I'm opening this review with a controversial statement that might make you raise an eyebrow in conjunction with my high rating- Just hear me out when I say this:
Time Bandit is not a game.
This isn't an expression of gatekeeping, however, nor is it a dogwhistle. It's also not a superlative praise, or a delusion - Time Bandit is a video game in the sense it uses the format's inner workings, language, conventions and aesthetics - not to mention quoting and referencing a number of games. I don't draw this line to discredit-
I draw this line because Time Bandit breaks the boundary of games with its mechanics and narrative design.
When Time Bandit reached over and grabbed at my spare time; when it made me set real-world alarms and estimate the travel time of routes to and from the virtual workplace to my virtual apartment; when it gave me very little to no instruction and withheld instruction in the sour tone of an entitled boss' snark when I accidentally chose a less subordinate dialogue option during the tutorial; when, for wrongly doing a job you only just got into, it sues the audience's virtual avatar, which lands them in a realistically timed prison cell;
When Time Bandit did all of that, it broke out of the medium. Time Bandit, to me, is the video game equivalent of a brawl breaking out between the opposing teams in a baseball stadium; a magic circle - a forthcoming contract of collaboration to the end of entertainment - broken.
Time Bandit is well-written, and well-designed. It does what it sets out to do beautifully. I felt as though transferred back to my call center job in 2017, where I would deliriously calculate my wage vs. the money spent on food and transport; the time in my day vs. the time spent walking to and from work.
Time Bandit is like your real-life job, and just as thankless.
And while it's an achievement to portray this experience in a manner that both captures the inherent abuse of capitalism and harshly criticises it - an achievement I can't help but applaud! - I find it difficult to recommend or unambiguously laud a game that makes its point in a manner so similar to its object of criticism that it is, in a few respects, indistinguishable from it.
If we go for a low blow, I would even point out that unlike real world jobs, Time Bandit doesn't pay you for your trouble. Though this veers into further discussion that logically leads to "the whole of capitalism is a scam", and breaks the bounds of a review.
In the end, I can't help but to show great respect for this game - its vision, its execution, its message. The entire thing is viciously reactive to player action; I will be playing its continuations.
Time Bandit is not a game.
This isn't an expression of gatekeeping, however, nor is it a dogwhistle. It's also not a superlative praise, or a delusion - Time Bandit is a video game in the sense it uses the format's inner workings, language, conventions and aesthetics - not to mention quoting and referencing a number of games. I don't draw this line to discredit-
I draw this line because Time Bandit breaks the boundary of games with its mechanics and narrative design.
When Time Bandit reached over and grabbed at my spare time; when it made me set real-world alarms and estimate the travel time of routes to and from the virtual workplace to my virtual apartment; when it gave me very little to no instruction and withheld instruction in the sour tone of an entitled boss' snark when I accidentally chose a less subordinate dialogue option during the tutorial; when, for wrongly doing a job you only just got into, it sues the audience's virtual avatar, which lands them in a realistically timed prison cell;
When Time Bandit did all of that, it broke out of the medium. Time Bandit, to me, is the video game equivalent of a brawl breaking out between the opposing teams in a baseball stadium; a magic circle - a forthcoming contract of collaboration to the end of entertainment - broken.
Time Bandit is well-written, and well-designed. It does what it sets out to do beautifully. I felt as though transferred back to my call center job in 2017, where I would deliriously calculate my wage vs. the money spent on food and transport; the time in my day vs. the time spent walking to and from work.
Time Bandit is like your real-life job, and just as thankless.
And while it's an achievement to portray this experience in a manner that both captures the inherent abuse of capitalism and harshly criticises it - an achievement I can't help but applaud! - I find it difficult to recommend or unambiguously laud a game that makes its point in a manner so similar to its object of criticism that it is, in a few respects, indistinguishable from it.
If we go for a low blow, I would even point out that unlike real world jobs, Time Bandit doesn't pay you for your trouble. Though this veers into further discussion that logically leads to "the whole of capitalism is a scam", and breaks the bounds of a review.
In the end, I can't help but to show great respect for this game - its vision, its execution, its message. The entire thing is viciously reactive to player action; I will be playing its continuations.