Introduction

When you tell me you’re making a game that examines life, my interest is piqued I won’t lie. Let’s be real, life can be very much like a video game. You do repetitive things, complete tasks, quests, and find some way to go from nothing to something…really, life and video games are kind of the same side of a coin. The Tally by developer Olivia Gonsher puts you in the shoes of a man who must survive life, a very short life, and how they accomplish this is in your hands. Is The Tally an indie game that is going to show you a side of life you didn’t know about, or does it come a bit too dangerously close to everyday repetition to be enjoyable? Time to dive into the odd world of The Tally in our review! Thanks to Olivia for the review copy!

Gameplay

In The Tally you aren’t playing a hero or a wizard or even some cool dude…you’re playing a normal everyday man who literally has no home, a skateboard, and needs to make money doing whatever job is available on their old phone. The premise is absurd but it allows the player to kind of just do whatever they want.

Aside from a looming timer, you are not forced to do anything in any particular order in The Tally. Want to walk some dogs for ten minutes? Go for it. Maybe be a good citizen and help your fellow everyday person by finding their wallet or talking to them? Sounds ideal. Hell, be a rude dude and go to jobs to bash people or steal found wallets. The Tally is really akin to life, do what you want but your overall wellbeing is based on what you do choose to do. Oh but beware, there is a hidden counter in the background that keeps track of all you do…so when your guy dies, you’ll see the good and bad you accomplished.

What’s funny is a lot doesn’t seem to matter when playing The Tally. There’s a hunger meter for example and I didn’t die when it hit zero, but I did notice my little guy slugging around. When I spent some dough on feeding him, my movement was back to normal. I applaud The Tally for feeling very reminiscent of an older game, it says PS2 but I feel maybe more so closer to the end of PS1 era, and it’s fun when it wants to be.

The main issue with The Tally is that everything you do feels beyond repetitive. Almost every job plays the same way, go from here to there or just click a specific set of commands and deliver a product. Aside from the random events that happen in the city, the whole flow of The Tally is like a giant laundry list of fetch quests in an RPG. Do this, go there, and repeat a dozen times over. Yeah, I can see the appeal for some who love to play games where the tasks are mundane and good for zoning out, but if you hate games that basically play out in one way for this 90 minutes, then The Tally will be a hard sell.

Still I can’t deny the appeal The Tally has as someone who likes accomplishing tasks. There’s no big fanfare when you get a promotion for serving drinks 20 times, but still…you see your pay increase and you know your guy is moving up in the world. That isn’t a bad feeling to have. Equally the goal of getting a house is semi-relatable even if it requires doing jobs you don’t like for quite a lengthy stretch…did I mention The Tally is really a tad too close to how life plays out?

Graphics

I didn’t go into The Tally expecting high end visuals, especially when one look at the Steam page shows you this is an old looking game. Characters have that Max Payne face where it looks like an image of a person was slammed onto a polygon. When a game touts itself as being a throwback to a retro gaming time, I’m not going to start launching insults at the developer or attack the visual aesthetic. Now as a reviewer though I need to be honest, The Tally looks rough. Again, I get the older style, but I mention this feels like last day PS1 graphics and in 2026, many will see this and want to pass on it right away due to the visual design. Everything in The Tally looks old, from the blocky cars to the even blockier looking buildings, but as a gamer who grew up on old, it felt nostalgic and I couldn’t find myself to dislike the visuals…I just do remember that we live in the modern era.

Sound

Probably my only real complaint in The Tally is the music. Similar to the visuals, The Tally goes for a very older style of music that reminds me of the games I booted up on my PC back in 98 and thought wow, this music is great. Now I go wow…this music hurts. There’s only a handful of tunes here and after hearing them loop a dozen times while reviewing this, I turned the music off in The Tally to put my own songs on. Kind of fun to listen to Busy Earnin by Jungle while playing The Tally.

Overall Impression

There’s a very, very niche audience for The Tally and trust me I know some will fall in love with this game the minute they put it on. Going around trying to accomplish life tasks in a game while being in real life is sort of meta and it makes The Tally intriguing to say the least. The problem with The Tally is if you aren’t the targeted audience for this game…I doubt anything I can say will persuade you to want to play it.

Conclusion

By all definition I should review The Tally harder. Giving it the score I give it almost seems wild, but here’s why I think I can justify it. The Tally is trying to be a statement more than a high end game. The whole premise is to remind you, the gamer, that life is a struggle but we make the most of it. I won’t sit here and say The Tally is going to appeal to everyone, but if you want a silly simple game with a strange level of meta and thought behind it, when it releases in November I think a download is worth it, especially since the game costs less than a Starbucks coffee at only $4.99.