Before everyone had a smartphone in their pocket and access to countless free mobile games (both good and hot messes), people got their free gaming fixes from browser games. I have fond memories of being a kid and playing Cartoon Network’s browser games, especially those tied to Codename: Kids Next Door and Samurai Jack. Browser games may not be as popular as they once were, but that doesn’t mean people have stopped making them. Case in point: Messenger.
Developed by abeto, Messenger is a free browser game that has you making deliveries for the residents of a teeny-tiny planet. With an art style reminiscent of indie standouts Sable or Wheel World and very chill lo-fi music, Messenger flips fetch quests on their head by taking something normally rote and mundane and making them a relaxing experience. (It’s quite the comedown after spending time with Silent Hill f, I can tell you that.)
Each delivery is full of humor. My favorite was encountering a worker who sent a scathing letter to his boss, and now wants to undo that rash decision. You’ll then find his boss standing outside a red house, only to learn his boss already read the letter — and he finds it hilarious. “Maybe he’s manager material after all,” he says.
Messenger‘s world is so small, you can see its curvature plain as day (flat-earthers might be triggered this one). The environment rolls around your delivery person as they walk, and it only takes a few minutes to do a lap around the circumference of the planet. Though small, it’s not without character and variety; you’ll walk through the city’s main square, traverse a forest, and wander around some sort of power plant. Movement is limited, though using the space bar to jump allows for a surprising amount of parkour.
Other players will pop in as you walk about the curving planet, lending Messenger an almost MMO-like feel, like when you’re surrounded by others going about their way while waiting in a lobby. You can’t speak with them directly, but you can communicate via emoji. I’ll let you decide what a player spamming the poop emoji is trying to say.
Messenger isn’t a vast sandbox, but it is one that feels alive. Its quirky characters, along with its art and music, give it a distinct personality, one that’s almost therapeutic; spending just 30 minutes wandering its world was enough to turn my grey mood around yesterday. There’s a certain joy that comes from spending time on Messenger‘s globe, even long past when the deliveries are completed.
You can play Messenger for free now at messenger.abeto.co.
