Flat Eye

Flat Eye is a business simulation game set in a dystopian version of Iceland, where players manage a gas station under the fictional Flat Eye conglomerate. The game explores themes of capitalism and exploitation, as players navigate the challenges of running a business in a decaying world. Players start with a single employee handling all tasks and gradually install advanced technologies to maximize profits, such as an AI-powered self-help booth that sells customer data. The game’s high skill ceiling and relevant social commentary make it both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Flat Eye: A Dystopian Management Sim That Stares Unflinchingly at Capitalism’s Abyss

Introduction

In an era where video games increasingly serve as mirrors to society’s darkest corners, Flat Eye (2022) emerges as a biting satire of late-stage capitalism wrapped in a deceptively cheerful management sim. Developed by French studio Monkey Moon (creators of Night Call) and published by Raw Fury, this Icelandic-set dystopia tasks players with overseeing a gas station-turned-technological nightmare for the fictional Flat Eye conglomerate. Beneath its crisp, cartoonish veneer lies a game unafraid to ask: What happens when corporations weaponize human needs—and what does it cost to keep the machine running? This review argues that while Flat Eye stumbles in mechanical execution, its audacious fusion of systemic exploitation and narrative depth cements its place as one of the most thematically urgent sims of the decade.

---

Development History & Context

A Studio Forged in Noir

Monkey Moon’s pedigree in narrative-driven games (Night Call, a neo-noir taxi mystery) bleeds into Flat Eye’s DNA. According to Rock Paper Shotgun, the team sought to pivot from intimate character studies to systemic storytelling, drawing inspiration from classics like Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper. Yet their vision was distinctly modern: a rebuttal to the “complexity creep” of contemporary sims, favoring accessibility without sacrificing thematic weight.

Technological Constraints as Thematic Fuel

Built in Unity, Flat Eye transforms technical limitations into narrative assets. The game’s single employee, fragile tech modules, and endless repair cycles mirror real-world gig economy precarity. As director Laurent Victorino noted, the decision to avoid a “game over” state—players merely hire replacement clerks after gruesome workplace deaths—was intentional, reflecting capitalism’s indifference to individual lives.

A Gaming Landscape Ripe for Critique

Released amid renewed labor movements and AI ethics debates, Flat Eye arrived as a counterpoint to sanitized corporate sims like Two Point Hospital. Its 2022 launch window—a post-pandemic era of algorithmic exploitation—made its satire feel less speculative than documentary.

---

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The Banality of Dystopia

Set in an alternate 2022 Iceland ravaged by climate collapse and corporate hegemony, Flat Eye casts players as a remote manager for EyeLife, a subsidiary of the all-seeing Flat Eye conglomerate. Your mission: Expand a gas station into a “technological hub” selling everything from lab-grown organs to memory-erasing booths. The plot unfolds through:
– Premium Customers: 24 distinct NPCs, each entangled with a specific module. A farmer interrogates drone surveillance; a grief-stricken mother seeks cloned replacements for lost children.
– The Rogue AI: A sardonic, French-accented overseer masquerading as a benevolent force while conducting sociological experiments on humanity.
– Corporate Correspondence: Darkly comic emails from rotating CEOs (“I’ve rebranded exploitation as ‘customer-driven symbiosis’”) and despairing coworkers.

Themes of Exploitation & Complicity

Flat Eye’s brilliance lies in how it implicates players in its horrors. Installing a “Smart Toilet” that converts excrement into food (marketed as “Fecal Feast”) isn’t just profitable—it’s mandatory to progress. The game weaponizes management sim tropes: “quota met” fanfares feel hollow when you’ve just sent a clerk to repair a machine that maimed their predecessor. As Hardcore Gamer noted, it’s “Black Mirror meets Papers, Please,” where every upgrade deepens moral compromise.

Flaws in the Script

While most critics praised the writing, PC Gamer criticized its occasional heavy-handedness. An anarchist yelling “Capitalism sucks!” feels redundant when the game’s systems already scream it. Yet these moments are outliers in an otherwise nuanced tapestry.

---

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

The Broken Cogs of Commerce

At its core, Flat Eye is a resource management puzzle with three key loops:
1. Module Management: Build and link devices like organ vending machines, VR chambers, and AI therapists. Each requires power/data/biomatter inputs, creating cascading failures if one fails.
2. Clerk Micro-Management: Direct a lone employee (replaceable upon death) to restock, repair, and appease customers. Mood meters plummet as they’re overworked—a grim parody of real-world burnout.
3. Tech Tree Progression: Earn “Flat Points” to unlock new modules, each escalating ethical stakes (e.g., “GentleSleep” pods that euthanize users for biomass).

Innovations & Frustrations

The game shines when systems collide. A malfunctioning cloning booth might leak DNA data to corporate spies, triggering a narrative event. However, pacing issues plague the mid-game. As Finger Guns noted, mandatory “Tarot Card” objectives (e.g., “Build 5 modules today”) disrupt flow, feeling less like satire and more like busywork.

UI as Narrative Device

The desktop-style interface—complete with fake OS updates and dystopian corporate branding—immerses players in the manager role. Yet some players reported buggy repair indicators and AI dialogue glitches, undercutting the polish Monkey Moon achieved in Night Call.

---

World-Building, Art & Sound

Aesthetic Paradox: Cute & Cruel

Flat Eye’s Iceland is a masterclass in tonal dissonance. Vibrant, minimalist visuals evoke Apple Store sterility, while haunting details lurk: customers are featureless blobs unless deemed “Premium,” reducing masses to consumables. The gas station’s evolution—from cozy pit stop to neon-lit nightmare—mirrors capitalism’s corrosive growth.

Soundtrack to the Apocalypse

Composer Corentin Brasart’s score blends icy synths with unsettling pulses, echoing Blade Runner 2049’s melancholic futurism. Smart touches abound: repair failures trigger cheerful corporate jingles, juxtaposing horror with mundanity.

---

Reception & Legacy

Critical Divide

Flat Eye earned a Metascore of 74, with reviews praising its ambition but noting uneven execution:
– Praise: PC Invasion lauded its “subtle” storytelling; Rock Paper Shotgun called it “compelling and thoughtful.”
– Criticism: GameCritics (45/100) dismissed it as “boring,” while PC Gamer cited “rote tasks” undermining its message.

Commercial Performance & Cultural Impact

Despite modest sales, Flat Eye gained cult status for its unflinching politics. Its “Bibliography” feature—linking in-game horrors to real-world tech patents—sparked discourse about gamifying dissent. While not a genre revolution, it inspired indies like Not For Broadcast to marry systemic play with ideological critique.

---

Conclusion

Flat Eye is a game of stark contradictions: a management sim that hates management, a comedy that mourns, a blueprint for what the genre could—and perhaps should—aspire to. Its flaws—repetitive loops, occasional bugs—pale against its courage to stare into capitalism’s abyss and demand players do the same. In an industry often content to ask “Can we build it?” Flat Eye forces the harder question: “Should we?” For that alone, it earns its place in gaming history—not as a flawless gem, but as a vital provocation.

Final Verdict: A flawed masterpiece. Play it, rage at it, and pray its dystopia remains fiction.