Games Journo Story

Games Journo is a short game about an aspiring (read: dreaming) game journalist visiting an expo to meet the people and get somewhere. Maybe.
It is riddled with swearing, slang, lyric games and lots of social commentary.

It has a certain intriguing charm to it, which was fairly appalling to me at the same time. It plays a lot with the dream to do what you enjoy and want in life, versus the need to do hard work first and foremost.


Check. Wait a second ..

You are travelling with your friend, who is both rich in hidden wisdom, but who is mainly a dick. Abandoning you whenever he gets upset or caught up in more interesting things - he seems to still care, so you may wonder whether that is simply his attitude.

You start out on the bus, travelling to London. Go to the bar, to the expo, to the bar again and then travel back.
There is little gameplay to be had, as it is centering solely on the story.

The environments as well as the people are constantly making fun of your character, even starting with your hygiene. Your attempts to get to know people are ignored and you end up drowning yourself in alcohol to say a few things.

At the same time, there are many references to riots, youth standing up for themselves (both in good and bad ways) as well as silly references to different games and genres. Like the Sitting Down Simulator, Space Funeral, and Things Explode 2: Things Are Still Exploding.
There is also a reviewing game where you select the way you want to review things, and may actually win people over. Maybe. Which is apparantly also the crucial factor to decide what ending you will get.


Life's tough.

With this much of a strange mix, the experience ends up being mainly depressing in the way the atmosphere is created - with the low music, with your character being constantly looked down upon for both good and bad reasons.

Not being into the music genre and ignoring most lyrics for most of my life as well, the lyrics game presented throughout the game again and again did little for me. It was only a nice little diversion.

The graphics are a weird mix of RTP with edited portraits, which (if not for the pitch-black facial expressions) look pretty neat. Your main character stands out by the custom charset alone, making him "uglier" and weirder on purpose.
The bar is pretty damn large with only a few things in it, the bus is a make-do map, but the expo hall is very reasonably sized. With many games to enjoy or not enjoy.
It comes down to an interesting, but not outstanding mix, and works for what it does.

The music is an interesting mix of known tunes (namely Young Folks), some traditional or stylish irish music.
Strangely, the choice in the bar sounds too light and too quiet for the environment, while the bus had no music at all - making the areas you spend a lot time in the least interesting.
The title screen music "Stretch that Penny" is the one I enjoyed the most and which seemed to fit the overall experience best as well.


It is all about struggling, about failing and a small heads-up after.

This game is an interesting ride and those who find constant swearing and accents funny should definitely give it a go. I found it to be a rather depressing experience overall.