Fired

(Warning: This review might contain spoilers. Click to show the full review.)

In a competition that tends to have long and substantial parser titles that demand all your attention, it's always nice to play a short, nice parser game.

You just got laid off from a shitty job, and you're planning to get back at your boss when you found out that the documents you were planning to leak had been taken away from you.

It's been years since I've played an Inform game with a score system, but I don't mind it. They're a quick and easy way to know I'm heading in the right direction. The puzzles are simple and intuitive for the most part as they focus on examining objects and using items in the right situations. But that kind of signposting is always appreciated.

The game also has one of the most amusing >x myself responses that I've seen in an IFComp entry:

There is one puzzle relating to a [spoiler]blob[/spoiler] that felt very guess-the-verb compared to the other puzzles. But thankfully, there's a > help command that explicitly tells you where to go and what you should do.

All in all, this is a nice appetizer for parser games in IFComp 2025. It's a cute, well-scoped game that doesn't take up much of your time -- I beat it in 30 minutes -- and I had a pleasant time helping our protagonist retaliate against capitalism.

You've been fired.

Your boss is a jerk. And has committed acts of fraud, embezzlement, harassment and other crimes. Fortunately, you've been collecting proof. Proof that you can take and hand off to the authorities! You have a printed stack of emails ready to go and....

Wait, where did the stack go?

Someone has taken your stack of evidence. Will you search for it, or leave your ex-job behind empty-handed?

Gameplay
The player navigates a small-sized map of an office building, starting in the protagonist’s crummy “office.” Using a meager box of belongings, the player must gain access to areas deemed off-limits to the average corporate employee. You know you’re getting somewhere when the all-purpose industrial grade floors become carpet.

The game has a max score of 20 points. Points are generally earned through sneaky actions and/or destructive sabotage. It was satisfying to get a full score. Ironically, it requires you to do some (Spoiler - click to show)highly illegal things.

I ran into some guess-the-verb issues, primarily when (Spoiler - click to show)exploring the basement for the first time. It’s dark in there, so you need a light source. You have your lighter (and your 5th anniversary “gift” from your boss) which you drop, leaving you in darkness. I figured that "Find lighter" or "Search floor" would have worked, but they are not implemented. Instead, the solution is “Take lighter” which made less sense since we can’t see where the lighter fell. That said, the game has a helpful hint system to nudge the player in the right direction.

Story/Characters
Fired embraces the familiar premise of an office employee (or in this case, an ex-employee) getting revenge on their immoral boss. It does not offer anything new, however. Does it need to? Arguably not. I’m just left with some questions. (Spoiler - click to show)Why is there a key in the microwave? Was the protagonist fired because of the evidence gathering, or was it unrelated and the printouts merely taken after their desk was emptied out?

Nonetheless, there is still a strong sense of satisfaction at undermining a self-centered and immoral boss. The player strongly feels like they are on the protagonist’s side.

There are multiple endings. You can leave the building at any time to end the game, but the outcome will depend on the actions you took. Your main objective is to retrieve the printouts, but secondary goals such as (Spoiler - click to show)covering your tracks are highly encouraged. That, and getting your poster back. You can take additional steps to gain revenge on your boss, but it's not required to get a decent ending.

Conclusion
Well-rounded, consistent, but not a lot of depth. And implementation could be a bit smoother. That said, its well-roundedness balances out its lack of exposition. I am pleased with my experience.

If you enjoy office settings and/or want a parser game with fairly easy puzzles that is light on story, Fired might be a good fit for you.

Olaf Nowacki is a popular figure in both English and German IF, with games like Schief/Wry and Fischstäbchen/Eat the Eldritch having made a splash in past years.

This game is fairly small and compact but has a strong voice and characterization. I'd describe it as anti-capitalist and just anti-work in general.

You play as a worker being fired from their crummy job and bent on revenge. But the evidence you meticulously collected has been stolen by your boss!

You have to recover it, in the process overcoming a ludicrously anti-worker building and boss's lair (parts of which definitely reminded me of past jobs! I had a desk in a closet once) to defeat him.

There are multiple endings (with worse endings usually giving hints for better endings) and lots of funny commentary.

There are a couple of rough edges carried over from German; Forklift in German is Gabelstapler, which I thought was just a stapler when I first played, so I picked it up and tried to staple things with it (which makes for a very amusing picture in my mind, now). This version still lets you pick up the forklift, but I don't think I found any other errors.