Review: Looking Up I See Only a Ceiling (Nintendo Switch)

Decisions at the point of no return.

In Looking Up I see Only a Ceiling, you play as a girl overwhelmed by anxiety. On this particular morning, you wake up only to be met with weird experiences in which you find yourself in other dimensions, meet a strange boy, and deal with scary situations.

With a point-and-click style to it, Looking Up I See Only A Ceiling takes an unusual and exciting tone to convey mental health issues and how difficult it can be to struggle with them. However, the game does a great job at keeping these undertones subtle, allowing itself to be a fun horror game first.

Players will explore the house and interact with many objects by clicking on them. The objects help tell the story, and even the ones that don’t lead to actual game progression help give you an idea of who you’re playing as and how she lives.

This approach and mood are set up straight away; Looking Up I see Only a Ceiling starts with you waking up hungry for breakfast, and won’t let you explore many other places until you make your way to the kitchen and prepare yourself some food.

From here, you go to use the bathroom only to find yourself entering a strange hallway filled with calendars. You aren’t able to turn around, so moving forward is your only option. In this hallway you finally meet a stranger who claims to know you are, but you’ve never seen him before. He remains mostly a mystery throughout the game, but you do meet again as you start to find yourself in more strange situations.

This game is a super quick playthrough, one that can be completed in 30 minutes. There are also two possible main endings—a good one and a bad one—as well as a bonus ending. I completed both the good and bad ending, realizing the only difference was one choice you had to make. This disappointed me a little, since it felt that my options throughout the game didn’t matter as much until the very end. However, I still enjoyed the overall experience.

While Looking Up I See Only A Ceiling is very short, it still does a great job at being fun and getting its message across. For only three dollars, this game is enjoyable and recommended.