The Idle Game That Ends | Universal Paperclips Review
If you’re a fan of numbers going up, this should be your next fix.
If you’re a fan of numbers going up, this should be your next fix.
I acquired my first paperclip and saw the number go up. It was a beautiful time of life. Buy spool, bend wire, simple. Elegant. The number went up, and it went up slow. From what I had seen and read of Universal Paperclips, I knew I would at least get that much from the experience.
I’m decently well versed in these number go up idlers now. They kinda play out the same… Except for this one. I really thought it would be similar, and in some ways it is, but overall I feel it is a very different take on all the formulas that I’ve tried.
You expand your self-maintained paper clip startup into a paperclip business, then a paperclip empire. Soon the world accepts paperclips for currency, and eventually, you may even find yourself in stranger places. This is how Universal Paperclips feels the same.
What is different, however, is how with each stage, the “gameplay” changes. There’s a portion where you’re clicking a button when you see it lit up. You manage factories differently than you manage your small business. Power plants and drones require another totally different thought process. Sometimes you’re gambling random chance, other times you’re determining how to “win” by selecting the right combination of stats. As your empire grows and evolves, so does the scope of the game, and I think that’s really neat.
The other thing that took me off guard was that at the end of it all… there is a definitive end, after it all. On top of that, there’s a loose narrative, with lore pieces, and an overarching message to be discovered. It sounds a little odd. Incremental number game that isn’t endless?? With a thought-provoking ending? Really? Yes really. It’s a satisfying conclusion, and even after several months it’s one that’s stuck with me.
If you haven’t taken the dive into Universal Paperclips, and you’ve done a few other “big number” type idler games, you definitely owe it to yourself to give this one a try. It took me a solid 3 days of obsession to complete it, and I think every second spent was worth it.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.