Case of the Mondays

"BILLY!" you're saying to yourself right now, "YOU'RE SO CLEVER!" Yes, yes, I know this very well. After all, I rip lines out of Office Space and use them as blog titles as only the best pop culture commentators can. But for all the self-deprecating chatter wasting precious screen space here, there is actually a purpose behind my use of that phrase beyond the fact that today is Monday. You see, Peter Gibbons, the central character of Office Space, attained a degree of success and renown in his office by breaking out of the traditional routine and doing things his own way. Likewise, I'm shirking the prescribed format (when I started writing the Weekly Glance Back column, it required a wall of boring factual background before I was able to get to the good stuff, and no one wants to sit through all that) in favor of something that will, hopefully, interest you much more.

Today, I bring to you, oh dear reader, something I stumbled on over the weekend: a flash game called The Company of Myself.

Click Here to Play The Company of Myself

In this game, you play as an unnamed man who, for some reason, has become a hermit, and so must solve his problems entirely on his own esteem. In order to complete the levels, you take certain actions in each level and then, by hitting the space bar, replicate the actions you just took in the form of a ghost man who does everything exactly as you just did it, leaving you free to do other things. In this manner, you can use yourself to get a boost up to a higher ledge, carry yourself across a bridge, and so on. In some levels you can only replicate yourself once; in others, you can replicate yourself an infinite number of times. This type of gameplay creates a number of interesting possibilities, and makes you take a different approach to virtually every level, so the game never gets stale.


While the gameplay is certainly novel and challenging in its own right, there's a level of depth behind this game that you don't usually see in such offerings. If you do choose to play it (and I strongly recommend that you do), don't just skip the intro sequence, because it lays the foundation for the intriguing story of the game. In fact, the game itself is, as the narrator describes it, an allegory for the story that he is telling, and as you play through each level, he gives you insights into what he thinks and feels. While graphically sparse, the music is superbly atmospheric, at times whimsical and at others almost sinister. If you start playing this game, please, PLEASE play it through to the end, and sit through the end credits (they're not very long)... it's worth the time and effort to see the haunting conclusion of this tale.

If you start the game and have trouble at any point, I'm including a video walkthrough, but I'd advise you not to watch it unless you really need it... that said, enjoy the game.



-Billy