Goodnight Universe Review (Switch 2)

In 2021, publisher Skybound Games put out Before Your Eyes on PC and Mac (later on mobile and PSVR2), which offered an innovative control mechanic in which you primarily interacted with the game through eye movement and blinks. Alongside this cool gimmick, Before Your Eyes was lauded for its gripping emotional story, quickly turning it into an indie favourite that garnered a passionate following.

Now, the developers at GoodbyeWorld Games have created a spiritual sequel called Goodnight Universe, which both builds on some of the themes of its predecessor and introduces some cool ideas of its own. Though it currently lacks the eye control feature on Switch 2 (a Camera update is planned "sometime after launch"), it still proves a worthwhile narrative experience.

Goodnight Universe places you in the role of Isaac, an infant with the mind of a grown man and psychic powers, born to an unremarkable and ordinary nuclear family. Isaac can babble and cry and do all the things that a normal baby can do, but every now and then he causes a little chaos by flexing his psionic abilities in ways that confuse, frighten, and delight those around him who haven’t caught on and believe that Isaac is simply just a ‘normal’ baby.

Yet there’s, of course, the lingering mystery of why Isaac can do these things, and the plot naturally thickens once he catches the attention of the Aio Corporation, a tech company which seems to have some understanding of Isaac’s powers and has its own agenda for how to utilise them.

While the twists throughout the relatively brief (~four-hour) narrative are certainly intriguing, this is ultimately a soulful and heartwarming tale about the importance of family and the finite nature of time. As Isaac narrates his experience, you’re getting a first-row seat to all the ups and downs of ordinary family life, and not all of it is pretty.

In one instance, you’re witnessing a wholesome interaction between Isaac’s sister, Cleo, and his dad, while in another you’re tuning in to his dad’s private thoughts while he reads a bedtime story and learning of various insecurities and concerns he struggles with as the family's main provider. Domestic life can be messy in so many beautiful ways, and Goodnight Universe does a great job of showcasing this while keeping things interesting with the goofy antics of its primary protagonist.

While there are some key moments in which you can express yourself and choose slightly diverging routes for a given scene, this is a largely linear tale that plays out somewhat like an interactive Pixar movie. Every now and then, you’ll get to choose something — such as whether Isaac responds with happiness or sadness to what another character said or did — and this leads to a few unique lines of dialogue, but there aren’t any bigger moments that lead to completely separate paths and different routes.

Some may be disappointed by this, but I appreciated the single-minded nature of the narrative, as it allows you to more easily immerse yourself, rather than keep stepping out to determine which route might be more interesting.

Gameplay follows the structure of a simple point-and-click adventure game in which you primarily scan the environment for the next interactable object or person needed to move the scene forward. Sometimes you’re given a neat checklist to follow with multiple objectives, while others you must intuit what’s next based on what the characters are doing.

Isaac can read minds and manipulate objects from afar, leading to all sorts of mischief as you innocently poke and prod at the world, leaving those around you bewildered as dishes seemingly wash themselves and toys aren’t found in the same places they were left.

There are some light puzzles to solve every now and then, but progression is basically a matter of identifying the correct object you need to manipulate in the environment and then doing the action needed to make it move or dance or fly across the room.

You do gain a few new abilities as the narrative progresses and Isaac gets more of a handle on his powers, but it’s very rare that the path forward isn’t made obvious either by the game literally telling you what to do next or very strongly hinting at it. Those of you who are looking for challenge won’t find it here, then, but the gameplay isn’t so braindead that you disengage.

Just like Before Your Eyes, the controls for Goodnight Universe feel designed around eye-tracking software for video cameras, but... well, the Switch 2 version doesn’t support this at launch. As a result, you’re left to navigate the interface using the right stick to move the cursor and camera, which often feels more tedious than I’d like. It’s the sort of control scheme that’s fine, but it feels clunky and unintuitive, which tends to take you out of the narrative that’s clearly trying to place you in Isaac’s shoes.

While I wouldn’t say that stick controls are a dealbreaker, it’s nonetheless worth keeping in mind that you’re missing out on a key component of the intended game experience when playing it on console before the planned update arrives.

Visually, Goodnight Universe employs a simplistic but charming art style that leans well into the cartoonish absurdity of its protagonist’s abilities. The exaggerated proportions and environments vaguely call to mind the art style of the Katamari series, but there’s plenty of room for detailed character expression and smooth animation as scenes play out. Naturally, all this unfolds without any frame hitches or skips, highlighting the much-welcomed power boost that the Switch 2 hardware brings over its predecessor.

As far as the audio is concerned, music is sparsely utilized to punctuate scenes and elevate the atmosphere, often adhering to tracks that lean into the whimsy and sci-fi elements of the story. The music takes the backseat, however, to make room for the excellent voice acting, which significantly adds to the overall experience.

Not only are all the performances passionate and nuanced, but little details in the sound mixing contribute lots to the immersion, such as when listening to a character’s thoughts and hearing their internal monologue come at you from different ‘directions’. At boot up, you’re encouraged to play this game with headphones and I couldn’t agree more; the soundscape here is something you’ll want to pay lots of attention to.