Level 22: Gary’s Misadventures is a stealth game set in an office building. After a drunken night out, Gary, the playable character, must make his way up 22 floors to his office without being seen or else he will be fired. Along the way, Gary avoids detection using his resourcefulness and the help of his friend, Marty. It’s a simple premise, and at first it may not seem like there is anything special about it, but each level in the game provided its own unique challenges. Combined with the humor in the game, Level 22 was a pleasure to play through.
When you first start playing it, you will be greeted by its electronic music and colorful, pixelated graphics that would be right at home on a Game Boy Color. They are fairly plain, which actually helps immerse yourself in the setting more. Offices are usually seen as places that are dull and lifeless, and although Level 22 is anything but, the graphics capture the feel of an office space quite nicely. The music was upbeat and had enough variety that I never felt like I was constantly hearing the same thing. Normally when I think of a stealth game, I think of titles like Thief or Dishonored, which are much darker and serious games, so the style of Level 22 was refreshing.
The controls that you must use are extremely straightforward, which makes it a game that would be easy for anyone to pick up. You control Gary with the left thumbstick and you can pan the camera across each floor with the right thumbstick, even if you are stationary at that moment. This is useful if you cannot move but need to scan the area for coworkers who may detect you. Each level is not confined by the bounds of the screen. Instead, each level is defined by its floorplan, and anything outside of the floorplan will just be seen as black on the screen. Even though there were times where I felt that it would have been nice to be able to manipulate the camera more, I still liked the design choice.
To make it to Gary’s office, you need to use the supplies found in the building to your advantage. Once you obtain an item, it will show an icon near the top right of the screen, and to use it you only need to press the corresponding direction on the D-Pad. Throughout the game, you will find different items that aid with different challenges in specific levels. As you progress, the more difficult it will become. Near the beginning, you will only run into your average coworker. They walk around to get coffee, use the copier machine, and fall asleep at their desks. To fool them, you must simply find a newspaper and pretend that you are reading it. This causes them to fail to notice you, and you can walk right by them when their backs are turned. Eventually, the levels get more intricate with different enemies, and using a simple newspaper to help you won’t cut it. You will need to use multiple items to pass each level, such as a cardboard box to hide in a la Metal Gear, and even a lightsaber to destroy androids who will not fall for any deception. The use of normal office supplies, with the exception of the lightsaber, was a clever way to keep with the feel of the setting. I had a fun time trying to figure out how to complete every level.
Every level in the game, except for the boss battles, also has their own hidden collectible figurine and puzzle piece that you can find for achievements. Marty, your friend who has been helping you out, revealed that he was fired himself, and he wants your help to get his collectibles back. Almost every collectible is a reference to a pop culture character. You can find ones named Clawverine (Wolverine), Kawaimon (Pikachu), Solid Smack (Solid Snake), and many more, including ones based on several of the developers at Moving Player.
To find the puzzles pieces, you will need to find a safe and figure out the code for it. This can be as simple as finding large numbers on a wall and just plugging them in, or as difficult as finding a code word where each number for the safe corresponds to each letter in the word. After you collect enough puzzle pieces, they will form a picture of an individual boss in the game. I loved trying to find a collectible and seeing what character it referenced, as well as trying to figure out the safe codes. They were fun ways to get me to explore a level more.
What surprised me about Level 22 was how humorous it was. In addition to having awesome pop culture references, it was self-referential and broke the fourth wall several times. At one point in during the game, I had to choose between two doors that either took me to the basement or the next level. Marty told me to go right, so Gary, without my input, automatically took the left door from my perspective. I just figured that Gary did not trust Marty, because he seemed indecisive and unsure of himself when they were talking. What I found out afterwards was that Gary did go to the right, just from his perspective. Gary started blaming Marty for his predicament in the basement, and Marty commented saying that he meant the player’s right, not Gary’s.
Toward the end when Gary is confronted by his boss, they get into an argument when his boss accuses him of destroying the building. Gary replied by saying that there was no way he wrecked 22 floors and made it to his office without being caught, because that sounded like something out of a bad video game. Level 22 didn’t take itself too seriously and I appreciated that.
My biggest complaint about the game would be that I couldn’t adjust the screen bounds. It wasn’t necessarily needed because of the way that the developers designed each level, however I could tell that items in my inventory near the top right of my screen were slightly cut off. This was more apparent on the title screen where my gamertag was missing a letter, and I could tell that the top where it said “select a saved game” was partially chopped off by the screen. This never presented any issues, but I could see how it might be irritating for some players. Another problem that I had was that the boss battles in the game were significantly easier than the levels before them. It was almost anti-climactic going through a few levels only to end up encountering an easily defeated boss.
Summary
Overall, Level 22: Gary’s Misadventures was a fun game to play through that I’d definitely recommend to people who enjoy simple stealth games. The gameplay wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it provided enough of a challenge for five or so hours of enjoyment. I was almost sad when I finished the game because I wanted more levels to keep playing. Even though it had some faults, a majority of the game was incredibly entertaining.
Jennifer is a games journalist, former games journalist and PR Manager at Gearbox. They contributed 234 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: went on to write for Windows Central and later managed PR for Gearbox Software.