Grade: A
Day-in-the-life simulator for a mortuary
I’ve been curious about this game for a while and finally got to sit down for an hour and play through it. In the story, you play as a younger female mortician, and it’s a “day in the life/walk in their shoes” experience. You read work emails, browse the funeral home professional association listserv, get various assignments, and meet different families.
Gameplay
The game was performing various tasks in a funeral home and preparing the bodies according to the families’ specifications. You learn about the different preparation methods in detail and go through the embalming and cremation processes step by step.
While learning different preparation methods, you also get an inside look at the death industry. There are blog posts on this professional listserv about the other cultural preferences, the pressures on mom-and-pop operations by big businesses, and the environmental impacts of different methods.
Story’s central tension
The story’s central tension comes in when a corporation buys out this mom-and-pop funeral home. The new CEO pushes each funeral director to upsell and push for a full open casket/embalming, which is the most expensive package. This upsell request goes all the way to convincing a family to overturn the deceased wishes, which is pretty slimy. The main character gets increasingly fed up, and in the end, she leaves to start her own business.
I genuinely learned a lot from the game; it was a thoughtful, extensive look at the topic. Like most people, I’ve shied far away from thinking about death services. A Mortician’s tale is more akin to watching a documentary than a video game. So if you go in expecting a lot of gameplay, you will be disappointed.
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