There comes a time in every man’s life (or woman’s, we don’t discriminate here at AJnet) when you scroll through your Steam library and realize you’ve spent years hoarding games you’ve never touched. Hundreds of them, maybe more, all bought during sales or bundled into those “too good to pass up” Humble deals.
For me, that time came during a snowstorm at the end of January.
The office was closed, everyone was “free to work from home,” and instead of pretending to be productive, I did what any reasonable person would do: I played video games. After putting some time into Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 and NieR: Automata, I decided to dig into the backlog and check out some of the smaller random games in my library.
That’s when I came across Say No! More.
I’ll be honest, I have absolutely no idea when I bought this game. It’s almost certainly Humble Bundle filler though. You all know exactly what I mean here. You buy a bundle for two games that you want, and suddenly you’re now the proud owner of 15 other titles that sit there collecting digital dust forever. I’m pretty sure that describes about 3/4 of my Steam library.
The game’s name caught my eye and the file size was only a gig, so I figured I’d give it a try.
I’m glad I did, it’s actually kind of fun.
The point of Say No! More is to say “No”. That’s it. That’s all you do. You go around the office telling your obnoxious coworkers “No”.
This sounds boring and stupid. And realistically, it should be. But it’s done so over-the-top that it’s mildly entertaining. You can even pick which language your character says “No” in. I went with Japanese, because why not?
I created my character, and off I went:
Your character is an intern starting at an unnamed company. The game begins with your manager placing you and two other interns at desks in a small area behind a vending machine. He then decides he wants your lunch, and runs off with your pink rainbow unicorn lunchbox.
Is this something that commonly happens in office jobs? I’m not sure. The worst food-related offense we’ve had at our office was some monster who left half of a banana in a plastic cup in the fridge:
As your character sits at their desk, a Walkman falls from above. This Walkman contains a cassette tape from an 80’s fitness guy who looks like a cross between Hulk Hogan and Ben Stiller’s character from Dodgeball. The tape teaches you how to say “No!”.
And by “say” it, I mean wield it like you’re the goddamn Dragonborn from Skyrim.
Within minutes, you’re using your newfound ability to shout down bossy coworkers and yeet them out windows, as you chase down your stolen lunchbox.
Once you catch up to the manager, you use your powers to launch him through a door into a meeting. But before you can get your lunchbox back, another manager (who looks suspiciously like Austin Powers) swipes it, and the chase begins anew.
The game is basically just you chasing down different managers with your lunchbox, and you saying no to an assortment of bossy coworkers who get in your way during the pursuit. Occasionally you’ll encounter a stronger coworker, and the cassette tape teaches you a different way of saying no. I don’t think it’s even possible to lose at this game. It’s so simple, it’s so ridiculous, but somehow it’s strangely fun.
It’s apparent that the target demographic for this game is demoralized office drones. While it does make many valid points about the state of our white collar workforce, the game often gives off an air similar to what you’d find being posted on r/Antiwork. For example, an employee laments that he was told not to dance at his desk, because dancing is how he “expresses himself”. Here at our company, we have a very efficient way of expressing ourselves. It’s called speech, and humans have been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years.
Say No! More gets kind of preachy with its message, but as someone whose job is to instruct companies on how to boost employee morale, many of the complaints that the game has with work culture are legitimate. I’m kind of happy to see this generation trying to address them, even if I think some of their complaints are whiny BS.
Other than the knucklehead who was upset about not being able to dance at his desk, the other workers have legitimate gripes. Things like being forced to work weekends, rushed project deadlines, or having to listen to a coworker tell bad jokes. This culminates in an employee rebellion, and the player teaching a group of workers to say no.
Next thing you know, you’re having a “debate” with the CEO.
Except, it’s not really the CEO, just an actress named Steph (though she looks more like a “Francine”, if you ask me).
The real CEO is revealed to be one of your fellow interns, who was doing an undercover boss show.
By the end of the game (which is really short; I beat it in an hour and a half), you’re battling it out with the CEO of the company, getting thrown out of a skyscraper, going Super Saiyan, and launching half of the building into space.
Aside from my current job, I’ve never worked in an office, and I’ve never had a problem telling people no when it actually mattered. While I can’t really relate to Say No! More‘s message, I understand it.
Those who are part of that target demographic will probably find some catharsis in this game.
For those who aren’t office workers stuck in shitty jobs, the game probably won’t hit as hard. But it’s still kind of fun, and I think that we all have people in our lives who we want to yell “No!” at but can’t for whatever reason.
The biggest downside to Say No! More is its insane price tag.
The only thing more silly and absurd than the game is the fact that the developers expect you to pay $14.99 for it:
This game is fun, but it’s not that fun. I’d say it’s only worth $2, maybe $5 at best. I get the feeling though that this is one of those games that’s always on sale for 90% off, or included with various Humble Bundles. If you’re going to buy this game, definitely don’t pay full price for it.
I’ll give Say No! More a 7/10. It’s low budget and stupid, but it’s still a fun little time waster. Office workers and regular Joes alike will definitely get a kick out of it.
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