The Big Con (2021) is a game with some charming 90's aesthetics and clearly had a lot of passion put into it. so,, what even is it?
(story premise spoilers ahead)
essentially, you're a teenager named Alison (goes by Ali) who plays the trombone and lives alone with her mom in a "mom-and-daught" video store. every year, Ali goes to band camp to work towards her mom's dream of her getting into a prestigious arts university. however, the eve before she leaves, she learns her mom is being extorted by a gangster of sorts for approximately $97k, and if they can't pay it off, they're completely fucked and will be bought out by a chain video store. taking it upon herself to gather the funds, she takes to the streets and quickly meets a con artist named Ted, who claims he has the solution to her money problems and becomes a mentor of sorts teaching her how to pickpocket and get extra change out of cashiers and such. they set off on a cross country journey together to pull off a Big Con (holy shit !!!! title reference !!!) and go from locale to locale stealing and grifting their way into riches.
this is where we get into the gameplay. generally speaking, you'll enter a new area and be given a blanket goal, usually in the form of some money threshold to reach. achieve it, and you can talk to your partner and move on. essentially every npc can be pickpocketed, performed by holding down a button until the oscillating arrow lands in the shrinking zone on a pop-up UI. it's a simple, timing-based minigame that scales proportionally to the amount of money on the mark, but it gets old quickly thanks to how frequently you'll need to steal shit. to the game's credit, there is an accessibility option to completely disable the pickpocket minigame, though i never used it. you walk around, talk, and eavesdrop on people to gain information that is automatically added to your journal kept in your fanny pack. it tracks your goals, as well as exploitable characteristics of people that you can use to your advantage in conversation to con people out of their money. overheard someone's anniversary date and learn that their bags are sitting unattended in the lobby of the hotel? hop on over there and use the date as the combo for the luggage! shit like that, basically.
a lot of this sounds like it could be pretty cool and as though it may have a lot of depth, but in practice, i don't really think it does. after a while, the gameplay feels pretty one-note and almost pointless. it got to the point that it felt like i was wasting my time every time i actually engaged in the core mechanics, which isn't a good sign to me. although i felt it eventually devolved into chore territory, it's still a goofy little time. conversations take place on a very 90's background and Ali frequently makes jokes about literally everything that happens. is it hit or miss? yeah! is the game extremely camp? yeah! there's a fucking option in the settings to enable a laugh track. Ali frequently hallucinates a talking bedsheet-ghost (Rad Ghost) who constantly reminds her not to do drugs and functions as a hint system of sorts. that's a silly little concept! the story is predictable, yet it's strangely comforting with how dedicated it is to pulling off the vibe of a 90's teen adventure flick. it hits so many common narrative beats of the genre. there's a little bit of minorly gay content (wahoo!), and it's extremely casual and normalized, which makes me happy.
overall, this game is pretty silly and lighthearted. it's nothing too special, but if you're looking for a silly little 90's con movie-like experience without a deep plot, this could be a good fit. maybe i woulda enjoyed it a little more if i was actually alive and conscious during the 90's, but that's just like my fucking bad i guess. oops!
(story premise spoilers ahead)
essentially, you're a teenager named Alison (goes by Ali) who plays the trombone and lives alone with her mom in a "mom-and-daught" video store. every year, Ali goes to band camp to work towards her mom's dream of her getting into a prestigious arts university. however, the eve before she leaves, she learns her mom is being extorted by a gangster of sorts for approximately $97k, and if they can't pay it off, they're completely fucked and will be bought out by a chain video store. taking it upon herself to gather the funds, she takes to the streets and quickly meets a con artist named Ted, who claims he has the solution to her money problems and becomes a mentor of sorts teaching her how to pickpocket and get extra change out of cashiers and such. they set off on a cross country journey together to pull off a Big Con (holy shit !!!! title reference !!!) and go from locale to locale stealing and grifting their way into riches.
this is where we get into the gameplay. generally speaking, you'll enter a new area and be given a blanket goal, usually in the form of some money threshold to reach. achieve it, and you can talk to your partner and move on. essentially every npc can be pickpocketed, performed by holding down a button until the oscillating arrow lands in the shrinking zone on a pop-up UI. it's a simple, timing-based minigame that scales proportionally to the amount of money on the mark, but it gets old quickly thanks to how frequently you'll need to steal shit. to the game's credit, there is an accessibility option to completely disable the pickpocket minigame, though i never used it. you walk around, talk, and eavesdrop on people to gain information that is automatically added to your journal kept in your fanny pack. it tracks your goals, as well as exploitable characteristics of people that you can use to your advantage in conversation to con people out of their money. overheard someone's anniversary date and learn that their bags are sitting unattended in the lobby of the hotel? hop on over there and use the date as the combo for the luggage! shit like that, basically.
a lot of this sounds like it could be pretty cool and as though it may have a lot of depth, but in practice, i don't really think it does. after a while, the gameplay feels pretty one-note and almost pointless. it got to the point that it felt like i was wasting my time every time i actually engaged in the core mechanics, which isn't a good sign to me. although i felt it eventually devolved into chore territory, it's still a goofy little time. conversations take place on a very 90's background and Ali frequently makes jokes about literally everything that happens. is it hit or miss? yeah! is the game extremely camp? yeah! there's a fucking option in the settings to enable a laugh track. Ali frequently hallucinates a talking bedsheet-ghost (Rad Ghost) who constantly reminds her not to do drugs and functions as a hint system of sorts. that's a silly little concept! the story is predictable, yet it's strangely comforting with how dedicated it is to pulling off the vibe of a 90's teen adventure flick. it hits so many common narrative beats of the genre. there's a little bit of minorly gay content (wahoo!), and it's extremely casual and normalized, which makes me happy.
overall, this game is pretty silly and lighthearted. it's nothing too special, but if you're looking for a silly little 90's con movie-like experience without a deep plot, this could be a good fit. maybe i woulda enjoyed it a little more if i was actually alive and conscious during the 90's, but that's just like my fucking bad i guess. oops!