Trust the System turned paperwork into a mystery that needs solving

Once again, I am coming to you with an incremental game, although this time I didn’t stumble across it on Steam but was instead introduced to it by my incredibly supportive fiancé. Thankfully, Trust the System is not your usual incremental game; instead, it feels more like a mystery game that makes you earn your steps. 

Made by Tabouret using lovely hand-drawn pixel art, the underlying mystery of Trust the System overshadows everything else and makes you work much harder than you usually would to uncover the secrets of the building and the world around it. With a note asking for help on the fifth floor and colleagues who seem evasive at best, there’s a lot of strangeness going on here.

Stamp of approval

In Trust the System, the main gameplay loop revolves around sitting at a desk and stamping papers, using upgrades to make the stamping process more lucrative and efficient. Honestly? That would be enough for me to enjoy this incremental game, because I’m the type of nerd who volunteered in the school library just so I could play with the stamp, but Trust the System is more than a stamping simulator.

If you get bored of stamping your piles of 10 sheets and stapling them together, you can always stretch your legs by getting up from your desk and exploring the building. You have a step counter that tells you how many you have left, and you can use the money you earn to buy more, letting you venture further. 

Steps get more expensive the more you buy, and each new floor requires even more of them, so the grind is very real. 

As you explore, you’ll become acquainted with the different departments that operate within the building: HR provides level increases and score multipliers, R&D lets you buy new equipment, and IT lets you upgrade your auto-stamping computer. Every department adds something new to the game that makes it easier for you to make more money and unlock more steps, but there’s a long way to go before you reach floor five. 

The mystery deepens

Regardless of what department they work for, the people you meet in Trust the System give vague answers to even the most direct questions. When asked what’s outside, they avoid the topic entirely, and asking about the System doesn’t get you any useful information either. It seems this game, like many others, applies the amnesia trope, but it doesn’t rub it in your face.

Instead, it feels like the person we’re playing as has always been there but was waiting for a player to take over so they could gain sentience. The character hasn’t forgotten everything; we just never knew any of it.

As you progress through the floors during exploration, you’ll need to literally fight your way onto each elevator. Every time you reach a new one, you’re faced with a Soviet-esque security guard who tells you that you’re not supposed to be there. What are they hiding up there on the fifth floor? And why are they so against you finding out?

To make matters even more questionable, there’s no reason given for you to be stamping these pieces of paper in the first place. Each shows a photo, a bunch of numbers, and a priority level that seems to increase the longer you play. Who are these people, and what am I approving them for?

I absolutely loved my time with the Trust the System demo, and I’m really intrigued to discover what happens beyond floor five. The demo doesn’t give much away even if you reach that point, but what it does reveal is enough to leave you questioning what the hell just happened. The demo is available on Steam right now, and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys incremental games or wants a mystery to solve.