This is the one hundred ninety-fifth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred ninety-fifth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is awkwardly mocking modern Western political discourse. It’s The Political Compass: Devil’s Labyrinth, by majestic12, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

See where you fall on the political compass spectrums

Reader, I would not take this claim too seriously.

The Political Compass: Devil’s Labyrinth is a visual novel, albeit an extremely short one: it only takes a few minutes to play. It’s a comedic game in which the Angel of Death tasks players with deciding whether a procession of souls should be saved, or condemned to eternal damnation. I only say “comedic” because that’s clearly the intent. I did not find The Political Compass funny. It’s nothing more than a sequence of stereotyped characters, each spouting an exaggerated monologue that is meant to be satirical. Players will meet such classics as a hippy, a crypto bro, a hipster who works in a bike shop, a bureaucrat, a queer person, and a neo-nazi. Players choose to damn or save each of these, and at the end are informed of the type of heaven they’ve created in terms of its position on the political spectrum.

This one feels juvenile to me. Its tone reminded me of those who sneer at the very concept of “politics”, who poke fun at any and all political stances, who feel it’s all overblown and a waste of time. Those who, whenever anyone gets upset at them, just insist it’s all a joke. These people, naturally, always come from privileged groups, able to simply ignore political discourse because they already enjoy all of society’s benefits. They do not understand the experience of marginalized groups, whose rights, livelihoods, and lives are the subject of that discourse. Like queer people, who face constant discrimination, harassment and violence. The queer character in The Political Compass: Devil’s Labyrinth is particularly egregious, aggressively insisting that the player character ask for their pronouns and generally being a nuisance. Making fun of a marginalized group like this is in particularly bad taste, especially when another character (the neo-nazi) is from a group that would commit acts of violence against the former. To be clear, the game does not condone the neo-nazi’s stance. But it’s certainly a poor fit for a bundle about addressing systemic injustice and inequality.

This game isn’t worth any more of your or my time. It’s sold for a minimum price of $2 (including Windows and Mac versions) but I don’t recommend buying it. Skip this one and move on.

That’s 195 down, and only 1546 to go!