I.T. Never Ends

I've only been playing for about 20 minutes and I can say I like this game. I really like the writing and music. The overall theme feels great and I want to know more about the world. And as someone who works in IT, it does a good job of capturing the feeling of unending fatigue. All of the little details in the game like the dialog that plays when loading a new day just shows that the creators put a lot of thought and love into everything. As for criticisms, you really don't get a good explanation about how to play mini-games before they start but they're not super hard and it seems like failing any part of this game is just part of the game itself. Also, I wish there was a better way to tell how choices will impact the meters. It just feels ransom sometimes. But the game seems pretty forgiving so in the end, I guess it doesn't really matter. Time to get more endings unlocked! Update: I'm up to 2 hours now. I can't stop playing. Give this game a try. Seriously.

I was extremely privileged to be able to play test this and see it grow from the demo I played back on itch.io a many months back. As a note, I did NOT receive this product for free. I bought this myself once it officially released. This game, is something, I haven't worked in an I.T. job in my life, but I have been around people who are and I do some of this stuff as a hobby. All the jokes land every time, even if it's literally the exact same "Gary needs a password reset and he doesn't want to click the reset button" ticket for the 47th time. Very few games could get away with that. But, the way Dadbod weaves this complex and strangely emotional story, makes this, all worth it. This is definitely one of the greatest games I've played this year. All hail the stapler king.

Day 9. Fourth Monster before nine. Wrote LEFT HANDED MOUSE in Sharpie on a standard mouse, walked it down to Lefty in Accounting, closed the ticket, Morale ticked up. The walls are melting and the AI keeps asking who I was out with last Saturday, which is between me and the server room. I have merged with the cosmic spreadsheet. Every audit reconciles across all spacetime, margins are up seven percent, and Entropy is a friend. I am New Marvin. Destroyer of printers. Entirely too accurate to my day job as a Sr IT Systems Engineer.

I.T. Never Ends has a very specific kind of charm: part workplace comedy, part creeping horror, part “why is the printer doing that?” The writing carries it. The game keeps finding new ways to turn mundane IT problems into increasingly strange situations, and there is a surprising amount of choice and replayability beneath the simple decision-making structure. I especially liked how often a joke would quietly become unsettling a few minutes later. The minigames help break things up, the characters are memorable, and there is clearly a ridiculous amount of content hidden behind different choices. Finished my first run already wanting to see what I missed.

This game is not what I expected at all. I expected to go through Tech Support PTSD, but instead I found myself laughing up a storm, while also contemplating the meaning of existence in this technological corporate dystopia. I.T. Never Ends really captures the often hilarious soul crushing, mind warping insanity of IT Work. It's like an episode of The IT Crowd mixed with The Twilight Zone and a bit of Black Mirror.

I.T. Never Ends is a bit of a slow burn. It took me a few shifts to really get the hang of it, but the more I played, the more fun it became. The humor really helps too. It’s absurd, but somehow not that far from reality. Some of the dialogue genuinely made me chuckle. I also really like the shift system. It makes the game easy to pick up for a short session. I can play two or three shifts before bed without having to stop halfway through something. I saw a review saying this would work better as a mobile game, and I completely disagree. The whole point is that you’re basically pretending to work an IT job at a computer. Playing it at an actual computer just feels right. Overall, this game has a very specific vibe that I haven’t really found anywhere else. Give it a little time at the beginning. Once everything starts clicking, it gets surprisingly addictive.

Fun game showing the horrors of I.T. and the Eldritch horrors that comes with printers. Highly recommend it.