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Number of Ratings: 68
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3 people found the following review helpful:
Metaphorical, March 1, 2014Blue men is a game about an office worker who discovers that not everything is as it seems. I am not an office worker, but I think I would have similar thoughts about it as the protagonist.
The story is very intriguing, the character descriptions leave no doubt about the protagonist's true feelings. He (we can postulate that the protagonist is male) is obviously on the edge -- there are repeated comments how annoying his co-workers and his boss are. The game can bee seen as a metaphor for the wish to break away from the daily grind. The players even have the choice whether they accept their fate of being trapped in their position as office workers.
I was not sure about the rating -- I wanted to give four stars, but finally gave three. The reason is that the game is quite difficult and mistakes can very easily take place, and then the player has to repeat the previous actions when he realizes that what he did was not the series of actions that will lead to the desired ending. So every player is advised to save the game position frequently and keep various save files to prevent trouble. About the endings: the author states in a postscript that there is no real winning ending -- the player has to decide if the reached ending is satisfactory or not, and that is true: When I reached the final ending (it announces that the player has reached the ending which is considered to be the best), I wondered if I would not have preferred something different. But the author offers some thoughts on it in the postscript, so we get an insight in what he was thinking.
The prose is great, even if it contains some profanity (I tend to dislike strong expressions in written texts). It was still acceptable.
I would rather not recommend this game to beginners; it is quite tough, the puzzles are above average and some things may appear confusing. I can heartily recommend it to advanced players though.
- John Simon (London), January 11, 2014
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
Nice atmosphere and writing, but way too underclued, September 10, 2013This game is indeed very peculiar; the main character is refreshingly pretty much the opposite of a "regular" PC (strong personality and language, very much unlike what a player is used to or would want to play as), and the whole game has its own tone, vocabulary, etc. that forms, I found, a somewhat believable worldview (which makes the PC a very well-written character). And even apart from the PC's personality, the author's writing is great: his descriptions are particularly worthy of note, since they manage to convey a lot of information in a few short sentences.
The main gripe I had with the game was that it was severely underclued. I had figured out a few things, but not all of them, so I was stuck for a while and then resorted to hints, which made me go a bit further, and then I was stuck again. At this point I had to look at a walkthrough for ideas, I found something, I did it, and then I got stuck because of an object I didn't have. So I just restarted and followed the walkthrough ; and looking at the actions you have to do to reach the "optimal" ending, I would have never managed to figure it out - some of them are literally read-the-author's-mind. So yeah, underclued + cruel = a very frustrating experience. This is a shame, by the way: the story is neat, and with a bit more hinting or more descriptions or less of that cruelty, this would have made a very enjoyable game for its whole length, instead of getting increasingly frustrating towards the end, which just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
- verityvirtue (London), June 29, 2013
- morphy_richards, April 20, 2013
- stadtgorilla (Munich, Germany), December 10, 2012
2 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting Ending..., August 14, 2012I'm going to admit first of all that I had some difficulty completing this game. While it was fascinating, and really quite disturbing, I felt a bit lost at first. Soon, however, I began to get the hang of it, and really, this was quite a well thought-out game.
It was also quite a disturbing game.
This is the first time I've played an office game, and at first I was quite amused by the dialogue, and the reactions to the minor goings-on of office life by the protagonist. As the game went on, though, things get quite a bit more serious...
For fear of spoiling anything, I won't say much about the endings, but... (Spoiler - click to show)The endings quite intrigued me, and I found it quite interesting that, with the exception of one option, the endings were similar, yet unsatisfying until the true end. Very interesting...
Anyway, this was an excellent game, and one I look forward to enjoying at some other time.
- Katrisa (Houston), July 19, 2012
- Peloquin, June 16, 2012
- Bran Rainey (Windsor, Ontario), February 29, 2012
- deathbytroggles (Minneapolis, MN), January 30, 2012
- E.K., January 19, 2012
- Ryan Veeder (Australia), July 15, 2011
- Nemansphere, June 27, 2011
- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), June 16, 2011
- flamingoboots, May 30, 2011
- Jonathan Blask (Milwaukee, WI, USA), April 4, 2011
- WidowDido (Northern California), March 28, 2011
- JohnW (Brno, Czech Republic), March 16, 2011
- Dude (Clarksville, Kentucky), November 13, 2010
- strikemeyer (Atlanta, Georgia), June 12, 2010
- Nusco (Bologna, Italy), May 28, 2010
- Genjar (Finland), January 13, 2010
- Grey (Italy), December 21, 2009
9 of
10 people found the following review helpful:
If you've ever had a job you REALLY hated..., August 23, 2009I liked Little Blue Men a lot. I normally can't stand Cruel (on the Zarfian scale) games, but LBM requires so few moves to complete successfully, and has such a small world to move around in, that it didn't particularly bother me.
The puzzles are tightly put together, the atmosphere is well done, and I rather liked plot and theme both. The author (and some reviewers) speak a lot about motivations of the protagonist being different from that of the player, but... I didn't really have that problem. The story puts you in an office that you loathe working in and loathe everyone else who works in, and presumes that you're a little... off. I didn't have that much problem suspending disbelief and cheerfully putting myself in the protagonist's shoes, really. In real life I wouldn't (Spoiler - click to show)kill and drug coworkers, but it's not real life, it's a game, right?
I also didn't have much complaint with the surprise ending. It's a twist, sure, but it seems to fit well enough with the rest of the story for my taste.
Highly recommended for great writing and well-put-together puzzles. You may or may not like the unexplained bits left over at the end, but you'll almost certainly be left with an impression that sticks around for a while.
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