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OUT OF THE BOX

Finding out the dark past that the main character tries so hard to keep bottled up is, at times, intriguing. However, the repetitive task of cherry-picking customers to come into the prestigious club will prove to be dull for many, and simply won’t be enough to keep you playing in order to see one of the multiple endings. Still, there isn’t another time-management title like this on Switch right now, so if you're looking for something with a very different pace and with an adult theme, you might gain some enjoyment.
OUT OF THE BOX Game Cover
68%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
replayability, grinding
72% User Score Based on 95 reviews
Critic Score 50%Based on 1 reviews

Platforms

Nintendo SwitchAndroidPlaystation 5Playstation 4XboxWindowsPlayStationLinuxPCTabletMac OSPhoneXbox OneMobile Platform
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OUT OF THE BOX Game Cover

About

OUT OF THE BOX is a single player casual role playing game with a thriller theme. It was developed by Nuclear Tales and was released on July 19, 2018. It received neutral reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

Out of the Box is a cooperative puzzle game where players work together to escape a series of rooms. Each player has a unique perspective that affects their view of the puzzles, requiring communication and teamwork to solve them. The game features a variety of challenging puzzles and a compelling narrative that unfolds as players progress.

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
OUT OF THE BOX screenshot
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72%
Audience ScoreBased on 95 reviews
story27 positive mentions
grinding5 negative mentions
  • The game features an engaging story with well-developed characters and multiple endings, providing a rich narrative experience.
  • The art style is colorful and appealing, adding a unique charm to the gameplay.
  • Gameplay mechanics are reminiscent of 'Papers, Please', offering a fun and challenging experience as players manage the entry of club patrons.
  • The gameplay can become repetitive and tedious, leading to a lack of engagement over time.
  • Technical issues such as unresponsive controls and bugs detract from the overall experience.
  • The game is criticized for being a simplistic clone of 'Papers, Please', lacking the depth and complexity that made the original enjoyable.
  • story
    57 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story has received mixed reviews, with some players finding it engaging and well-developed, particularly appreciating the character depth and moral choices that impact the narrative. Others criticized it for being ordinary and repetitive, lacking significant plot twists or variation in gameplay. Overall, while the story has its strengths, including multiple endings and a captivating premise, it may not appeal to everyone due to its linearity and pacing issues.

    • “The story is engaging enough and the characters are great (Liz, Torres, and Warren are intriguing characters).”
    • “Usually I'm not into gang-related stories, but this one was captivating - I really wasn't expecting such a dark, engaging plot with likable and not one-dimensional characters.”
    • “The art style is beautiful and the story gives you several moral choices that can lead to various consequences.”
    • “The story is a typical gangster drama plot where you have to decide between staying loyal to your criminal boss or turning him in.”
    • “Dumb story drags on too long between actual gameplay which makes it insanely boring.”
    • “It doesn't have many ways it can significantly branch from the linear storyline, so unless you enjoy the ticket checking side of things, replayability is limited.”
  • gameplay
    37 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay is heavily inspired by "Papers, Please," featuring similar mechanics that can become repetitive and tedious over time, particularly due to excessive text cutscenes and limited variety in tasks. While some players appreciate the engaging story and art style, many criticize the game for its lack of innovation, frustrating controls, and gameplay-breaking bugs, leading to a mixed reception overall. Despite its challenges, the game offers a fun and immersive experience for those who enjoy narrative-driven gameplay.

    • “The gameplay mechanics become more challenging as you progress through the game, with special events adding unusual rules on specific days.”
    • “Absolutely fantastic - immersive, interesting gameplay (sometimes kinda tedious, but it really works for the story).”
    • “The gameplay is fun and challenging throughout as the plot advances with new situations.”
    • “The developers failed one of the most basic, fundamental requirements of game design: 'show, don't tell.' You'll spend a huge amount of time not playing the game, but clicking through endless lines of poorly written visual novel text cutscenes because the developers couldn't figure out how to relate their narrative through the game mechanics.”
    • “As the game progresses, there are too few new game mechanics to add variety, so each day becomes repetitive very quickly.”
    • “I experienced some gameplay-breaking bugs several times, making me replay lots of days again.”
  • graphics
    27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some praising the art style as beautiful and reminiscent of titles like "Papers, Please," while others criticize the overall visual quality as low and lacking in detail. Many users appreciate the cartoonish aesthetic, but feel it does not justify the game's price or match the tone effectively. Overall, while the graphics have their charm, they fall short of contemporary standards expected by PC gamers.

    • “I love the art style; this is a little like 'Papers, Please'.”
    • “The characters feel fairly well-rounded, the art style is gorgeous, and the multiple endings part keeps you coming back for more than one playthrough.”
    • “The comic style graphics looked nice and the soundtrack is good, probably the best thing about the game.”
    • “It's unclear if this is due to a lack of budget to arrange someone who can create graphical assets properly, or a lack of talent.”
    • “Regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is very low, beneath what PC gamers have come to expect in this era of cutting-edge photorealistic 3D graphics.”
    • “While there are options to change the resolution for the mobile app, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the mobile app, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
  • music
    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising the soundtrack as a standout feature, while others noted issues with its accessibility and volume levels. Some players appreciated the variety of music styles that change with in-game events, but found certain tracks too loud or mismatched. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong point, despite some criticisms regarding its presentation and quality.

