Leah Looks At: Joe’s Diner
Joe’s Diner is one of the more recent additions provided by the developer VIS – Visual Imagination Software, and publisher United Independent Entertainment GmbH.
I have gotten a glimpse of this offering through the PlayStation 4 online store.
The player character is one that must work the night shift at Joe’s Diner, which occupies a remote and rural location upon Route 7 (a similar location near myself lies upon Highway 7), that just screams to me of a classic local diner whose once prosperous days are now sadly numbered.
Local legend would have it that this once-relevant, previously thriving piece of classic Americana has been built upon a Cursed Native American burial ground. The opening texts to this video game state that this cursed cemetery holds two specific occupants, two chieftains that did not get along in life, nor do they in death. These restless souls are in an incessant battle for dominance. One simply wants to rest in peace, and the other is on a constant quest to violate that peace with as much noise as possible during the nighttime hours.
Your job is not only to clean the diner during the evening shift, but to also let the chieftain that wants to rest, rest in peace and quiet. This means running around frantically trying to keep the noise levels to a minimum. The prankster spirit will stop at nothing to try and irritate the stoic chieftain that vexed his living existence so, by turning on faucets, vacuum cleaners, and the like, all while you have to keep the diner clean as well.
Failure to keep up with the noise-making activities that pop up at random will lead to the main chieftain ‘Coming to Get You’ which equals being met with a graphic that reminds me of a Big Chief tablet from elementary school, oh no!
The repetitive tasks add up to some harsh, mostly negative reviews from players that have expected more from an indie horror game experience. Let me say one thing about this game before you rush to judgment. For what it’s lacking in cultural sensitivity, it more than makes up for by the developers having created a game that holds playability for the end user seeking family-minded content that is suitable for a broad age range. This game has no blood or gore. The suspense of keeping the noise levels to a minimum would hold relevance to a child playing this game. That, I think, is where the disconnect arises when reading other reviews that have been written about this title. It seems to me that this piece of software is being treated as a game geared toward adults, reviewed by adults, expecting an adult-oriented game. I really don’t think that’s the case here. I stepped into the experience expecting an adult-oriented game, and as such, I was prepared to give this one a poor rating.
However, after reflection upon my original impression, I’ve decided to take into account that this game isn’t intended for me as its target audience. I would recommend this game as an option for parents seeking something, anything that doesn’t have blood or gore but still holds action and relative suspense as a constant during gameplay.