Sudden Market: the cart is on fire

Every once in a while even FPSs games eat a heavy dinner, then fall asleep.
Their most absurd nightmare is called Sudden Market.

Constantly dashing through a multitude of barely visible items on the shelves of a supermarket.
Hunted by a superior entity that makes any search impossible.
Time ticking away, inexorable.
Then it runs slower and slower, but it’s not the gameplay, it’s the repetitive action.
But it doesn’t matter. Gotta Go Fast.
That damn cart must be filled again and again.

Sudden Market - Trailer

Speedrunners at the supermarket

The plot is as simple as it is simplistic: the supermarket is closing.
However, the shopping must be completed as quickly as possible while avoiding being thrown out by guards.

It’s a first-person gameplay, with the pointer being used to collect items from the list provided at the beginning of the level.

After finishing the list without being caught by a guard or running out of time, you can cross the finish line of the checkout at the end. 

As far as I can see, this game is specifically designed for speedrunning.
There is no other game mode other than wildly running and trying to hit the best times.

If this is not already made clear during the first levels of the game, from the half it becomes evident. To unlock new missions it is required to beat certain times.

Between them, stages are different in very few aspects.
The AI of the antagonistic NPC, relocation of impediments into the market lanes, and the shopping list with different items.

That’s all.

Anxiety Market

The graphic environment of Sudden Market pleasingly colorful and finished in every detail.
The items on the shelves are many, with distinctive shapes and colors that the player must begin to recognize right away.

As a matter of fact, the first two levels serve as a tutorial.
It turns out to be very important to make sure to memorize all the possible targets.

In fact, the goal of finishing the shopping list is anything but smooth, since there are so many objects to interact with.
And when time presses on and the guard keeps on chasing… the task becomes almost impossible!

Haste makes market Waste

This is a title that plays around memory (i.e., the location of items on the shelves) and tactics (avoiding detection and running out of time).
This works very well within the first six or seven levels, then the gameplay tends to be too repetitive.

There are 12 levels in total, and there are no radical changes in the map or in the rivalry with the guardians.
The shopping list manages to surprise with the occasional odd item, but in the end the strength of this game remains its simplicity and anxiety.

There are few games that can cause as much anxiety as Sudden Market.

I didn’t need a break from a 1P video game in years.

It was since LoL I hadn’t cursed so much in front of a piece of electronics.

Go Pay!

On Steam the price at launch is €2.99.
Honestly, this seems to me a more than fair price for selling a well executed good idea.

The gameplay type is nowhere near my taste but I have to admit that Glaseeze has done a good job.
By the way, Glaseeze is a cool solo programmer that also took care of the marketing of his indie product.
Chapeau!

The graphical environment is nice and fluid, there is no unnecessary display of graphics where they are not needed. I simply loved it.
The objects are well delineated and good-looking, and it’s a real pleasure collecting them.

The challenge too often becomes frustrating if the location of items is not memorized, and also repetitive and poorly differentiated between levels.

There are also problems in the translation of some shopping list terms, little mistakes I believe will be fixed soon.

The developer has already announced an update on Steam.
Six more levels and different product layouts (meaning more difficulty) will be added.
For now I have only had a chance to play the 12 main levels, and I would say that the maximum longevity of this title is around 4 hours.

Although the temptation to ragequit comes cyclically every five minutes.

MarketFobia

Although Sudden Market is really nice and well made, I would not recommend it to everyone.

This is an extremely painstaking type of gameplay in which every detail must be subjected to scrupulous observation as the clock ticks mercilessly.

The setting lends a feeling of claustrophobia, and I think there are many players who might appreciate what to me seems a flaw because (I have to admit it) I do not conceive the plague of speedrunning.

Those who are fans of the genre, however, will find themselves in their wet dream: bring their meticulousness to an everyday setting.

Speedrunners grocery shopping -who would have thought- but I can already hear them, flexing, posting times scores on youtube and inviting others to do better.

They’re just shopping.

It’s a shopping Full%.

Let them have fun.