i played a ton of this as a teenager and i still think there's the heart of something interesting in its rampage-baiting concept. i wish that it lived up to the premise - where you could theoretically play it thru 100% peacefully, just doing normal chores, but the game is trying to irritate you into snapping - but unfortunately that premise falls apart real quick (a no-kill run is technically possible, but only by sprinting past all the mandatory combat or pissing on people). unfortunately it's basically a game for smug american fascists.

putting this alongside the Saw movies as a game which tells you a ton about america in the 00s, and is worth thinking critically about from that angle, but not much more.

Reviewed on Mar 20, 2021


1 Comment


2 years ago

You can beat the base game without killing anyone pretty easily (did it on Very Hard difficulty on my first run). Granted, it does require pissing on people, but I say that that's definitely much more morally justified than shooting people.

It all falls apart during the Apocalypse Weekend, because that expansion was shit and destroyed anything good the base game had.

For the best experience, I'd personally recommend playing the base game and skipping Apocalypse Weekend entirely... you could do the game a favour and cut Apocalypse Weekend out of the review to increase the rating (as I did).