Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which Steve Hogarty explores the wilds of early access. This week, he’s taking on the faceless organisations of Conglomerate 451.
Developer: RuneHead
Publisher: 1C Entertainment
Release: Out now (early access)
On: Windows
From: Steam
For: 17, $21, 19
Conglomerate. Even the word sounds sinister, like it might throw a burlap sack over your head and bungle you into the back of a blacked out minivan, then pop you in the temple with a silenced pistol and throw your corpse out in the street in front of your mother s house. Whether it s the militaristic association of the glottal cong , or the overcast bleakness of the central glom , from start to finish the whole deal exudes a menacing kind of energy. Of all the words that I know, which is literally dozens, conglomerate is the one that seems the most up to no good. If I had a son and I wanted him to grow up bad, I would name him James Conglomerate and only let him watch business news.