Hello again it's me Clara and I'm back to talk about some weird stuff that only I care about. Let's talk about Thronglets.

Thronglets is a tie-in game to the Black Mirror show. Developed by Night School, it follows the storyline of the Plaything (and to a certain extent Bandersnatch) episodes, putting you in posession of an abandoned piece of software that, apparently, is capable of achieving sentience. It's very hard to describe this game, as it doesn't really follow one genre. While the description claims it's a pet simulator, I think it's best described as a tycoon game with low-idle vibes... that ultimately turns out to be a personality test? Again, it's really weird, but I'm into it.

In Thronglets, you come across an early copy of an unreleased life simulation game developed by Tuckersoft. This game was misteriously cancelled back in the 90s, but now that it's in your possession, it's your job to raise and care for these funny little creatures, and give them the chance nobody else had given them.

You get to feed, bathe, and play with these little creatures, called Thronglets. If they're being properly taken care of, they'll eventually duplicate, growing your community and giving you even more little guys to take care of. But don't worry! You'll also be unlocking upgrades and buildings to help you with this.

At first it may seem you're only doing this to help them survive, but you'll soon realize that they're also able to learn and adapt to their environments. They'll ask lots of questions, and learn from you and the things you teach them, with their dialogues and reactions changing to reflect this. As they slowly become smarter, their objectives will also become... a bit more complex.

The game is split into multiple different levels, with your objective changing in each one. Sometimes you'll help them expand their territory, and other times you'll help them gather resources. Whatever the case may be, it's always up to you to ensure The Throng's survival, and to help them become the best versions of themselves.

Unfortunately, it's very easy for the game to spiral out of control. The amount of Thronglets you have to take care of in later levels is simply ridiculous. Couple that with the fact that every level introduces new tasks and mechanics, and it'll become almost impossible to keep these guys from dying. This part of the game, to the point where the game will incentivizes you to kill and make use of their deaths to help the community grow. Deaths like these don't matter in the long run, but I don't know, something about being unable to actually keep your town healthy and alive makes the experience somewhat annoying.

I don't really know how I feel about the story. If you only play the game, I think the it's good enough, but you'll be missing some of the overall context from the Netflix show. However, the story told in the game diverts from the show quite a bit, introducing many factors that just weren't a thing in the original, and leaving you with a sort of alternate universe where all the plotlines don't really fit together. I still think it's a fine story, but it's very messy.

The game also features the Ritman Retrospective, a series of unlockable documentary segments detailing the in-universe development history of the game. They're really nice, but feel more like bonuses to the show rather than the game, and not gonna lie, the fact that they're unlocked by scanning QR Codes in promotional material is actually pretty stupid.

Presentation-wise, I think the game looks really good! The sprites and animations for all the characters are super simple, but fit very nicely in the story the game tries to tell. Some of the later-game sprites do end up becoming more complex, which I'm not too fond of. I'm also not too into some of the UI decisions, but they look good anyway, it's mostly due to personal preference.

Unfortunately, as this is basically a mobile idle game, I spent most of my time playing without any sound. However, the parts I heard of the music are all really good. Most of it follows the same leitmotif, adapting it to each situation you can find yourself in, and really conveys the feeling of a new civilization of cute critters trying to survive and expand.

In conclusion: While it feels confused with its own identity at times, I still think Thronglets is a good game. Raising your own civilization is a lot of fun, and even if the game drops the ball at times with the mechanics it introduces or changes, I wouldn't say I had a bad time at any point during the experience. It's on mobile and only a couple hours long, so definitely give this a chance if you're interested, especiall if you're a Black Mirror fan. 7/10