Yuppie Psycho: Extended Edition places players in a surreal corporate hellscape. A brisk horror adventure crosses grim visuals and dark humor while providing hours of new content and context.
Capitalism kills. Money is the root of all evil. The devil… is in the dollar?
Yuppie Psycho embraces the insidious culture of climbing the corporate ladder. It is Silent Hill meets The Office. A black comedy meets demonic slasher.
Playing through the glut of first-person horror games over the past several years, sussing out a title that isn’t bottom-of-the-barrel Steam trash has been difficult. But perusing over a PlayStation or Switch sale I’ve noticed a similarly vast amount of small budget pixel art horror games with provocative cover art. How does one truly trust that any of these games will be more than just a smattering of gross-outs and jump scares?
After exploring the fluorescent depths of Yuppie Psycho, I appreciated how excruciatingly weird it tries to get. And how humorous it attempts to make gruesome moments. It was not a part of the traditional mode of what reactionary streamers and audiences judge as worthy. And for those who have already played through the base game, the Executive Edition adds hours of new content, including a few new endings to further flesh out the madness.
Brian Pasternack descends on players as a white bread kind of guy. He got a surprise letter in the mail deeming him worthy of employment at Sintracorp, what the game explains as one of the most important companies to have ever existed. But why did Brian, a lowly third-class citizen do to deserve such a lofty position?
Yuppie Psycho wastes no time crunching players into the mysterious labyrinth of Sintracorp HQ. An encounter with a smart-ass fellow employee and a kindly co-worker inflict contrasting ideals on Brian and the player. In this society, people refer to each other by their last names and often don’t talk to those of a lower class. Before boarding an elevator on their first day, players can scrounge around the lobby, searching the trash for items or gleaning other details based on Brian’s thoughts.
This is an exploration game where players with the most agonizing attention to detail will delight in the amount of world-building they receiving just by pushing a button next to a pixelated texture that looks like a thing. Clump of clothes on a bench? Text to digest. Water cooler? Some health-restoring gulps, perhaps. That computer desk? A possible reflection on the world state.
Taking its cues from point-and-click adventures games across the decade, Yuppie Psycho uses its limited visuals to allow players the opportunity to fill in the blanks where the developers didn’t think of every detail. It might be exhausting for some to investigate every corner of Sintracorp but I found that it enhanced my appreciation of the game’s mood. Players get a sense of Brian’s personality and state of mind from what he says during his observations, usually acting as a vehicle for the player. Will he remark on a startling scene with terror of a straight face?
As Brian hops into the elevator on his first day he is taken to a top level of Sintracorp. When the doors open, a trail of blood leads to an ominous message: “Kill the Witch.” Players can’t progress the game until they sign a contract indicating that Brian will receive a generous payment and an upgrade in his social status upon completion of the task.
The remainder of Yuppie Psycho stems from this bloody quest. Brian traverses the many floors of Sintracorp encountering twisted versions of typical corporate institutions. Human resources, reception. Instead players see a bacchanalia of nude coworkers bowing down before crimson, fanged lips embedded in a wall.
My favorite part of Yuppie Psycho was the slow descent into serene madness. As Brian begins to uncover just what the hell is going on at his new job, the monstrosities begin to grow more complex and vile. This is not a “scary” game per se, it’s more of a journey through a psychological jungle that is less common than you may think in gaming.
There’s an interesting juggle that developer Baroque Decay made between the humorous absurdity of Brian’s coworkers simply existing in all the chaos. Blood might be trailing along the carpets and a hive of workers may be clacking away at keyboards like zombies. But then a side character will make an asinine comment that intentionally strips away the horror of the situation.
Yuppie Psycho: Executive Edition review
It’s almost as if players are never meant to get their emotional bearings. A moment of levity is instead replaced by a terrifying beast chasing down Brian. A horrific scene is given awkward levity because it’s seen as run-of-the-mill for this cutthroat corporate world.
Thankfully, Yuppie Psycho does not follow the trend of obscure adventure games that have obtuse solutions to puzzles and exploration. Certainly there were a few times where I was stumped for a solution but I think it would betray the desperation of Brian and the player to figure out what the hell is going on if an answer was only a few clicks away. This is primarily a narrative journey where players are going to search for items that will aid in puzzles and survival. The key is staying away from menacing bosses without engaging in combat, sneaking around dimly lit offices, and trying not to be horrifically murdered.
I will say that while I can appreciate the ancient save system of requiring select items–Witch Paper and ink–at a photocopier to save progress… I don’t think a game like this needs something so dated. It works for nostalgia’s sake but not much else. Additionally, as charmed as I was by the game’s still cutscenes, I wish more of the actual playable stuff looked as good. Some of the eerie factor is simply lost when Brian is made of a few colored bits of pixels, looking like a stick figure with two dots as eyes. It’s definitely an aesthetic choice and one that will depend on the player.
Yuppie Psycho: Executive Edition is a perfect slice of game for players looking to enjoy a few hours of eerie narrative in an uncommon setting. The surreal, demonic setting of Sintracorp’s hellish corporate office is contrasted wonderfully with Brian’s slowly decaying optimism. For players who have already dived into the game, the Executive Edition is a perfect compliment that further expands on the world and offers just enough new content to feel fresh. First days are always hell.
