One of my favourite things to do is search the Steam store for games under $6. Some say you can’t get quality cheap, but sometimes I come across real gems for only a dollar or two. Suits: A Business RPG is one of them.
Suits: A Business RPG is a short indie video game developed by Technomancy Studios. The game takes you inside Suits City, a greyscale world where corporations reign and control the entire government. You play as “The Guy”, a regular worker who travels through the five districts (Office, Law, Financial, Food, Media) and becomes caught up in the battle between those in favour of and those against capitalism. And I mean “battle” literally: you have to kill your coworkers, who have transformed into monsters from overworking.
The battle screen is like most RPGs, with the option to physically fight, use a special skill, or use an item to heal yourself or a party member. There is one particular skill not often seen in other games, but it fits perfectly here: Bribe. If an enemy is too tough, or you don’t feel up to fighting, you have the option to pay off your enemies to leave you alone. This can get pretty expensive, though. After all, sandwiches in this game cost $100 each.
There is so much strange humour in this game that I can’t figure out if it’s meant to be funny or not—but that’s the point. From hearing your coworker tell you they can’t see their family anymore because they have to live at their job to the courthouse having a designated room to play basketball in, you are meant to realize with every minute of gameplay that these corporations do not care about anything—besides themselves.
You even fight King Ramsey in the kitchen and Bustin Jiebers in the media district. Everything is intertwined in Suits City, from the telemarketers we hate to the pop culture we eat up. They all serve as one cog to keep the world functioning under the CEO.
Even the graphics serve as symbolism. The game maintains a simple pixelated style, yet you’re the only worker who has a face. Everything around you, from the land to the people you speak with, are all in black, white, or grey. But so are you.
And towards the end of the game, that’s what is made most prominent: you, the protagonist, are just one person who has conformed to the system his whole life. Can one person really lead an uprising? Can the corporations be overthrown? Will you just defeat the CEO and take his place to control society? Or will you find the developers inside the game, kill them, and stop the game from ever being finished? You’ll have to play to find out.
My primary concern about the game was that it was too short, and the screenshot feature wasn’t working. There were a few bugs here and there, but nothing that would stop the game from running.
All in all, whether you’re pro- or anti-capitalism, Suits: A Business RPG is a quirky game that’ll have you snickering at the bad jokes and missing some sleep to get to the next district. Just like the workers themselves.
