I hate to say it, but upon Billy’s (I think that’s his name, I only got the game to run once on my comp) first line I laughed out loud for so long I had to go back and start the game again. I don’t know why I found his voice so hilarious initially, but by God it was the light of my day that particular evening. I loved the concept behind the game, being tasked with organizing repressed memories almost like defraging an old hard drive but not like that at all. At one point I had to put a box on a shelf that was above my reach I tried to hop up and put it in and in the process had the box explode triggering a cinematic, at this point I went mental. I started throwing any box I can get my hands on, Billy’s voice became so grating and repetitive that I found myself regretting a marriage that I never had. No wonder James was sick of that whiny, whiny man. And then it hit me, despite my objective nature when it comes to games, I found myself immersed in a game that if you step back from it, really doesn’t have that much going for it. I wondered why it did this and I think its because of its strong cathartic element. We all wish we can just let go of all of our baggage, all of the memories that we want to forget but carry with us. We all want to just tell people how we feel, and in a way the game lets you do so vicariously through a married couple about to call it quits. Brilliant. Okay Billy, your turn.
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Comments
Handle with Care is definitely a lot of fun! I think it’s wrong to criticize the game for bad voice acting because the the artificiality and awkward pacing produces metaphor of how James views his world. Dylan (not Billy) comes off as mechanical, self-righteous, and dismissive (and we can only expect that James appears this way to Dylan as well).
The explosions are also cathartic. It is fun (though perhaps a little shocking) to gain this feedback, but juxtaposed with the images of memories. The engagement I feel is derived from being placed within this unique scenario and placing it as a metaphor of a mechanic inside a person’s brain. The Orwellian humor of the situation coupled with the juxtaposition of imagery and explosive feedback plays a large part in this. And maybe that’s not a bad thing that there isn’t more to the game than this – just as we can have our five-course meals, we can also have the perfect donut.
-Devin Monnens
I didn’t particularly mean to criticize the voice acting, it just made me snicker a little bit.