It’s a feeling almost everyone can relate to: walking for the first day of work at the first big job, and feeling woefully underqualified and underprepared. But what if you really were totally underqualified, and your job description turned out to be something straight out of an X-Files episode? Yuppie Psycho pitches that question, melding together a rich blend of office comedy, retro graphics, and smart writing to create what western publisher Another Indie describes as “First Job Survival Horror.”
I’ll admit to being skeptical about Yuppie Psycho prior to playing it at PAX East. The pixelated art style of the in-game cinematics was nice enough, but the actual art style of the game’s playable sections looked to be more at home on the Atari 2600 than on even a 16-bit console. That felt like it might be too much of a stretch even for me to accept. Then I picked up a controller and was introduced to a pompous, egotistical windbag who immediately dismisses the player’s character as a mere nobody, before announcing that he’s heading straight for the management floor.
Cutscenes are rendered in ’90s anime style
I was hooked. Anyone who’s ever worked in an office environment has probably met this guy. He usually drives a BMW, has been divorced at least once, talks incessantly about his golf game, and is one of the reasons for everyone in the office having to endure a mandatory sexual harassment training video every six months. Further character introductions only heightened the sense that developers Baroque Decay nailed their depiction of office life, with a horror twist.
Your coffee-addict coworker who never refills an empty coffee pot.
Our hero, Brian Pasternak, has been hired by one of the largest, most respected companies in the world. As he meets his new colleagues, it becomes readily apparent that something is seriously wrong in this company. Brian soon finds out that his new job has only one requirement: he is Sintracorp’s new witch hunter, hired to find and kill the witch infesting the company. Things only go less smoothly from there.
Pasternak: “It’s… an art project. Done in cow’s blood. Probably really expensive.”
The build I played at PAX East gave me a good taste of the first twenty minutes of the game. The office characters, recognizable from their stereotypes to cube farm residents everywhere, provide the game with its humor. The horror aspects come on quickly, but thanks to the art style are more atmospheric and interesting than gross and alarming. Brian Pasternak monologues his thoughts to the player, providing other moments of humor as he struggles to rationalize things that should clearly be setting off major alarm bells in anyone’s head.
Hasn’t everyone had a boardroom meeting like this?
Controls were solid, although I did encounter a puzzle with some items that clearly needed some additional adjustments to their collision boxes. Audio was neatly atmospheric, adding just the right background feel. Another Indie is currently targeting an early Q4 2018 release date, giving Baroque Decay time to put the right amount of polish on the game’s systems and puzzles, and for Another Indie to give this gem the localization treatment that it deserves.
For shocking me with how great it was, and making me laugh within the first five minutes of playing, I gave Yuppie Psycho one of my Writer’s Choice Awards at PAX East. I’ll be looking forward to playing the finished product around Halloween later this year.
