Delivery Xpress

In a world where you can pilot a starship, drive a Formula 1 car, or slay a dragon from the comfort of you living room, the appeal of coming home from a menial job to play a game in which you perform menial job is debatable.

Of course, games can transcend seemingly restrictive conceptual packaging with raw gameplay.

For example, is Tetris a game about stacking endless rows of boxes, or one of the greatest puzzlers every devised? The answer is 'both', but you see what we mean.

Delivery Xpress, however, remains shackled by the chains it has forged itself. Like Tetris, it is a game about movement, timing, and the relentless redistribution of boxes.

Unfortunately, unlike that square-edged masterpiece, this game reflects its subject matter too well, making you feel like an under-appreciated worker stepping back into the daily grind.

Set within the beige walls of an nondescript office, Delivery Xpress puts you in the well-worn boots of a delivery man. You must move from left to right, collecting packages from office workers while avoiding crashing into desks, pot plants, and overzealous cleaning staff.

Once you've picked up your packages, you're whisked away to another office space, which you must traverse from right to left, delivering the packages you have collected. Points are awarded for collecting parcels, with more being dished out when the parcels reach their destinations.

In an effort to inject some impetus into the proceedings, the game ushers you along with a constantly panning camera, a device which picks up speed as the game progress.

While this does make it trickier to hit your targets, it never truly compensates for the fact the act of collection and delivery simply isn't much fun.

The decent enough visuals and hoovering janitors only serve to reinforce the unwelcome fantasy that you're back in a largely featureless workspace performing a repetitive task - only this time, you're not getting paid.

There are a few neat touches. Office workers spout speech bubbles bearing positive emoticons or garbled expletives to thank or chastise you for your efforts. The sight of your avatar scampering along beneath a swaying tower of packages is initially entertaining, too.

Before long, though, you realise that Delivery Xpress is something of a hollow proposition: a brown, featureless package with nothing of substance inside.