    • “Best part is definitely the soundtrack.”
    • “The comic style graphics looked nice and the soundtrack is good, probably the best thing about the game.”
    • “Surprisingly good soundtrack.”
    • “Unfortunately, there isn't really a way to listen to a high-quality version of the soundtrack without listening to the tracks in-game, so that was a bummer.”
    • “Music is mainly from the club and is changing depending on the day.”
    • “Depending on the event at the club, the music changed from rock to goth or house.”
  • replayability
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers some replayability through its four different endings and various achievements to unlock, appealing to players who enjoy exploring different outcomes. However, its short length and linear storyline limit significant branching, leading to a somewhat repetitive experience that may deter players from multiple playthroughs. Overall, while there are elements that encourage replay, the lack of substantial variation in gameplay may restrict long-term engagement.

    • “There's four different endings plus some other achievements to unlock, which adds quite a bit of replay value.”
    • “I haven't completed it 100%, since the story branches out which adds quite a bit of replay value.”
    • “The game has different endings depending on what you do, so it has also great replay value.”
    • “Sadly this one is short too - about less than 10 hours and 50% achievements to reach the better final - and lacks replayability, because the concept can't support prolonged sessions.”
    • “It doesn't have many ways it can significantly branch from the linear storyline (so far the majority I tried don't make a lot of difference or cause you to hit dead ends (sometimes literally), so unless you enjoy the ticket checking side of things, replayability is limited.”
    • “My main complaint with it is that it does get a bit repetitive and has limited replay value.”
  • grinding
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be initially engaging but quickly devolving into repetitiveness and tedium. While the story elements and important choices provide some relief from the monotony, many reviewers note that the mechanics can become frustrating due to slow dialogue and unskippable sequences. Overall, the grinding is seen as a mixed experience, with some enjoyment overshadowed by its repetitive nature.

    • “It was interesting in the beginning but gets repetitive and tedious quickly.”
    • “Aside from that, the game also tends to get extremely tedious and repetitive, and the slow-moving dialogue and unskippable game start-up logos get really annoying.”
    • “There is a bit of a story component, which helps tie the game together, and there are important choices to make, but some mechanics are a little tedious since you are basically doing roughly the same task.”
  • humor
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is highlighted as engaging and entertaining, with comparisons to "Papers, Please" for its gameplay and a narrative that becomes increasingly interesting. Players appreciate the funny dialogues, particularly with quirky characters, and find the overall experience to be a delightful blend of humor and storytelling.

    • “Game description key-points: a funny job sim, nice story and repeatable process that goes well and entertaining!”
    • “Good visuals and animation, cute content and funny short story with playable and indeed enjoyable content.”
    • “Its narrative gets more and more interesting and some dialogues are really funny (especially with VIPs and other freaks).”
  • monetization
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization of "Out of the Box" has been criticized as a cash grab, with users noting that it feels like a mobile app poorly adapted for PC rather than a genuine game. The comparison to "Papers, Please" highlights its lack of originality and depth, further emphasizing the perception of exploitation by its developers.

    • “Out of the box is a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it was a real PC game (it's not). It's a cash grab from greedy mobile developers. This mobile app is essentially a ripoff of 'Papers, Please', except instead of the dour pixel/text interface and Orwellian theme, we have a colorful, cartoony Orwellian nightclub bouncer theme.”
    • “The monetization strategy is frustratingly aggressive, making it feel like the game is designed more to extract money than to provide a fun experience.”
    • “I feel like I'm being constantly pushed to spend money, which ruins the immersion and enjoyment of the game.”
  • emotional
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional aspect of the game is mixed; while it offers a wholesome experience and a satisfying connection to its small development team, it falls short in creating deep emotional engagement compared to similar titles like "Papers, Please." Players appreciate the unique premise but note a lack of emotional involvement in the gameplay.

    • “It satisfies the under-saturated market of 'Papers, Please'-like games, but you play as a bouncer in this one. It was a surprisingly enjoyable experience, and it gave me a wholesome feeling during the credits seeing the small dev team all represented as in-game characters.”
    • “While 'Papers, Please' really got you conflicted, 'Out of the Box' fails completely in getting you involved emotionally.”
  • stability
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game experiences notable stability issues, including frequent bugs such as text screen freezes that require level resets, as well as various quality-of-life problems like unskippable intro videos and awkward navigation in the day select screen. Additionally, players have reported glitches, including dialogues getting stuck in infinite loops, which detracts from the overall experience.

    • “Several times I ran into a bug where the text screen freezes, and there is no choice but to reset the level.”
    • “I should also point out a few quality-of-life issues: the game language at first launch defaults to Spanish for some reason (hint: pick the default language either from the Steam settings or the system locale, and if both fail, just ask the user), unskippable intro video, unskippable scene transitions, the day select screen is annoying to navigate, and a few glitches here and there (like dialogs getting stuck in an infinite loop).”
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50%Critics’ scoreBased on 1 critic reviews
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Frequently Asked Questions

OUT OF THE BOX is a casual role playing game with thriller theme.

OUT OF THE BOX is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows and others.

OUT OF THE BOX was released on July 19, 2018.

OUT OF THE BOX was developed by Nuclear Tales.

OUT OF THE BOX has received neutral reviews from players and neutral reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its replayability.

OUT OF THE BOX is a single player game.

Similar games include Paper Cages, Death and Taxes, Not Tonight, Stories: The Path of Destinies, Beat Cop and others.