To Recurrent Resident: Envelope Review

All images are from Envelope by Skaar Game Productions and Numme, all images are by me

What is the most mundane 9 to 5 you’ve ever worked? Personally, I’m no stranger to mopping floors or bagging groceries to an outdated playlist that loops every 80 minutes. Staring at the clock, have you ever found yourself wishing something terrible would happen just so you could feel alive–anything to make the hours tick by just a little bit faster?

Michael, the protagonist of indie thriller Envelope, finds himself in a similar situation when he’s given a mysterious note. Someone has his girlfriend, and if he wants to see her again, he’ll need to assassinate a stranger–a heavily guarded stranger. This might seem simple as far as video game stories go–but he’s soon confronted with complication after complication. The gun your contact hands over isn’t even loaded. Who should he trust? What should he do?

What will you do?

A playthrough of Envelope is neatly folded into three acts. The first act is spent performing chores at a filthy gas station (you won’t return to this sad gray box of fluorescent lights and tube meat unless you really want to). Act 2, where you’ll spend the majority of your play time, is focused on exploration in a small, thoughtful open world–talking with NPCs, completing side quests, and gathering the resources necessary to pull off the hit. And finally, act 3 sees you infiltrating the mansion of your target with light combat and stealth . 

Once your shift is over, the narrative sets you free until you feel like you’re ready to do what must be done. Act 2 isn’t a cage, you can leave through the tunnel at any point. Many problems have more than one solution (but not all–this is not an immersive sim). Shooting is accurate and responsive, but given the scarcity of ammo, it’ll only be used for special occasions. Depending on what approach you decide to take, there’s a good chance that a sizable chunk of your initial trip will be spent scrounging for cans and digging up spare change. Straying from the paths and pavement is regularly rewarding even if it just results in a few lines of bizarre dialogue. 

Despite its dark content, the only things that could qualify as jump scares are a couple instances when you’re suddenly shouted at. 

All this is presented in a style that is very Nintendo 64 or maybe even DS–low poly models and flat textures (the latter being so flat it’s no wonder the grocery store employees need to show you around–I couldn’t tell you what any of those shelves contained). In general, I’m a fan of this type of art direction and here it only adds to the surreal story the game is telling. I encountered no crashes, no bugs, and didn’t clip through any level geometry during my six total hours with it. 

If the context I’ve sprinkled throughout this write-up hasn’t given it away (and don’t worry, I won’t be going into the narrative reason for this), Envelope is designed to be played multiple times. As far as I can tell, only a couple passwords get randomized between runs, so each trek through its farmland, suburb, and forest should be exponentially faster than the ones before it. For the record, my first thorough playthrough clocked in at 2.5 hours but all additional sprints came in around the 30 minute mark. Put in that early legwork and you’ll have all the important landmarks memorized going forward. Use the dynamite for this–the planks for that. Sick of backtracking? The map is littered with smart fast travel opportunities. 

However, there is one brutal flaw here (and if you’ve read any chatter online about this title, you probably already know what it is).

There are no saves in Envelope. There are no checkpoints. You are locked into your macabre mission until you succeed or die. And while the “aha!” moments of discovering something new are satisfying–losing 20 minutes is losing 20 minutes no matter how you cut it and that will never not suck. When I lost two runs in a row the same way even though I’d spent an entire prep period trying to mitigate that specific risk (one death occurred because the game unequipped my revolver, the second because I thought I was shooting at one enemy when in reality it was two that had clipped through each other like murderous nesting dolls), I no longer cared what the bathroom key or antique coin did. The game presents itself in a way that you should just try things–act out all your crazy ideas, but when the margin for error is paper thin, in reality, it encourages playing it safe.   

Outside of incorporating saves or checkpoints of some sort, I’m not sure what the “fix” for this would be. The game does eventually dole out starting bonuses based on challenges you’ve completed (such as digging a certain number of holes), but once I knew what I wanted to accomplish, I needed the steps in between to be faster. Perhaps incorporating a Majora’s Mask style bank (to store your excess cash) or Blue Prince’s Coat Check (to stash an item for later) would help ease some of that frustration.   

Still, I haven’t played anything quite like this in some time. Envelope offers an intriguing hook, and as a whole, makes a strong case that more devs should experiment with tiny open worlds. It’s an envelope worth popping the seal for fans of psychological thrillers–but maybe stop licking that adhesive strip before the stale aftertaste coats your tongue completely. 

69/100

Note: The developer of Envelope is releasing an update on October 11th. This review was written with a version of the game before that update went live. I’m not sure what it includes. 

*This review was conducted using a Steam key provided by the developer through Keymailer.*