Vidjama Gmaes Work

I enjoyed it, but it was short.

Truly how much is four dollars worth these days? To bring us back to an old and overused comparison, I can get a basic large coffee at Tim Horton’s for $3 and some change. And how long will that last? Buddy, you’ve never seen me cradle a large coffee before, I can make that ish last all day if I have to.

My point is, Spamware might be a tough sell on the grounds that it’ll take you less than a half hour to beat the first time. And then maybe another 20 minutes to blow through and get the other ending, at which point you’ll probably play around for another ten minutes. Or if you’re like me, you’ll be writing down the solutions to each day’s puzzles in the expectation that there’d be something more.

Spamware has you serving a 30,000 hour sentence and who discusses sentences in terms of hours? It looks better on the billboard above your cell door. Luckily you’ve been selected into the prison Spamware program, offering you the opportunity to lower your sentence while doing a public service; detecting spam and product placement and weeding out scams.

It’s a great concept for a game that sadly doesn’t go far. Assuming I may have missed one or two things on the final day, which is the fifth day of you reporting spam, there are 8 things to report. You’ll be watching TV looking for products to report, make a couple phone calls, and eventually you’ll be offered the chance to escape. I genuinely assumed the game would be pulling a 1984-style trick on me, but it didn’t.

Either way the game itself is over after roughly day six. And that’s where it disappointed me, because there are some good ideas. I loved watching TV on day 6 and trying to figure out if the car on channel 4 was product placement. There was no banner or brand, but the camera stayed on it just way too long for my liking. Do I submit the report and risk my sentence?

I hope we get a more fleshed out Spamware 2 in the future. It doesn’t even need new features, just more of what this game set up.