Xbox Series X/S Review: The Big Con

Can you pull off the ultimate heist?

Hustle through the 90s in The Big Con, an adventure game where you’re an awkward teen hustling to save her family video store from gangsters. Play as Ali, a high school junior gone AWOL from band camp to seek revenge on the loan sharks that threaten her mom’s video store. (Fighting with your mom is YOUR job. No one else gets to do that.) Maybe you’ll profit from the latest collectible plushie craze and make an interesting friend or two along the way.

The Big Con sees you travel across America pickpocketing strangers and robbing rich people to settle your mom’s debt. Pickpocketing is simple as holding down the Y button and letting go when it’s in the right section of an on-screen box, but if you get caught you won’t be able to retry the steal unless you dress up in disguise. There’s a vast variety of characters you’ll see in each location and helping them in each area may pay off for you towards the end with a lump sum of cash and also some achievements.

Each area has a bunch of side quests to do for some extra cash, but you only need to reach the total cash target before you move on. You can’t return to these areas once you leave though so you need to be sure you’ve done all you wanted to before moving on. It’s not a particularly long game, I managed to get through it in a few hours but will need to go back through the game again for a few missing achievements.

The story itself may not sound the most gripping, but you do become invested with Ali, her (I assume hallucination ghost) Rad Ghost and a few other interesting characters. The bright cartoon style of the game fits well for the 90s theme where video stores were still a thing (RIP Blockbuster) and even comes across trippy at times with it’s psychedelic backgrounds during conversations.

The Verdict

The Big Con is a nice adventure with some interesting characters. It’s not particularly long, but it’s definitely a memorable game from start to finish.

Score: 8.0