a mortician’s tale |

Publisher: Laundry Bear Games

Developer: Laundry Bear Games

Release Date: 10/18/2017

Available On

I understand everyone wants to praise indie games. I get it; I really do. It’s a middle finger to the corporate world, and developers can explore interesting new ideas without the weight of a watchful eye. A Mortician’s Tale kind of explores this exact idea, but with a funeral home.

The game starts out well and gives me an idea of how the game will progress. A mortician named Rose gets a new job right out of medical school at a family-owned funeral home. You slowly perform different ways to prepare bodies, from embalming to cremating. It’s a cool concept, and things started getting weird when the game walked me through every single body’s preparation. I thought I was in for a long game, as I thought it would take a while to see everything the game had, thus the extended tutorial times.

The story is told through emails on your computer between employees and Rose’s school friend. The sad, morbid music painted an atmosphere I was starting to get into, and the emails told me that something was going to happen. Of course, the tides turned when a corporation bought the funeral home, and I was thinking this was when things would start picking up, but they didn’t. Then the game ended. Yeah, just like that.

I really admire indie games and the unique little adventures and stories they tell. Some are the most memorable I have, such as Soma, Observer, and even Journey, but this isn’t how you do it. Don’t drag the player through tutorials; build an entire game system; create characters and an atmosphere; and end the game when most would start picking up. I hate this so much, and I refuse to give these developers any credit for what they did. They literally skipped to the end of the story, and everything leading up to it had no meaning. I also understand short games; I’ve played games this short and felt very satisfied with their ending. This tale is not worth a second of your time.