Game Review: Doug Hates His Job (Xbox One)

From Super Villain Games, Doug Hates His Job is dedicated to the everyone who hates their job. Jack of all trades, master of none. That’s Doug Hates His Job in a nutshell. A game that tries so many different things but fails to nail any of them.

Doug is a disgruntled office employee who has grown to despise his job, co-workers and boss. If you’ve ever worked in the office environment you will certainly find yourself relating. The tongue in cheek dialogue, the eccentric characters and the general story plays out in a surreal way. You’re never quite sure just what is really happening and what isn’t.

That in itself isn’t a problem. The idea of Doug using his imagination to turn mundane tasks into gamer style challenges is a good one. The problem is that none of them are done well.

There are eight different gameplay styles and none of them are enjoyable. Most are near unplayable and even if you can get to grips with it, you’ll find them either incredibly boring or incredibly frustrating.

The latter is what you’ll experience with the first segment, a ‘Streets of Rage’ style beat ‘em up that culminates in a boss that seems near impossible to beat. Many may find themselves giving up completely here unless they realise the trick is to just jump kick the boss over and over again to avoid getting pasted. It’s as rubbish as it sounds and is the same trick that will have to be deployed with the final boss too.

Elsewhere you can take part in a driving segment, a FPS segment, a platforming segment and even a quiz. There’s quite a bit of variety but as we’ve already said, they’re all poorly done. Had the focus been on just a few and effort put in to make those work well, we’d be able to talk about Doug Hates His Job in a much more positive way.

Instead we’ve got awful controls, awkward and sluggish movements, poor hit detection and more. Simply put Doug Hates His Job just doesn’t work. Which is such a shame as the idea and story isn’t terrible. The dry and witty writing does work and the multiple choice replies makes you feel more in control. Especially as it affects the direction of the game and what segments you will play through.

Although that does mean you’ll have to play the game more than once. If you want to get all the achievements and trophies.

It’s just not a good game.




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Doug Hates His Job
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