I doubt anyone cares about it at this point, most have played the update themselves allready and have their own opinions, but here is rather short review I promised.
REVIEW Update 0.08 Beta
The people who have seen my comments in the past are probably aware that I am a fan of this game, and I am one of the patrons of L&P on Patreon from basiaclly the begining. I think that this game is truely unique on the market, with no other game out there competing with it in the same class and category realy. In terms of provind us with immersive, believable and realistic experience in a TV show like fashion - no other game out there can match with AWAM for me.
I used to defend the game to people that didn't understand that uniquness, trying to think about it as another Renpy Corruption Sandbox game, but I no longer have to do that, as the game has established itself firmly with growing comunity of people that understand that, and the rest is just not worth discussing with.
That beeing said, the game is by no means perfect, and I intend to critically look on it, judging it against it's own potential, rather than against the competition that hardly exist. And that potencial is immense, thought frankly also unachiveable due to various restrictions, and problems that a single person developing the game, no matter how dedicated or talented, just cannot overcome.
Thats why despite my utmost respect for the Author of the game, it might be more critical review than some people would have expected.
I. STORY (each scene individualy)
This upade might be difficult for some people to apreciate, since the overarching story of the game begins to pick up the momentum, and the results of 2 years of development start to see the game branching of more and more, which means more work for the Author, less content for an average viewer. If you pick up from your single save file, you might miss as much as 90% of the content if you picked wrong options before. So make sure you have seen everything that was done in the update before you complain about not enough contect beeing added in the update, that being said there aren't that many of them regardless... (later on that one)
1. Casino.
A big story like AWAM that is trying to have something interesing for everyone, is bound to have scenes that you find boring, or straight up unneccessery. For me the scenes at the Casino were largely like that. Probably mostly becose I dont care about Liam or Good wife route in general, but I imagine even from perspective of that few peopel that do care - it wasn't too great of a scene. L&P seems to follow one of my advises I made earier (regardless if he was aware of it or not), and doesn't waste too much time on Good Wife path scenes. It showed, that author didn't have any good idea how to make the scenes interesting, other than beeing a part of the larger plot involving Liam's amasing a huge debt. And I guess it was fine in that regard. Visuals were once again on the highest level, but without any real tension, the scene was really forgatable.
One exeption beeing really interesting character of the Italian-looking-probably-actualy-the-Casino-owner-mafia-boss that played rullet with Sophia there brefiely. I did enjoy that character, he was elegant, and good looking, possibly beeing a good villain later on. And sure - his looks was a bit stereotypical, but the way he acted was not obnoxious about it.
Sophia looked good, but I found her hair to be a tad too plastic-looking this time around. Worst thing about the whole Casino event was - there was not enough tension or build up any kind, no wonder in my playthrogh Sofia decided to go to the club in middle of it, she was getting bored !
Score: 6/10 (more than decent, but definetly not inspirational scene)
2. The Club
This was definetly a more interesting scene, one that L&P used more time working on no doubt. (not that Casino wasn't work intensive as well) The location itself was not exacly greatest looking club I ever seen in Renpy game, music not the most blood pumping one I have heard, but everything was done with nice attencion to detail trademark to everything L&P does.
The scene was easly more exciting and interesting to watch than the one at the Casino, with real sexual tension to it, and players wondering how far will girls allow themselves to let go, and suprisingly enough Sofia turned out to be least inhibitted of 3 of them, allowing herself in 2 very sexy situations I really enjoyed. Even as I am not a huge fan of Lesbian scenes (there has to be at least 1 cock involved to make it real sex scene ;p), I really enjoyed the passionate make out session between teh sisters in the Club. Seeing their foggy eyes and smeared wet with saliva lips after the make out was really hot. It was a pleasant surprise to see Sophia alowing the new guy (Tyler ?) go as far as fondling her pussy right in front of her sister and Daughter ! That was unexpected. But to be honest - I can't say it was really hot and crazy night out for the rest of the event.
Besides this 2 moments everything was rather tame, and the girls seemed too reserved really. There was no moment when you could see them going wild in the heat of the moment really. And a good night in the club should be like that. There was no passion in the air.
I dont blame Sophia for that - she was the one that went the furthest this night ! But Patricia and Ellie were totaly dissapointing. I had some issues with their looks, but thats a minor point, but the fact that they hardly done anything durring the entire night was really a huge let down. You would expect Patricia to get wild with the guys, getting really provocative and maybe sneaking out to the toilet with Kevin or something, but nope - ZERO of that.
