CorpoNation: The Sorting Process - Switch Review

Brought to you by the UK based, two-person indie developer team Canteen, CorpoNation: The Sorting Process drops you into a dreary dystopian world where you have started your lifelong working assignment for Ringo CorpoNation, this world’s oppressive corporately-owned state. Each day you wake up and go straight to work, where you give 110% and spend your time sorting mysterious genetic samples for Ringo like the model employee you are. Once you finish your work day, you are allowed to spend your free time completing surveys, paying your bills, chatting with your allotted work friends over text, purchasing decorations for your pod, reading news, and even playing the state sanctioned video games! See, ‘Ringo provides’!

However, things don’t stay simple over at Ringo CorpoNation. Each day, more and more rules on how to sort the samples are added to your workload, making it increasingly complicated and stressful as your time at the company goes by. Not only are the workdays super stressful as time passes, but also after a bit, there seem to be some strange emails going around from a rebel group. Facing you with the dilemma of either reporting the rebels and remaining loyal to the company, or questioning Ringo and working with the rebels instead.

Reminiscent of Papers, Please, CorpoNation: The Sorting Process is definitely a game that called to me. As someone who absolutely adores the dystopian genre of anything from movies and books to video games, the moment I saw this game coming to Switch, I knew I had to give it a try.

The Good

I knew that I was going to like CorpoNation: The Sorting Process the moment that I saw the trailer. From the amazingly dark and dreary corporate dystopian narrative and Papers, Please-esque gameplay to the ‘90s pixelated visuals and the availability of customisation, nearly all of my favourite characteristics of video games were checked. I thought it was too good to be true, but I pinched myself and somehow I wasn’t dreaming. Like I said above, there are many good points for this game, in my opinion, starting with its premise. One of my absolute favourite genres of consumable media is the dystopian genre. I was completely enthralled by CorpoNation: The Sorting Process. I just wanted to keep playing to learn more about its world, what was happening, and what secrets were to be uncovered. The premise of working long hours every day at a company sorting suspicious genetic samples (what are they exactly and why are you doing this?) and earning very little, then going home to your pod that the company also owns, where you can only talk to who the company says you can and play the games the company allows and read the news the company publishes, is positively fascinating.

I also adored the visual aesthetics of the game. It looks like you booted up an old computer from the ‘90s that your employer let you use for work. The pixelated visuals, the scant few icons on the desktop, the colours. The whole game is painted in an overwhelmingly bright blue, which I took for the stereotypical “corporate blue”. Which is perfect for a game about a dystopia where you spend your life working for a suspicious company. Not only that, but it also leans into the dreariness and monotony of spending your life giving your all to your employer, as blue is usually the colour you think about when you picture sadness. It is a very simple art style, but it was executed perfectly.

If you’re like me and find immense joy in games that give the option to customise, then, oh boy, you’ll also be happy. Granted, you have to spend your hard earned money that you don’t earn much of to begin with, but hey, it’s customisation! When you get off work and have read the news, chatted with your ‘friends’, and played some state sanctioned video games, you can peruse the Ringo catalogue! Here, you can put your money back into the economy and get different knick knacks and room decorations to make your pod a home.

Okay, okay, I know I am a sucker for the visual aspects of games, as you can see. But the game itself was very interesting as well, visuals aside. The controls are extremely simple in this game, and that is a good thing! You don’t have to spend time on the controls menu studying it like you’re about to take a final at university. It’s all relatively intuitive. Not only that, but I also found myself losing track of time while playing. Just going through the days sorting and sorting, playing the state sanctioned video games, and reading the news like a model employee would, I would check the time and two hours would have passed. If you need a good time sink, I implore you to check this out.

TL;DR

• Amazing dystopian narrative
• Time sink
• Great visuals
• Simple controls
• Customisation

The Bad

Honestly, I don’t have many bad things to say about CorpoNation: The Sorting Process. The main issue that I had while playing it, was that the controls were weird from time to time. It’s very apparent that the controls are optimised for the PC's click and drag. With the switch, you have to push the left stick up, then left and right to get to the right tube. Now, that wouldn’t really be a problem normally, but when the sorting time is extremely limited, that’s when it becomes an issue. I’ve had to restart the work day countless times due to a sample being sorted into a tube that I wasn’t trying to put it into, or getting a very low score because I had to take it slower to be more reliably accurate. 

At times, the monotony of a game where there is only one major objective: sort—could get old. Yes, there are new rules and more guidelines you must follow, but the core gameplay is very similar throughout. Mentioning the new rules that get added as time passes in the game, at some point it gets to be downright stressful and challenging. Keep these points in mind when thinking about getting the game.

TL;DR

• Sorting controls are wonky
• Monotony
• Rules get challenging

Final Score: 8/10

All in all, CorpoNation: The Sorting Process is a beautifully dreary dystopian narrative game. If you like the dystopian genre, customisation, pixel art style, and gameplay reminiscent of Papers, Please, you will love this game. Even though it is challenging at times, and the sorting controls may fight you, if you give Ringo 110%, then you will succeed. Well, I’m off to play some state sanctioned video games... Work hard!

Thank you for checking out our CorpoNation: The Sorting Process Switch review, thank you to Playtonic Friends for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
• Bel Cubitt
• Bobby Jack
• Jack Caven
• NintenVania Podcast
• RedHero