Review of Artifice first release, aka Prologue. Although the developer should really call it Chapter 1.
Graphics 5/5
There’s a guy who’s basically converting HS2 into Blender bit by bit. A skilled HS2 user can achieve graphical quality that—if not superior to what you could get in Blender—it’s certainly beyond what a typical Blender user can easily produce. And this developer is one of those. The graphical quality is excellent and, in my view, even better than that of many visual novels created with conventional 3D rendering tools. The graphics also don’t feel overcooked.
Animations 3/5
So far there are just a few—for the single sexual scene, a blowjob with different camera angles, plus one that appears in the main menu. Overall decent, nothing bad to report.
Music and Audio N/A
I usually mute the visual novels I play, and this one was no exception. What little I heard was high quality—but that’s not for me to judge.
Gameplay 2/5
There are some choices, although since this is a prologue, they might not matter later. So for now it feels more like a kinetic novel than a full visual novel; we’ll see in the first chapter what it really is. The UI is good, with a character section that gives background info. No major bugs, aside from a few missing images here or there. Menus are accessible and navigable. The main gameplay issue is… is this really a prologue? To me, no. Prologues should by nature be short. This one isn’t, and that’s not inherently bad. The problem is that a prologue’s purpose is to lay the groundwork for future content in upcoming updates. It should clarify and highlight core concepts the player must understand from the start. A prologue should distill the essence of the game. However, this one introduces too many characters, too much text and dialogue, too many scenes, too many ideas—many of which feel unnecessary in a prologue. Are they useful to the game? To me, right now, no. Thus, lots of scenes and superfluous text, characters appearing too early to contribute meaningfully in this prologue, etc. Even the few times a narrator appears to explain transitions, it’s done with too much text. And other issues I’ll cover in the next section. This is why I’m giving gameplay a 2; if well executed, it should be at least a 4.
Plot 1/5
You start the game, and the first thing you get are some images with text where the developer makes it clear he is obsessed with theater, that the prologue may feel rushed—but trust them, it is not. Okay, a visual novel about theater, actors performing, etc. To reinforce that, the first scene shows an old man performing a monologue on an empty stage. Is this really a visual novel about theater? NO. And even though the prologue ends with a scene of a girl speaking to the player in the same theater, no—it’s not about theater. It’s a bad start. Halfway through the prologue I had to read the author’s overview to understand the plot, because there were so many things I didn’t get (which is the worst thing that can happen in a prologue). Putting aside that first block of text where the author repeats the theater message, I now understand (I think) what the plot is about. So it turns out the theater motif is an allegory—the player is a spectator watching a performance, and that performance is the game itself. Or at least I think that’s the idea. The worst thing that can happen to a player is—I'm not saying the developer is lying—but he is not able to clearly explain what they really mean by “theater.” Okay, let’s set that aside. Unfortunately, maybe because of the theater thing, the developer’s lack of clarity, or maybe my own confusion, I struggled to understand the game’s plot, and even now some things aren’t clear. The MC is a young man with an unhappy childhood. His parents died, and he apparently ended up in an orphanage or religious group caring for homeless children. That group seems to be more than just religious—they somehow turn children into “employees” of another organization, or perhaps the same organization, with more… sinister goals. People hire this group to do whatever is asked of them, in the shadows or in the open. And that’s exactly what’s happening. There’s a power contest where influential people test their children, along with other challengers, to see if they are ready for the future, if they deserve to rise in the power ladder, etc. THIS IS THE REAL PLOT OF THE GAME. And the game barely covers this. If the developer wanted to compare real-world power struggles with theater performances, he clearly doesn’t know what power struggles really are. Luckily for him. Besides this contest among privileged kids and other worthy contenders, there are other interesting subplots. The main one is the MC’s: he has a brother and will do anything to reunite with him. He was also subject to some experiment that caused a severe split personality condition, where each personality sometimes controls the MC. But the prologue is so confusing that at first I thought the brother might even be a lost “fragment” of his personality (maybe he is). I’ve gone on too long about the plot, so I’ll move to the next point, skipping some important things. But not before making clear that this game has NOTHING to do with theater. Unless future updates reveal that it all was theater after all.
Characters 4/5
The MC’s split personality will bring a lot of potential. He’s certainly not your typical main character, and he’s decent so far—though he’ll probably change when his other personalities take over. The other characters are decent too. Some have well-defined personalities and likes, despite their limited screen time so far.
Final Thoughts
It’s hard to rate this game in its early phase. I don’t usually write reviews on initial releases for that reason. But this whole theater-plot confusion and the plot’s issues forced me to. For now, the game shows effort and high quality. But unfortunately the developer’s inability to clarify some main aspects of the game means I have to rate it lower than it deserves. Fairly, it might deserve a 3.5. But since that’s not possible, and because the plot execution has clear issues, I’m giving it a 3.
