Suicide Guy

Genre: First-Person Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Suicide Guy Collection, along with Suicide Guy: Sleepin’ Deeply.)

Suicide Guy is a First-Person Puzzle-Platformer released on PC in 2017 and ported to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2018. This game’s premise has you playing as the titular Guy, who falls asleep just as he realizes he’s dropping his treasured beer bottle. Wanting to catch it before it falls, he makes it his goal to force himself awake by committing suicide within the world(s) of his dream. What follows is a series of puzzles that has the player trying to figure out how to off themselves in each of the game’s silly situations, many based on popular films and videogames.

The presentation here has a lot of personality to it, but this game is rough. The graphics feature simple 3D characters and environments, yet the game suffers from terrible pop-in, massive framerate drops, and an overall lack of polish that really makes this seem like an amateurish effort, despite that it’s clear a lot of love was put into this game. These visuals are backed by a soundtrack that often vaguely reflects the genres it’s spoofing, as well as the protagonist’s grunts as he struggles to move around the game’s levels.

When it comes to the gameplay, I have to credit this game with finding some creative puzzle ideas that help to add to this game’s variety, making each level prompt a question of just exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. However, this also makes it sadly disappointing when you run into yet another block-pushing or platforming section, as if the game’s designer felt the need to add filler, and just went for the most generic videogame challenges that could be inserted into the game.

However, even worse than the uninspired elements of this game is the fact that the platforming itself here is absolutely terrible. Your character barely lifts off the ground when you jump, and movement controls are loose in a way that will repeatedly make you miss jumps. This means that the game’s forays into Platforming not only felt like the originality and cleverness of the game running dry, but also felt like the game torturing its player.

Sadly, all of the positive elements of this game are ones I feel have been done better elsewhere. Those looking for great First-Person Puzzle-Platformers have excellent choices like Portal Companion Collection and The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition, and those craving a game where you’re looking for creative ways to kill yourself can pick up Reventure. What’s more, even if you’re dead-set on getting this game, you’re better off getting the Suicide Guy Collection, which contains the second game as well, normally only costs $3 more, and goes on sale at the same sale price of $2.

As such, while there are some fun ideas here, players interested in those ideas will find they’re mired in a lot of frustration, and those same ideas can be found in better First-Person Puzzle-Platformers. With this being the case, it’s hard to recommend that anyone buy Suicide Guy.

tl;dr – Suicide Guy is a First-Person Puzzle-Platformer where players take the role of a guy trying to wake himself by committing suicide in his various dreams. There are some fun puzzle ideas here and a good amount of personality, but unfortunately the game suffers from massive performance issues, and has some absolutely miserable platforming. There are multiple better options in this genre, so go for one of those instead.

Grade: C-

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