This game took me straight back to my childchood of late 80s/early 90s Sierra adventure games. If you ever played The Colonel's Bequest you will feel like home. Even audio seems to be period correct, sounding close to what expensive Roland MT-32 could play.
Coming as a fan of Lucas Pope game Papers Please, I bought this game very excited to receive some good gameplay in heavy, dystopian climate. Design is very nice, pixelated, retro-styled graphics are very well made and music is good and fitting. You are balancing between being loyal to ruling government, local rebellion and staying out of trouble from bushiness giants. It is a great idea for a game, as I found myself excited by the gameplay and listening to my staff discussing local news and sometimes my decisions during coffee break. Problem is that when I was vanished deep into the story and was hoping that the game will put up some more pace.... I saw the story summary and the ending credits. After 1 hour of gameplay. That's it, game over. I played the game again, some of the stories and talks were different. I also played in more balanced, less biased way. After about 50 minutes I saw the credits again with completely opposite ending than the last time. Game lacked new elements that would be implemented as the story would unveil. Like in the Papers Please we were getting new mechanisms every few days and new regulations that kept the gameplay fresh and interesting. Here? You get a one novelty in form of marketing on day 3 that doesn't make the game that much different. The sympathies for local government are presented as a sliders but you don't feel like you can change that much. There is no visible gray-scale. District can be pro-government or pro-rebel. That's it. I really would like this game to be better than it is, because I loved the topic and artistic style. Great idea, great design but definitely too short. Randomness gives opportunity for replay ability but after two times I've had enough.
