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Review
Errand Run is a short Twine work, nominally about going to the grocery store, but all is not what it seems. It has a few choices that I feel work well to keep the player engaged, (Spoiler - click to show)although there’s no real branching.
The writing sketches out an intriguing portrait of the PC in a short amount of time and doles out “wait, what?” details with carefully calculated escalation. By the time the player reaches the ending, the broad strokes of the situation are unlikely to be a surprise, but there’s still a lot that’s unexpected in the way those lines are filled in, with some striking, well-chosen imagery. The Twine styling is Harlowe default, but the use of text effects and colors was effective and I never found it unpleasant to read or distracting.
(Spoiler - click to show)Some players may be disappointed that the game isn’t the realistic exploration of social issues that it seems at first to be, but I feel it is fairly easily read as a metaphor; at least, there’s some authentic resonance with the way depression or hopelessness can feel. You go through the motions, and that’s comforting in a way, but you’re never truly unaware of your awful situation (whatever the particulars of that may be), and are dogged by the sense that whatever you’re doing is pointless. Why are you even bothering to run your errands when it won’t fix anything? I also think the setup being what it is makes those resonances stronger compared to other takes on this twist that I’ve seen where the character’s pre-apocalypse life was more comfortable and/or the motions they’re going through are of something that should be neutral to enjoyable. Even leaving aside the metaphor for a moment, there’s a certain poignance in taking comfort in playacting a hated chore because you’d rather be doing even that than experiencing the situation you’re in now.It won’t be to everybody’s tastes, of course, but it’s a short enough piece that I think it’s worth checking out. I found it well-crafted and look forward to trying this author’s other entries.
