I think it was Roger Ebert who said that all art should be judged not solely on one's personal impression but on how succesful it was at achieving its aims. In which case, I guess the game should be congratulated on recreating the crushing boring monotony of the 9-5 Work Week.

And thats the thing though, it really is a mostly boring game about a dull person who's perfectly content with their soulcrushingly boring life. Now obviously creating a disconnect between player and player character is not a new concept and can be played with for effect, but I struggle to think of a player character I despise more than this dull son of a bitch, content to do everything the same day in day out, never hangs out with anyone or does anything interesting with their life. The other characters have some interesting qualities to them I suppose and I got a chuckle out of some of the dialogue but I was just craving for something, anything to happen for most of it. Yes, I know we're going for a slow pacing to make it more effective when it gets upended but Jesus Christ! In the words of Yahtzee Croshaw "It could only be a slower boil if you were holding a cigarette lighter under a swimming pool".

Adding to the character disconnect (also interesting touch that there are always 4 floors shown but only the 2 relevant floor buttons are usable cause the protagonist is such a meek automaton that they wouldnt dare do something as dangerously subversive as getting off on the wrong floor!) when we finally get to the point where everything breaks down into nightmare world, the protagonist seems visibly shaken and uncomfortable and meanwhile Im going "Oh fuck yes, give it to me! Oh stop complaining you dullard, this lynchian nightmare is the best thing that has happened to your utterly banal existence".

Finally the game becomes an actual adventure game, with fairly lame puzzles but Ill take them frankly. Not sure about the imagery here though, you go through a theatre, a gym, a computer room, hotel entrance, and some other nondescript rooms. I guess those places are supposed to convey sort of the feeling of social anxiety? As they are usually associated with stage fright, people who feel seen at the gym etc. Idk. Im also not entirely sure if there is an implication of it all being a computer simulation (presumably one to test how to most efficiently train the most boring person alive).

You would think, that the pacing problems would end after we get to the meat and potatoes of the reality warping stuff but even the Lynchian stuff goes on too long for my tastes. I would have spaced out the sessions but this game has no sodding save function for some reason! And look, Ive done a bit of gamedev myself and know that everything is a massive pain in the ass but surely a save function seems like a pretty vital thing to code as a first priority.

In conclusion Commonplace is the kind of game that I enjoy talking about much more than playing, It goes on for too long even though its rather short. It does seem like the kind of thing meant for replays to analyze its contents but given the whole save thing and the absolute glacial pace of the gameplay I doubt I will be revisiting it soon. I guess it was free, and at least it wasnt bland, so silver Linings.

Edit : Addendum - I must say, a few hours after finishing it, I must say I felt a slight catharsis from the experience, perhaps because of the intense boredom, although I think praising the game for this is like putting on a coat in the desert so you can feel all cool when you take it off. Oh well, I will note it here anyways