Yet Another Exhausting Day - Review

Every now and then I come across a random game that makes me think 'yes, I'm must play this'.  Yet Another Exhausting Day by Gao Ming is one such game.  Mostly because the concept sounded so random, but I'll reveal all soon.


Sometimes we need a snack, in my case, it's usually unhealthy like a bag of crisps.  One of my go-to crisps is salt and vinegar Hula Hoops, simple tasty but not exactly filling.  Playing Yet Another Exhausting Day I found myself asking was this simple snack just what I needed?

Story

Humans spend a third of their lives sleeping, imagine if you could do more, imagine if you could be a superhero.  Or at least that's what the protagonist wants to try and be.  The game has you fall asleep but rather than relax you get to navigate the world (your home).  That's the story, it's not overly fleshed out but like the old flash games of old that you would find on Mini-Clip, there is no real need for it.

Visuals

The visuals are quite good in Yet Another Exhausting Day, which is unusual for such a small game.  The textures of the chairs look really detailed and the wood surface tops look good as well.  There are fun visuals like dancing milk pots and a giant smartphone which have to try and interact with.

Overall the visuals are charming and fun, and while simple has a strange depth to them.

Music

The music is fun and often starts up beats but fades out like when you see a character falling asleep, the best of example I can think of is in Bad Santa where Billy Bob Thorton eats a load of chocolate and finishes off a bottle of alcohol and then fall over and passes out.  Don't worry quickly it goes back to being positive again.

There are a handful of tracks in the game each as fun as the other, as there were no credits at the end of the game I can only take Gao Ming himself created the music.

Gameplay

Yet Another Exhausting Day is a 3D physics crawler, you use your body to roll and push yourself forward similar to a worm.  Occasionally you will have to use your head to activate certain items.  The aim of the game is to escape each of the rooms by collecting a key and getting to a padlocked door.

The physics are funny in the game and can take a while to get used, especially when crawling up a wall or moving sideways across a chest of drawers.  There are two main enemies in the game, pillows and milk pots.  The pillows if you touch them make you fall unconscious (damn pillows, all cozy feeling the warm embrace as the san..dman...come...I'm awake!).  Then there are the milk bottles, as we all know milk is good for you just before bed, you fall asleep if you touch it or skirts milk at you.  There is one friend though, beer!  That's right, and just like really like it gives you superpowers and makes you move fast.  The game can be tough when it comes to navigation but as it is quite forgiving as a whole it's easy to overlook. 

When you complete one of the two main areas you end up being able to access a dressing room and a superpowers lab.  They are just for fun and not really needed, coins and gems can be collected during the game and these can be used to make purchases. 

Overall there is a lot of fun gameplay and I was left wanting more.

Final Thoughts

So, after just over an hour how did I feel?  Really really positive.  I enjoyed my short time with Yet Another Exhausting Day.  The story may have been a little lacking but the visuals, music, and gameplay made up for it.  A fun gem that you can donate any amount you want to purchase it.  Gao Ming has a number of other fun looking games that I will likely delve into.  This one gets a solid 4 out of 5