Day 178 - Pager (Demo)
SPOOKY MONTH!, Walking Sim, Flappy Bird ·
Sam’s Take:
Pager is a simple game demo, where you get instructions on a pager, and follow them as best you can. Sometimes the person on the other side will play tricks on you, sometimes the instructions will be a riddle, sometimes navigating the space is the puzzle a-la Antichamber.
While it is a horror game, it plays more like a comedy game with creepy vibes. Luckily this all works in Pager’s favor, because I giggled multiple times playing the demo. Honestly I was trying to do a quick review today. I have some Friday plans, but I ended up pretty charmed by the office-core horror humor, and played through the whole thing. I even wishlisted the full game on Steam (partially because my character promised I would).
It’s a series of bite-sized horror-comedy set pieces all based around following mundane instructions that even in the short 20 minute demo got me to smile multiple times. Click it, play it, what the fuck else do you have to do?
Recommend:
Replay Percentage Chance: 70% if the full game releases before the end of this project.
Time Played: 20 Minutes
Skeeter’s Take:
Before I begin, I just want to take a second to shout out the person in the comments who replied “Funny” to their own joke.
Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time for business.
Initially, I was put off by the lack of choices in Pager. I was incorrectly approaching it from a “Stanley Parable” standpoint. Damnit, if the pager tells me to go right, you better believe I’m going left. I was disappointed there was no funny dialogue. I did find this cool fish room though:
Now is probably a good time to mention I wasn’t able to take a screenshot without the pager or menu up. When you are in the menu, your field of view shrinks to the tiny circle you see above. This review will be told through tiny circle glimpses into the full-screen Pager experience.
I promise those are fish.
Pager isn’t trying to be Stanley Parable though. Despite the disembodied individual giving you instructions and the office setting, it’s actually closer to a puzzle game.
Each floor requires you to achieve the task given to you from the pager - move a box, get a cup of coffee, etc. The twist is it all takes place in non-Euclidean spaces and rooms. Initially, I wasn’t really grasped by the whole concept. It was a lot of walking around simple spaces to get a quick joke. But then, I got a gun:
The next room had a bunch of people lined up on their knees like a firing line.
I’ll be honest. I don’t even remember what my task was supposed to be. I had a gun. That’s all that mattered. A primal impulse took over. The Dark Brotherhood quest line from Skyrim came flooding back. I’d been here before, in a cabin with Astrid looking down on me as I had to make a choice. A choice to kill.
I had already tread this water many times before. The doggy paddle was instinct at this point. I knew there was no correct decision. At the end of the day, a life was about to be lost.
I slowly walked toward the person on the very right. They had been chosen. There was no reason, there was only raw caveman instinct. I tried to steady my hand as my finger felt the resistance on the trigger. I took a deep breath and…*click. Nothing.
I was then met with a new message on my Pager.
The game had got me. I was a cold blooded killer and it was calling me out. While my hands managed to stay red that day thanks to the Virtual Boy Color Palette, they were free from blood. My conscience on the other hand weighed heavy, sagging under the weight of my 25 years of training on video game murder.
I wasn’t a killer, but I have the killer in me. That’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my virtual life.
Unfortunately, this also happened to be the last true level in the demo. There is a little post game area where you can eat butterflies, type on some computers, and generally dick around.
I guess the demo did what it was supposed to do. Left me wanting more.
In the end, I actually found Pager quite charming. It’s got its own sense of humor, doesn’t take things too seriously, and has some pretty fun ideas. Neat.
Recommend: yea
Replay Percentage Chance: Full game?
Time Played: 26 minutes
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