I once wrote up a long winded review about this game that went off to point of hardly being relevant to the game in question. Now after a long time of writing other reviews and having this game out of my mind, with its notable art style, it's paper please-esque dynamic of having to determine the fates of people with their lives up to this point reduced to paper work on your desk you have little choice but to sort through, its plot about nihilism and the potential of humanity. I think now I have the ability to say about this game what I've really wanted to say all this time.

Shit's mid as hell and doesn't actually say much of worth, thanks for listening, bye.

In concept this game has you make a lot of difficult choices, which should lead to a really interesting overall experience, but in practice I found it kind of hard to see how your choices mattered. I could tell that broadly obeying or disobeying had some kind of overall effect, but the individual choices didn't seem to change much, something that I think was sort of inherently implied by the premise.

The interactions with Fate and the cat were decently entertaining, and like I said the general concept is pretty good, so I didn't hate the game, but there was a definite lull in the middle where my enjoyment waned a bit. (The narrative did start to pick up again at the very end, thankfully.)

The soundtrack was good though.

Death and Taxes - A Review

“Your job is to decide which people are going to live or die”

Do you see how powerful that line is?

It was hard to resist a game based on this concept because I was curious to witness its impact on the player, the only word which constantly repeated itself in my head was, ‘consequences.’

Death & Taxes banks on the player’s own ability to think, decipher, act, and simultaneously makes one question every single choice made during its duration - this was fascinating in itself.

And if you’re anything like me with a penchant for thinking more than needed, then I guarantee this game poses a certain kind of potential to give you a minor identity crisis - your thought processes, the what, why, and how, and so much more. It begins revealing the grey areas around social conditioning and challenges your perception of morals.

Eventually, you realise that consequences are consequences. The ‘good’ and ‘bad’ doesn’t really matter, they’re just labels. For example, when I first started, I did all my duties diligently, delivered according to the given tasks at hand, and enjoyed the process a bunch. Without getting into specifics, this attitude didn’t translate into the positive results I was hoping for, rather quite the opposite. Therefore, my next phase consisted of trusting my own thinking and instinct, which yielded more fruitful results, even if not entirely.

Unique routes, lovely atmosphere, quirky art, intriguing characters, and sharp writing. Its repetitive nature may get bothersome for few but I am pleased with its conceptual strength. I believe the potential to explore this further is boundless!

Favourite moments - Loved organising my desk with every single item purchased, had a blast engaging with all the characters but in particular Fate, and at times, I'd love getting on his nerves because, why not?

Fun little experience, inclined to revisit during an existential episode. It’s a positive in my books, cool discovery!

Death and Taxes has large aspirations, but doesn't really have the confidence to see them through. It (unashamedly, considering the direct reference) bears a very similar resemblance to Papers, Please (hereby referred to as "PP" since it will probably be brought up a lot) in it's gameplay and narrative, but doesn't reach the same potential in a lot of ways.

I'll start with the gameplay, since there isn't much to speak of. You get a list of requirements unique to each day, and a list of papers you need to file in congruence with those said requirements. For the first few days this does have some light puzzle solving elements, but very quickly it derails itself to try and pull on heartstrings instead. By the halfway point, days start going by quicker than the cutscenes, and it's not much better for it.

That's because the writing is not very good. Like it's inspiration, Death and Taxes tries to make your mundane busywork into an emotionally and morally complex story, but unlike PP it fails for a couple reasons. I'll try my best to avoid direct PP comparisons.

My main problem is the sheer disconnect, since in D&T you're working literally from the top of an ivory tower, completely detached from every person you sentence to death. As the game goes on the world supposedly gets worse, but you literally cannot see it outside of maybe the sky sprite changing to different shades. Your actions have almost no consequence, so there is absolutely no reason to do anything but what you're told, considering that gives you (equally useless) money.

My other problem is the main character: Fate. That's not who you play as, but your character has effectively no personality since dialogue trees will always be the same and could possibly involve your character randomly spouting "I like ice cream." No, Fate is the character you refer to throughout the game that routinely either scolds you for following instructions or for not following instructions, seemingly at random. He has a character arc, I suppose, but it's not particularly compelling or interesting. Without spoiling too much, he essentially progessively builds up the courage to say "fuck it," leaving you with your thumb in your ass with the game smugly saying "wow, don't YOU feel like an asshole."

That's kinda my biggest problem with it. It feels like it has an idea, and at times in the early hours I could feel at least a bit of tough decisions being made, but it tries so hard to look smart without really having the confidence to say anything. Despite all that, though, it is charming and I have a hard time saying I actually hate it.

Also the credits are framed as the "Live or Die" paperwork you file throughout the game and I really wonder if the devs keep track of who kills and spares them

I found it really interesting, but the system is too inaccessible for replayability. Days are too similar to each other and a lot of trial and error is required to get specific endings. Two out of like 4 or 5 of the playthroughs were really enjoyable, being the ones where I got a really bad ending and another where I got a pretty good ending. It can occasionally be really insightful during some dialogue with Fate or your conscious, but still lacks enough unique events for how much time they want you to spend in the game.

You are a newly created reaper office drone handling the "daily" paperwork to decide who lives and dies by reading short details about their life, while working for a boss who has grown tired of existence while sometimes leaving his cat in charge of things, and while occasionally meeting colleagues in the bar after work. Somewhat light hearted Papers Please, you need to maintain daily death numbers in general to prevent being fired but have more freedom and money is just used to buy drinks, cosmetics, or items to give more details on how people effect the world. The world can be in a good or bad state in regards to peace, economy, medicine, and the environment based on your choices. It's a short and more often funny game, you can get different endings and discover some new things based on your choices but there isn't a large amount going on, a new game + mode gives you some new conversation options and allows you to keep items and for some of your bought items to remember the positive and negative effects allowing someone to live or die will have on the world. Choosing who lives and dies is often a bit arbitrary, outside of whether or not you are trying to follow certain orders, as it is difficult to tell what exactly will happen if someone lives or dies. The death of someone might see large donations to their cause or a cause in their name, an old lady who seems to just want to continue her hobby in robotics might be making a death dealing robot. As entertaining as the characters you meet in the bar can be, you only talk to each of them once and most days the bar isn't even open.

Well voice acted.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1414897387538165770