Really nice game,not only in terms of style, but also the story and how do you feel while playing. Simple and direct to the point, maybe it could have an extra mechanic or made some more ellaborated, but is a really good game
I love the Big Con. First of all, I love the indie art style and the original plot. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. Even though I saw some of the story's elements from a mile away, it didn't affect my experience at all, and I enjoyed it still. However, there were some things that could be edited to make the game more captivating for slightly older and mature audiences. The 'pickpocket' mechanic could be slightly more advanced than just holding down a button, and the 'distracting the cashier' could be dependent on how well you could understand people based on their dialogue. For example, upon noticing a picture on the cashier's table: 'Who's that?' 'My daughter. Next to her is that two-faced lying toad of a man that she ran away with.' This could mean that he was angry, and the player could distract him as such. Personally, in the actual game, I just relied on the special sound effects for each emotion for my distractions.
I wish there was just 1 or 2 more gameplay mechanics in play here as there is cool here. I enjoyed the story and the setting of the game, but I just felt it was just 1 more more element to make it standout.
The Big Con shows the player some genuine consideration by being irredeemably boring right from the start. Another game would trick the player by making the first few scenes fun, or by putting a gameplay hook near the beginning of the player experience. The Big Con does away with these notions early on and frees the player to decide whether they really want to plod through some pretty bad writing and extremely bad gameplay for longer than the unbearably long opening location.
The Pros:
1. the art style is very appealing
The Cons:
1. the game play - extremely shallow, there is 1 minigame and it's so easy I just turned it off since there was virtually no chance of failure and it just slowed the game down.
2. the game play (cont.) - when ted takes you to the 2nd zone it almost feels like an assortment of con jobs was about to open up. I imagined grifting people at the mall, setting up a 3 card monte table or cobbling together trash to create counterfeit merchandise but it's just more pickpocketing.
3 the game play (cont.) - there was some optional "puzzles" to complete at the mall but pick pocketing the comedian, which you can do immediately, gives all the money you need for the level so there's no reason to do them.
4 the items - 90% of all the items you pick up are a waste of space you'll just sell at the end of the level, the relevant items are special collector items for the level and quest items. If you pick up every item on the level the game will combine the relevant items together for you so just mindlessly collecting items, pick pocketing, and talking to everyone will move the game along. I would have liked to combine different items, use them to create items to scam and con people with.
5 mindlessly moving along is by design - it's clear the gameplay isn't the focus, the aesthetic and writing is. the point is to move you along and have you hear all the funny dialogue and characters. while some of the characters are charming and some of the writing is clever, it's not enough to stand alone
6 the 90s setting is wasted - "the 90s" is just an excuse to be wacky and "radical". there's no real 90s references, no collecting of pogs, "pokemon" cards or beanie babies, no moon bounce shoes, or green slime or anything a kid who grew up in the 90s would have remembered. there is only a thin veneer of a vague 90s aesthetic and the really that is all the game has going for it.
7 the dialogue boxes cover up too much of the characters during conversations, only Ali and Rad Ghost are properly aligned so the dialogue doesn't cover half their face or body. Also during conversations Ali will grunt or yell "WHAT?" abruptly and often it doesn't match the tone of the conversation well.
Overall I think this game concept had a lot of potential but didn't really do anything with it. The writing and story is passable if it's just a foundation for interesting gameplay and mechanics but as the main focus it's a complete failure. If there was ways to craft and combine items to pull off interesting cons, it could be great, but simply running around the map spamming the pick pocket button is not interesting or engaging gameplay.
SummaryHustle through the 90s in THE BIG CON, an adventure game where you're an awkward teen hustling to save her family video store from gangsters. Play as Ali, a high school junior gone AWOL from band camp to seek revenge on the loan sharks that threaten her mom's video store. (Fighting with your mom is YOUR job. No one else gets to do that.)...