Death and Taxes

This game has some different endings which depend on your choices, you only get the full experience by playing through the story twice at least. The gameplay itself is uncomplicated and relaxing, so if you are looking for something challenging this is probably not your game. The only thing I found kind of annoying was the constant elevator rides which didn't really add anything to the game and just slowed down the already quite slow gameplay.

While I find the art, music, and gameplay of this game rather engaging (if short), having completed it twice (including the 'goodest' possible ending), the writing is downright mediocre. It barely passes as a comedy, and its treatment of ethics is so shallow, I would not call it even a puddle. This shallow writing wouldn't have been a big deal if the game did not try to portray itself so seriously, constantly asking you or implying that your choices are difficult to make, or that they matter in some unknown or convoluted fashion. So, feel free to try this game if you are a fan of this style/genre, and its at a serious discount, but be prepared to basically throw away any attachment to the character or to what's going on with the story.

I enjoy these games in general (do not feed the monkey, papers please...) and this did it for me. I did not care much about the impact on the world, the phone messages were kind of boring, but the other aspects were fun enough to keep me playing. Would love to see a second game - continuing where this one emded with the story of the grim. Played it in one sitting (2hours) now planning on doing multiple playthroughts, it got me interested enough to try again.

Death and Taxes is certainly a quirky game that is distinct in the visual novel genre. It is also a management sim akin to Papers Please in that you have to choose who lives and dies based on rules given to you where in papers Please you had to choose who to allow into the country. The big difference to me was that Death and Taxes was a lot more lax with the rules in that you could choose to not follow them and the story branched into a different path rather than end with you and your family dead. You make more money by following the rules but to be honest there wasn’t anything to spend it on that affected the game. You can get trinkets for your desk but nothing that is needed. You also need money to drink at the bar on weekends but to be fair even if you don’t drink there you can talk to the bartender and patrons to learn more about the background of the reaper business. The art is great and you can make your Grim Reaper look different enough that most people should be satisfied. I will say there was a couple times where they had white text on a white background that was hard to read. The voice acting was largely fantastic aside from a couple characters. I will single out Cerri the bartender and Fate for the best voice acting. I also loved the character of Lady Pawdington, Fate’s cat and your boss in his absence. Whoever made that character must have cats because they nailed their attitude. The end of the game seemed a bit flat for it’s lead up. I expected more to happen or to be revealed but it was much simpler than expected. The end credits was also unique as you get to decide the fate of each of the team while learning who did what. The game lasts for twenty eight in game days of decisions. I played Death and Taxes on Linux. It never crashed on me; and I didn’t notice any glitches or spelling mistakes. The game would save on exit and there was just the one save file.