izigame.me

Yuppie Psycho is a blend of the adventure, horror, and point-and-click genres.
Before reading this you should know that I'm not into occult themes at all. I actually really dislike them. I try to be objective when reviewing, but my dislike for the themes have undoubtedly tainted this one. Even disregarding that, Yuppie Psycho has a few controversial design choices that may also be difficult to stomach.
Premise
Brian Pasternack gets a job offer at SintraCorp for no apparent reason. After a few introductory sequences you find out that he's been hired as a Witch Hunter, to kill the witch that's haunting the SintraCorp skyscraper. Your job from there on out is to find a way to accomplish that, while navigating the absurd architecture of the building and avoiding monsters and colleagues that may not be what they seem.
Gameplay
Cycles between point-and-click sections where you have to solve puzzles, and typical horror "hide-and-seek" with monsters. Death is mostly telegraphed in a way that's easy to understand (as in, don't approach the giant mouth on the wall that is offering you a clue on her slippery tongue). I rarely felt that death came suddenly and unexpectedly... which is good because of this game's unique...!
Save System
A controversial point for this game. Brian can photocopy his face onto "witch paper", which saves a snapshot of his soul at that particular moment. If he ever dies, you can reload his soul and try again. The catch is though that witch papers are finite. Not only that, most photocopiers in this game need an ink cartridge before they'll function. This means you'll be spending resources in order to perform what most games today give for free.
Now, I'm not against unique save systems: the thing this game is going for is making you really feel scared of dying by enforcing this system. You need ink cartridges to activate the save points, and you also need witch papers to use the save points. Saving has a price: do you save now and risk not being able to do it later?
I get it.
But in practice it's just annoying. I had several points where I just wanted to quit, and I had to plan my game sessions around if I had a witch paper available or not. Half-way through the game you also meet a character that sells you stuff in exchange for... witch papers! So not only is it used for saving, but shopping too! The items are one-offs, and only one of them is required to beat the game, but still. If you're a person who saves twice out of habit, you're going to have a really bad time.
And you ARE going to replay sections you have already played. Is it worth the price? I don't know, you be the judge.
We hate YOU, the player
Despite deaths being telegraphed well and I appreciate it, there are other things in this game that are just there to waste your time. More than anything, they feel like the devs just hate your guts.
On the main story path (more on that below) you come across a section where you have the option to save your friends. The problem? One of those friends can't be saved unless you collected 3 cardboard boxes beforehand. It's past a point of no return, so you need to have done it before the quest actually appears. Two of the cardboard boxes are easy, they're on the main path. The third one has always been in an unreasonable location. But wait! There's more: the devs actually moved this box to an even more convoluted location in a patch! Why? To "improve" the game.
There's nothing telling you you need these things. There's nothing even suggesting the third box is in such an unintuitive location. You can even SELL them (no buyback of course, tee hee!). To add insult to injury, cardboard boxes are all over this game, but you need these particular ones.
And you need them in order to get the best ending. Absolutely putrid. No, I'm not one of your groupies that loves this game unconditionally. I'm not replaying it, dealing with the annoying save system just to get another ending. This game could've been a masterpiece of storytelling and character development and it still wouldn't have been worth it. Life's too short to deal with stuff like this.
Endings
There are several, and they're the main driving point of this game. There are two main branching paths (the original and the DLC), and they're pretty different. I got onto the DLC path by accident, which I think spoils the reveal of the main path. If you want to avoid it, make sure to never use the bloody key if you come across it.
As for the endings themselves they're mostly different flavors of the main two paths. They're decent, I don't have much else to say about them.
Closing Thoughts
If you're a fan of horror with occult themes, you'll like this. Despite all I said in this review, I believe that if you love that stuff, this is probably one of the best.
For me, all the cons piled up and couldn't be redeemed because I just don't like it.
Besides, I think this game is out to waste your time too much for me to recommend it to anyone else but the aforementioned fans of the genre.
If I could, I'd rate this neutral, but since I can't, it's a not recommend.