There are plenty of reviews talking about various aspects of this game that I won't dwell into, because for the overwhelming majority of them, I agree with the general consensus. The characters are likeable, the sound design is well done, the visual design and usage of the HS2 studio is a great showcase of having a good eye for visual appeal. It's effortful. It's fun. What's not to love?
Well, my main, and realistically, only gripe with the game is the entire point that an AVN exists. The sexual content.
See, every narrative spark is, in some sense, is but a leadup to a sex scene. I'm oversimplifying what's on display here, and I'd hate to imply it, when what is evident here is that there is a clear intent to make a tangible story that isn't all just about watching a girl get porked—but for the sake of the argument, let's say that this statement is wholly true. It's the penultimate reward for your attention to the character interactions. Something the player/reader goes under the impression of receiving.
Something, that in my eyes, Eternum completely flounders.
See, the animations and sexual situations themselves are perfectly fine. In fact, a lot of them are a paygrade above the norm. Some are even exceptional. But if you're anything like me, just watching two genitals rubbing together isn't enough to engrave an internal feeling of sexual gratification.
The real problem I have with them is the character-assassination level of dialogue. It's as though, at the dawn of the day that a new version of the game is to be released, someone else breaks into Caribdis' home, rewrites all of the sex scenes to be one the most college-dude-bro ridden scripts to ever exist, then cackles maniacally, as they hit "save." It's honestly jarring to read. It is to the point to where it massively affects my enjoyment of the game, since when the characters are at their most intimate, most personal, most vulnerable, we get..-
..-Whatever this is.
And that's really unfortunate. I'm aware of the difficulty that is encompassed by the need to insert sex scenes into a story that you've, in some sense, written in your mind to be better without. Because eternum feels like a story that is negatively impacted by the existence of the sexual content. Dahlia's scene on the beach would've been better off with a kiss, eluding to a future sex scene instead. Annie's entire first scene feels incredibly forced. So on, and so forth.
It feels as though the narrative is an office worker that has conditioned themselves to drink coffee at exactly every two hour intervals. It's very inorganic, and feels VERY "gamey". The story doesn't lead up to a sex scene, it CONTORTS itself, pouting and moaning out, - "fiiineee.." every time it needs to do one of the government mandated bi-hourly sex scenes.
I know I'm coming off very pedantic here, but it's difficult to put into words how much this one singular aspect makes this entire story bleed out, whole. It's the point where, after more than halfway through, I honestly just hold CTRL every single time there's a sex scene. IN A GAME ABOUT SEX SCENES!
Caribdis, I'm under the impression that you read these reviews with a certain degree of objectivity, in spite of it being a criticism of your own work. It's an inherently difficult thing for any one person to manage, especially to the scale of the project, here. I don't mean to demean the work that's been done. It's good. Genuinely, it is. But I felt like this needed to be said.
Everything else considered, Eternum is great. Despite a large part of this review being on the negative side, I want to make it clear that I do actually really like this game. I just know it could be a lot better.
Thanks for reading.
