Do you love trading cards and reading memos all day? Are you passionate about doing a job and doing it right? Do you believe it’s important to be a hard worker first and foremost? Even when there are bees? Even when there’s an earthquake? Even when the resistance faction tries to teach you to recognize the chains that bind you to that disgusting desk and break your spirit—I mean, even when there are leaky pipes?? Then have I got the game for you!
Trading Card Inspector is an addictive game. In every way. It’s got gacha, it’s got simple, repetitive tasks, and it’s got a mysterious story that it drip-feeds the player, one level completion at a time. It’s the perfect job simulator cut from a similar cloth as Corponation: The Sorting Project. You are tasked with assessing cards from the fad franchise du jour, “Plarbo.” There are specific rules and regulations around the cards. Some that come across your desk will be legitimate, but many of them are fakes! Spot the issue in the card stats, cross-referencing with a list of banned cards, asking your K9 unit to sniff them, or any number of other special tasks your mysterious boss might ask you to do. Memos also come across your desk, providing new rules, flavor text, and worldbuilding and occasionally manifestos—never mind all that, just memos, nothing else. Shred the fake trading cards (and any other documents that you probably shouldn’t be caught with), return the good cards to your boss, and follow the branching story lines or play in endless mode to grind for money to buy more card packs and upgrades.
The visuals are hand-drawn and in a simple one-bit color scheme (you can choose the palette!). The audio is functional and acceptable; it is nothing to write home about, but it’s just what this kind of game calls for. You probably want to keep at least sound effects turned on because they can help you notice danger during challenges, but you can turn down music and put on something else if you are able to multitask. Those who read my reviews know that I’m not a huge fan of that (I would always prefer the soundtrack and audio design to be special and unique to the game and, well, worth writing home about), but the music is a lovely bop, and I never got annoyed with it in all the hours I put into the game.
Part of the fun of the game is taking on challenges during your shift, like dealing with earthquakes that scoot the cards around your desk or leaky pipes that ruin the cards if they drip on them. These keep you on your toes and working fast so you don’t get a game over on your shift. I didn’t find any of them overly difficult, though mileage will vary depending on your play style. One challenge involved shifting the color palette constantly in a way designed to disorient the player. This one in particular seems like it could genuinely mess with a player in a not-so-fun way. Luckily, all of these challenges are either optional or can be greatly ameliorated with earned upgrades. You should never feel totally stumped or gated by a challenge that’s too hard or inaccessible.
Speaking of accessibility, Trading Card Inspector definitely shines here. Included options involve playing at your own pace, changing the color palette at will, adjustable difficulty, and saving anytime. All of these are actually mechanics of the game, too. After earning enough money from shifts, you can buy card packs, new color palettes, new backgrounds, and some workspace upgrades from the in-game shop with in-game money (you will not spend any real money in this game). The workspace upgrades shine for options. There’s one item you can buy that basically adds some time to the countdown timer in challenges, making them just a bit easier and more manageable. There’s another item that flat out removes the challenge if it proves too tricky. Neither of these affects achievements, so you can still 100% the game. The developers definitely want everyone to be able to play every level of the game and never rage quit, so you can add these optional items to tweak the challenge level at will. I think it’s incredibly clever and effective having the tools for accessibility be diegetic in the game world.
In terms of playing at your own pace, you can replay any level to get a higher score or to unlock a new branch in the story path. A few of the level challenges are on timers (e.g., you have to rate a card written in invisible ink). It’s no fun being locked out of level progression by an accessibility issue. However, by that point in the game, you will absolutely have earned enough in-game money to buy the upgrades needed to help you slow down the challenge, as I mentioned before. Any level is beatable, so keep calm and play on! The branching story lines are also clearly marked, and you can go back up the story paths to find the turning point and uncover more. That’s how I was able to get all the endings of the game without playing it all the way through four times, and it was fun seeing how certain points make different challenges appear in the following levels.
Each ending offers its own twist. I was impressed by the writing, as there are a minimum of four separate twist endings, though none of them particularly stunned or surprised me. The game tried to wear the crown of ‘meta dystopian job game’ that Papers, Please and Stanley Parable have worn, but I didn’t find they landed as effectively here. Even so, the tongue-in-cheek humor and little aside-winks kept up to the end and kept momentum quite well. I enjoyed the narrative as I went along the journey, one memo at a time.
I played this game with mouse only, and I think that is how I would recommend it. There’s a lot of clicking and dragging, specifically, not just point ‘n’ click. I’m also giving this a little boost from a purely middling score because I genuinely enjoyed my playtime, and I think the accessibility options are robust enough to ensure all players have a fun and successful play session. Not every game has to change the world (those get my rare 5/5s, if you were wondering—I’m a harsh grader; you’re going to see a lot of 3s or 4s from me).