Same with Ellie ! - Logan was possing like that great Player and heart stealer, but all he did was just sit next to her all night, barely even kissing 1 time or 2 with her. They might as well move their models to a bench inside the church, and it would not be too inapropriate ! Ellie was a HUGE dissapointment in this update. Absolutely nothing happened on her part, while we all were anticipating the things she would be doing with Logan, Sophia beeing shocked to see her daughter in really lewd circumstances etc. - but FUCKING NOTHING happened ! Really really dissapointing. Even if you don't want her to fall for a jerk like that - she should get a scene where Logan is pressuring her to do something, and she pushes him off or something. But nope nothing like that at all. L&P totaly wasted her character in this scene. Really damn shame about that !
If it was done correctly, this one event could be the hottest and best scene in the entire game, making everyone who feels undecided about the game joining the fanbase, but it was cut way too shortly. I can only hope another time the girls will go out to the club (friday - so 4 in game days from now), will be much more eventfull, and more alive !
Score: 6/10 A lot lower score than I thought initialy, but thinking how Patricia's, Logan's and Ellie's character were wasted in that scene - I can't rate it any higher.
3. Night back at home.
And the update ended in a few small scenes with Sophia returning home, eighter with the girls, or with Liam. The only memorable conversation out of these was the one between Sophia and Patricia, with the sister aknowladging the fact of their kiss in front of each other (and Ellie). That was nicely done scene, with good writing, showing how Sophia is quickly catching up to her sister with how open she becomes about sexual stuff. Really good character development for Sophia, and a bit for Patricia, but NONE for Ellie.
And then there were the scenes with Liam, when you let him gamble away.
I see some people absolutely hated that development, allready saying how cheap it is, in their minds going wild how Sophia will now for sure become a victim to most unoriginal blackmail by the mafia, comparing the game with absolutely riddiculous titles like Lida's Adventures and such.
I say this people have serious issues. First - we dont know what kind of solution Sophia will find to get her family of that debt. If you read the scene carefully you will see that the amount of that debt isnt exacly that monstrous for them. Its only 30% of the value of thier house, something they can easly get out of, without Sophia having to sell her life over to Mafia for the eternity. But that is besides the point, becouse we dont know are L&P's plans for it later in the story. If the Italian looking gentleman that talked to Sophia at the casino is the Cassino owner that they are indebted to, I actualy looking forward to seeing how she will be dealing with him. From my initial impression of him, I doubt it will be typical humiliating scenario like from the cheap games out there, but we will see.
Only thing I disliked about the scene was - I think Sophia was waaaaay to soft on Liam out there. I could totaly see her throwing him out of the house, or at least to sleep on the couch for what he has done.
Score: 8/10 - solid scenes with good character development. (9/10 for Patricia x Sophia scene, 7/10 for Liam debt scene)
4. Good wife's Sex scene
Lastly there was finaly the first ever full vaginal penetration involving sex scene for our main Protagonist Sophia in this game.
Even with me beeing a huge fan of this game, and replaying the game from start to finish like 6 times by now, I never tried a Good Wifes route untill yesturday. ;p The thought about Sophia beeing faithull to Liam being repulsive for me ;p
But I powered through the pain - just for the sake of this review, and being able to rate this very first sex scene despite my bias.
No scene involving Liam will ever be sexy for me ;] Not after long years I blacklisted him in my mind as the idiot about to be cucked by his Wife with every other character in the story, but I have to give credit to L&P and commend him for making a really good looking well directed scene !
Everything was done great and with style, just the right way, just the right lenght of the scene, and nice expression out of Sophia. I imagine it will only get better, when she will be put into more passionate scenes, with a real cock fucking her instead of her clueless hubby. The area where this scene shinned the most was the sound effects, and entire audio of it. Moans of Sophia were some of the best I have heard in this games, perfectly matching with the scene, and varried, not a single anoying sound string repeating over and over. Really great job here L&P !
Same with the animations - really solid work on these, along with some static shots - really hot !
If every sex scene with other characters later on will maintain this level of quality - it will be pleasure to watch it. I am allready looking forward to it, imagining Sophia with Dylan or Zack in scenes just as good !
But honestly I can see L&P getting even better at it with time. Though from the scenes with more interesting characters I will expect to see more, with longer scenes, more transitions and writng. For a scene with Liam it was perfect ;]
Score: 8/10 - (max you can get for scene with Liam)
OVERALL Score for Story 7/10
2. ESTHETICS
Casino looked great - probably best most detailed I have seen in other games
The Club - was done really good, yet I have to say, there are many better looking clubs out there, but ofc - it doesn't mean this one was done badly, Sophia might visit other clubs later in the story.
One thing that was deffinetly noticable was - how many diffrent audio effects, and tracks L&P added in this update. I think it was by far the most audio heavy update so far, with almost every scene having some sounds in it, greatly enhancing the overall experience of playing the game !
And then there was addition of really smooth looking animations.
