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A quick search online can provide countless horror stories about working in an Amazon warehouse: Conditions are frequently cited as being unsafe; many workers report feeling burned out, and creepy surveillance schemes keep everyone producing like human assembly-line robots. In short, it’s a bad time. But as horrific as it seems, in Order 13, working in an Amazon-style warehouse is the basis for a more traditional horror story.
Order 13 is just one of a few recent horror games using real-world labor issues as a backdrop for its scares. Lethal Company satirically shreds the practice of ever-rising expectations to the point where they become cold, unreachable goals that result in the long-lasting layoff known as death. 7 Minutes in Hell paints a dark picture of greed and getting yours at the expense of others–or even your own best interest–all wrapped up in a Supermarket Sweep-meets-Lovecraft framework.
Similarly, Order 13 drops you into a massive Amazon-style warehouse in which the quota for productivity is perpetually pointing upward, even as something inhuman seems to be skittering around the dark corridors.
The interesting wrinkle to Order 13 is how it doesn’t just use the setting as a backdrop for the monster lurking in its shadows. It actually includes sim gameplay mechanics, forcing you to not just evade a beast hunting you and your (customizable) cat, but to work your shift for the Jolly Box Company while you do.
On my first day on the job, I had to learn how to print an order, track down the inventory in a massive, darkened warehouse, then box it, fill it with packing peanuts, tape it up, label it, and ship it off. If I did these things very well, I’d maximize my money and make hitting quota easier. If I screwed up–my first order lacked the approved portion of packing peanuts, for example–my earnings would suffer.
Like in Lethal Company, the money I made didn’t only help me achieve my quota and finish the work day. I could also spend my money on upgrades, including a flashlight, which is extremely helpful, given how dark the shipping warehouse is. Yet any money I spent hurt my bottom line and made my quota more difficult to reach, too, so I really needed to consider how willing I was to make my job harder on myself just so I could have a job (and my life) at all.
Whatever upgrades I unlocked, the increasing quota and the lurking monster meant I always had to work fast and efficiently. There wasn’t a second to spare. If the game offered mechanics around bathroom breaks, no doubt I wouldn’t be able to take them. The metaphor isn’t subtle, but it’s effective and enjoyable anyway.
I also appreciate how the safe haven of the packing office is, itself, a minor nightmare. The monster can’t reach you there, but that doesn’t mean it’s exactly welcoming. There’s a bed in the small room where I’d prepare and ship off boxes, and each in-game day ended with me sleeping there, beneath the supposedly friendly grin of the company mascot.
Is this an exaggerated take on poor work-life balance? Probably. As bad as Amazon and similar jobs seem to be, I don’t think hourly warehouse workers are sleeping at their work site, but given the reported stress and harm such a job brings with it, plenty of them are emotionally bringing their work home with them, too.
This creates an interesting gameplay loop: Seek out the necessary inventory in a dark, labyrinthine warehouse home to some sort of creature, then race back (with very limited stamina, mind you) to the warm glow of my office, which doubles as a diorama of capitalist hellscapes where I can work relentlessly for most hours of the day before sleeping briefly in a lumpy bed tucked into a corner of my workspace.
I guess that’s the point of Order 13. The monster is real, and you can die, but like those real-life workers know too well, simply getting by each day, doing just enough to make it to tomorrow but never enough to propel yourself out of a bad situation–haunted warehouse or not–is a scary story in itself.
Order 13 is out now on Steam.
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Kurt Indovina
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