I beat this last night, and noticed there weren't any threads about it. It's a pretty neat rpg-style adventure game set in modern times. Choice is a big part of the game and I was honestly really impressed with the breadth of these choices, particularly in the first area. The game really tickles my nostalgia for the story telling in old 16 bit games, even if the setting and story are completely different. It's pretty refreshing to play a game about a struggling author and his failed relationship.

So is anyone else checking this out? Which characters did you pick? How's your story unfolding?

So each of the characters have different stories? That's neat.

Is it as dark as the trailer makes it seem?

@theht: I believe the story is the same, but depending on which character you choose you may be treated differently by certain people for your gender, ethnicity, or the person you're with (whether because you are an interracial couple, a gay couple or what have you). Basically like Dragon Age Origins. The choices you have are varied enough that you could get some pretty different stories out of any given playthrough though.

Honestly the trailer made me worry that it was going to be super grimdark, and it's really not so much. It can be occasionally dark, but it's just as often kind of goofy.

I picked it up and really want to play it, but my I'm trying to get into the right mindset before playing it. The problem I have before even booting it up, is I know I'm going to approach it like a game. I'm going to want to see everything I can see and explore my choices in a way that isn't really possible in real life. I feel like to get the most out of a game like this you need to try and make real choices, rather than game the choices.

Like, on UPF when they played and Brad ran into the guy wanting a sandwich. In real life, if I had 13 dollars to my name I wouldn't give the guy anything, but my video game brain says that of course you should give the guy a sandwich. I mean, it is a game, so approaching it like one to some degree makes some sense(I assume there's some sort of consequence for not giving him the sandwich), but I'm not sure where the happy middle is.

@yi_orange: I think in Always Sometimes Monsters you might have less trouble with this, because it's not really designed in the same way games like this typically are. In games with moral choices there are often consequences for doing the wrong thing, and long term rewards for doing what's right, but in this, things could just as easily go the other way (and that's when the morality of the situation is clear, which it often is not.) So you really won't get anything out of trying to game the system. It's more about trying to get through the story without feeling like a total asshole along the way. For example, I gave that guy a sandwich and got nothing for it. When I talked to him again he asked for another one. I probably gave that guy like 4 sandwiches while I was in the first area and nothing ever came of it.

Also thanks for mentioning that it was on UPF, I didn't think they'd done anything with this game.

I stopped at about day 27. It bills it self as a game with inclusivity (Be whatever gender/sex/sexuality you want!), but really it's incredibly limited in that aspect, you can't be whatever sexuality you want because it forces a dumb plot line of "your lover is leaving you" down your throat, but if you just don't find relationships interesting at all there is no option for you.

Then it forces it's very specific characters, because they decided they hadto give every player character one of those super ugly portraits. I think the better option would have been to give no one portraits honestly, the sprite art is cute, and the portraits are just out of place and at total contrast and odds with that idea. Instead I think they should have done what Elona does and given you hell of sprite options and pick all your preferences from a drop down (Elona by the way, still the king of life simulation games.)

And finally, it's forced plot lines and character past stuff irritates me. You drop me in the world, and I'm supposed to care about this characters lover leaving them? I'm supposed to care they can't pay their rent when it's their own decisions and not mine that got them in that position? This character is a writer? I can't sympathize with any of this. I have no history with these characters and I couldn't give a damn about any of them one way or the other .

@neonie: It sounds like your problem with this game has little to do with the game itself, and more to do with your expectations for what the game should have been. And hey if the advertising made it seem like something different to you, and it ended up not being your cup of tea then that's a perfectly reasonable explanation for not liking it. But I don't think this was ever supposed to be a life simulation game, it's an adventure game that happens to be set in something close to real life. A lot of your problems would have been fixed by not including a main narrative at all, but at that point, it's just a completely different kind of game.

