Eating disorders are an extremely sensitive topic, so I was careful when I found out about Consume Me, a game that turns the uncertainty of a teenage girl into minigras and resource management. However, after the end of history, I am glad that it exists. Consume Me is a touching, hilarious, sometimes visceral experience told from the perspective of video games they do not touch as often as they should. His meta comment on the dangers of using game systems for measuring sophisticated, real problems is touching and unique. Its ending is disappointing, but he rarely plays a game, which seems to be so personal for its creators and makes something special to absorb me.
The game begins with an compelling warning with the content, and not only indicating the potentially disturbing theme of history, but the explanation that Jenny’s diet behavior – basic gameplay mechanics – is not something that should be repeated. I have never played something like this: it is a game that givyfing real life is not always a good idea.
Jenny, based on the creators of the game of the same name, is a high school student who will start her last year. After the mother’s comment on the subject of Jenny’s weight, Jenny decides to start a diet, meticulously following food intake and exercise habits. At the same time, he must manage other aspects of his life: duties, money and homework to mention only a few. Each action is represented as a microge, similar to something that can be found in crazy, where you perform elementary, sometimes hard actions in the expressive style of art. For the most part, they are charming and witty, and even those I liked less have ended quickly. Consume Me seems to be an experience, but I really couldn’t wait to run it back and manage my toxic behavior.
A game in which you will play most often, you create Jenny’s dinner plate. Foods are represented as Tetris similar to elements that you need to fit on the grid, filling the hunger squares, trying to avoid empty. Each food also costs a different number of bites (an abstract calorie version in the game), so you need to balance the act of matching the elements in the grid with avoiding unhealthy foods to maintain a low bite. Reduce the limit and you will have to practice later, wasting valuable time that can be used for other activities. Ask your puzzles, and you will not fill all the necessary squares, causing that the Jenny hunger meter has hit. Despite the disturbing goal, I like this puzzle and I didn’t mind playing it every day in the game.
When you get in history later, it is extremely uncomplicated to see how someone like Jenny can fall into the harmful spirals of behavior. If I eat a delicate lunch – an alternative meal option that I reflect, it costs less bite – my energy level has a hit, but if I drink an energy drink, I supplement it. However, it turns out that excessive rely on caffeine causes Jenny to develop headaches during the day and I can’t get rid of them, unless I do something that raises her mood. It is easiest to do it, it is to eat a bag with fries, which puts me on my bite, restoring me to the problem that I tried to avoid.
I just wanted to eat a little less, but the inevitable chain of events initiated, which only worsens Jenny’s problems. This is a brilliant trap that I did not realize that I fell until it was too behind schedule, like a real life. It is a form of artistic expression and education that can only be conveyed through a video game.
Art and animation emanates personality, and its pixels secrete hand-drawn aesthetics of hyper-exygan faces. The player moves Jenny through the film cutscenes with mice or joystick slings, but you never really know what you are going to do, and is a witty surprise to watch how he nervously lifts the dollar from the pavement or refuses to get out of bed. The topic may suggest the visual staff of the tone, but to absorb me, it is nothing but. It helps to compensate for very real stress that I try to balance Jenny’s life, while representing the ways in which eating disorders may seem undetectable to the outside world.
Writing a temporary-commented dialogue is also piercing, and Jenny is an unforgettable, endearing hero who is uncomplicated to end. I had no problem seeing things from her perspective and although I started as an external observer, I quickly invested enough to get nervous to finish my homework and seriously I hope the boy would like me.
Despite the love of the characters and the early hours, its last chapter drops for several reasons. First of all, religion is presented as convenience for Jenny behind schedule in the game (along with the musical sequence of prayer). I don’t have a problem with this, but it comes out of nowhere and feels out of place. This has not been mentioned earlier and becomes irrelevant due to the conclusion of the story. Jenny can pray once a day to remove mental blocks that stop her from studying, but also slightly fills her mood, energy and hunger bars. Improving mood makes sense, but the last meters feel contrary to Consume Me motives. The biggest disadvantage of Jenny is the belief that with sufficient mental effort he can force his body to achieve an unhealthy level of performance, regardless of whether it is behind schedule or starving, and is inconsistent that prayer would in consequence would have an energy amplifier or replacement of food.
When Consume Me’s Story ultimately ends in a disaster, its warning promises to be, religion does not seem to be a solution and despite rescue Jenny in a later chapter, it is unceremoniously swept. It is hard to end biographical narratives, especially when the topic is still alive, because the actual events that make a fascinating premise to be occasional. Despite this, the main sources of the drama of the stories escape, and Jenny eventually surpassed them, not to confront them.
It does not facilitate that we play as Jenny on her spiral to take the bottom, but we got stuck watching some interactive editing when you pull it out. The whole game leads to her inevitable disaster, in which she learns how destructive her behavior is; However, when it finally happens, the game is essentially over. It is as if Mario learns that his princess is in another castle, but instead of leading to the boss fighting with Bowder, we just watch how he defeated Bowser in end credits. History still exists, but as a player I am forced to end the loss.
Gazing your eating habits is really a terrible idea and I consume me in a way that I thought deeply fascinating and witty. Even if you ignore the warning about the content, its message is clear from the opening moments. If its ending did not stumble, maybe it was one of my favorite all time, but there is still a lot to love here despite this disappointing conclusion. The procession of me full of creativity and personality, and he won a special place in my heart.
