A Mortician's Tale

 PC
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

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  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 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.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 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.    … Expand
  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 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.
  3. oliwill1
    Jul 15, 2020
    7
    It is a pretty short game about death and funerals. I found the subject interesting but the gameplay was pretty repetitive. Still enjoyed it, though.
  4. KevLooney
    Apr 29, 2022
    6
    6/10. The game has boring gameplay and no story to compensate. The gameplay isn't relaxing either.
  5. RadProspect
    Jun 11, 2021
    0
    TLDR: Extremely disappointed.

    Long version: in a world of copies and clones, it's always refreshing to see a developer try to tackle a theme that isn't common. Unfortunately, when the "effort" is this half-butted, I'd rather if they didn't even try. As one of the older user reviews says, this doesn't even qualify as a game. It's a series of e-mails you have to read and, in between them,    TLDR: Extremely disappointed.

    Long version: in a world of copies and clones, it's always refreshing to see a developer try to tackle a theme that isn't common. Unfortunately, when the "effort" is this half-butted, I'd rather if they didn't even try. As one of the older user reviews says, this doesn't even qualify as a game. It's a series of e-mails you have to read and, in between them, you can click on some objects to trigger the next set of e-mails. The "game" can be casually completed in 20-25 minutes, and there's no replay incentive.

    At first I just thought the developer was lazy or incompetent (plenty of people out there who don't know how to make a game, but release asset-flips anyway), but after reading a bit more on the subject, it does seem this was meant as a propaganda piece. Apparently, the developer thought "kids play games, right? So if I put these messages in game form, they'll get the message even if the parents don't want them to". If true, that's quite scummy.

    Regardless, even if you just judge this as a "game", and ignore the not-so-subtle attempt at indoctrination, it's as bad as it gets. No gameplay elements of any sort except for a minesweeper clone you can play, very briefly, on one of the e-mails you get, but once you advance to the next set of e-mails, you lose access to the older e-mails, so you can't play that anymore (genius design, right?)

    Price right now (2021) is €8,19 on Steam (without sale), and pricing history shows the decision to drop the price by 50% since launch (2017)) was made in November 2018, so I guess it took the developer/publisher a full year before they realized how insane the original price was (almost €17). I personally don't think it's worth any money, so I asked for a refund. If you're really that curious to see how bad this is, and plan on "playing" it for more than 2 hours, I suggest you wait for a 90% sale... for 82 cents, you can at least make a Youtube video mocking it and get your money back from ad revenue.

    Developers, please, have some respect for us gamers. It's our money that keeps your jobs going.    … Expand
  6. ActionSciBio
    Jul 8, 2022
    9
    A Mortician's Tale is a beautiful work depicting the death industry warts and all. However, I will warn buyers that it is not a game in a traditional sense but rather an interactive art piece. Mortician's Tale takes about an hour or so to complete and the story is engaging. Give it a shot and enjoy.
  7. 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 ever looks at. The only disadvantage here is the game is too short.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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. 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.
    Read full review
  2. GameStar
    Jan 2, 2018
    70
    Undemanding story adventure with the inspirating theme about dying and the profession of a undertaker.
    Read full review
  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.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »