Life is Pointless Review

Some games are cinematic affairs, some games are competitive marvels, and some games provide touching experiences. However, there are also some games like Will deManbey’s Life is Pointless, which have been carefully designed to waste the time of all those who come across it.

Life is Pointless Review

Players take control of a black-and-white, pixelated man in Life is Pointless, seated squarely in front of an old school computer. Holed up in a tiny house, players earn points by hitting any key on the keyboard. Typing coherent sentences does the trick, as does mindlessly mashing on any key of your choosing. Some strokes earn more points than others, with the press of the same key giving one and four points in succession. There is no rhyme or reason to the scoring, and those looking to cheese their way to victory by holding down a key will be out of luck, as no points are doled out when doing so.

The idea of mindlessly hitting a button is nothing new – Cookie Clicker was a pioneer in the space years ago – but Life is Pointless has almost no redeeming qualities. Those that type faster, play longer, or stick with it for the long term will only earn themselves the occasional achievement. There is nothing flashy shown, no end goal, and no payoff – it’s just you and the computer for the long term.

To break things up, a few small graphical touches have been added. Those that take a break from mindlessly typing will fall asleep, and there is a day/night cycle that keeps track of the days. A calendar on the wall keeps track of what day you are on, but when Monday feels like Friday, it serves little purpose in the grand scheme of things.

During our playthrough of Life is Pointless, we stuck through things for an entire week. After seven in-game days passed, 20 minutes have passed in the real world and the only thing to show for our efforts was a slightly higher score. Something, anything would have made this effort worth our while, but everything starts to blend together in just a matter of minutes.

Rounding things out is a garish presentation that was intentionally designed to grate on the nerves. The art style is reminiscent of the Microsoft Paint drawings from elementary school computer labs from the 90s, and the repetitive chiptune soundtrack is a dissonant affair. Players will be able to turn off the music at a moment’s notice if they so choose, which is the most control given at any given time.

Life is Pointless lives up to its title by being an absolutely pointless affair. Though players can hit any key to progress, the only two buttons worth pressing are Alt and F4.

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