tl;dr at the end of review.
I completed the game in a single sitting of almost 4h, and I'm writing this just as I finished my playthrough so the whole experience is still fresh in my mind.
As an interactive fiction, the game focuses on narrative and is comprised mostly of dialogues and choices, so the natural questions are: Is the plot engaging? Are the dialogues well written? Do your choices actually matter? Does it have a satisfying ending? The simple answer is no. There are better narrative games out there, save your time, get more bang for your buck. For most this is good enough, read on if you're interested in the nitty gritty.
The gist of the plot is exactly as described in the game's description: You take the role of an employee of a multinational corporation that discovers increasingly incriminating evidence about said corporation. So now you, a lone and hardworking employee, must balance your personal life, work life, professionalism and ethics as you suffer constant pressure in a conspiracy involving powerful people. This immediately got my attention as I found it to be a very interesting premise for a narrative game, and indeed the game does a decent job of placing the player in the shoes of the protagonist as they deal with lover drama, coworker drama, boss drama and even actual work. I was pleasantly surprised when a character suddenly started asking me questions during a meeting about a document I received some moments before. A document that I had promptly skimmed over thinking it uninteresting and unimportant. Putting me on the spot like that was unexpected but fun, and you can bet I paid more attention to work documents from then on. As I progressed the storyline, the protagonist was subjected to constant stress, gaslighting, harassment and pressure from all sides, which made me feel tense and very engaged in the plot. All in all the immersion is definitely there and it's easy to get in the game.
However, some of the text is written in a weird way or is out of place, likely a translation issue as the game was developed by a french studio, which detracts a little from the narrative experience. Adding to that, your choices are mostly about the way you phrase something you want to say instead of distinct, branching options, which can be great for roleplaying but not very useful as choices that actually serve a purpose. In fact, sometimes characters will reply the same thing to you no matter what you say, or even if you choose to stay silent. For some this is fine, for others, like me, it might be seen as lazy writing.
A very annoying aspect of the game is the in-game computer. When you're using your computer, you're expected to chat with coworkers, review work related documents and investigate your company. Every action you take costs time, which goes by unbelievably fast, so you barely have time to do anything. How time goes by so fast in an office job is beyond me. Worse still is that later into the game you don't have many things left to do, so now time doesn't pass at all. You have to force time to pass by repeating actions and doing useless things, which again detracts from the narrative experience.
The thing is, everything I mentioned until now is tolerable. This is an indie game, so some concessions are warranted. What I find to be absolutely unforgivable is that this game has one of the most unsatisfying endings I've ever seen in my life.
Ending spoilers below:
[spoiler]Out of 8 possibilities, I got what I presume to be one of the "good" endings, in the sense that the protagonist survives the whole ordeal, discloses the incriminating evidence and even gets a promotion in the corporation, which could be a chance to right wrongs and do good from the inside. But what of the corrupt boss, who always gaslighted our dear protagonist and commited an international crime, was she arrested or punished somehow? What of her coworkers, who shunned and harassed her at every turn, did they see the error of their ways and apologize or at least hung their heads in shame? What of the heroes that helped her expose the company's wrongdoings to the public, even despite the overwhelming risks? Were they applauded? Maybe given an award? What of her lover, who suffered and supported her while her mental health deteriorated, did these events bring them closer? Or did it all become too much and they went their separate ways? What of the diary she kept to vent her woes during her darkest moments, did it serve a purpose? Maybe she published it? I don't know, and neither will you, because the writers didn't bother writing a single line for all the characters they built from the ground up, or offer any sort of closure. If they don't care, why should we?[/spoiler]
tl;dr: ending is underwhelming, choices rarely matter, translation is rough at times. Experience is not worth the time or price, even on sale.
