If the aesthetics of Minecraft and the idea of a Breaking Bad style double life for a normal man sound appealing to you, Family Man is definitely worth a look at in the coming future.
Family Man starts off innocently enough…well actually, it does not for once! The story begins as you, a loving father and husband of a normal family, is viciously fired from his office job for trying to help a coworker with an unexplained favor. Whatever it was, it was bad enough to make a mess of things for even a longtime employee at the company like yourself. Distraught, yet angry at your coworker, you nonetheless decide to bang out a couple of rounds at the range with him after work.
Unfortunately, whatever mess your character created, it did more than just affect your former company position – it also got you and your coworker (especially him!) entangled with the world of underground criminal empires! I will not spoil what is a very effective opening for the player, but needless to say, do not take the Minecraft-esque aesthetics at first glance and think that this is a game for kids – it is quite grim.
Now laden with debt to the crooks, the father of the household must not only heed their beck and call until the debt (supposedly $100,000 of “favors gone wrong”) is paid, they must continue to find work and pay the bills in order to support their family and keep them happy. This is where the game truly begins, as you are charged with going around town to take on job offers from random strangers, farmers, former egotistical coworkers and of course, the mafia.
The gameplay revolves around a worldwide clock. You have approximately 12 hours per day to earn some dosh and pay your bills before midnight, feed your family, and more prominently in my time with the beta, keep them happy. These are all measured by meters in the top left corner of the screen, but how you approach these duties is entirely up to you. Will you perform additional criminal acts besides the ones you are forced to by the mafia themselves, or will you work an honest day’s wage doing odd jobs or flipping burgers at the local Burger King pastiche?
Personally, I tried my best to roleplay as a good man who was forced into doing bad things, and tried to take honest jobs as much as possible. The only time I was sent to jail was for punching the hitman who gives out the mafioso jobs to you (but it was satisfying and worth it, and had no other negative repercussions – maybe they just increased my debt!) Unfortunately, while I am sure the game wants you to blur the lines a little more, this frustrated me more than it engaged me story wise. At one point I missed the time frame to tuck my son into bed, and I suffered heavily for it on my family’s happiness meter, which quickly earned me a game over (they leave you, but you can restart at a checkpoint). No matter what I did, however, even meeting the tuck in time perfectly the next night, I constantly got the game over screen, to the point that it broke the flow of the game, and there was literally nothing I could do to appease the meter, forcing me to restart at one point. The world clock did not help, as it speeds through the day so relentlessly, that I could not finish a single mission to pay my bills without getting the game over screen, which was infuriating and definitely needs to be addressed before the final release, whether by having a little more leeway with the meter being replenished easier or in some other format relating to the world clock.
This should not scare players away, however, as this is exactly what a beta is for, to rout out any bugs and iron out the gameplay to a crease-free experience. Family Man has a lot of heart and a lot of promise in gameplay and story, and it is very clear that the developers at Broken Bear Games have much the same, and firmly grasp the type of story they want to tell. Family Man has had an incredible introduction, and I have no doubt that as development progresses, the game will continue to show that same heart and soul throughout the experience.
Check Out the Family Man Trailer:
Family Man will launch in 2019 for PC and consoles.
Your local neighborhood nutjob, gamer, and teacher! I'm an avid fan of many genres such as platformers, shooters, horror, etc. I am also an avid tabletop gamer - hugely into the worlds of Warhammer and all of their spinoffs. I'm a big believer in being objective - even if something is not my cup of tea, I want to talk about it on the objective level - is it well made, crafted with love, and with care for the fans? If so, that's a good game in my book for someone and well worth their hard earned dollarydoos!
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