They gave you just about every option when it comes to who you pick as a lover, I don't think it's fair to call it limited at all (there are 12 options), though it's true that "nobody' is not an option, because the lover is one of the few things that the narrative hinges on. And if they weren't involved in the narrative, then what's the point of even letting you pick someone at all? To be fair they actually give you plenty of opportunities to make it clear you are no longer interested in the lover, and then let the player puzzle out the point of this trip on their own. The story is just as much about the MC's career as his past relationship, he could just be a writer using the wedding as an excuse to live a story worth telling. That's largely how my game turned out at least.

As for the portraits, I agree that some of them are ugly, but I like a lot of them too. Personally I'd just prefer if they were a little more consistent, I wouldn't want them to do away with them entirely.

You should play The Novelist!

Anyway, the game seemed neat on Unprofessional Fridays. I'd like to try it.

I saw it on UPF and was turned off to it. It seemed really boring.

I have it on my steam wishlist so I will try it eventually, though. I have an open mind about these thing, but my initial impression is one of tedium.

@jjweatherman said:

I can see that game has sick mustaches. I may have to give it a shot.

I got to play the game after seeing it on UPF, but I had to stop because there is a bug in the current build that doesn't let you use the firewood for the Statler-and-Waldorf-looking old men in the third city. It's a bit disappointing how the character options are basically limited to gender and ethnicity and how rough the game is in general.. I keep accidentally choosing the first option as I go through the dialogue, and it's really jarring when you don't get to make a choice regarding a situation for no reason (like when you have to accept the mayor of Beaton's job to rig the election if you talk to him), but the story I'm getting is enjoyable so far. Reminds me a bit of playing To The Moon.

Is it expected to miss a couple of the journal pages when you move between cities, by the way? I hope I'm not missing out on anything just because the game didn't give me the option to write on the bus/car.

Saw Brad play it on UPF and it looked interesting. The soundtrack was awesome. Tempted to pick it up, but Watchdogs is tomorrow and I've still NG+ of Transistor to get through.

@audiobusting: I had the exact same problem with choices, and it was pretty annoying. I had to train myself to go through the dialogue slightly slower. There are certainly some rough spots, but after I learned it was made by a couple dudes in RPG Maker I was willing to forgive that to a certain extent. Also I believe that even though you're pressured into going to City Hall either way, you are able to leave once you get there. So you do get the choice, eventually, but I agree it should've been up front. I wouldn't worry about the journal pages as long as you record them every night that you have the option, that's what I did and it worked out fine. I never even considered how the ending would play out if you didn't record in the journal. I wonder if anybody's tried that yet.

Does this game get any better? I'm on day...2 maybe. The publisher guy hooked me up with a quick job at the daily news. That part.

So far I've ran into a couple of false choices like at the very beginning I shot the guy. Then I needed to sign the contract.

I was also not excited when the game opened up into an old school rpg. 'You need to get money. Now get X from Y and maybe they'll give Z which you can then trade in for money!.' It just very much feels like someone's first game.

I guess there's the living food to mouth theme but it seems like Cartlife is a much better game that explores that theme. So yeah, does it get any better? Am I missing something? Also, is it very long? If it's short I might just blaze through it to see what the fuss is about.

Yeah, I'm with you completely. I played it months ago so my memory is a little fuzzy about specifics, but I thought this game was just badly written, plain and simple. The people in Cart Life actually talk like actual people with actual problems, where the people in this game talk like this:

Every character in this game talks like they're a kid in a G.I. Joe PSA, a second before Wild Bill and Snow Job burst through the door to give them a life lesson about something.

@dudeglove@kevin_cogneto Thanks guys. I think my tastes fall more in line with yours than the people who put this game on their game of the year lists. I bought it on a sale but I don't think I'll continue on with it since, from what you've said, it doesn't seem to get better. The game rubbed me the wrong way as soon as I shot the guy in the beginning and it just restarted the game. Then when you choose your characters and it says something like 'are these those heroes?' I clicked 'no'. Apparently it was asking me if I wanted to choose different characters and I had to go through that sequence again. It really does feel like this is their first game and it probably is one of them. Hopefully they polish their next game up a bit.

