The Big Con will let you take on the role of Ali, a sarcastic teenager in the 1990s who ditches band camp to go on a cross-country road trip on a mission to save her mother’s video rental store from some nasty loan sharks (are they ever nice?) who are trying to force her mother into closing her shop down to make way for a much larger and well known Videoville store. You will have to swindle strangers out of their hard-earned cash, or just go for a classic and pickpocket people on your way to saving your family video store. Developed by Mighty Yell and published by Skybound Games (Who have published other titles such as Telltale’s The Walking Dead and Escape Academy) you can don multiple different disguises and rip people off along the way in the comedic crime-filled journey.

A great little indie title available with an Xbox Game Pass subscription, it’s short, sweet, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It also sits with a Very Positive rating on Steam, let’s get into it!

Journey across a wacky 90s America

Would You Steal From A Child?

The Big Con serves up a predictable story if I’m being quite honest. A parent owes money, and so a young, underage member of the family decides to break all the rules (and the law multiple times) to go above and beyond to do anything for their family. Whilst predictable it doesn’t mean it hampered my enjoyment of it in the slightest. It actually worked rather well and of course, opens up the door for a wacky adventure for our troubled teenager. You can visit a shopping mall and con some consumers out of their spending money and even pester some passengers on a train. Just like real life though, crime doesn’t pay (somewhat) and there are consequences for your actions. Whilst riding the train for example, should you get caught stealing or even messing around and pulling on the emergency alarm, you’ll be thrown off and your money will be taken, forcing you to pick up a shift at the Videoville placed continently at the exit to the train station.

Most locations require you to earn a certain amount of money in each area to be able to progress. Collecting x amount of cash to purchase a bus ticket to get to the mall, or once you’re there needing to collect enough cash to grab a train ticket to get to the next town over, and so on and so forth. I found the quickest way to collect cash was with the trusty pickpocket method depending on how much cash a potential victim is carrying, which is displayed as you start holding the button. The more cash someone is carrying, the harder it is to pull off a pickpocket, so choose those victims wisely. Aside from this you can find unsuspecting cashiers and confuse them into changing up incorrect amounts of cash and earning money that way, or eavesdrop on people who are looking for specific items, go and steal them, and then blackmail them into handing over thousands of dollars for said item. Anyone can be a victim, Ali doesn’t discriminate as she will even steal from young children!

Pickpocketing quick-time events

Comedic Con-Artist

The Big Con provides a healthy dose of comedy along the way and you’ll meet some quirky and interesting characters too. One thing I adore about this game is the art style and the 2.5D presentation which is dripped thoroughly with 90s nostalgia throughout. I really enjoyed some of the interactions with the characters, which sadly don’t have full voice acting instead, opting for quick one-liners as a new line of dialogue appears for you to read. For example, you could interact with a stranger who will have a paragraph for you to read and all they’ll say is “Hey so…” leaving you to read the rest. Whilst some prefer voice acting and don’t enjoy reading, I didn’t mind it hear and the little quips along with dialogue add a nice level of charm for me personally.

The characters you meet along the way can be interesting and even Ali herself is pretty cool, I enjoyed playing along with her journey. The soundtrack and art style give a nice blend of 90s nostalgia along with plenty of items like fanny packs and VHS tapes fitting with the era. Alongside saving your mother’s video store, you have optional side stuff you can accomplish for extra cash or achievements. You’ll meet a pawn shop owner who always asks for vague items. “I’ll pay big money for items with an air of secrecy” is just one of his requests, leaving you to work out what exactly this entails.

Visiting the pawn shop

The Con-Clusion

Taking me around 7 hours to complete, it’s a short and sweet indie title that doesn’t overstay its welcome. The Big Con isn’t without its shortcomings though. The majority of your journey can be solved with the simple pickpocket QTE which kind of negates any reason to bother with other means of gathering cash. Whilst the locations aren’t exactly huge it could certainly benefit from a map as it can be a little hard to keep track of where you need to go and who you need to speak to. The game’s charm carried it a lot of the time for me, but I still had a good time with The Big Con. One thing I will point out for the achievements hunters is that the total amount of gamerscore on offer is 1402G with some achievements dishing out odd numbers, so be aware of that. That said, I did have a response on Twitter from Mighty Yell themselves informing me that they are planning on rounding off the total with a future update, so there is that at least.

Overall, its got the charm, the music, and the length but lacks a little in its gameplay offering. This said I still had a lot of fun experiencing this and would still recommend this to indie lovers.