Number of Reviews: 4
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Pro-Tip: Do not play while eating, or just after having eaten..., April 1, 2024Preambule: this was a good game that borked my brain a bit and put my thoughts in disorder. There is sense somewhere in this review, I think.
1 4 the $ is a Twine story about despair, the want to belong and feel loved, and manipulation. With a gloomy setting, where you play as a probably mentally ill, unemployed recluse, the game explores dark and confronting subjects: consumption in all its form. Going through the ups and downs of life (but mainly the downs) at the bottom of the barrel, you follow the protagonist's "last" days as they stumble upon a new crypto get-rich-quick scheme all the while dealing with a run-down lodging taken over by (a probably) sentient mould.
I say "last days" because of where the different endings take you.
The depiction of consumption in 1 4 the $ is multifaceted and very intriguing. From the literal aspect of the player consuming to sustain (even if it means eating literal mould), the mould taking over the protagonist's body until it consumes it all, online communities taking advantages of its members for entertainment, crypto shills targetting exploiting the gullible and disadvantaged. Everything is linked in some kind of way, working against/with each other to form the story, helping us (the reader) understand how the protagonist got where they are and the choice they make.
And on a level, it does not seem "bad", as the protagonist yearns for community themself, to feel understood or maybe just recognised and love, to feel like they have some sort of purpose or goal beyond feeling sorry for themself. In one path, they seem content to lose themself just to be a part of a thing. Or because they just can't fight anymore. Which ever depiction of the protagonist you end up with is incredibly bleak.
I quite liked the atmospheric background, with the glowing light animation, whose colour will depict a different part of the house, or the formatting of the text replicating social media platforms like Reddit or Discord, as well as the uneasy screens when you "talk" to the mould/yourself. The simple design added quite a bit to the disturbing vibe of the game.
Just small accessibility thing: the blue links are often not contrasted enough against the background.