Take As Needed

[quote]A review copy was provided by the developer.[/quote] [quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote] [h1]Overall Rating - Unplayable Trash ☆☆☆☆☆[/h1] [h1]First Impressions[/h1] I don't have much interest in visual novels (VN), but because of my background in mental health, Take As Needed (TAN) was more compelling to me than most. The thought of juggling issues of morality, patient care, and coworker relationships was intriguing. With the game including so many factors, I thought it might be too complicated and convoluted for its own good. Only one way to find out. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] As the game started, I was confused as to why I was lingering in the guy's residence. However, since I could, I engaged in basic self-care: shaving, making the bed, and getting ready for work. After heading out the door the game started more as I expected, working in an office setting, though each day it'd allow me to tidy up first. This leads into my main issue with TAN, and it's that the developers don't clearly convey information to the player. Are there any consequences to this, or am I locked in my own gamer OCD? Frankly, if that was my only complaint, I wouldn't bring this up. However, I ran into a glitch rather early on. Your main objective and bulk of the gameplay revolves around matching chemical compounds together. Each has their own features, and based on what the client wants, you'll have to include some of them by default. Arranging them just so, and figuring out how to set it up efficiently is where the puzzle comes in. Over the first couple of days, I was breezing through these, with the game stopping me after I'd finish four. I figure this is so you don't progress further than you should, as they'll only have so many puzzles and combinations for you to work out. Makes sense. Until I was told to incorporate immunosuppressant into my formula. The problem being, that wasn't a choice for any of my chemicals, and nothing I did worked. With no other options, I decided to wait out the clock for the day to end, unable to cancel the contract or do anything else. Having done nothing while waiting for minutes, and the in-game clock showing 10:00 PM, I determined the game was broken, because if this employee hadn't gone home by this point, would it ever figure out I was stuck? I wasn't going to wait any longer on the off chance the game would work if I waited until 3:00 AM. Not when I can't even work on a puzzle because it's broken. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2884196354 [h1]Controls[/h1] TAN was made with a greater emphasis on point and click mechanics than I expected, but it didn't make a huge difference ultimately. The mouse seemed to interact with the game as it should have. Something I found annoying is that I kept having to click my mouse to advance the text, as it wouldn't progress if I hit return or space like it would in most games with a lot of reading. [h1]Story[/h1] This was to be the main selling-point of TAN, but I didn't get far enough into it to find out how it develops. It starts you off post-crisis, and conversation choices allowed you to either be more snarky or upbeat. The only person I chose to be rude to was a former college chum who broke journalistic ethics to ask me about the company I work for. While pressuring me on the idea that I, as a lower-level employee, had anything to do with high drug prices. Sure, the greedy executives who put their own lifestyles over people's well-being will take my input seriously. Might as well blame the attendant at the gas station for high gas prices while you're at it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2884196224 [h1]Visuals[/h1] I know drawing people isn't easy, but the character portraits weren't good looking. That's important in a game emphasizing story and relationships, especially when you're stuck looking at them so much. Plus, it overlooked basic details, because even though I was shaving each morning, my character portrait at work was shown with a few days worth of scruff. Why program the option of shaving if it gets completely overlooked like that? [h1]Sound Design[/h1] Since I was twiddling my thumbs waiting for the in-game clock to pass by, I intentionally listened to the music that was playing. It'd load in and change when one song was finished, so I'm glad to know it doesn't just endlessly loop the same song. The style and tone wasn't very consistent though, as I found one song kind of spooky sounding, while another seemed a bit somber. I appreciate that the themes of TAN are fairly serious, but this didn't set a mood that made me particularly thoughtful. Just a bit confused if anything. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2884196597 [h1]Pros[/h1] 🌟 Even if the tone was set to be more pessimistic, dialogues choices allowed me to guide my character in a more optimistic direction. 🌟 It's a novel idea for a game, and was more interactive than I was initially afraid of. [h1]Cons[/h1] ❌ TAN lacks features I'd expect from a point and click game. For instance, when zoomed in somewhere I can interact with the environment, most games would either allow you to back out by right-clicking or show an arrow for where to click in order to back out of the area. ❌ After getting the game onto Steam, the developers haven't interacted with any of the discussion boards, posted news, or made any updates. This is a problem because one person posted an issue with the game not working, and got zero response. [h1]Tips[/h1] 🔍 From what I experienced, the game doesn't work properly, so I wouldn't offer advice on how to play it. Even though I was getting decent at the puzzles, if I do say so myself. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] Coming across a glitch so early in the game really irked me. TAN caught my interest, but after experiencing it for myself, I was already finding some design choices a bit odd, but I thought it was going to work at least. Seemingly, other people have had more success with the game, so I'm glad for them, but I've got other things to do than try and fiddle with a game its own developers don't care about. If I'd paid for it, I'd be refunding it, so I obviously don't recommend it. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [table] [tr] [th]PC Specs[/th] [th]Performance[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ryzen 2700 RTX 2070 16GB RAM ADATA SSD 1920x1080 [/td] [td]I quit the game because it seemingly doesn't work right. 🌡️ - TAN is a bit sickly. [/td] [/tr] [/table]

Set in a dystopian world, "Take As Needed" has a "Papers, Please" vibe. You are a chemical engineer developing new pharmaceuticals at Mazer. At the end of the day, you're graded by how well you perform in combining compounds to design formulas that meet three criteria: Reach the minimum/maximum price, use a certain amount of a particular compound, all without going over the maximum volatility. Different color strands, open or closed, play a part in raising and lowering the volatility for each formula. The price of the compounds go up each time they are used. There's a narrative story, where you make choices at home and in the office. The artwork is hauntingly beautiful and fits the mood perfectly. The heart of the game is an innovative puzzle that changes each time you play. It procedurally-generates new requirements which are your goals to create formulas. It takes a lot of thought and balance to achieve the correct result. Though you are given the freedom to solve it any way you like. "Take As Needed" is very original and challenging to play.

The molecule building mechanics and the procedural generation of molecule goals is awesome and makes for a really challenging and fun puzzle solving game.

I was a beta-tester for this game and it's incredible! The mechanics are simple to learn but hard to master, the story turns out to be super interesting, and the dialog / tiny details about the world are really funny and satirical.