This is a facinating game and you shoud play it, its free and only takes 30 minuets, its just not that good. I think this game is similar to one of Talias other games, "Swallow the Sea", in that they both have interesting visuals, music, sound design and gameplay, as well as the basic premise of the story being creative and inventive, but fall short because of lenght. The game is to short to really have time to do that mutch of what it wants to do, and is also victim of a similar issue as "Pleh!", withc i also have a review for, in that its very metaforical. The no-smoking signs are a metafor for addiction, his transformation is a metafor for becoming what he hates, the rooms being upside-down is a metafor for mental disorder, withc is pretty boring, because when you have figured out what it is a metafor for, your done with that aspect of the game, without any deeper analysis of anything being needed. I actualy tried to take everything in this game litarly, withc worked suprisingly well until i realised that the rooms being upside-down cannot be explained literaly, so i gave up on that. The thing i sayed about it not having time to do what it wants to do, by "what it wants to do" i mean that it seems that this game whoud be an interesting surreal story about addiction and self destruction and so on, but because of its short runtime has to put al of those themes into one small package, withc i think might be what leed to all these metafors, because metafors are very good at packing many themes into one small product, because you can have a metafor for that, and a metafor for that, and a metafor for that, without those metafors taking up any time, they just exist, enviormental storytelling basicly. But i dont know how you would tell something like a discussion using enviormental storytelling, because that is way more complex than showing some item that in the right context choud mean something more than just it as an object. Another thing is that this game is not surreal to a point that its this sycedelic and hostile mass of memories coming from Mr.Scpitz as a deranged and confused man, but not grounded enough to be a realistic and tragic story about addiction, but then again that is not inherently a bad thing, Backrooms is a great movie that also is partly surreal and partly grounded, so i think i am going to stop here, because what i am doing now is like trying to imagine what a dog looks like by only seeing its tail. We will never know what this story whoud be like if this was a big and serious artistic project and not a 30 minuets game. The final thing i will say before i start talking about the things i like about it is that i dont think that videogames is the medium that this story that i am fantasysing about, the story were this was a, as i sayed, "sycedelic mass of memories coming from Mr.Scpitz as a deranged and confused man". Im unsure if i even like the idea of narative driven games as a whole, as how whoud you tell something like an argument without using a cutscene, and i belive that cutscene shoud only be used to show of some cool shot, like when the bridge falls in Babbdi (I also have a review of Babbdi, but i actualy think you shoud play it a bit before reading my review. Its free, so go on.), not as a way to tell the narative of the game. The only situasion were i think having a complex narative in a game chould be interesting whould have to be some avantgard interactive fiction project, were you chould just write anything whenever you were speaking to an NPC, withc would actually be extremely facinating, but that whould also be extremely hard to make, so i understand why that dousent exist. Anyways, i will now list what i do like about it. 1. the gameplay is fun, smashing the furniture with the hammer is really cool. 2. The sound design is great. 3. The animation and design for Mr. Scpitz is awesome, its cool to see the detailed pixelart and "Ugly but cute" artstyle that is used in many Talia games be applied to a human, as few Talia games have human caracters, and i also love how he looks gross even before his transformation. 4. The atmosfhere of the office building is so strange, its utilitarian and cosy at the same time, and the fact that you can see through the windows and see that your actually inside a skyskraper so tall that it goes above the clouds also gives it a cosy feel, like if you worked at a office building, but its sutch a small business that you dont even have to work because no-one uses the business because there is a cheaper one just downtown, and it cinda feels like your trapped up there, but it also feels like your hiding from the bussel and hussel of the city, i dont know, it just has an awesome vibe. Hopefully you found this review interesting, you can ofcorse comment any thoughts on what i sayed, and thats it.
