Game completed: Distraint

This is a short indie horror game that I picked up only becauase it seemed cool. The ambience was really creepy at times, but mostly the whole game was "wtf is going oooooon?"

The story is about Price and young man who wants to prove himself at work to become a partner. His job is to evict people from their property for different reasons and he feels so bad about doing it that his mental state slowly deteriorates.

The first person he needs to evict is Mrs. Goodwin. An elderly widowed lady who hasn't been doing so great financially since her husband died and now she's being evicted for not paying her rent. Price is already losing control of his mind as blood starts to seap through the doors and gorey things start walking past outside windows. He convinces Mrs. Goodwin to leave her apartment and then leaves.

The next morning Price is woken up by a nightmare and as you get ready for work in Price's apartment he gets a surprise visit from his parents. Which seems normal, except these guys are dead. And Price is having a conversation with them in his kitchen while drinking coffee and they're trying to convince him to quit his job.

The next person he needs to evict is a hermit living alone in a cabin in the woods. But the city wants to build a new highway right across his land. So they're evicting him since he doesn't want to leave. Price gets there and the hermit has pretty much given up anyway. But he asks Price to help him find his dog before he leaves. Price looks around every inch of the house and the grounds and finally finds a starved dog eating a fox. Bring the dog to the hermit and they leave together.

Afterwards Price has another nightmare that Mrs. Goodwin has had a stroke and is in a home and she's asking him to come visit because she doesn't have anyone else. When he wakes up there's another visit from his parents before the phone rings and exactly the conversation that happened in his nightmare plays out. He decides to go visit her and the retirement home is probably the creepiest environment in the whole game.

When the visit is over and done with it's time for the third eviction; a junkie who can't afford his apartment anymore. This was by far the trippiest part of the game and I actually had to use a guide to get me through this part.

When the third eviction is done you're back in Price's apartment and you get a nighttime visit from his parents who are in the kitchen. They're busy killing the "elephant in the room". Literally. And then Price gets a phone call from the retirement home that Mrs. Goodwin has passed away. That makes up his mind that he shouldn't be doing this job anymore and he decides to go into the office and resign. But first a trip to the cemetary to visit Mrs. Goodwin.

After the visit to the cemetary there is some time spent at the creepy office annoying the poor reception lady. Price goes looking through his bosses's offices and find out some things about them which only reaffirms his decision to quit. When you're done going through the offices he heads through the main doors... and straight into a surprise party for him for his promotion to partner. Which makes him stay on the job.

Fast forward and an older and alcoholic Price is sitting at his kitchen table talking to a young man who's there to evict him for no longer being able to pay the rent. Price warns the young man about the dangers of his job, but the guy goes on to finalise the eviction and Price does the only thing he feels he can do at this point. He shoots himself in the head.

Funnily enough, there's a Distraint 2 in the works.