Smile For Me

Release Date: May 31, 2019

Adventure, FPP, indie games, Surrealism, singleplayer

7.2

OpenCritic

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An FPP adventure game mixing humor with rather distrubing content. Smile for Me is set in a place called the Habitat, with the player being tasked to help its inhabitants and bring smiles back onto their faces.

Plot
Mechanics
Technical aspects

Smile for Me is an FPP adventure game with an unusual sense of humor and plenty rather disturbing moments to offer. It was developed by an independent studio LimboLane and published by Serenity Forge.

Plot

Smile for Me is set in a place called the Habitat. It's where unhappy people head to regain joy in their lives. Even at first glance, however, there's something wrong hiding under the surface - the buildings are long past their glory days, while the mysterious Doctor Habit who runs the place rarely shows himself to anyone, using a puppet to represent him during late-night TV broadcasts.The main protagonist's task is bringing smiles back to people's faces and uncovering Doctor Habit's true intentions.

Mechanics

The gameplay of Smile for Me is shown from the first-person perspective. The Habitat consists of six locations, between which we can freely travel. The player will encounter its residents, learn what troubles them and help them solve their problems. Conversations with NPCs are rather unusual; the protagonist is mute and can only communicate by nodding or shaking their head.

Our objectives are rather varied; they range from finding a superhero costume to more outlandish requests, such as making a steak out of... wood and bolts or retrieving a CD stuck in a pool of acid. There are also numerous puzzles to solve. In addition to simple puzzles requiring finding a specific item, there are also some more complex ones; a number of them also incorporate the time of day. The day and night cycle plays a large role in the Habitat. Nightfall means a curfew period and not abiding to it may end rather unpleasantly. Even disregarding that, we should still return to our rooms for the night as to not faint from exhaustion.

Over time we earn the respect of the local community and draw Doctor Habit's attention, the good leader being rather displeased with our work. He thus vents his frustrations during successive broadcast, bringing to mind Eastern European science programs from the communist period.

Technical aspects

The visuals of Smile for Me make use of a distinctive cartoonish artstyle, combining 3D environments with 2D characters. Though the game mostly looks as if it was cut out of paper or cardboard, there are also some realistically looking objects present.

Videos and Screens

[1:37] Smile For Me trailer #1

7.2

OpenCritic Rating

Game is Recomended by 51% of Critics. There are 8 Critic Reviews.

OpenCritic

PlayStation Universe: 8 / 10 by Neil Bolt

Silly, surreal, unsettling, and quietly effective at delivering its message. Smile For Me's abstract nature can be a barrier, but breaking through it will allow you to experience a very distinct adventure.

Full Review

Niche Gamer: 6 / 10 by Fingal Belmont

Smile For Me is an amusing but very short adventure game with some clever puzzles. The art style helps it stand out and the out-of-nowhere horror elements are a welcome twist. The queer stuff is out of place and makes the game seem like it’s more aimed at socially conscious manchildren instead of actual children.

Full Review

Hey Poor Player: 4.5 / 5 by Heather Johnson Yu

I’m not sure if I’ve ever played a game like Smile for Me before; I’m equally certain I don’t want to play another one like it ever again. My skin has not stopped crawling since putting down the controller, and I know there are some key moments from Smile for Me that will randomly haunt me for years to come. For a game that isn’t scary, Smile for Me is incredibly creepy in all the right ways; with that being said, it’s somehow still alluring — even welcoming. If you’ve chanced upon a frowny face in the mirror recently and believe a smile will cure what ails you, consider checking into the Habitat — Smile for Me might do the trick (for better or worse)!

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