Office Dares

It is said that all work and no play is never a good thing for the soul - so it’s important to be quite creative in whatever you do and make sure you inject some fun into it.

However, when you’re in the office it’s not exactly known for the entertainment factor (unless you’re lucky to have a really cool boss), and normally you’ll end up out of a job if you were to misbehave. But what if we could get away with it?

We’ve all seen or heard about the antics that some people go to around the office, whether it’s office Olympics or being creative with a photocopier, but it appears that there are plenty of other fun and risky things you can do around the office.

The plot of Office Dares is simple, you’re serving the last two weeks of your employment so it’s your ‘duty’ to wreak some revenge on your boss by playing pranks on your co-workers which will ensure they all quit one by one – taking the company down from the inside. Then, when you thought it couldn’t get much better, you get to prank your boss!

If you thought this was going to be a simple case of roaming around the office and breaking things or using things inappropriately, think again. This game’s a bit more of a ‘walk about and talk to people and gather information which you can then use to your advantage’ type. In a fairly straight forward way, you get to pick your ‘victim’ and then by chatting with them and others around the office, you start to build a picture of what will tip them over the edge and force their resignation.

Through following rather obvious clues (which do progressively get harder as the game goes along), you get to develop an idea of what to do. Whether it’s finding someone who really annoys your ‘victim’ and stir things up between them or by spreading a rumour, there’s quite a few prank missions for you to do.

As you manage to eliminate the various key figures who keep the business running, you’ll get a sense of justice by evening the score with your evil CEO. Through all the conversations and pranks, you’ll also get one step closer to knowing what’s the best prank to play on your boss.

Should you want to take a break from ‘the quest’, you have a couple of other features – namely ways to stay stress free and also some outrageous excuses for being late at work. The ‘paintball’ mini-game at work was good fun but very short-lived and easy to complete. The anecdotes of outrageous excuses and stress relief are pretty amusing and at first there are only a few you can read, but as you play the game more become viewable.

Overall then, this game is ideal for anyone who’s looking for some release from their stressful day at the office. I wouldn’t advise doing what they do in the game unless you fancy getting fired or getting a criminal record. That being said, the puzzle aspect is quite good and the game’s well detailed – even if the plot’s pretty thin and follows a very simple pattern.

Rating 77%

Positives

Good idea and pretty well executed

Neat graphics

Straight forward controls

Getting to play with other characters is a nice touch and makes it slightly different

Negatives

Sometimes you can’t move due to an interactive character pinning you as they move around

The clue gathering and prank playing is quite repetitive

The mini-game was a nice idea but all too easy to complete