After the strange beginning, the game begins properly with you getting ready for work and entertaining the possibility that your boyfriend, Derek, might well not be as faithful as you’d like to think.

Not the most riveting start to a game I've ever played, but nicely written and the main character seems a believable one. But then Tough Beans isn’t one of those games that focuses on larger issues like saving the world or finding hidden treasure. It’s a game set in the real world and deals with real issues. And is all the better for it.

I didn’t discover any outright bugs while playing Tough Beans but there were a small oddities that popped up from time to time. Upon trying to smell the stain I discovered on the shirt, I was asked which stain I meant – small or large. The strange thing is that the description for both is identical. Why the need for two stains if they're both identical?

The difficulty factor is set just right for the most part, although I struggled to get the puzzle with the dog sorted out. A little on the non-obvious side? Yes, a little. Other than that, there seemed to be a slight reluctance to let the player make progress on their own and the game was constantly herding me along a very set path. I wasn’t able to leave the first location until a certain amount of time had passed, even though I’d done everything that was required in there. But I managed to reach the end of the game without running into anything I wasn’t able to figure out. And all within the two hour requirement for the Comp as well.

All in all, Tough Beans is an impressive first game and certainly bodes well for the future.

7 out of 10