Civil Service

Adapted from an IFCOMP24 Review

Sometimes there are tales that hinge directly on one monster twist - they carefully build and sculpt and craft a narrative full of intriguing detail and then WHAM sucker punch the reader/viewer with a revelation that so expertly recontextualizes everything that has come before it is an electric shock of transformation. These twists are SO hard to do well - they must balance ‘fair play’ events and dialogue with in-context red herrings, neither too obvious nor tripping on their own deceptions. Against an audience trained to look for the twist they are even harder. Works that accomplish this like the legendary Sixth Sense or Usual Suspects are rightly lauded for pulling off what so few works can.

For these works, that one moment is the entire point of the piece, an instantaneous justification of the entire runtime, delivering a moment of crystal shock. Suppose a work instead decided, “what happens if you take that one bullet-sharp moment, and stretch it out over time, nearly the entire breadth of the work?” Instead of a blinding reversal, give us a slow, steady dawning of what must be true over what could be. Its rewards are not going to be as flashy. Instead there is a slow heating as we acclimate ourselves to the point of the piece. Obviously, I mean to imply Civil Service is one such work.

What’s so sparky about this approach here, is that this creeping realization mirrors the slow progression of the protagonist, slaving away in the confines of her unrewarding job, amidst uncaring associates, traversing the same journey we are. Maybe she’s ahead of us? Maybe behind? It is deliciously unclear and this uncertainty does an excellent job of aligning us with the protagonist. I definitely appreciated the somber, depressing mood, interspersed with the work periodically asking us to rate things on a depression-hope scale. If there was a narrative impact to these ratings, I did not detect it. Rather, it seemed to be asking US how the slow ramp was going, and helping frame our thoughts on the proceedings. That was a pretty unique and interesting use of interactivity.

You can see I’m dancing around this more than usual, because this is a true slow burn of a work. To the extent that there are spoilers to navigate, I cannot cherry pick a moment or two to blur and discuss the rest. The entire work is a slow, inexorable ramp of understanding and confirmation and any moment in isolation carries a full mix of its conceit and buildup. That is kind of a really clever trick, especially how clearly it mirrors the protagonist’s journey.

For me, it presented a tough reality though. The details of this journey are varied, as they would need to be to hold attention for this slow ascent. Flashbacks, a maybe-romance angle, exploring the space, NPC interactions. The details are varied but more of a piece than not in terms of mood. The mood of most of these is sad isolation, barring a few sparks of hope or anticipation. Those sparks do shine brighter against that backdrop, but boy that backdrop was dour.

One of the defining things about slow burns are that they are slow. While many of the day to day interactions were sparky, they were also a bit TOO relaxed, TOO low tension to erupt into true Engagment. The lack of surprise was kind of the point of the work, but that point also lacks a charge. It is more a resignation, a coming to peace. I never thought of myself as an adrenaline junky, and this conclusion may be more damning of me than the work. It pulled at me, swayed me in its rhythms, but did not pull me IN. Folks that can lose themselves better in the ride, this might land harder for them.

Played: 10/4/24
Playtime: 30m, finished
Artistic/Technical ratings: Sparks of joy/Seamless
Would Play Again?: No, experience feels complete

Artistic scale: Bouncy, Mechanical, Sparks of Joy, Engaging, Transcendent
Technical scale: Unplayable, Intrusive, Notable (Bugginess), Mostly Seamless, Seamless