Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "Marx loves you. Do you believe in Marx?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Socialist or an Anarchist?" He said, "A Socialist." I said, "Me too! Democratic Socialist or actual Communist?" He said, "Actual Communist." I said, "Me too! What school?" He said, "Marxism." I said, "Me too! Revolutionary Marxism or Reformist Marxism?" He said, "Revolutionary Marxism." I said, "Me too! Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism or Revolutionary Marxism-Trotskyism?"

He said, "Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism." I said, "Me too! Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, or Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism-Hoxhaism?" He said, "Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism-Maoism." I said, "Me too! Regular Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism-Maoism or Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Gonzalo Thought?" He said, "Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Gonzalo Thought." I said, "Die liberal!" And I pushed him over.

The game tells a loose narrative of a totalitarian regime, where a simple office clerk overcomes inner turmoil and reflects upon his life, as he makes his way across his memories to deliver a message to the Queen of Ice.

The game utilises abstract imagery and loose, train-of-thought narration to immerse the player in the thoughts of the clerk, which seem to mostly be concerned with recollections of and reflections upon his past, as well as the world which he is surrounded in. This is, in my opinion, handled quite well, as the synthwave soundtrack and simplistic gameplay make it easy to let your imagination run wild and get lost in the future of 1994.

The aforementioned gameplay consists of the clerk automatically running forward, with the player able to turn the clerk in ninety-degree increments. The clerk gets faster with every turn, and as you run laps around the twisting layouts of the levels, the game can get quite challenging (particularly level 7).

The gameplay serves two main functions: firstly, it subtly showcases the main themes of the game, about how the clerk is running in circles, in his reflections and thought processes. Secondly, the difficulty helps define tension, and let the player know how urgent the task of delivering the message is, and with what difficulty this task is accomplished, without having to put the player through needless exposition. Indeed, the clerk's ever-increasing running speed essentially defines the game, both from a narrative, as well as a gameplay perspective.

The character of the "simplest office clerk" is generally rather loosely defined, with descriptions of his apparent TV addiction and lost love being scattered across the narration. Hence, the main defining thing about the clerk is his ever-increasing speed and urgency, as he tries to win his "inner fight" and deliver the message to the Queen of Ice, which is essentially the focus of his existence.

Overall, this game is much larger than the sum of its parts, and I feel like its presentation and overall composition inspire both awe and creativity. I was not expecting to get so engrossed and so touched by such a short, simple piece, but I am happy to have been so pleasantly surprised. Considering how short and how cheap the game is (as well as the fact that you probably got it in the Bundle for Ukraine on itch.io), I would certainly recommend that everyone gives this game a shot.