as I can.
To start it off, you’re a starving and broke writer who has failed to deliver on their contract. You’ve basically lost everything, including the person you loved. You end up getting invited to their wedding and make the choice to go to it. One problem: you’re still broke. You end up having to work odd jobs, sometimes even lying to get the money, to make it there. When you finally get there, all of your choices up to that point have an impact on what happens in the end. Even some late choices can make or break it.
The biggest thing I have to praise Always Sometimes Monsters for is that some of the choices you can make really make you think. Early on you can make the choice to give your good friend some heroin his girlfriend left behind. You can make the choice to completely blackmail a doctor to get free payment, either with some absolutely gross stuff or by smashing up his car. Of course, you could also just choose to ignore them and live with the regret that you let someone die.
While Always Sometimes Monsters is a RPGMaker game, don’t let that stop you from playing it. It’s probably one of the best RPGMaker titles I’ve played. There’s even been an asset pack released for it for RPGMaker users on Steam.
Sure, Always Sometimes Monsters is a bit of a love it or hate it game. It’s not for everyone. However, it is definitely worth checking out for yourself. Make your own decisions, shape your own ending. You can even shape it down to the point of choosing what kind of sexuality your character has, along with their gender.
So will you choose to cut those brakes or do things the hard way? Will you choose to walk out on that job or do it, even if the boss is a gigantic jerk? Will you help make those election votes be invalid? These are the choices you must make. This is why I feel like Always Sometimes Monsters is a fantastic game, even if it does get to be a bit twisted at times with some of the choices.
