The Office Quest review for Nintendo Switch

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Also On: PC
Publisher: 11Sheep
Developer: 11Sheep
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E10+

From my perspective, the good news about The Office Quest is that it checks off all my requirements for being a fun adventure game: it?s short, it?s relatively easy, and it?s got a good sense of humour.

Of course, as measurements go, at least two of those don?t really work. As much as I value those things, ?short? and ?easy? aren?t necessarily indicators of quality by any stretch of the imagination, and the amount of weight you give to both will depend on your personal preferences.

In the case of The Office Quest, however, as descriptors go, they?re indisputably true. This game has only four chapters, and you should be able to finish all of them in well under two hours. As for the level of difficulty, that may vary, but you?re not likely to find many points here where the solution seems impossible to figure out. Sure, there are a couple of moments where you have to make the kind of leaps of logic that you only find in adventure games — and even more to the point, there were a couple of times where I found a solution without any clue as to how I?d reached it — but, given that none of the chapters feature an overabundance of locations or items, even the toughest puzzles can be solved pretty quickly.

What makes The Office Quest worth playing, however, is its sense of humour. The game isn?t some laugh riot or anything — in fact, it?s mostly wordless, apart from the occasional shout of ?Work!? But, despite that, it still manages to convey a sense of fun and captures the absurdity of office life. You do a bunch of bizarre tasks, you dress up in weird clothes (in this case, animal costumes, for reasons that are never explained), and you interact with people who have strange demands all day. The game may take you far away from a typical office, but it still feels office-like, even — and perhaps especially — at its strangest.

On top of all that, it has a distinctive, sepia-toned art style that really makes it stand out from most other adventure games I?ve played. The game is built around an office worker trying to grab a bright orange light flitting around the screen, and the contrast between the brown/white/black colour palette and the orange really pops off the screen.

Even with less distinctive graphics, however, The Office Quest would still stand out, because, as I said, it?s loads of fun, and it does what it sets out to do with a minimum of fuss. It?s not going to convert people into adventure fans, but if you like a good point-and-click game, you should definitely give this one a shot.

11Sheep provided us with an Office Quest Switch code for review purposes.

Grade: B+