A lot of effort put into the game to try and be everything and yet not getting the sweet spot on anything. Sci-fi, AI, corporate intrigue, school life, romance, harem, porn, personal healing, humor, slice of life - this game is taking itself too seriously trying be all of these without much success.
Story
At Chapter 4 I struggle to see where the main plot lies. Maybe it’s about the Artemis? Conspiracy by evil corporation TWWR? Emergence of Tony Stark wannabe genius cum secret tycoon Kindra? MC’s personal emotional recovery journey? Romancing within the sorority harem?
If we assess this as a serious Sci-fi story there are many logic holes that make it unrealistic e.g. MC spends a couple of weeks alone to write code and viola an android becomes sentinent? A partying undergraduate Chemistry student, June, deciphering a secret fluid developed by a genius in record time? A part time porn cam girl taking a minute to debug AI code based on a screenshot sent over email?
Ok, maybe we give the Sci-fi logic a pass, it is just a context to engage in romance and harem? Nope not much romance going on either, just MC having superficial interactions with a lot of LIs (9 at last count) most of which don’t lead to anything. There’s barely enough content with Kindra and June to have a serious romance, the rest are touch and go.
Game Mechanics
Artemis has a well-developed relationship points based system with LIs and these points are largely determined by the choices you make. So far, they make some scene differences but doesn't branch the story as far as I can tell.
Background / Character Renders
Background is one of the strongest areas in Artemis, it’s very well designed to detail especially when it comes to futuristic scenarios like the secret lab and Artemis. The nature scenes are rendered in enough detail and convincing unlike many other developers who do a sloppy job.
Character renders are on the side of realism (probably Daz3D with some sort of mod). MC looks cool and pleasant looking enough, but many of the LIs (e.g. Kindra, Naomi, Zoe, Paige) look alike in certain lighting and angles.
Character Development
MC’s recovery from emotional trauma is the best out of the lot, though I do find it very distracting because every time something serious tugs at heart strings, the next moment it’s broken by an ill-timed attempt to be humorous.
The majority of the LIs including the two main ones June and Kindra are what I call drama queens in real life - overly dramatic at anything and everything, swinging wildly depending on mood, exhibit ADHD symptoms and generally immature for their age. I don’t know if this is because of some preconceived notion that the developer has of tattooed individuals of being “wild”…
The only normal LIs are Claire, the law school albino girl and perhaps Artemis? I don’t know, maybe all this is to show players the ladies have character and are spontaneous, but personally I find them unrealistic and slightly unhinged, people I would avoid like a plague in real life.
Sex Scenes
Very little, lots of teasing but only a few actual scenes as at Chapter 4 and they aren’t engaging at all. There is very little dialogue, basically you just click options for different sex positions followed by a short animation and click the “cum” button when you are done.
BGM and Sound Effects
Decent BGMs that complement gameplay with a few sound effects for important scenes.
Conclusion
I don’t know what to make of it… I walked into this game having seen the 4.8 rating in F95 expecting a legend, if not at least a moderately good 4+ star experience.
The game tries very hard to get everything right and I get the sense the developer puts in a lot of effort into the finer details especially in areas like background, model, dialogue and story, but the results just don’t show when all of them are put together.
It’s not erotica or porn as there are hardly any lewd scenes and those few are short and mechanical. It’s hard to pass for a serious Sci-fi with so many unrealistic holes, it sort of works as an average harem romance novel… at least the MC is dating and flirting with a lot of LIs. The humor is neither here nor there, passable but not impressive.