Apartment Story

extremely well done, Sims except you're afraid of getting murdered if you don't keep your stats up

It's three in the afternoon, I'm stoned, I'm hungry but I don't feel like cooking or cleaning. I pick up a slice of pizza off the floor and eat it. But enough about my life, I have some thoughts on this game to share. Short experimental game that is surprisingly affecting for how short and simple it is. A relatively mundane setting and set of verbs makes the moments of tension and violence feel that much more shocking. The visuals really bring it to life, every detail of the apartment exudes personality and the lighting is gorgeous. The devs have said they plan on releasing more shortform games like this and I'm excited to see what else they come up with.

A day in the life of Arthur: - Wake up. - Urinate for approximately 2 seconds. - Take a shower. - Prepare cereal on the chopping board (naked, because you forgot to put clothes on). - Write on the computer. - Look at explicit content on the computer. - Do…other stuff at the computer (tissues are there for a reason). - Smoke a joint with your roommate’s ex. - Discuss what to do with The Gun. Apartment Story is a short narrative-driven simulation game. Your character, Arthur, has recently lost his job, is drowning in debt, and struggling to find purpose in life. You must keep Arthur alive by making sure he eats, sleeps, goes to the bathroom, keeps his hygiene in check, and looks after his mental wellness using a sort of Sims-esque system of health bars. If these needs drag Arthur's Life bar down, it’s game over, so keeping them balanced is crucial (though not at all difficult). You control Arthur in 3rd person as he wanders around the apartment, using a targeting crosshair to highlight things you want him to interact with. Though all of the controls are a bit fiddly (picking multiple items up is particularly clumsy) and there’s a degree of jank to every element of the design, it somehow works with the low-poly aesthetics - plus the sheer volume of interactable “stuff” is impressive. The soundtrack is beautiful, composed of drifting electronic tracks from TRAAPS. There are several scenes of nudity and explicit content which feel somewhat gratuitous to me, but inoffensively so. At certain points, events will happen: the doorbell will ring, your phone will beep, or your electricity meter will cut out. What will you do? These choices feed the narrative, which is thrilling and completely believable. I swung between laughter and nail-biting tension as situations unfolded, desperate to make the “right” decisions. There are several ways your story can “end”, which makes for some replayability. All in all, I enjoyed this: it’s not perfect, but it is entertaining! (Notes: Works fine on Steamdeck. Multiple saves are not supported. Approx 2 hour run time. Well worth the asking price IMO.)

really well crafted experience. it's basically a narrative life sim with a great presentation. highly recommended!

very evocative

A well put together short story, I enjoyed some of the twists and turns, definitely worth a play for the price tag. It took me about 90 minutes to play through. I liked the perspectives involved in the story, and the use of the sim style gameplay placed in an older style looking game. I did spend ages cleaning the apartment and wish there was a few more achievements/trophies for doing things like eating the whole pizza or washing up or a certain laptop based activity etc, just to feel like it was worth stacking all my DVDs back. I did encounter a few bugs, the plate is turned upside when eating and not placed on the table. It would be lovely to see this game with a tiny bit more polish, some of the anims fixed up and the camera positions in a few places. I made a ham sandwich and then later combined spinach, mushroom, pepper for this also to result in a ham sandwich (lol). I also thought the screen blacking out for dialogue was unnecessary, they could just have the text appear while they gesture at each other like old PS2 games, that would fit pretty well and avoid us being drawn out of the scene :D Overall do recommend a playthrough, it's got its own charm for sure!

Enjoyable 2 hours! Essential playing for everyone who lived in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ flat above a shop in an unsavoury part of London...but..strangely when you look back.....where you had the most fun. :-)

Un véritable coup de coeur pour ce jeu! L'histoire est prenante, l'ambiance est excellente, le gameplay original, et on a toujours envie d'avancer pour connaître la suite! Gameplay FR : https://youtu.be/BtWERnqHMx8?si=DrmyGj7sA7Q1kDJi

The Sims expansion you've always dreamed about! Taking the dramatic moments to the next level! LOL. ok ok I jest, but this is actually a fun little Sims-like game. You play as Arthur, someone who was laid off a few weeks ago and has been holed up in his apartment everyday doing nothing. The game lets you play three days of his life. You control Arthur like a character in Sims, he can cook, take shower, use toilet, making coffee, watching pxrn on the computer, eating dinner while watching tv after shooting somebody. That last part is not in Sims but it sure as heck is in this game! Like I said, taking the dramatic moments to the max. There are character dialogue cutscenes that unfolds each day to tell the story between Arthur and other characters in the game. The game can be completed in about 90 minutes to 120 minutes. My first run I encountered a bug where the gun disappeared after cooking/eating meal, which eventually caused me getting a bad ending since my gun was gone. Had to replay the whole game. I was thinking about leaving a negative review because of this, but this game was really fun up to that particular point. So I'd still give this game a positive, recommended review. 2nd time playing the game since I knew what to do, the game could be completed with about 60 minutes. The trick of passing time faster is to tell Arthur watch pxrn on the computer all day, which makes him sleepy, and then he can go to bed, sleep, and the game time passes way faster that way. if you like this game, I recommend checking out "12 Minutes" Like I said, a wild little Sims-like, slice of life game. Recommended, 7.1/10

For most of the game your not doing anything and your just sitting around waiting for the next event to happen. The storys alright but thats not most of the game and overall the games mechanics can feel a bit clunky overall 4/10