Heated

I feel certain that this is the secret love-child of "Human Resources Stories" and "The Commute", the two bottom-trawlers of IFcomp 1998. Fortunately, social services has stepped in and placed the poor, wee heated thing in the hands of someone who actually knows how to put a game together, and the result is a game that is competently coded, for the most part, and is well-adjusted enough to not take its rage out on the player. Much.

See, the point of Heated is in the management of the protagonist's rage, as he struggles to get all his ducks in a row for his job assessment and review. This rage can be quite an issue the first few tries, but I have found that the optimal solution (promotion to supervisor!) never brings the protagonist's rage up higher than "twitchy", the lowest non-normal heat level, at any point.

(With regard to the concept heat as a measure of rage and frustration, I wonder if the game's foster parent might be "Little Blue Men". Stay Frosty, young Heated. Stay Frosty.)

Given the subject matter and story, this could have been much worse. The heat meter and the overall theme of rage management help it to rise above the merely pedestrian, but I would venture to say that it still does not shine. There are certain tropes which I believe it would be better to cast aside, shaking the dust from your sandals as you do so. Specifically, the loser protagonist and the suboptimal living space. Neither is much fun without something, such as massive amounts of humour, to endear them to the player. The protagonist's defining feature is his rage, which does not strike me as being particularly endearing.

Toast (which I like having with me) with jam, instant coffee.