Consume Me is a life sim about the worst parts of its protagonist’s life. Like any life sim, it asks you to spend your time wisely to manage stats that measure your character’s achievements. Only here, instead of running a farm and making friends, you’re maintaining a diet, studying for exams, and trying to keep your boyfriend from breaking up with you. Despite dealing with its teenage heroine’s depression and disordered eating, Consume Me’s sense of humor is a consistent highlight, making it all the more poignant when its darker subject matter peeks through. While its mechanical representations of high school stress are remarkably evocative, a messy third act and abrupt ending keep its heartfelt story from really landing for me.
Consume Me has largely been presented as a game about disordered eating. The story kicks off when protagonist Jenny is scolded by her mother for her eating habits, setting her off on a diet intended to both salvage her self-worth and attract the attention of her crush, Oliver. Diet and exercise are core parts of the game, but the real struggle comes from trying to fit them into a life that makes room for Jenny’s other — often equally destructive — goals.
