This may come a month late, but after a personal victory I experienced this week, I’ve been encouraged by my discord friend group to finally write this correction of the record. The September game release of Circumstances in Pickle City is an absolute train wreck.
To begin, while the indie hit has received a lot of fanfare from the gaming community, its entire premise is not engaging. You play as Harry T. Pickle, and begin the game as the executor of your deceased father’s estate. The intro cinematics explain that as part of this task, your father’s books and records are in complete shambles, and his carpet installation business is under threat of foreclosure due to zoning violations and misfiled taxes.
At several points during my first 10 hours of gameplay, I had to look up many of the terms used in the game. Mixed-use habitats and self-insured vehicles sent me into internet rabbit holes, and the process infuriated me. Who would tolerate such byzantine local regulations? What the hell is wrong with the planners and city commissioners of Pickle City? A little suspension of disbelief is all well and good, but this game pushed me over the limit.
When I tried following the archaic city regulations of Pickle City, at no point did I feel I have a grasp of what was expected. Harry’s home was clearly in a mixed residential / commercial district, but the violations all state your house cannot be used for service-based businesses. The job codes in the planning books never lined up, and it took 7 visits to the zoning office to finally submit my petition for appeal.
Also, completely absent from the Steam Overwhelmingly Positive user reviews was the question, why do we have a health bar? I had 3 hearts throughout all of my gameplay, but there are no enemies to speak of. I even got into a fender bender driving to the insurance office, but after hashing out the liability details with the other driver and a police officer, I was back in my car with 3 hearts. What are the hearts even for?!
After 40 hours of gameplay, I’d had enough. I ended my play litigating estate taxes with Pickle City’s department of revenue, and I couldn’t push any further in the red tape, dystopian gherkin nightmare. The game never states it, but the enemy is clearly the blurred lines between public and private ownership, and I for one wasn’t enjoying the challenge.
Overall I give Circumstance in Pickle City 1 star. It’s graphics are adequate for a pixel game, but the hellish overreach of city regulations made the gameplay a joyless loop I couldn’t wait to exit.
– Chaz Mutt, 2-bit Review Zone
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