Whilst at Brilliant Indie Treasures earlier in the year, I had the opportunity to play a handful of upcoming indie titles, and while wandering the floor, I spotted the slogan for Creatures Like Us plastered across the top of its monitor – Be Gay, Do Anarchy. That’s the kind of motto that gets you a half hour of my time, so I asked if I could jump in and give it a go.
Creatures Like Us opens strong, with a conversation between friends, having broken into an abandoned building to squat there. While talking, we’re tasked with barricading the windows so people can’t break in. You know, except us. Creatures Like Us is a narrative sim that’s for sure, and this is absolutely its strong point. It relies a lot on English slang and humour, poking jokes at things like the Thatcher administration and the current state of our country’s short-comings. They even have certain slang words underlined and an editor’s note if you don’t get the British slang; the dialogue made me giggle more than once.
Creatures Like Us is unapologetically itself, which I find makes it very charming. As the friends keep digging at one another, we set up camp inside the house we’ve chosen for the night. Each friend has a resource meter so we can’t overload them with jobs and have to share the load. Unfortunately, while playing through the demo and setting my fox friend onto a job, the game locked up and completely froze. It’s only a demo, so I wasn’t upset; but I was having fun up until that point!
If you’re looking for a unique narrative sim to play, turn your attention to this one. Just remember, Creatures Like Us won’t pull its punches, so keep an open mind.
Creatures Like Us is currently awaiting its full release date on Steam, and is available to wishlist.