Overall - I feel the game is getting better and better at provinding the best possible audio-visual experience.
Respect !
Score: 9/10
3. Characters
Here I leave few sentences about the design and development of some characters in this update.
I will not repeat myself too much over what I wrote in the story section, but obviously I like most of the characters in this story. Sophia is great as ever, and she received a nice development of her character in this update. She looks awesome. Liam is Liam, and Patricia is fun too, though I didn't liked her hair too much yet again (seriously there is something weird about her never looking exacly perfect in any of the hairstyles so far).
I liked the design of the newly introduced guys like Tyler and a bit before that Logan and Kavin. Even more than that I liked the Italian-looking gentlement at the Casino, and I think he will turn out to be great character later on.
But setting this nice thing's aside I have to adress one thing I didn't like too much here too.
I allready talked how I thought Ellie's part durring the club scene was a total waste of her character, compleatly missed oportunity to have some hot scene with her, see development of her character or her relationship in either direction (towards Logan, or away from him).
But I have to say I didn't fully liked how she looked in this update. Her hair was a bit low quality of mesh I think, it looked kind of weird, but most importantly I didn't like how very mature she looked in this scene. Not only her dress, but her whole boddy seemed to have changed in the recent updates, and right now Ellie seemed to have lost the teenage look about her almost compleatly. In the scenes in the club she looked to be compleatly as mature as Patricia if not for her a bit younger looking face. Her Thighs might have been even thicker than Sophias !
I dont mean that she looks bad now - she looks like a bombshell - but I still dont like tha fact that she seems to be loosing all of her teen appeal really fast.
The way she looked in here - she might as well be 22 y.o. or something, and it is not how she used to be.
I dont like that - it is happening too fast.
Score 7/10
4. Quantity of Content
I could not compleate this review, without adressing the issue of the recently slowing down rate at which this game is beeing developed. It is not as bad, as some of ungratefull people(while not paying a dime for it), oblivious to the amount of work making a complex game of this quality entails, claim, but I cannot say I am not worried that the development is undenyably slowing down recently.
Sure this whole day had a lot of content to it, and I totaly understood why it had to be split into 3 updates to complete it. But honestly especialy this last update wasn't as big as to require 2 full months to compleate. I cant tell for sure why it took L&P that long this time, I dont think just the number of renders or the complexity of them are enough to justify increasing the development time over 200%, but it's fine with me, if it will not become a new standard. But it could simply be something as natural as spending more time with friends and family (it is time of spring vacations for many, or exams at school for others.)
I know L&P is working really hard, he is very dedicated person, I can see it just from his comments, but I hope he can resolve the issues that are slowing him down soon.
BTW I would be totaly all right with him taking even longer to finish this update if it ment expanding the Club scene some more, to involve Patricia and Ellie more, but I always weight the amount of conted added against the time spend on it too.
Score - 4/10 - The amount of content seems rather unimpressive for whole 2 months it took for it to get here.
Moving forwards, what is next ?
And lastly In this section, I want to assess how this update affects the whole plot of the game, and how it affect the game moving forwards. And it looks that it realy is one of the most eventfull updates in that regard. Not only we see Liam's debt possibly changing the way entire story will be moving forwards, we have the first full on sex scene involving Sophia, but we also see some very important character developments in her as well. My Lesbian oriented friends will definetly enjoy, that this update basically officialy opens Sophia for all kinds of possible scenes with other women and girls in the game, and I believe there is no reason for her not to have at least 1 small lesbian scene every playable day now. Her relations with Patricia especialy look to be rapidly maturing, the two regarding each other more equaly now, without contempt like before.
Too bad we didn't had same growth from Ellie, but I guess there is still a lot of time for that.
Next day should be starting strong, with bra-less Sophia trying not to become a plaything for a juvenile gang at school ... It all looks very interesting ...
Overall Score - 7/10 Solid update.
So even though we had to wait a while longer than usual for it, it still is a pretty good expansion for the game. Not the best one I have seen from L&P, I have some issue with it, but it sill has the same quality, and level of polish we all came to expect from his works. The story of Sophia continues, and it really starts to enter the territory where every new update should bring more and more really exciting scenes, and impactfull developments. Even though it is slowing down, the game is healthy and growing, and still caries the potencial to become one of the greatest one in the genre. I know I will be dissapointed with it in the end, but that's becose I am perfectionist - the same as L&P, and we are lucky that someone like him is making this game. Becouse there is nothing wrong in failing to deliver the perfect result - it is impossible, but while we try we still can achive something out of ordinary. And this game certainly is that if nothing elese - OUT OF ORDINARY.
PS. Thats what happens when I tell myself - I am just going to write a short little review ...
Thanks for L&P for making the game.
Thanks for your time reading this.
Cheers.
