This review contains spoilers
Adios is a narrative adventure game (or what the kids would call a "walking simulator") developed by a game developer named Mischief. I don't really know much about this game's history in the slightest, all I personally know is that I either ran into a Youtube playthrough one day or a friend of mine wishlisted it and it said "Disposed of bodies for the mob" and I instantly got giddy and wishlisted it as I love playing games with guys like Paulie and Joey as they eat fettuccine and beat up guys while wearing see through socks and track suits. That being said, this is not that game. In fact I'm going to go out of my way to tell you the gameplay here, as I said it's a "Walking simulator", you go around your farm doing chores and conversating about life with your mafia handler and so you do a lot of walking and clicking on stuff. Personally for me, I was okay with that because primarily it's a story game and it's a game whose themes really resonated in some ways for me.
The story goes like this, as stated in the steam store page, you play a Pig Farmer who doesn't want to dispose of bodies and feed the meat to his pigs anymore; all your reasons for doing this arrangement are now gone and you're left with the inevitability of what's to come: regrets and death, something we all will have to come to grasps with eventually in our lives. What follows is you and your mob buddy going around your farm and doing activities such as milking goats, shoveling s h i t, playing horseshoes and more as he tries to convince you not to sever ties. One thing I like about this game is how convincing the relationship between the handler and the farmer; they have a professional relationship and yet they respect each other and joke around, and it upsets him that he won't just continue their business together not only because it's convenient but that because you can't get out of your association with the mafia unless it's through the feds or death and for the farmer, he just wants to die anyways. His life has gone downhill, his wife died years ago (being put into a nursing home for Alzheimer's) and his son hates him (for the fact he put his wife in a nursing home); mix that in with mortality issues such as death and thoughts on religion, and just wanting there to be some positive end even if there's no sure way that it'll really work due to his past actions.
There were many scenes that were poignant to me, the two especially being the section called The Soda, where you discuss with your mob handler the meaning of hobbies, how they feel and what they mean to the protagonist, before ultimately segwaying into grief and how people often handle it by going into their escapist roots, a feeling that is all too relatable to me. But however, the most memorable would have to be when the father calls his son on the phone near the end of the story; throughout the game you were given multiple choice dialogue options in the way you respond to people, but when you call your son Bill and you have the harrowing talk about why they're strained, most of the dialogue options are blanked out, thoughts that the Farmer desperately wants to say to his son but doesn't feel like he can, another thing that's all too relatable with guilt, he had to do a lot of things he didn't want to do for what he viewed as the greater good and no matter what he will be judged for that. The Farmer isn't a perfect man, in many ways he reminds me of a lot of my father figures; he means well and tries his best, only taking up the job because he wanted to support his family; but ended up messing up a lot of his relationships along the way (not that it excuses their actions).
The story is something whose themes I'm not sure I could articulate fully without it actually being experienced as the writing REALLY does it's job well and made me empathize with all the characters in game, each having things that I can identify with in a sense (minus the whole mob shooting people thing of course). The voice acting is phenomenal too, Resident Evil fans will recognize D.C. Douglas (of Albert Wesker fame EDIT: didn’t know he was a creeper too, the things you learn off the internet) as your handler but Rick Zieff is the highlight with his farmer, whose voice carries a lot of weight as he shifts emotional tones trying to strike these tough conversations with people, a tone that embodies the character of someone who wishes he did better, something to me that's identifiable.
I guess to finish off the review, the graphics the usual indie graphics affair, (the most I could really notice is that the Handler walks kind of funny to me personally), but the design of the farm where you live captures the Early 90s country farm feeling. Everything looks beautiful, but empty; alone, like the Farmer himself. It's a short game, you could complete it in an hour and a half to two if you're going for all the achievements and what I will say here is that the price for this game personally to me is a bit high at 18 dollars but I guess the value is up to the player themselves, as to others the game's handling of themes could more than make up the price and I wouldn't blame them as I'd also recommend plaything through the game multiple times to really digest it emotionally but to me but to me, I'd say wait for a sale.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
The story goes like this, as stated in the steam store page, you play a Pig Farmer who doesn't want to dispose of bodies and feed the meat to his pigs anymore; all your reasons for doing this arrangement are now gone and you're left with the inevitability of what's to come: regrets and death, something we all will have to come to grasps with eventually in our lives. What follows is you and your mob buddy going around your farm and doing activities such as milking goats, shoveling s h i t, playing horseshoes and more as he tries to convince you not to sever ties. One thing I like about this game is how convincing the relationship between the handler and the farmer; they have a professional relationship and yet they respect each other and joke around, and it upsets him that he won't just continue their business together not only because it's convenient but that because you can't get out of your association with the mafia unless it's through the feds or death and for the farmer, he just wants to die anyways. His life has gone downhill, his wife died years ago (being put into a nursing home for Alzheimer's) and his son hates him (for the fact he put his wife in a nursing home); mix that in with mortality issues such as death and thoughts on religion, and just wanting there to be some positive end even if there's no sure way that it'll really work due to his past actions.
There were many scenes that were poignant to me, the two especially being the section called The Soda, where you discuss with your mob handler the meaning of hobbies, how they feel and what they mean to the protagonist, before ultimately segwaying into grief and how people often handle it by going into their escapist roots, a feeling that is all too relatable to me. But however, the most memorable would have to be when the father calls his son on the phone near the end of the story; throughout the game you were given multiple choice dialogue options in the way you respond to people, but when you call your son Bill and you have the harrowing talk about why they're strained, most of the dialogue options are blanked out, thoughts that the Farmer desperately wants to say to his son but doesn't feel like he can, another thing that's all too relatable with guilt, he had to do a lot of things he didn't want to do for what he viewed as the greater good and no matter what he will be judged for that. The Farmer isn't a perfect man, in many ways he reminds me of a lot of my father figures; he means well and tries his best, only taking up the job because he wanted to support his family; but ended up messing up a lot of his relationships along the way (not that it excuses their actions).
The story is something whose themes I'm not sure I could articulate fully without it actually being experienced as the writing REALLY does it's job well and made me empathize with all the characters in game, each having things that I can identify with in a sense (minus the whole mob shooting people thing of course). The voice acting is phenomenal too, Resident Evil fans will recognize D.C. Douglas (of Albert Wesker fame EDIT: didn’t know he was a creeper too, the things you learn off the internet) as your handler but Rick Zieff is the highlight with his farmer, whose voice carries a lot of weight as he shifts emotional tones trying to strike these tough conversations with people, a tone that embodies the character of someone who wishes he did better, something to me that's identifiable.
I guess to finish off the review, the graphics the usual indie graphics affair, (the most I could really notice is that the Handler walks kind of funny to me personally), but the design of the farm where you live captures the Early 90s country farm feeling. Everything looks beautiful, but empty; alone, like the Farmer himself. It's a short game, you could complete it in an hour and a half to two if you're going for all the achievements and what I will say here is that the price for this game personally to me is a bit high at 18 dollars but I guess the value is up to the player themselves, as to others the game's handling of themes could more than make up the price and I wouldn't blame them as I'd also recommend plaything through the game multiple times to really digest it emotionally but to me but to me, I'd say wait for a sale.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/