It’s been half a decade since the game blew up, and I’m still an enormous fan of Among Us. A social deduction game where you get to sabotage your friends and pick them off one by one? For some reason, I just can’t get enough. There have been plenty of games building off Among Us’ formula as, like Lockdown Protocol (which is Among Us in 3D with guns) and Death Note Killer Within (which slams Among Us and Death Note together with various appropriate roles). But there’s one game that stands tall among the Among Us clones, and it’s so mundane, you can’t even kill people in the game.
Also, if you’re a fan of The Office, you should keep reading. It’s basically an Office roleplaying game.
Check out this neat anime girl I drew on the printer. By the way, there’s a fire in the kitchen
Striped Panda Studios’ Dale & Dawson Stationery Supplies is not your usual social deduction game. The multiplayer title casts players as white collar employees working at various corporate branches around the globe. Across each office, slackers are causing major productivity issues, and corporate has had enough. Branch managers must sniff out all the slackers working at Dale & Dawson. Figure out who’s goofing off on the job, and fire them. Immediately.
Players are assigned one of three roles: Slacker, Specialist, or Manager. Specialists are trying their best to stay productive. Slackers are trying their best to cause chaos and goof off. And Managers? They must call periodic meetings and fire somebody. If a Manager fails to do so, they will be fired and replaced with another player. Alternatively, employees can vote out a Manager and replace them with another player (a rare win for organized labor in gaming).
The stakes are high in Dale & Dawson, but this is no life-or-death matter. Slacker gameplay mostly involves dicking around on the job. And that’s where the Office vibes come in. For you see, dear reader, there are so many creative ways to fuck with other players. You can call people at their desks and bug them with nonsense. You can write crazy shit on Post-its and stick them on peoples’ backs. You can steal keys from the Manager’s office and lock people out of (and in) different areas. You can even steal peoples’ computer mouses and then throw them in the trash.
My personal favorite thing to do? Hop on somebody’s computer, draw something silly, print it out, and then leave my handiwork somewhere in the office. Bonus points if I get someone else to sign it!
‘The Office’, the video game
Now, to be clear, Dale & Dawson takes heavy inspiration from The Office. You can put someone’s stapler in gelatin. You can steal their stuff and leave it in strange places. You can set a trash can on fire in the kitchen, not unlike Ryan starting the fire in the Scranton branch. There’s even a level based entirely around the Scranton branch, with the Manager in Michael Scott’s office and the meeting room designed after, well, the iconic conference room where half of Michael’s worse antics occured. Even the titular stationery company, “Dale & Dawson,” sounds a bit like “Dunder Mifflin.” Not to mention, both the show and the game reveal how white collar office life tends to be filled with bumbling morons trying — and desperately failing — to run a business. Turns out some people just aren’t meant to work at a paper company.
Err, I mean, a stationery company?
In other words, Dale & Dawson is super fun to both play and watch. I was convinced to give the game a try after watching Vinny from Vinesauce run around the game in a streamer collab. Vinny clearly isn’t built to be a manager, but he certainly makes for a fine janitor. Anyway, If you’re not yet sold on the core premise behind the game, I suggest watching his playthrough. You’ll be instantly hooked.
Dale & Dawson Stationery Supplies is just $7.99 on Steam. With a bit of tweaking, the game appears to work fine on Steam Deck. Just know that a will-they, won’t-they office romance dynamic isn’t part of the game. Sorry, you’ll have to bring your own Jim and Pam.
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