{"id":8875,"date":"2021-03-17T13:43:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playlab.uta.fi\/?p=8875"},"modified":"2021-03-17T13:43:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:43:33","slug":"not-your-typical-office-job-death-and-taxes-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/not-your-typical-office-job-death-and-taxes-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Your Typical Office Job: Death and Taxes Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing in life is certain, except for death and taxes. In this narrative 2D puzzle game by Estonian indie developer Placeholder
\nGameworks, you get to play as Grim Reaper, starting your thirty-day trainee program at a desk job in Human Department. Your task?
\nFill in the quotas of demise and decide who gets to live or die. Your boss? No other than Fate itself (and occasionally his sinister cat
\nLady Pawdington). Whether you\u2019re going to wreak havoc by killing indiscriminately or try to bring prosperity to the world by saving
\nthe ones making a world a better place is up to you. Still, you\u2019d better follow Fate\u2019s instructions if you want praise in your daily
\nperformance reviews.<\/p>\n

You spend the workday reading profiles of people on Earth, sealing their fate by checking a box with your doom marker. Or you can
\nreorganize your desk, scroll through your phone to check out what events your previous decisions have caused, and fidget with your
\nfidget spinner until it catches fire, if you\u2019re feeling particularly procrastinative. After work, you can visit a shop to buy new desk
\ndecorations or snazzy new outfits with your hard-earned coin. During the weekends, there\u2019s a possibility to let loose a little. Head down
\nto the office bar and mingle with the co-workers, a diverse bunch of creatures working in other departments of this odd, bureaucratic
\nafterlife.<\/p>\n

\"Photos<\/a>
photo 1. Unlocking new looks adds novelty, even if you can’t see your character most of the time<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Death and Taxes has beautiful, hand-painted-looking graphics, witty writing, and a group of talented voice actors for a fully voice-acted
\nNPC cast. The gameplay is simple and reminds me of visual novel games; all that there is to do is read files and have conversations
\nwith NPCs. Still, it is oddly addicting. The events you can set in motion on Earth with your decisions are revealed bit by bit through
\nscrolling through your phone\u2019s news feed and through new profile files that end up on your desk.<\/p>\n

Depending on how long you ponder how to fill your daily quotas of death, and whether or not to listen to your boss\u2019s requests that
\nseem more ridiculous each passing day, a single playthrough lasts around three hours. It\u2019s easy to pick up and fun to revisit: the replay
\nvalue is high. The storyline is branching and has multiple different endings. For people who are into that stuff, there are many achievements to
\nunlock as well through different dialogue options taken and decisions made in each playthrough.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
photo 2. Desk gets filled with paperwork and clutter fast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The absurd setting mixing monotonous office job and (literally) matters of life and death, dry gallows humor, and generally light
\noverall mood still give room to existential and philosophical questions about free will, the fragility of life, and the meaning of death.
\nThe team of Placeholder Gameworks has created a piece of art that takes a sensitive theme without offending or preaching, letting a
\nplayer engage with these themes on a level they feel comfortable. So put on your suit and begin your trainee program in the Human
\nDepartment, Death Spawn.<\/p>\n

Developer: Placeholder Gameworks.
\nPublisher: Placeholder Gameworks
\nPlatforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch
\nRelease: February 20, 2020, September 10, 2020 (Nintendo Switch)
\nGenre: Puzzle, simulation
\nPegi: N\/A<\/p>\n

photos: screenshots from the game, taken by the author<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who gets to decide who lives and who dies? In this 2D narrative puzzle game you play as a fresh-faced Death, merely responsible for the fate of all of humankind. Fill the paperwork, save the world. Possibilities are endless. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":8879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1026,556,225,264,354,352],"class_list":["post-8875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-choice","tag-english","tag-indie","tag-puzzle","tag-single-player","tag-visual-novel","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}