CART LIFE

Most of the time, the term refers to survival in the player sets apocalyptic hordes of zombies or a desert and inhospitable defeat to stay alive earth. Déosmrias must be added to these environments images of a small American town, Georgetown, overgrown with shoppers and street vendors. In Cart Life, survival is reduced to its simplest definition, namely bosser hard enough to earn a crust and not end up under a bridge to die of starvation. Here, no cannibals in charge packet of twelve or tigers fantasy to push with a torch fortune: the conquest of the American dream is our only goal and disillusion the most formidable enemies are. The game has been out for quite a while, but its nomation the IGF Awards gave us wanted to test it. Duly noted.

GRAY AND BLACK

With its 8-bit grayscale graphics, its chiptune music and friendly interface as a tax return, Cart Life raises the tone from the outset is not there to make us laugh. This austerity is not the only one to preserve the shape and remember our good memories through the characters of the heroes journey worthy of Balzac or Zola. That is to say, beings unique and sadly mundane time with their past, their injuries and their projects, as six billion souls around them. Andrus is a Ukrainian leaving behind years of turmoil and his homeland to start a new life in the United States as a newsboy. Without a base, it is accompanied only by his cat, Mr. Glembovski and will start his new life by finding a place to sleep. Melanie in turn is going through a divorce and had to leave her office job to start selling coffee. Alongside her new job, she must also deal with her daughter Laura, and prove to the court that she can earn enough money only to get custody of her children.

Not really anything out party favors and languages ​​stepmother, and it is not likely to improve with the tasks that we are offered. For the sake of realism, the actors are subject to the natural laws of this world. During the day, hunger will be felt on several occasions, and it will have to satisfy in order to continue working. And the approach of night, sleep begins to weigh heavily on our mood, forcing us to stop our activities to better take in the morning. Above these obvious constraints are in addition to other individual character needs. Andrus is a chain smoker and a small cigarette occasionally prevent him coughing like a lost day long because of the withdrawal. And then he will think to get kibble to feed his cat. Melanie meanwhile interrupt his day to pick up her daughter at school, and it would be wise for her to carry around at all times with a bunch of pills to fight against his chronic migraines. Otherwise, customers could find a little cold, it usually so cheerful.


ME, NORMAL RESIDENT

Life has a cost. The acquisition of various consumables will start slowly but surely starting capital to reduce it to a trickle. Cigarettes, sandwiches, bus, paracetamol ... each purchase is ridiculous but the accumulation of daily expenses quickly turns into a financial abyss. The goal is to survive life, work enough to afford housing and food to eat. After purchasing a license for managing a stand outdoors without drowning in plums distributed by the constabulary, the player becomes salesman and serves passers coming at him. It is probably easiest to start with Andrus as the latter is given a turnkey store, the basic subscription to the local newspaper he was acquired from the start. His first day does not require running stores across the city to buy the raw material. It will nevertheless be necessary to go through it if he wants to change its offering and increase revenues. Melanie is also obliged to engage only in trade and literally from scratch. With only $ 1,500 in his pocket, his first task will be to buy an espresso machine, ground coffee quality, and of course a few cups a license to sell its products. Time to make a few purchases, it's already time to get to school early, and the day is shot into the air. Hard when you have to recover $ 1,000 in a week to prove his competence to judge ...

Once the goods stored it comes time to sell. Ukrainian invariably begins his day with unpack, fold and put away the papers on his stall. Each of these steps requires the keyboard to copy a group of phrases that appear on the screen in relation to the current activity. Coffee is served in the same manner, and the order, the customer will be answered by "Careful, it's hot," "A good black coffee! "Or another replica of the same kind. At each sale, it is also asked to make a little extra mental arithmetic quickly becomes automatic. If the idea is amusing at first, they soon realize that it is mainly used to simulate the repetitiveness and a certain pressure. In case of mistake, you have to start and speed of service determines the customer satisfaction translates into game the amount of tips that we are granted. Fortunately, it is up to us to fix the price of services, and will have at heart to make sure that the accounts fall the round as possible to make life easier when adding. Finding the right price still requires a minimum of fingering be cheap certainly attract a lot of customers but profitability is not at the rendezvous, while inflating the rating will chase the poor.


ART DON

If this layer of management is pretty damn good to offer an interesting obstacle to overcome, it is not much to the heart of the game Actually, it is only a slowing retail history, an obstacle the character development and a way to transform an automaton. But this mechanization serves a narrative purpose that becomes apparent after a few hours of play dint of repeating the same gestures, each superfluous action, such as discussing with a client before selling him something, every unexpected event is of importance particular. From Melanie Andrus or cease to be robots, rubbing the manager of a motel claiming rent or living nightmares reminding them of their past, they stand out from the mass of customers they serve all day to gain identity. And that humanity rubbed over conversations about their partners, who then continue to turn from being a financial windfall to become human beings with their jobs, their problems, their personalities.

And without seeming to, over days all similar but not identical job, Cart Life invites the player to think about the myth of the Western dream, his tendency to drown the individual in the mass, difficult to rise above the crowd, perhaps the futility of such an attempt, and the relationship to another. Quite subtly, we feel these themes through some artistic dimension dawn behind the game, taking probably more to literature than cinema or painting. But unlike other titles tempting mix of genres more conspicuous and therefore more coarse the game Richard Hofmeier is rarely boring and finally little pompous. It is never preachy, and not to feel sorry about his characters, as hard of their personal history. He has bare, literally at the scoreboards closing each day displayed during shower. The player with the task to attach or give a damn as the forty year.

Everybody does not adhere to the concept. Between its minimalist form, his repeated mini-games ad nauseam and dirty impression that time is passing too fast to accomplish anything significant, it may even disappoint strongly to adrenaline junkies and the heroism disheveled. Also, it seems important to remember that the game is available on the developer's site, and it will take a few hours to complete the story of the two playable characters in the basic version. However, if you want to support the project other than spreading the good word, five dollars will be enough to get the paid version which is included in the soundtrack and another vendor, Vinny. Unlike the other two kiosquiers whose story ends once they have proven their worth to their peers, he allows himself to play indefinitely. Fans of work to appreciate the chain, as well as those seeking a good argument to convince their doctor to feasting on anti-depressants.