Here's my short review of Life Tastes Like Cardboard
The Positive
- An interesting & moving story dealing with the topics of depression, death, loneliness, memory and mental health.
- Several varied art styles & moods evolving throughout the adventure, from very dark, almost angry and raw to childish and luminous.
- The game puts us in the head and the heart of its creator, as if we were invited to read a secret diary or a confidence of a close friend. It always felt personal and genuine.
- Fantastic sound design & audio experimentations , I liked the industrial tones and noises used here and there. The progression of the music in certain areas was really well done and the sound effects greatly contribute to the overall ambiance.
- I never knew what to expect and that was a good thing, it's easy to fall into general & easy tropes while dealing with subjects like these. You can also tell a lot of attention was put into little details, something that was especially appreciated from this reviewer.
- I enjoyed a lot of the cultural references and suggestions you can find by looking hard enough. I spent nearly an hour digging through the links of the in-game PC.
- An orange-juice rythmn game.
- The small-talk segments remembered me of some people that I truly miss and hit rather close to home, bonus points for that.
- It's 100% free (which is surprising considering the overall quality of the whole thing).
The Negative
- Some areas are a bit confusing to navigate (which fits the theme of the game, it's just not my cup of tea).
- I encountered a small bug with the in-game PC where it would sometimes fail to size properly, making it impossible to leave and explore the rest of the appartment without closing the whole game.
- Some small & random slowdowns at time, nothing major.
Should you play it?
If you are currently looking for a deeply introspective & remarkably original adventure, You should definitely play this game.
I was quite surprised by the Steam store page at first glance and the tons of good reviews but people were right, it was indeed a special experience which I can highly recommend.
Just be warned that it tackles heavy subjects in a highly artistic & personal way and might not be for everyone.