No Time to Relax sees you trying to balance your life while you are up against other players who want to have a more balanced and fun existence than you.
This game feels almost like a board game. You work in turns as you and your opponents, either bots or real people, try to have a full and fulfilling life. You all were kicked out of your home where you were playing and having fun. Now that you’re thrown into the real world, you have a lot to get done.
When it comes to starting the game, you are able to pick how long each player’s turn will be, giving a cap to those who seem to hum and ha at every point, and how many total weeks the game will take place over. Each turn is one week, so it’s important to plan for the number of weeks you do have. There is a marathon mode in the game, which requires one player to be the first to max out all four stats, but chances are you will not be playing the marathon mode right off the bat.
On your turn, you will start with a small amount of money, a cheap apartment, and a turn for your taking. Each time you move around the map or select something inside of allocation, it will take away some of your time. When this time runs out, your turn is over, and so is the week. If your pre-selected time limit runs out, the day also ends, but you will have to live with the fact that you didn’t use your time wisely.
Each turn, there are a few tasks you must do. If you have a pet you need to feed them. You will also need to feed yourself each week too, or else you will get penalties. You can go and study at a university, order fast food, go to the gym, go shopping, plan something fun for your weekend, invest in stocks, put money in your bank, purchase a car, and more, probably. But, you won’t be able to do all of that in one move.
All of your decisions contribute to your character’s health, happiness, finances, and education, which you can cap out at 5000 points each. Spending time in your character’s education can unlock better employment opportunities, however, you will also need to have put in work hours in the job before you can switch jobs or get a better position. Investing in items for your home, like a fridge, allows you to purchase and store food. This is cheaper in the long run and better for your health then fast food. But, having the initial amount of money is a challenge, especially with rent looming.
To make matters worse, whenever you start your week, you are given a few cards. Some are world events like the fact that crime is up so you should put your money in the bank, or the fact that rent is due, while others are random events which are often negative. Others events are triggered by your health or stress levels. If you are super stressed you will find yourself getting sick, for example. Sometimes, the cards will just tell you about bad stuff that happened because you live in a cheap house that is always robbed.
You will need to work your way up the ladder, however, purchasing items that help your life and spending your time in the right places to contribute to a greater plan of how you are going to survive. Once all of the weeks are over, the amount of points each player has gotten in their four categories are added up, but each game there are three bonus tasks, as well as extra points for taking care of pets, that can be added in. These tasks can be seen from the newspaper in the supermarket, which is purchased for five dollars. These tasks can be like the person who spends the most on silver in the stock market or the person who ate the most french fry meals at the market. It all depends on what cards are drawn. 500 points are awarded to the player that wins these bonus rules.
After all of the scores are rounded up, someone is crowned a winner, and the game ends. No Time to Relax does really feel like a board game. It’s fun to play with other players or with the bots that can be selected to play in the game. I have been playing at home with my partner and a bot, but there is an online multiplayer if you’ve got some friends who have the game and want to play with you!
You can find No Time to Relax is available now on the Nintendo eShop, Microsoft Store, and Steam.
If you are a fan of non-violent co-operative indie games, check out our list of them!
About The Author
No mention of Jones in the fast lane (1990)?