I really liked how the game created a dark atmosphere. Specifically towards the end, this atmosphere became very perceptible, and the soundtrack is catchy as well.
(What's not so great and feels like it cancels the 'money' game mechanic is the simple trick to only pay food, heat and son's medicine every other day without any disadvantages.)
But, I am unhappy with how this game gives citations for "Invalid gender" without sufficiently addressing this topic.
Of course the game is also about making uncomfortable choices, but at the same time, there are no significant lines of text or characters with any trans references. The only place that could possibly be read as such, namely the response lines upon questioning the entrant about the "discrepancy" ("The passport is correct.", "As the document says."), are very generic. With this, the game never offers any inner lore reason to decide pro the entrant – unlike it does with many other subjects for an interesting decision based on fundamentally different incentives.
Thus, the game does nothing to explain what specific consequences and implications a decision to reject or detain an entrant with a non-conforming gender entry would have in real life, which makes this aspect of the game appear like it was added without thought. In this context, it is also to be noted that the passports read "Sex" and the citation reads "Gender", which does not appear to be intentional. More likely than not, the author was not aware of the fact that the terms should not be used as synonyms.
To conclude, in this game, the only reason one would have a non-matching gender entry in their passport (that is, not matching the subject's genitals) is that the passport is forged – because the author did not think of any other reasons why this might be the case. This is not an adequate representation of this sensitive topic.
01.08.2021 | revised 27.04.2025