Worst Day Ever?
What do you do after having the worst day ever? Do you go out, take a nap, or eat? How about teaming up with ghosts to steal back a prized video game? Careful though: Destiny’s hot on your tail and doesn’t take kindly to those trying to re-write his story.
A Brush with Destiny
Delete After Reading is a text-based puzzle game developed by Patrones & Escondites. They’re a development studio based in Spain and have been in business since 2014. They aim to create unique projects that tell a story by combining gameplay, narrative and a candy-like aesthetic. They’ve certainly hit all the marks with this game.
In Delete After Writing, the player takes on the role of a young and troubled child. Having just had the worst day of their life, they find solace in examining a strange item they found earlier. It’s bright orange and resembles a phone or a calculator. Their mother almost catches them messing around, so they quickly begin to work on homework instead. Something whizzes by, catching their attention, and they swear it was.. a rabbit wearing sunglasses?
The strange device goes off after they spend a bit of time hunting for the rabbit, and on it is a challenge. After hunting around the room for clues and solving the puzzle, a classified document appears. It tells the player how it knows they’ve just had a horrid day and that Destiny is to blame. It asks the player if they’d like to join a small rag-tag group of individuals fighting against Destiny’s tyranny.
This marks the end of chapter one and all the free content. The full version of Delete After Reading is available for $5.37 plus tax. The rest of the game involves teaming up with ghosts Cinco and Nina, and a rabbit named Tomate, who never goes anywhere without his tie, hat, and sunglasses. Together you break into an auction house to discover who rigged the auction of the world’s best game ever, The Curse of Penguin Island.
You make your way into the mansion of the greedy Skrillhex and manage to find the game but watch out! Skrillhex’s men are onto you; you’ll need to work together to make it out in one piece. Take caution, however, and be sure to delete everything after reading, lest Destiny finds out you’ve changed his plans.
Look Carefully Now
Delete After Reading sports a modern layout with roguish cartoons that draw a player in. This truly is a text-based game as players tap on colored text to reveal the next part of the story. Sound effects play with every tap while fun music plays in the background.
Images are placed between paragraphs to help break up the text. Players can even interact with some to look for clues or solve a puzzle. Often you’ll have to scroll back up to review information previously thought unimportant. Thankfully the game offers free hints, although there is a limited number. If something truly stumps you, and the hints aren’t entirely cutting it, then your best bet is to turn to the internet for a solution.
Puzzle answers through the first four chapters remain the same when replayed, but chapter five is a bit different. Instead of logic-based puzzles, players must rely on fine motor skills to click the right button when prompted. If you mess up, you’re taken back to the beginning of the chapter. The prompts change with every run, so players have to stay on their toes to beat the final chapter.
