Errand Run
Sophia Zhao
You have $20, and you have to do the grocery shopping. It’s a short game, but I found the way you had to balance what you needed against what you wanted to be surprisingly compelling, and the different endings were interesting the way they took the very small input of ‘what you end up spending money on’ and extrapolated wildly, but not completely unbelievably. There’s one ending in particular I’d like to talk about, so spoiler blurs up…
Ha, right, OK, the first paragraph is of course total BS, but my first version of this review started off “I really liked the twist!” and then I realized that even knowing that there is a twist would spoil the game too much. I don’t suppose anyone else wants to organize people to make fake one-paragraph reviews for this game, followed by a spoiler-blurred real review? Job’s open if you want it. And if you clicked on this paragraph but haven’t played the game, don’t click on the next paragraph! Just go play it; it really is 15 minutes max, and the twist really is good.
At any rate, this is basically a one-joke game where the joke is the twist, but I felt it was exactly the right size and scope to pull it off. The first time I got weird text I figured (obviously) something was off, but I thought it was going to be something personal/psychological. Then you get enough more information to realize, no, it’s just another post-apocalypse game; surprise! And then you get more information and it’s not another nuclear or climate apocalypse! Instead it’s… the Christian Rapture apocalypse? And then, wait, not even that, but something else? Aliens, maybe? Who knows, the game is done! You’re just a scared kid who’s gone a little crazy and everyone you know is dead, and you’ll never know any more! Which itself is basically yet another joke, and instead of laughing you’re now creeped out. Well done, game.
Here’s my real two-question section: Did the author have anything to say? Lead you down the primrose path a few times, dribbling bread crumbs of backstory to keep you following them before finally cackling and disappearing around a corner. Did I have anything to do? Make wrong assumptions and have them subverted. And now, back to the fake review!
Did the author have anything to say? An interesting think-piece on the future implications of current scarcity.
Did I have anything to do? Make a few choices, and watch them play out in interesting and believable ways.