Off the Shelf Media

Content Warning: The themes and content of this game are fictitious and intended for mature audiences. Off the Shelf Media is strictly entertainment and does not condone illicit activity. We appreciate your understanding.

Schedule 1 is a rare cult classic that takes the internet by storm, and generates more attention than anyone could have ever expected. This game was developed by a three-person group, and easily took over the top spot on Steam from a 500+ person studio in Ubisoft Quebec’s newest title Assassin’s Creed Shadows. This game truly highlights how the gaming community is starving for fresh ideas and willing to steer away from AAA studios to get them. 

Gameplay: 2

The gameplay is easily the strongest portion of this title. The story is that you are a drug dealer who is down to their last dollar and needs to develop their kingpin empire from scratch. You start from humble beginnings in a motel room growing a couple of weed plants and can end up with an empire of much harder products being sold all over town. 

The two areas where I think this game excels is progression and scaling. As you work your way up the crime ladder, the game throws a lot of new mechanics at you, but it does it at a pace that is not overwhelming and feels natural. You need to work through the social network in each of the neighborhoods until you get enough of a reputation to pass off supplies to a dealer to do the heavy lifting for you. You keep unlocking new neighborhoods and levels of products to pass on to your team. Soon, you go from growing one little plant in a motel room to mixing up batches of illicit materials using components found at a gas station, creating your version of Walter White’s signature “Blue Sky” from Breaking Bad. 

Simultaneously, you need to painstakingly go through the process of planting and watering all of your crops, until you can unlock the employees who take care of those needs. It gives you a great perspective on the lowest rungs of the totem pole of this empire. As you slowly advance, you can appreciate the scale of your operation. One you have three or four properties up and running, automated with different products in each, it’s extremely satisfying to see the returns on your investment from when you were the one doing everything by hand. 

You also can play this game at any pace and the gameplay can vary greatly from person to person. For those who want to get the most of out of their time, they can research optimization guides and speed running tactics to get to the highest levels in just a matter of days. Where this really shines is if you ignore all of that and learn at your own pace in my opinion. Figuring out how the systems work, and what combinations play best with the buyers is a fun process. While a bit more time consuming, it is rewarding when you find that perfect product. 

Lastly on gameplay, getting around town is one of the sneaky best parts of the game. While you can unlock a few types of car, most of these are really cosmetic and more to feel like you are a kingpin with money to spare. But the most underrated aspect of transportation here is the skateboard. You start with a pretty lousy piece of wood that’s slow, but can unlock several including the highest tier: the golden skateboard. Once you have this, getting away from cops after a deal goes south or getting across town is so much easier and quicker. It’s a super fun mechanic that has you feeling like you’re playing Tony Hawk‘s Pro Skater as you ride down to the Casino to gamble away all of your hard earned cash. 

Story: 1

This is not a story heavy title but it does have a narrative that drives you through the progression of the game. It’s not anything to focus on, but by no means is it bad or does it deter from the fun you have during the game. I would say it’s more there to advance you through the ranking system and give you something to aim for in the early and mid game, but by the late game, it falls off and there is not much else. I will say that at this time, they do have a lot of content updates planned, so this may develop in the months to come. 

Atmosphere: 2

The city in Schedule 1 is not massive, and after some time you will find yourself getting around easily without the need of the map app on your phone. That said, one thing I do appreciate is the neighborhood system, and how each has it’s own feel. You start off in the poorer neighborhoods with run down houses and shacks, and can continue to unlock areas like the suburbs and uptown that have completely different feels to them. 

The art style is also something I really appreciate, and while the graphics won’t require a top tier graphics card, the design has just the right level of goofiness. You can mix your products with all sorts of products like energy drinks, sodas, batteries and much, much more, including some revolting options I won’t go into detail on. Each of these gives a unique effect to the user, from changing the color of their hair, giving them one eye like a cyclops, or lighting them on fire. Where this makes the atmosphere of the game so funny is that later in the game, you unlock dealers who will sell your product to the townsfolk for you. Based on what products you assign them, you may go for a drive down to the hardware store to pick up some soil, and see a few residents walking around on fire, or in the example of one of the rarer mixes, literally exploding and perishing on the sidewalk. 

The people in this game all have interesting aspects of their personality. They will text you at different times of day and have different patterns of speaking to separate themselves, and there are some that are weird or borderline creepy. While they are just individual buyers of your product, you may find yourself loving some of them and giving them a great deal, or hating some and trying to rip them off. As many people in the community discovered, you can also pickpocket them after selling your product to steal it back. I admit, its something I always do to my most-hated buyers. 

For such a small world, the developers really pack a ton into this city. The people give it a life of its own, and their schedules and personality keep the streets bustling with action and chaos. 

Value: 2

This is probably one of the best values available on Steam at the moment, and I don’t think its particularly close. For starters, they offer a free demo, which is pretty rare these days, and it goes along with the theme of the game that the “first one is free” and gets you hooked. While it is still in Alpha, the $20 price point is well worth it in my eyes. At this point, I have unlocked all that is available in the game. In theory, you could say that I’ve beaten the game, but it keeps me coming back. There’s always a new concoction of mixes to try out or a new design layout at one of your properties to try, and it has a ton of replayability. I have only played single-player, but from what I have seen, the co-op is great too and would make this well worth the price point if you are playing with friends. 

Duration: 2

 For perspective, I purchased this game and the $70 Assassins Creed Shadows around the same time. I have only logged about 15 hours in Shadows, and most of it is clanky cutscenes and managing my way through poorly optimized UI menus, whereas with Schedule 1, I have put in well over 40 hours. This game doesn’t market itself as “Open World” or “100+ Hour campaign” or any of the other marketing fluff the AAA studios use to sell an empty, sad, lifeless map full of boring “collect this” or “go here” content they call quests. It focuses on making the gameplay short, sweet and most importantly fun, and always has you wanting to play the next day to see what’s next. 

Total Score: 9/10

This is one of the better games I have seen in the last few years, and I am very excited to see how the smaller studio can build on this success. It reminds me of another successful launch in Valheim that was a similar size studio and took their initial success and launched it into the stratosphere. Schedule 1 should be a wakeup call to the AAA studios that gamers do not want the same rehashed mechanics and buzzwords, but instead, want games where the studios try new things and get creative.