Despite its name, Ugly is a beautiful game with an enchanting story.
Ugly is a platform puzzle adventure game developed by Spanish independent game developer Team Ugly and published by Graffiti Games. Ugly is the first title for the indie game developer and already has a long list of awards under its belt, such as “Best Game of the Year”- PlayStation Talents in 2020. The publisher, Graffiti Games, is known for games such as Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, an adorable puzzle adventure, and Blue Fire, an adventure game.
Platformers, or platform games, or even Jump ‘n’ Run Games, are games where you will have to move your character around various platforms to get around. The genre started in the 80s with the release of Space Panic, an arcade game that predates one of the most famous platformers, Donkey Kong. Ugly manages to encompass the platformer genre flawlessly, and as an added bonus, there are bosses for you to defeat.
Even though the settings aren’t advanced like many other games, Ugly has a focus on accessibility, such as Directional Aid and Color Blindness. The other settings mostly focus on brightness and sound. While the game can get a bit frustrating, like most puzzle games, the developers have put an effort into encouraging the players’ self-care. When you first start up the game, there is not only information about the accessibility, but there is also a little note asking the players to take care of themselves as they unravel the story.
The tutorial starts off with a small cutscene of a shard of mirror falling down to where our main character is sleeping. When he wakes up, you are able to move around, and as soon as you get close enough to the shard, you will be greeted by a reflection on the other side. This introduces the first and main mechanic of Ugly.
The game features many mechanics that pop up as you traverse through levels, but your most important mechanic is the main mirror that you use to create your mirror image. With this, you are able to get through the many different environmental puzzles as you search for the truth behind the character’s past and for keys to unlock the next section of rooms. After all, Ugly has a dark story hidden behind the many colourful images.
Some of the environmental puzzles include paint that is stained all over the rooms. Where the paint is, you can’t switch places with your mirror image. You will have to look for places where the paint has been stripped or has not yet reached to be able to switch. Another example would be glass shards littered all over the floor in the one area that distorts your mirror image. This allows you to make use of the shards as platforms if they are placed higher up.
Visual cues are not the only thing that can help you solve puzzles within Ugly. Some sound effects play a certain role in helping to set the rhythm of the level—for example, a ticking clock. You will need to make use of each of the beats of its movement to make your way through the puzzle.
After getting into a puzzle, when you feel like you messed up, there is a way to reset the room. The character will pull out a flask and get blackout drunk. He will wake up near the entrance of the room, and the whole room will be slightly distorted. You will have double vision for a while; as you move around it will gradually disappear.
While puzzles and the environment aren’t the only obstacles in the way. You will encounter various bosses as you search for the truth. Unfortunately, Ugly does not have any sort of combat mechanics. This means you will have to become incredibly creative with how to defeat them. For example, the flower room boss has a chase scene where you will have to navigate obstacles and be quick with switching with your mirror image to be able to escape it and lead it into a trap.
While Ugly has an almost Saturday morning cartoon look, it is anything but. Ugly has a dark and painful story hidden behind a colourful facade. One of the biggest pieces that reveal the darker undertone is finding the hidden memories. Once you activate a memory, you will be greeted by a cutscene that looks reminiscent of a child’s doodles and holds a piece of the character’s past.
While Ugly has an indirect story, it is never narrated to us directly. When playing the game, we piece it together from a lot of the imagery seen throughout the many levels. There are many hidden memories for you to find throughout the many levels.
A lot of the imagery for describing what happened to the main characters’ past sometimes takes on a similar form to some classical art such as The Last Supper, but it is not the only classical reference as there is a painting that, although ripped, takes on the likeliness of Napoleon Crossing the Alps.
However, these aren’t the only references that will pop up throughout the gameplay. There are a lot of references that show insects that have a lot of symbolism tied to them, such as the butterfly, which represents transformation. You will also see references to two types of arachnids.
Spiders, which happen to symbolise patience and persistence, are placed near newer mechanics, such as glass shards being littered around the spider room. This introduces distortion to your mirror image, which allows you to use the many shards-like platforms for the image and allows the character to get to higher puzzle rooms. Lastly, Scoprions represent danger and risk; these symbols usually hide the more difficult puzzles near them, but they could also be a warning as completing every puzzle in a room summons a boss.
Each aspect of the graphics works its part in creating a visually pleasing atmosphere and appearance as you explore the many puzzles. Many of the small aspects, such as particle effects and lighting, give an eerie appearance to this rundown castle you find yourself in.
The Sound Engineering was done really well and tended to drag you into the highly immersive story. The music, mostly dark orchestral pieces that help the game to tug on your heartstrings, was composed by Jan Fité, who managed to capture the core of the story with his music. Jan Fité has done the soundtracks for the VR game Echoes and Onira Crimes. He has also done music for short films and theatre. The music is never repetitive; it keeps you hooked and doesn’t overpower the other elements of the sound engineering.
Overall, Ugly is an incredible game with its simplicity in mechanics and the indirect way Team Ugly shows you the story. While most puzzle games and platformers will usually focus on combat and tools needed to finish a level, Ugly focuses on keeping it simple as well as creating an experience that is not only polished but highly enjoyable. It is the perfect game for anyone searching for dark yet mysterious stories and puzzles.