@kevin_cogneto: Yeah I remember that part being really weird too. I ended up playing that part really honestly and followed the guy into the bathroom to make sure he wasn't taking drugs and that saved this a bit...But yeah...no real world experience of the subject matter from the writer.

@kevin_cogneto: @dudeglove: @izzygraze: So this is the part where I talk shit about a game I've never played, but man, based on that UPF segment, I really wasn't interested in what this game is putting down. I'm willing to forgive somebody's first (or second) game if it's a little buggy or the mechanics are totally mediocre and uninspired. But if you've barely written any games before, maybe don't dive into the deep end in terms of trying to write something like Always Sometimes Monsters. For comparison:

• I think it was pretty nuts that Gearbox had Anthony Burch's first games writing project be Borderlands 2. As much as he had comedy writing experience from basically doing sketch comedy internet shorts with his sister for quite a few years, he had no video game writing experience, which requires like THOUSANDS more words than putting out like 10-20 internet shorts each year. Games writing takes practice, and starting off big (either in a big game like Borderlands 2, or in pretty dramatic subject material like Always Sometimes Monsters) seems like a mistake.
• On a similar note, Gone Home wasn't exactly the first writing experience for the people at The Fullbright Company. They tackled that storyline (and overall gameplay experience) after years of experience in the games industry.
• OK, but counterpoint, Cart Life is Richard Hofmeier's first game. I guess the general exception is that you can pull it off as long as you're a pretty fucking solid writer, and it seems like Hofmeier is. Apparently he also drew great inspiration from (the apparently rather successful) Modern Living, a work by a Dutch cartoonist, perhaps giving Hofmeier at least a framework for how to portray those kinds of mundane events in a believable way. If Always Sometimes Monsters was drawing inspiration from any well written works on similar topics, from what you guys are saying, it doesn't sound like they were up to the task of writing this game in a non-irritating way.

I definitely agree with @dudeglove that this is not a good game. I could not get over the fact that everyone in the game acts and speaks like a live-in-a-bubble 20 year old who only (mis-)understands the world as a strange caricatured microcosm of itself and absolutely no real-world experience to go on.

Almost every character's motivations, manner of speaking, and actions were so out-of-step; and the game so quickly devolves into silly contrived RPG "now do this dumb shit to earn money to go to the next town" actions; that it never even scrapes at actually portraying a realistic scenario like it's been purported of having.

I found the actual "goal" of the game to be totally silly. You are newly homeless and unemployed but still decide to run across the country to try to get back a lost love who has completely gotten over you and is getting on with the next stage of their life. How exactly do you think that will turn out? Yes, exactly that.

The wrapper around the main narrative (the hired killer & mob boss) is just stupid and unnecessary. There is also a choice you can make near the end-game that completely breaks the narrative here: Spoiler One character asks you to go to Vegas for the bachelorette party and if you do not go, you have absolutely no idea what the entire storyline with the mob boss & killer even IS.

...

Wow... after finishing the game I told my wife it was "not a great game, but whatever" but when I reflect back on it... man, I guess I have a more "fuck this game" opinion on it than I thought!

@dudeglove: Yes, I had the same thing happen as in your spoiler. It was stupid. Especially when, in my game, Sam then invites you to spend all their money in Vegas (no strings attached, all the past stuff is just water under the bridge?!) and then when I said "no fucking way am I doing that", the end "reveal" that Sam got murdered meant ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO ME because I did not know what the fuck they were talking about.

Like you, I saw little bits of promise; and then I slogged through the game hoping to see more of that promise realized. I actually liked the part where (in my game at least) my character took the union job at the second town and literally walked boxes left to right until I got tired of it and quit. That sort of thing showed me the devs were actually trying to show how shitty life can be for someone a bit down on their luck, grabbing any opportunity that shows itself.

Well I don't disagree with any of you, but I think the problems you guys had bothered me a whole lot less. It's super rough, but I enjoyed their ideas enough to appreciate the game anyways.