There are studios who leave their mark with you, even in their first game. With their rather odd but unmistakable style, quirky way of weaving a meta-story, and even unique choice of game sensibilities, the Tomorrow Company has made themselves one of these studios to me. Having loved both of their games before this one (World of Goo and Little Inferno), I knew I would be playing this one in due time too. But I'm afraid this game might be just a bit weaker then the last few.
Welcome to your future! You are the new guy at the big company and eager to get started. So go forward and be that cog that keeps the company going! Of course if this game was simply an "office simulator" it would not be worth anyone's time to play. Rather the game is more of a "programming puzzle" game. Now don't worry, there is no need to know any actual programming skills or languages (yes there is a difference) to get into this game, but it will definitely teach you some basic concepts.
Each level will start with a little banter with your boss as you leave the elevator before your objective and list of commands to use to do the job will slide into the left-hand side of the screen. Using these commands with room you are in you will create a program that when run, will complete the objective you wanted to do. The game will start simple with only three actions you can use in your program and a goal to move everything from the inbox on one side of the room to the outbox on the other. But over the 40 or so levels the game will add more options you can use, more ways you can use them, ways to organize parts of your script/program, and even optional levels (among the 40) if you want to give yourself an extra challenge. Once you've built your program, just press play and watch the results where you will either finish the challenge or be yelled at by your boss for what failed. You can stop it anytime if you notice something is wrong or even go step by step to debug your program.
But at the same time, the puzzles put before you are often relatively simple and the tools (commands) you get to write your code with even more so. And while this works for the game as a whole, it leaves some puzzles being way too easy while others leave you really scratching your brain for a lot longer then a one-screen puzzle should, just due to how much you actually have to do at that basic level to make it work. It's all logic and it all makes sense, but let's just say any real program has a lot more options then this game gives you for a reason.
And of course this being the Tomorrow Company, you can expect the game to have a certain feel to wrap these puzzles in, as well as hidden vibes that will dawn on you as you play, but to explain those would be to take away a little something from this game. As always, there are a few plots going on here that do tie together at the end, though not with the same impact or satisfaction as their previous games.
Bugs: No bugs what so ever
Overall: While this is definately a game I would reccomend to someone who wants a taste of what programming is like, it is one I would recommend getting on sale. It has some serious balance issues, especially towards the end. But you really should only get into this game if such things appeal to you, as the meta-story to this game isn't going to offer much in it's own.
Score:
6/10
System Requirements:
- 1.5 Ghz CPU
- 1 GB RAM
- Anything with shader model 2.0 (so just about anything)
- Windows XP
- 200 MB hard drive space
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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