I've seen people compare supermarket shopping in pandemic conditions to Metal Gear Solid; rounding blind right-angled corners, desperately avoiding an enemy customer's cone of vision, trying alternate routes to the item pickups and objective markers (my local Tesco Express is basically like playing on European Extreme) but the Pac-Man comparison works better - other shoppers as erratic ghosts with seemingly no artificial intelligence, going wherever the hell they please, chasing you in and out of aisles into areas you didn't really wanna end up in, no way to stand still for more than a split-second.

I love that there are no hard rules or fail conditions for coming into contact with other shoppers in this game - it has happened to us all, no matter how hard we try. Some of these grannies just really wanna breathe on you, I guess, despite the fact their life bars are way shorter. Cutting the narrative fat around this and giving the main 'game' portion some A/V sparkle would make this the first legit worthwhile bit of 'COVID Art' I've seen.

Reviewed on Feb 18, 2021


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