This review contains spoilers
If only I had more time. We all go through time, not really thinking about it before it's already too late. Eventually, your time will run out, and it will all be lost.
You walk through same-looking offices with a sledgehammer, tasked with exterminating all vermin. These vermin take the shape of office furniture, but "out of place".
As you go on, the office twists, it no longer functions normally. No matter how many vermin you exterminate, their numbers keep increasing. Your job was impossible from the start.
The office is the body of the main character, and you are fighting cancer. A lifetime of cigarettes have finally caught up to you. No matter how well you do, you're too slow. Nothing is good enough, because your time has already run out.
The main character's desperation gets more and more clear as time moves on, and you see his body decaying in front of you. He is holding on for dear life. The "No Smoking" signs scattered around the office halls increase in numbers for every level, despite your ashtray only collecting more and more ash, to the point where it overflows near the end. You keep smoking, despite trying to fight the cancer.
You know what it is doing to you, but you keep going. The host makes jokes about how he knew this would happen, his mother died the same way. It is a gruesome experience seeing the character go from somewhat hopeful, to angry nothing is working, to eventually giving up and accepting the gravity of the situation. By the time you're at the end, you have twisted so much you are no longer human.
This is the type of storytelling that can only be done through a video game. This wouldn't work in any other medium, whether it is a movie or a book. There is something special about letting the player discover things by doing, not necessarily by showing and telling.
In the end, it tells a very human story. We all have habits that are slowly killing us, whether it is cigarettes or something else. We know deep down that if we stop, we can live a healthier life, a better life. But there is something so good about our bad habit, so we keep going. We go through time, not thinking about it. We feel immortal, but suddenly it is too late. You've run out of time. It's over.
You walk through same-looking offices with a sledgehammer, tasked with exterminating all vermin. These vermin take the shape of office furniture, but "out of place".
As you go on, the office twists, it no longer functions normally. No matter how many vermin you exterminate, their numbers keep increasing. Your job was impossible from the start.
The office is the body of the main character, and you are fighting cancer. A lifetime of cigarettes have finally caught up to you. No matter how well you do, you're too slow. Nothing is good enough, because your time has already run out.
The main character's desperation gets more and more clear as time moves on, and you see his body decaying in front of you. He is holding on for dear life. The "No Smoking" signs scattered around the office halls increase in numbers for every level, despite your ashtray only collecting more and more ash, to the point where it overflows near the end. You keep smoking, despite trying to fight the cancer.
You know what it is doing to you, but you keep going. The host makes jokes about how he knew this would happen, his mother died the same way. It is a gruesome experience seeing the character go from somewhat hopeful, to angry nothing is working, to eventually giving up and accepting the gravity of the situation. By the time you're at the end, you have twisted so much you are no longer human.
This is the type of storytelling that can only be done through a video game. This wouldn't work in any other medium, whether it is a movie or a book. There is something special about letting the player discover things by doing, not necessarily by showing and telling.
In the end, it tells a very human story. We all have habits that are slowly killing us, whether it is cigarettes or something else. We know deep down that if we stop, we can live a healthier life, a better life. But there is something so good about our bad habit, so we keep going. We go through time, not thinking about it. We feel immortal, but suddenly it is too late. You've run out of time. It's over.