Life: the game of chance (2017)

-- Part of my Itch.io Bundle Project - Attempting to play and rate every game in the 2020 Bundle for Racial Justice --

• Rating: 1.5 / 10
• Year played: 2020
• Playtime: <5 mins
• Completion level: Any%, saw ending
• Verdict: Don't bother

Ehhh. It has like 3 different scenarios depending on which race you roll at the beginning, after which you get to make a few yes/no choices, and then you die and can start over. A run takes like, 20 seconds.

They were clearly aiming to make some kind of social commentary here but it falls flat and severely lacks nuance. I guess you can excuse it a bit because it was a gamejam game, but I'm here to rate things for their merits, so this is the rating it gets.

There is basically nothing to do in this game. There are maybe 1-2 choices for the player to make before the game generates a whole life story from birth to death. At that point, I might as well go read a short story instead of playing a game.

It's also very preachy - I had my character get an abortion when she accidentally got pregnant and I had to confirm at least 5 times to actually do it. Her mom was saying no. Her friends were saying no. Her tennis coach was talking about how much he liked being a father. Her doctor was saying not to do it. Ugh. Not to mention the mandatory blurb at the end saying how we should be compassionate to others and that life doesn't have to be a game of chance.