STAFF REVIEW of No Umbrellas Allowed (Xbox Series X)


Friday, November 8, 2024.
by Peggy Doyle

No Umbrellas Allowed Box art I’ve played many games where I can be a shopkeeper, as it tends to be a common gameplay mechanic in a lot of cozy indies games. This comes along with skills like managing inventory limits, bartering, and negotiation too. I find these mechanics to be an enjoyable part of my gaming experiences, so when I saw that I would be able to run my own second-hand shop in No Umbrellas Allowed, I jumped at the chance to see if Hoochoo Game Studios would bring anything new to the table (counter).

It's 2080 and there has been an explosion at the Citizens Alliance Research Institute, resulting in a loss related to the artificial rain, known as Fixerain, as well as other facilities.


Your character wakes up on a beach, injured, and is taken in by a local shop owner named Darcy. He allows you to stay and get back on your feet as long as you pretend to be his son, Bob. Darcy allows you to have full control of his shop where you will work to pay off the debt of being allowed to stay there while also giving you time to figure out who you are. Now, you’ve probably consumed enough media to realize that these two situations are clearly related, and you’ll unravel it over the time you play the game. The story is driven primarily though cutscenes, using its retro style pixel art graphics and text-based dialogue vs full narration.

The story is interesting enough with a few twists involving the oppressive government and the technology that is using the artificial rain to nullify anyone having emotional responses to things. There are some interesting side stories as well, involving some unusual characters like the sarcastic robot assistant, HUE, or your rather irritating niece for example. The interactions were often memorable, especially when they altered the narrative of the game.


You will spend each day, up to a maximum of 40 days, running the shop. You’ll buy and sell everything you can. Working through bartering and negotiations to make the best deals. Buy low, sell high. You will also use some skills learned if you are deciding on the value of an object that someone brings in. This might be determining it’s worn condition or what materials it's made of. You will have a trusty reference book to guide you as you determine an items value. Over time, you’ll have different skills available to you and the appraisals become more complex. This involves things like checking manufacturing dates for ties to historical events or analyzing signatures. With a large reference book available to you, it sometimes felt a bit daunting, especially in the beginning. There were moments of satisfaction though, when discovering something the seller didn’t know about their item.

Any item you buy, you can sell in your shop window and you set your own prices. Remember that customers will likely barter so take that into account, as well as what you paid for the item. You have limited space in the shop window so you will need to decide what to display at any time. Customers may ask to see specific items or can ask for a recommendation. This is where your knowledge of your inventory will come into play. Ultimately you will need to increase your reputation for people to trust you more.


Outside of the shop the gameplay is 2D and you can visit various parts of the city and shops. Some of these shops will repair broken items for you, and there is also an auction house where you can sell some of your more expensive items. You will have rare items coming into your shop, giving a few Easter eggs, and sometimes umbrellas. However you can’t sell the umbrellas. They are banned by the government (bringing you back to the emotion controlling rain).

If you really want to test yourself, there is also a challenge mode that is separate from the story mode. Here you are given a finite number of items and are challenged to make the most money possible.

There are no manual saves, the game will auto save at the end of each day, so plan accordingly. Leaving the game early without saving can be costly with your time and money. I did encounter a few bugs requiring me to restart and lose progress a few times unfortunately. Hopefully a patch will fix any of these issues. There are ten separate endings if you choose to play through multiple times to discover them all.

The gameplay can get a little repetitive after awhile, but the narrative brings you around towards the end game. While it’s not the most engaging game I’ve played this year, I enjoyed the running the shop and bartering.

**No Umbrellas Allowed was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**




Overall: 7.0 / 10
Gameplay: 6.5 / 10
Visuals: 7.5 / 10
Sound: 7.0 / 10

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