Consume Me Review

CONTENT WARNING: Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical game that depicts dieting, disordered eating, and fatphobia. As such, this review will touch on those topics.

I've been there, you know? Looking into the mirror at my own reflection, seeing the man staring back at me and being unhappy. So sure that what I looked like, and who I was would never be enough. Sometimes, those thoughts would start out small, a slight imperfection reflected on the glass that could be easy to fix. But that’s never the end of it. I would think, “oh, if I just lost a few pounds I’d be happy with myself”, but when I would get there I couldn’t help but feel like I should be doing more. Just cut a few more calories, work out a little longer, stay up a bit later to get everything done. It’s never enough. So, when Jenny’s mother chastises Jenny for her weight in the opening moments of Consume Me, I felt my own shame returning — a feeling that was cemented when Jenny finds herself in front of her own mirror and berates herself in turn.

Publisher: Hexecutable

Developer: Hexecutable

Platform: Played on PC (Steam)

Availability: Releasing on September 25, 2025 for Windows PC (Steam).

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Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical life-sim RPG that explores one girl’s struggles with disordered eating, love, societal pressures, and shame. Jenny — the lead in this little tale — comes from a Chinese-American household, often butting heads with her strict (perhaps overbearing) mother, and must learn to navigate her day-to-day by balancing academics, relationships, dieting, and household chores. Despite these difficult and serious topics, Consume Me frames all of it within the game as silly, simple, and charming mini-games. 

Every aspect of these daily tasks has been gamified, and often in exceedingly clever ways. Meals involve placing Tetris-like pieces on a plate, with special target areas for placement that keep Jenny full. Of course, managing your “bites” count is its own concern, with some foods costing more to use than others. Reading involves trying to keep Jenny’s eyes focused on the material by rapidly clicking as her head swings wildly from point to point. Aerobics involves dragging Jenny’s body into awkward positions within a tight time limit, stretching and contorting her entire being to fit into place. It’s all intensely fun and impossibly charming — an insidious reflection of the very real problems that the material represents.

That block puzzle lunch is just counting calories, and combined with working out to put yourself in a calorie deficit, it is reminiscent of disordered eating and exercise habits. Additionally, the inability to focus on the reading material calls back to the attention disorders that many people struggle with. By formulating these difficult areas of conversation as fun and engaging activities, Consume me makes it all too easy to fall into those unhealthy lifestyle habits. Staying up late each night through coffee or force of will is easy enough, and it’s the only way you’ll ever manage to mark off all your tasks. Jenny’s relief after each activity masking the underlying self-esteem issues that plague her. Her smile is a lie she tells herself to make the suffering worth it.

Consume me is so charming and expressive, it feels impossible not to fall in love.

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I was smiling too. The resource management was engaging enough that I found myself min-maxing every activity, burning the candle at both ends just long enough to find myself in a nice bath at 3 A.M. so I could recharge for the next day. With each completed task, Jenny’s absurd expressions uplifted my spirits, driving me deeper into the obsession of getting everything “just right.” Every week within the game brings on its own challenges, but I made sure I met them all. Every task and side task done, maxing out my skills as best as I could, making sure I had enough money for the next week — I was a whirlwind of productivity and efficiency. I was myself consumed by the idea of checking every box.

I could spend my energy and happiness to extend my daily free time, then I would use my guts (hunger) to recharge that energy again, which I could then use to help recharge happiness and guts, and so on. Every daily activity was a balancing act in service of achieving a higher purpose. I could read the books I needed, write those essays, call the boyfriend, or do it all in one night if I managed my time appropriately.

As the game progressed, however, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Jenny. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say I was ashamed of what I was putting her through. Much like it was with me, nothing Jenny ever did was enough. Dietary restrictions get tighter, the workload gets heavier, and relationships begin to strain under the weight of Jenny’s compulsive adherence to perfection. My adherence to it. In a moment of my own weakness I considered doing less. How could I give Jenny the better life I so desired for myself at this age? There’s more to life than slavishly praying at the altar of efficiency. There has to be, right? Could I do what was necessary to progress and simply let the rest slide by? Would that help her? I may never know the answer to that question. I couldn’t do it.  I was nearing the end, so why should I change now? I’m close to having everything I want.

How could I give Jenny the better life I so desired for myself at this age? There’s more to life than slavishly praying at the altar of efficiency. There has to be, right?

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You’re never close, actually. Close is relative. For every goal you approach, another rises in its wake. The shadow it casts is itself a demon of desire, inching ever forward in pursuit, never giving you enough time to just breathe. So I just held my breath, instead. I should have known better, of course. Life isn’t a game you can win. I’m not sure Consume Me is, either. Its description says it has “over 13 possible endings: most of them bad!” What each of those endings entails might be beside the point. Endings aren’t the story — they’re merely the punctuation. The story of Jenny was the one I built in-between the margins. The one where I sacrificed her happiness over and over to win against a rival, or make the desired weight. The one where I crammed coffee, energy drinks, and protein bars to keep the nights rolling.

I’m still writing my own story, and as each chapter of my life ends and new pages are turned, nothing feels more certain than a “bad ending”. But why would I care about that, really? It's too late now to worry about the bridges I burned when I was a kid, or the paths not taken. I can’t really bring myself to be concerned about where those choices put me, eventually. I simply find it much more pressing to ask myself if I’m living well now. Not strictly in a health or wealth sense, but in more of a “am I happy” sense. Have I told enough people that I love them? Have I done that often enough? Am I a good husband, son, or father? What can I do right now to turn the answers to those questions into a “yes”? The aches that pain me are not those of regret, but rather inaction. Am I doing enough? Am I enough? For my own part, I made Jenny feel those aches, too.

Verdict

Consume Me is endlessly creative, touching, and gorgeous — certainly worthy of the pre-release praise it has garnered. It’s a true jewel in the crown of video games that manages to perfectly marry the gameplay with the narrative. Every inch of this work of art feels personal in a way that has left me feeling simultaneously certain in its meaning and perplexed by my own understanding or interpretation of it.

Image Credits: Hexecutable

Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product.