Recommended by GoufyGoggs as part of this list:
Okay, bear with me, this is going to sound really dumb:
Beaker/Razor/Axe/Stealth Bomber/Mushroom Cloud/Coffin/…Vampire Teeth?
By the end of my time with Wilmot’s Warehouse these were the strange bits of logic that covered the walls and made up the weird, jutting islands of the store- trying to find any way of categorizing the potpourri left on the loading dock each shift. Some of these connections were reasonable, (boxing gloves and golf balls are, at least, sports-related) but I found the only way I could keep everything ordered enough to meet the deliveries was to make these sorts of nonsense equations, trying to find a story in all the chaos.
Easy enough early on, but near the end of the game I could feel my mind straining to remember where certain items were placed, as I had been forced to find space even when it might mess with whatever methodology I had dreamed up to tie everything together. In that sense, it’s a remarkably introspective puzzle game, trying to find a balance between your perceived order of the world and the practical realities of the warehouse.
It can grow a bit tiresome though; it took me about seven hours to reach the ending, the game never deviating from the structure of three sets of timed shipments before giving you a stock break as a breather, a chance to reorganize the warehouse. I spent most of my playthrough bracing for catastrophe, waiting for the little helper bot to breakdown, for Wilmot to come down with a cold and move around more slowly, or perhaps most terrifyingly of all: to clock in, and see your carefully curated warehouse rearranged- anything that might speak to the mundane annoyances of an actual job and offer some new factors to consider while organizing.
There are flashes of this throughout with the narrative, your boss “rewarding” you with motivational posters and going on holiday, while you dutifully continue to work- and of course, there’s the ending, where you’re unceremoniously fired and replaced by a fleet of worker robots, Wilmot’s efforts continuing to go unacknowledged even here, noticeably absent from the kaleidoscopic credits sequence.
These scenes compliment the gameplay well, but they can feel a little sporadic, mostly consisting of C.J. occasionally popping in and giving you another poster as a reward for hitting a milestone. Otherwise, play well enough, and you’re free to rearrange the warehouse as you see fit and take as many tea breaks as you like, your boss mostly fading into the background.
Again, I think there were some missed opportunities to explore these issues and lend the gameplay some additional variety- one scenario that came to mind was being asked for multiple bulk shipments during the same shift, encouraged to over-exert Wilmot as you scrambled to meet the deadline and avoid getting your pay docked; Would’ve probably taken away from the Zen-like atmosphere of the game, but might’ve made the satire cut a little deeper.
I’ve been harsh on this, but I genuinely liked it- a game-long puzzle where most of the difficulty will come about from how you process the world. But I also was left with the feeling that there was a great deal left unsaid, and I look forward to seeing other developers use this particular framework to more thoroughly scrutinize and critique the systems around us.
—
Timelapse, for those interested: https://youtu.be/czWbok253zI
Okay, bear with me, this is going to sound really dumb:
Beaker/Razor/Axe/Stealth Bomber/Mushroom Cloud/Coffin/…Vampire Teeth?
By the end of my time with Wilmot’s Warehouse these were the strange bits of logic that covered the walls and made up the weird, jutting islands of the store- trying to find any way of categorizing the potpourri left on the loading dock each shift. Some of these connections were reasonable, (boxing gloves and golf balls are, at least, sports-related) but I found the only way I could keep everything ordered enough to meet the deliveries was to make these sorts of nonsense equations, trying to find a story in all the chaos.
Easy enough early on, but near the end of the game I could feel my mind straining to remember where certain items were placed, as I had been forced to find space even when it might mess with whatever methodology I had dreamed up to tie everything together. In that sense, it’s a remarkably introspective puzzle game, trying to find a balance between your perceived order of the world and the practical realities of the warehouse.
It can grow a bit tiresome though; it took me about seven hours to reach the ending, the game never deviating from the structure of three sets of timed shipments before giving you a stock break as a breather, a chance to reorganize the warehouse. I spent most of my playthrough bracing for catastrophe, waiting for the little helper bot to breakdown, for Wilmot to come down with a cold and move around more slowly, or perhaps most terrifyingly of all: to clock in, and see your carefully curated warehouse rearranged- anything that might speak to the mundane annoyances of an actual job and offer some new factors to consider while organizing.
There are flashes of this throughout with the narrative, your boss “rewarding” you with motivational posters and going on holiday, while you dutifully continue to work- and of course, there’s the ending, where you’re unceremoniously fired and replaced by a fleet of worker robots, Wilmot’s efforts continuing to go unacknowledged even here, noticeably absent from the kaleidoscopic credits sequence.
These scenes compliment the gameplay well, but they can feel a little sporadic, mostly consisting of C.J. occasionally popping in and giving you another poster as a reward for hitting a milestone. Otherwise, play well enough, and you’re free to rearrange the warehouse as you see fit and take as many tea breaks as you like, your boss mostly fading into the background.
Again, I think there were some missed opportunities to explore these issues and lend the gameplay some additional variety- one scenario that came to mind was being asked for multiple bulk shipments during the same shift, encouraged to over-exert Wilmot as you scrambled to meet the deadline and avoid getting your pay docked; Would’ve probably taken away from the Zen-like atmosphere of the game, but might’ve made the satire cut a little deeper.
I’ve been harsh on this, but I genuinely liked it- a game-long puzzle where most of the difficulty will come about from how you process the world. But I also was left with the feeling that there was a great deal left unsaid, and I look forward to seeing other developers use this particular framework to more thoroughly scrutinize and critique the systems around us.
—
Timelapse, for those interested: https://youtu.be/czWbok253zI
2 Comments
Thank you! I read some interviews with the developer, and the sense I got was that it was conceived of as organization game first, with the satire coming later- something that would inform the experience, but not the focus of it.
Erato_Heti
2 years ago
Yeah I felt right about the same on the lack of direct interference, I think a good one might have been if occasionally, your boss talked shit over the megaphone or something. Or if you more clearly saw how much the Boss was making over you. Small irritations stacked up like that would have gone a long way. There's a bit of dissonance on the whole zen organizer mixed w/ capitalist satire bit, but the base game mechanics that r there r extremely enjoyable, especially locking 10 items and trying to dodge around your own mess with them properly.