A Mortician's Tale

 PC
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. PC Gamer
    Oct 18, 2017
    82
    An approachable and thought-provoking meditation on life's only certainty.
  2. GameSpace
    Jul 6, 2020
    80
    A Mortician’s Tale is a gentle reminder of our mortality and a quiet reassurance that it doesn’t have to be viewed negatively. Through informative newsletters woven in with the game’s narrative, and the passionate dream of a young woman, we find that there is peace and joy to be found in the arms of family, green alternatives, and the celebration of our passing.
  3. Destructoid
    Oct 23, 2017
    80
    It’s a short game, only an hour or so long, but it leaves an impact far beyond its runtime. Give it a chance, and it might just change the way you think about death.
  5. GameStar
    Jan 2, 2018
    70
    Undemanding story adventure with the inspirating theme about dying and the profession of a undertaker.
This publication does not provide a score for their reviews.
This publication has not posted a final review score yet.
These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation.

In Progress & Unscored

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  1. Eurogamer
    Oct 19, 2017
    This is a beautiful game. It scared me. It moved me. Most of all, it made me stop what I was doing and think. [Recommended]
  2. The Verge
    Jan 8, 2018
    It has gotten me to think a lot more about the subject than I have in the past. Pretty impressive for a game that takes only about an hour to play.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 15
  3. Negative: 2 out of 15
  1. MegaKritik
    Oct 25, 2017
    1
    A Mortician's Tale is a glorified PowerPoint presentation, not a game. And no, I'm not being hyperbolic here. The "game" has no win or loseA Mortician's Tale is a glorified PowerPoint presentation, not a game. And no, I'm not being hyperbolic here. The "game" has no win or lose conditions, nor any form of gameplay decisions. There's literally only one thing you can click at any one time, which is the thing that makes the game go forward. If you try anything else, nothing happens, which means you are forced to "play" that way.

    Even Edutainment games, for 3-year olds, have some sort of feedback. For instance, if a child presses "a" when the screen prompt asks for an "e" and you'll get a voice saying that's not correct, please try again. Well, on A Mortician's Tale you don't even get that.

    Imagine a video that's constantly paused and the only way to move forward is by constantly clicking the play button. Only the "play" button changes position on the screen, depending on what the "developer" wants you to click. There you go, that's A Mortician's Tale.

    Adding insult to injury, the whole presentation (no, I'm not calling this a game) lasts for roughly 30 minutes, and that's if you read every bit of text in the game. I'v tried speed running this, for the sake of this review, and it can be done in less than 15 minutes. Now consider that the developer is charging $14.99 for this... yes, that's $1/minute of nothing even remotely close to gameplay.

    So I know what you're thinking... how is it possible that so many reputable critics are acclaiming this game as "the best of 2017" and giving scores of 8/10 or higher? Surely I'm a "hater", right? No, I just don't have an agenda to support.

    Allow me to clarify. This "game" was developed by a woman. The main character is a female. So far, so good. One of the characters who e-mails the main character constantly is a lesbian. Still ok. This lesbian character early on mentions how she hates criticism from her MALE colleagues... ok, starting to see where this is going. The two authority figures you'll read e-mails from are, first, the main character's mother, who's portrayed as a "good" person, and second, a male figure who's portrayed as the "evil" person (focus on making money, don't care about feelings or morals). Right, starting to see a pattern here. The rest of the e-mails you get are all about how trans people should be treated by their chosen pronouns even in death, not just in life, and how embalming fluid is bad for the environment, and so on and so forth.

    So if you haven't noticed, yes, this is a propaganda piece, masked as a game, and trying to profit from it. The media will ignore any flaws on it just to promote the spreading of the "message".

    Don't get me wrong. There was potential here. I honestly can't think of a single game that addresses the death industry like A Mortician's Tale hints at doing, so the concept does have originality, and I admit I enjoyed the music, which are the reasons why I'm even giving it a "1" instead of a straight "0", but the problem is that the developer wasted that potential. She literally did nothing with it. The whole experience is a series of e-mails, sent from imaginary people, to try and push a social agenda onto the player. Then, as an afterthought, she surrounded those e-mails with pictures of corpses you click to go forward to the next batch of e-mails, and that's about it.

    I have no problem with people having their own beliefs, whether they are political or otherwise. If you're so into the Social Justice movement that everything you do must be permeated by it, fine, go ahead. But be honest about it, instead of being disrespectful and (ab)using the theme of death as a cover up for your true goal, and AT LEAST do some effort to actually create something that qualifies as a game around it.

    Don't be surprised to see a ton of down votes on my review. The people who support this type of propaganda will never consider "useful" an actual unbiased review like mine. That's ok. All I'm saying is, be weary of the true intentions behind this product. It's NOT the amazing indie title that's being advertised and promoted as. If you buy it on Steam, be prepared to take advantage of their refund policy (you can get a refund if you play for less than 2 hours, which of course you will even if you're the slowest reader on the planet).

    So, to sum up:

    Positives: Original concept (death as an industry), and decent (if short) soundtrack.
    Negatives: Literally everything else.    … Full Review »
  2. titust
    Oct 23, 2017
    8
    The presentation of this tale is not overly philosophical; it's more tactfully educative than thought-provoking.

    A Mortician's Tale is the    The presentation of this tale is not overly philosophical; it's more tactfully educative than thought-provoking.

    A Mortician's Tale is the kind of game that hype would disservice. It's not a subject matter everyone may be interested in, but those who are willing to make the emotional investment are likely to be rewarded.    … Full Review »
  3. BugOnDesk
    Jan 15, 2023
    8
    A Mortician's Tale gives us a different angle of everyone's ending and the people who give their efforts at corners that almost nobody everA Mortician's Tale gives us a different angle of everyone's ending and the people who give their efforts at corners that almost nobody ever looks at. The only disadvantage here is the game is too short.… Full Review »
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