I don't have multiple runthroughs for this game so I haven't delved too deeply into the options but I did play through the new update.
My snap judgement is that Chapter 4 was generally good, but also a somewhat frustrating experience. I like the girls (Cassie excepted, obviously) and I even like the lighthearted, sexy antics the MC gets up to with them. But I'm not really digging the story; the stakes are poorly defined, progress is very slow, and our villains seem ill-suited to the roll they've been placed in.
I'll keep the rest of my thoughts spoilered.
tl;dr The update is good if you focus on the (non-villainous) characters and the visuals, but I can't take the main story seriously and the gameplay could use a little finetuning.
Very interesting and thorough review. I agree with you on the story & the villains: the story is inching forward at glacier (pre-global warming) speed, the Kindra slow burn is sooooo slow that I'm afraid the fire is slowly dying, Artemis stiil isn't an active part of the plot (let alone the main LI), the villains are both despicable and incompetent. And I have no idea where the game wants to go in the end. Is it going to be a meditiation on 'what constitutes life' with the AI aspect, is it going to become an action thriller (MC being good at fighting and shooting as well as fornicating), is it going to be a sorority sex farce cum (pun intended) business start-up sim...? It's just really out of focus.
With regards to the girls: I'm only interested in Kindra. No one else. At all. As in, I don't even read their dialogue anymore. Every second MC is forced to spend with someone besides her (except for the doc) is a wasted second IMO. I really dislike all the INK girls, both their looks and characters, and wish they were never part of the game to begin with. Why on earth was MC forced to
Not that this shouldn't have been a part of the avn, but it should have been totally optional. I guess it's an opportunity to sneak in some pointless nudity in case MC (like I did) doesn't get up to shenanigans with anyone else...
On the other hand, there were so many moments where MC could have kissed Kindra or gotten intimate with her (without lewdness, necessarily) that were just ignored. And the
discussion was not funny and took away the opportunity for some Kindra sexual acts which would have been exactly what that plotline needed at that point. MC keeps saying Kindra is like his little sister, but he's been given the option to perv on her from the very start (which I always took and she always noticed and she never minds), so that roadblock to love just feels fake. They were obviously very drawn to each other from chapter one, just let nature take its course! (I'm actually wondering now how the game can run fluently if you choose another LI than Kindra as it's all about her, you live with her, create enormous scientific breakthroughs with her, become part of her new company... where would anyone else fit in?)
With Cassandra, I just went all shouty at her and never got the hatefuck option. Wouldn't have taken it anyway (unless there were an option to throw up on Cass while doing it, she disgusts me). She was also made to be so despicable in the flashbacks, I just wish she would get hit by a truck and removed from the game forever. I really don't see the point of her being around anymore.
Finally: several scenes go on for too long. The toast scene, the Cassandra confrontation, several instances of Kindra's guilt or insecurity keep repeating the same beats, circle back on themselves... These scenes would have benefited from being much more concise, which would have reduced the enormous amount of renders and made them stronger dramatically.
