Atom GRRRL!!

Two femme looking people standing in a cafe. A masc looking person stands behind the counter.
As I sit here, wide-eyed, considering the choices that led me to this moment, I struggle to find words to describe what I just went through. I think I’ve just played the most offensive game of my life.

Now I know some things are ~edgy, and it’s cool that they’re ~edgy, and I know that I live a tame life. But ATOM GRRRL!! just really assaults you on all fronts, and to be honest, if I wasn’t playing this for the QGJ I’m not sure I would have gotten through the whole thing. It seems to be trying to pull off a hardcore, Pulp Fiction/South Park/something-by-Seth-Macfarlane mix of dark and crude humour, but there’s a point where it goes too far. To me at least, there’s an obvious point where things are no longer funny, they’re just straight up offensive and they aren’t clever. There’s so much racist, sexist, homophobic language thrown around here, and it’s definitely a case of ‘let’s use a million expletives just to show how tough they are’. But it’s not tough, it’s lazy and boring. Not to mention the various rape scenes that were either treated as a casual joke or… used for effect? I’m not sure what the goal was, but the result was damn uncomfortable. Then there were the group of people that seemed to exist only to be treated as sex slaves, and… ugh, I don’t even want to mention all the offensive things included in this title, because to be honest, I’d rather not think about them – and I’m not even someone for whom these things are typically triggers. I can’t imagine how awful it would be for someone who was.

You should play this if…

No, you just shouldn’t. I can’t recommend it. I love a crude (but clever) joke as much as the next person, but this is just trying too hard and going too far. Plus the text is hard to read and there seems to be no point on the text box transparency slider that actually makes it easier.