Home / Reviews /Apartment Story review ByKim Snaith 1 October 20241 October 2024
Apartment Story was sold to me earlier this year on a promise of “third person narrative adventures meets The Sims”. It’s not an untruth; in a way, Apartment Story very much is The Sims — albeit a very adult version of The Sims where you inappropriately touch yourself rather than practicing your Charisma in the mirror, and where you break into your roommate’s bedroom to find a gun for a guest rather than politely saying “Sul Sul” to each other.
Yeah, Apartment Story goes to some grim places. Well, it’s all one big, long, grim place, truth be told, being that the majority of the game takes place in a single small apartment. (Hence the name.) Taking place over the course of a few days, you’ll have your character’s basic needs to take care of — hunger, hygiene, toilet, sleep, mental health. Most of it is pretty straightforward. Interact with the toilet to satisfy the toilet need. Jump in the shower to get nice and clean. Cook yourself up some food to stay fed. Mental health is a little more subjective. Smoke a joint? Sit in front of the TV? Hey, it works for this guy.
It’s a depressing existence, frankly, but that’s the point of Apartment Story. Pull up your (cracked) mobile phone with a push of the d-pad and you’ll see your recent text messages, along with a constant reminder of your near-maxed out overdraft. It doesn’t matter; you’ll only need to buy a tenner’s worth of electricity top-up, which you can just about manage. But it’s just there to remind you that Life is Rubbish, actually.
Apartment Story isn’t just about getting through the day, of course. There’s a narrative element here. It’s brief, it’s bold and, I assume, it’s designed to shock you. Will it? The jury’s out on that one. Being the entirety of Apartment Story is over within less than two hours, its narrative scenes are disappointingly brief. But there’s enough here to get the gist of what’s going on. It involves an old friend, an unwanted intruder and, as I’ve already mentioned, a gun. I’ve probably already said too much.
Unlike The Sims, you don’t get the option of what to say to your guests here. Dialogue is predetermined, set in stone. You can ensure your protagonist smells fresh but you can’t decide what he says when someone breaks into his apartment. In between these scenes, you’re left to your own devices, and the downtime feels a little too long for my liking.
I think that’s the point, though. There’s a lot of empty space to fill, just as there would in a real-life situation where you’re stuck in a small apartment with no money and no job. You’ll end up staring at the TV screen, eating endless bowls of cereal, or knocking one out in front of your laptop (yeah, it’s an option). Ultimately, I found myself a little bored, simply waiting for the next interaction to come along.
I also encountered a game-breaking bug in which my character couldn’t get out of bed. Luckily I had an earlier save available, so I didn’t lose too much progress, but it did zap me out of the experience somewhat. And the idea of Apartment Story is that it’s supposed to be immersive. You’re supposed to feel the dread of what’s around the corner, the despair of having no money in your bank account. That’s hard to do when I’m literally glued to my bed, staring up at the ceiling and unable to move. It was a fitting glitch, at least.
I can’t say that Apartment Story is a great game, from a technical or even a narrative standpoint. It’s over almost before it gets going, it’s clunky and much of it is rather boring. But there’s still a lot to be admired here. It’s largely the work of one man, Sean Wenham, under the name of Blue Rider Interactive. It’s inventive, it’s thought-provoking, and it’s even beautiful in a strange, lo-fi kind of way. For six quid, it’s well worth playing. It’s not going to blow you away, but its experimental charm certainly stands out from just about everything else I’ve played this year.
Apartment Story Review
Experimental, rough around the edges and lo-fi by design, Apartment Story isn't going to wow you in a technical sense, but there's still a certain charm to it. Mixing The Sims-like mood management with a gritty, dark story, it'll only take you a couple of hours to complete — and it'll be unlike anything else you've played this year.7out of 10
We like…
- Intriguing concept
- Its lo-fi visuals are striking
We don’t like…
- Some bugs
This review of Apartment Story has been facilitated by a code provided by the publisher. It’s available on PC.
