Tomorrow, Wednesday 3 March 2021, it will be available on Nintendo Switch a new graphic adventure: 3 out of 10 Season One. Terrible Posture Games' work was released last year on PC (via Epic Games Store, still available now for free), but only now lands on the big N console (for a fee). Let's see what we think in this ours 3 review out of 10 Season One.
3 out of 10 Season One | Review
3 out of 10 is described by the developers themselves as a "playable sitcom". The game is divided into five episodes of about 30 minutes each. We will follow the story of a ramshackle team of developers, Shovelworks Studios, who are working on a new game.
The adventure begins when animator Midge joins the studio to replace the previous animator who literally exploded from too much work. The premise and the whole plot are built on the absurd, with the aim of outlining the internal problems of a development study lightly. Over the course of the five episodes let us expect, for example, human sacrifices and dystopian companies using war robots.
The cast of 3 out of 10 is mainly made up of the eight team members. Each character is extreme and comically symbolizes the most negative figures in the industry. Viper, for example, is the artist of the group and wants to impose their tastes on each game (extreme gore, inspired by his favorite video game series, basically a parody of Gears). Then we have the human resources officer, Francine, who seems uninterested in the well-being of her colleagues. How not to mention Jeb, the CEO of the company who has no idea how video game development works and is only capable of issuing senseless orders.
Each episode goes to touch hotspots of the development world, like the relationship with fans immediately ready to tear apart (literally) a studio because a video game does not respect their claims. It also talks about the world of education which is more interested in earning money than actually teaching students how to work in this industry. Or even just the need to restart development after years, because the management suddenly changed their mind. Furthermore, the fulcrum of the story is the vote of the game: that "3 out of 10" (3 out of 10) which is the title of the work.
In fact, Shovelworks Studios is a terrible development studio, and all of their games have never scored more than three in critical reviews. Midge, our "protagonist", has joined the team to make sure that doesn't change. The girl, in fact, comes blackmailed by a shady figure who appears to be part of a secret government agency. Why did an unknown group of developers get the attention of someone so important? Why is the quality of a video game the subject of a conspiracy?
We will not find out. Already, 3 out of 10 Season One doesn't give us answers and defer any explanation to a Season 2 which is "coming soon". Here lies one of the main problems of the game: the general plot is almost nil. Each episode is semi-independent and chronicles one of the aforementioned "development hotspots". The characters themselves are not deepened and remain anchored to their initial characterization.
Also in terms of writing, the adventure is hardly comical. The critique of the development world is intriguing and reading between the lines will bring a smile to the most knowledgeable fans, but it won't make them laugh. We are not talking about a Big Bang Theory or an interactive How I Met Your Mother.
Minigames what a passion
Of course we are always talking about a video game, so in addition to the narration there is an interactive side. 3 out of 10 offers us everything a series of minigames: Terrible Posture Games has focused everything on variety, almost in an attempt to cover most of the videogame genres. We will have a kind of sports game inspired by American football, a stealth section, arcade driving games with timed checkpoints, 2D brawlers, a Legend of Zelda style dungeon crawler (the original), a pinball machine, some puzzle games of various genres and more.
Each minigame starts, ends and is never repeated. The effect is that we will never be bored with the more playful side of 3 out of 10, but at the same time this means that the game does not have a precise videogame identity. Each minigame will be immediately forgotten, also because the victory is not mandatory: they can even be skipped without any penalty. The minigames reward us only with stars, a collectible. Some are also hidden in the levels and must be found by exploring. Not that there is any reason to do it, other than the simple willingness to complete the game 100%.
Comment
Tested version Nintendo Switch Digital Delivery Epic Games Store, Nintendo eShop Resources4Gaming.com7.0
ReadersSV
Your vote3 out of 10 is a quick adventure (two and a half hours will suffice) and extremely varied from a playful point of view. It is stylistically very simple, but it is adequate for its purposes. Unfortunately, this first season is only a small part of the story that (we hope) the developers have come up with. If you are looking for a narrative game with deep characters and a story to be discovered, this is not for you. If you are looking for a light adventure that criticizes the world of gaming development with shrewd nonsense, then it might be worth your time. But remember that on PC it is available for free.
PRO
- The minigames are many and varied
- The criticism of the industry is effective while being light
- The overall plot is postponed to a season 2
- It will hardly make you laugh
- On PC it's free
