Sometimes some crimes small games get a lot of buzz happening around them, praising the storytelling or the mood of the game or what not. Adios was one of these games for me as since its release a couple of months ago, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the game, with lots of “even if it’s 90 minutes long”. And I like short and succinct story driven games, as they are a rarity and are very hard to do well. Having played the game, I must say that while I can understand someone liking it, it didn’t really do it for me.
The premise of the game is listed on the store page – you play as an old farmer who was helping with disposing bodies for the mob for years, wants out. And you play through what is likely to be his last day alive, hanging out the person who is still somewhat of a friend, but will probably become his killer because of his decision, doing chores, trying to say goodbyes. There are some sections that are just dialogue, with choices that don’t matter much and some sections with simple interactions which are still mostly dialogue.
And it’s moody and nice and some parts of the script were really nice. Yet, even ignoring the terrible sound mix where the voices can be barely heard most of the time, I feel like there’s not really much for you to care about unless some of the elements resonate with you personally. Curiously, even the premise that I’ve mentioned, isn’t really spelled out inside the game as well, as if the store page description is meant to be taken as part of the experience. Is the game worth spending 90 minutes on, if you stumble upon it especially on sale? Sure. Is it fine if you skip it and never check it out? Yeah, you’ll probably not miss much.