Lovely hipster Queer times through the medium of Gen Z’s ability to express itself and whatever you call the self-referencing slang they all say. We Are OFK is a strange beast to look at from the eyes of gaming, especially if you’ve subscribed to the notion that games are typically something of a challenge and a repeatable loop of gameplay with a story attached. Generally, that’s true of most games. Ever since choose your own adventure books became video games and Uncharted produced the onslaught of “movie games,” however, we’ve been offered countless proto-interactive stories about everything. We Are OFK is one about a band making and releasing its first EP.

The game stars Itsumi, Carter, Luca, and Jey, a group of very young, very high on something, and generally likable but very progressive characters as they go through struggles in either a personal or professional manner. Insecurity and creativity, are never a route out of being melodramatic. Itsumi is concerned about her ability to perform and the presence of her ex despite moving, while Luca (Luba in texts with Itsumi) is a songwriter that is scared of his potential while stuck in the hellscape of a game developer that expects the impossible from a creative. Carter is a walking psychedelic, and Jey is a strong and towering one-woman producer genius, at least in the eyes of We Are OFK.

Releasing episodically between tomorrow and September 8th, each episode is capped off with what is called an “interactive music video”, particularly by statements surrounding the game. They are indeed interactive, but I would say they are hardly a No More Heros mini-game. They are more akin to a non sequitur of finally moving the particular character around but with no end goal to complete. They are only as interactive as the dialogue options in a David Cage “game” happens to be, which is to say, not very. You can leave the controller alone and listen to the music if that’s all you want to do.

Outright, I’m not saying this is a bad thing. However, calling We Are OFK a game will annoy some. According to all the press releases and showcases of OFK, the game is meant to be a biopic leading to the release of the band’s first EP. Ultimately, OFK are much like Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s Gorillaz, or more recently, the V-Tubers and vocaloids like Hatsune Miku. A virtual band more or less using games to promote its debut EP may be rubbing some people the wrong way, and I can understand why when We Are OFK is basically a point-and-click film.

Team OFK hasn’t ignored some basic accessibility in this endeavor to showcase the band’s debut effort and backstory, and in fact, they do some things I wish others would. To say there is no challenge is a lie, but it is the usual timer on dialogue options. If you don’t want to bother with the timer, you can stop that and just relax. The bit I like, is the pause menu showing a video player or Premier Pro-like timeline along the bottom, so if you’re unsure if you’ll be able to fit another 5-10 minutes in before doing something else, you’ll know. At the very least, you know going in that episode 1 is 52 minutes long, episode 2 is 52, and so on.

None of this answers the question, “is We Are OFK good?” As a young hipster thing, exploring what it is to be young musicians fighting battles of love, lust, and loss, all while being as open as possible and fighting some of those struggles alone, yes. It feels redundant to say, but the game isn’t going to be for everyone, and that’s not exclusively for the indie techno-pop. I’ve said it already this week with a review of V S Nelson’s The Archivist. I like the story but it is told very slowly and without that explosive drama that we’re used to in storytelling. Though true to life, some of the more realistic topics are addressed in significantly heavy-handed ways, such as men at parties being toxic.

The cast is endearing, especially if you can get past the supposed need to yell just how young, introspective, progressive, and independent they all are. This week’s episodes, in particular, focus on Luca and Itsumi with the original single release back at the Game Awards, “Follow/Unfollow” and “Fools Gold.” While some may prefer a lack of voice acting for such a story, I found that it enhanced exactly who everyone was. Especially Carter, with their strange and almost hipster-esque, philosophy-centric personality.

Ultimately, I enjoyed We Are OFK as an experience more than as a game. Sadly, that’s what I think is one of its biggest downfalls. It is an animated film of a band’s formation that will stop now and then to ask you which line you want to text to another character, and that may not take off with everyone. With charming music that isn’t completely awful, as tends to be the case when games take a music focus, We Are OFK sets up to be a reasonably enjoyable first outing for a new virtual quartet of only two musicians and two producers.

A PS4 copy of We Are OFK was provided by Team OFK for the purposes of this review.

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We Are OFK

$19.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Enjoyable music for the virtual band's first outing.
• Accessible options that are useful.
• Voice acting enhances characters.

Cons

• Attempts to make what isn't a game just that.