I feel really, really bad giving this game a thumbs down. At it's roots, I think I should love this. It has great writing, a cool aesthetic, an overt anti-capitalist message (a big thumbs up from from me), and an interesting central gimmick; it's a Sokoban-like block pusher, except it takes half an hour of real time to move each block. How novel!

But... Do you ever have an idea that sounds really great in theory, but in practice is awful?

This is a Sokoban-like block pusher, where it takes half an hour of real time to move each block.

This is the most prominent of multiple interlinked systems which all serve the same purpose; to make actually achieving anything in this game a frustrating and time-consuming experience. And, like, that's deliberate, let's be clear. from an artistic standpoint, 10/10, doing a great job. But I'm less than 3 hours in, and somehow it feels both like I've spent so, so much longer than that on the game, and that I've achieved so, so little in that time.

The worst bit is that, because of the nature of the block-pushing puzzles, doing the wrong thing, or even just not doing the most efficient thing, is far more punishing than it otherwise would be. Push a block the wrong way? Welp, in the best case, you're now going to waste an extra hour, and a day's in-game wages in fuel, on fixing your mistake, and it can be far more than that.

I get this is all intentional, but... For me, that doesn't really mean much. If you punch me in the groin, you don't get a pass because it's what you meant to do, punching me in the groin was the point. I'm still not going to recommend being punched in the groin.

As far as I know, the game does at some point unlock ways to ease this pain, cutting down the waiting time. I just don't have the time or patience to get that far. The capitalist hellscape this game is about, where most of your time is taken up on busywork for not enough pay with just a little free time before you need to sleep, is far too close to my actual reality to spend another minute booting this up in order to set my forklift going again.

I wish the devs well, I really do. I hope this game is selling great, and that they get to make Part 2 that maybe goes even harder than this one, and that it's received really well. But the question a Steam review is asking is a simple one; do I recommend it? And I don't. I can't imagine anyone I know giving it as much time as I did, let alone the amount it probably deserves. I'm judging this as a game, not a political statement, and as the former, I think I'd rather just play old-school Sokoban,

...I wonder if anyone's done a speedrun of this?