A Mortician's Tale (2017)

This was something that I had heard about and when it was included in that monstrous itchi.io bundle, I was excited to give it a play through.

I don't know that I'd even call this a game. But what it was, was an interesting experience.

You follow Charlie and it's less about her, and more about the funeral business you're in.

It's a quick play and interesting. You can tell the developer had something they wanted to say about culture and death, and about businesses. There were so many little touches that made it worth playing.

~David.

Maybe it's because I grew up going to the funeral home where my grandmother worked, or maybe it's because Six Feet Under is my favorite TV show of all-time, but after looking over the titles in itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, A Mortician's Tale was one of the most intriguing to me.

A Mortician's Tale puts the player in the position of embalming and cremating the dead for funeral services, first for a mom-and-pop funeral home, then for a major funeral corporation. As the mortician Charlie, most of what you learn about this character is seen through e-mails, either with your coworkers or from your best friend in London. In a relatively short amount of time, the player can put together quite a bit of what Charlie's life is like that we don't see in the preparation area. Even though Charlie never talks, we get to understand her frustrations, her interests and her various relationships. A Mortician's Tale does a nice job of filling us in on Charlie's story, without trying too hard.

While I really enjoyed my brief time with A Mortician's Tale, I kept waiting for the game to open up to allow more player freedom. The preparation of the bodies follows a very Trauma Center-ish design, and I was hoping that eventually the game would allow me to handle the cremation or embalming by myself, without giving me step-by-step details on how to handle each new body.

But A Mortician's Tale also has moments that feel like they're begging for some amount of choice that the player just isn't given. With one body, the deceased wanted to be cremated, yet the family demands that they have an open casket ceremony. I would've loved the option to do what I thought was the right thing. Later on in the game, a new boss tells Charlie that she needs to upsell new intakes, but instead of allowing for me to be a part of that process, I'm instead later chided for not successfully upselling. I get that A Mortician's Tale has a specific story that it wants to tell, but I almost wish the game allowed the player to be more active in the parts of this job that we weren't privy to.

At the very end SPOILER Charlie becomes the owner of her own funeral home, which I hoped would allow for more freedom. I imagined we might get to be more active in the funeral process, maybe helping the new intakes decide what would be best for the deceased. I imagined this shift would open up a whole new world of opportunities for where this game could be. But instead, A Mortician's Tale comes to an end soon after, concluding the very scripted story without allowing for any real output from myself.

As much as I liked A Mortician's Tale, I couldn't help but want more from it. I was shocked when the game came to an abrupt end, and I wish there were more opportunities where the game evolved and advanced the story of Charlie. The larger narrative going on grows, as does the importance of Charlie's job, yet what the player is asked to do remains largely the same. This game could've at the very least expanded its core cremation/embalming mechanic beyond the end of the game. I really like what Laundry Bear Games sets up here, but I would've loved to have more. There's so much room for advancement and improvement, I hope this isn't the last we see of what A Mortician's Tale could be.

A Mortician's Tale is a short, simple, modestly interactive story about working at a Mom & Pop funeral parlor during troubled times. The visual style is approachable and coherent, the subject matter is unique, and I learned some things about the death industry I didn't know before.

I think this is probably the sort of game where what you get out of it has a lot to do with what you bring into it. If its story and themes deeply resonate with you, A Mortician's Tale gives you ample room to occupy with your own personal experience. But if its scenarios are merely interesting to you, you'll likely walk away feeling that it's a tad under-realized.

(Note: I purchased this game, along with hundreds more, as part of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. It's an amazing value supporting a great cause, and it ends in three days at the time of this writing.)