version: 0.26
The dev Joraell asked me a while ago to write a review about his new project "Betrayed"... sooooo, well..., here goes nothing!
he wanted me to be as criticizing as possible, expect a lot of nitpicking on my side in this review!
i found quite some flaws in this game, hence the 3 stars. but first things first: the story.
you play as a horny teenager who is looking on his phone while he crosses the streets (using zebra crossing), when suddenly a car hits him. he dies and meets his guardian angel and ofc. a devil from hell. the devil offers him a chance to live among the livings with some nice lil' superpowers if he signs a contract. but everything comes at a price. first of all: his powers are pretty weak at first and needs to develop. second: he can only roam around as a spirit and has to take over human beings to be able to interact with the world. third: he can only roam around for a month then the contract will end and he has to return to heaven, hell or whatever. the game starts with the protagonist being a spirit.
...dunno why, but this whole setting reminds me of the movie "bedazzled".
NEEEEEXT!
gameplay:
first up, this game is a visual novel and fucking plays like one. don't think it might be a sandbox game or something, 'cause it's not. you play a linear story with a lil' bit of interaction (that has no impact in your progress for now) and you simply click on 'til the game is over. i expect some open endings once the game is done and finished (especially a good route with the angel and a bad one with the devil and maybe some minor differences in those two endings...depending on what decisions you did with side characters). sometimes the game wants you to travel from A to B, sometimes ya gotta solve a lil' puzzle and sometimes you just gotta click on a certain object like a door or a bench to proceed. pretty simple, pretty straightforward. and if you are still stuck, the game also offers a neat hint button. via map you can decide where you wanna go. due to the straight gameplay however the interaction with the map (jeah, the game features a fucking map ^^) and its possibilities are nonexistent. no multiple things ya gotta do at the same time, no freedome at what you want to do in that given time. in fact, it's so straight forward that i don't understand why a map was implemented in the first place. granted though, the map is fully fleshed out and looks great. maybe the dev will implement a lot more in future updates. as for now the map is actually just cosmetic. a nice plus: you get a neat tutorial right at the start!
story writing:
story writing is quite shallow and not as deep as, let's say, yu-no. take it as a light hearted visual novel and you will have some fun here and there (especially when magical growing pills come into play ^^). you won't have any problems at all following up. the writing itself is ....oookay i guess. the dev seems to know that his english isn't the best, so he decided to write everything in "simple english", which i appreciate. it's way better to write something in simple sentences than to fuck it up by writing in big words without knowing how to properly write 'em. he kept grammar mistakes at bay with this decision. however, that doesn't mean i didn't find any
. in fact, the longer the game went on the more mistakes i found. but they aren't hindering at understanding what's going, just... a bit annoying. and,... don't expect super erotic lines during sex scenes or something.
characters:
i gotta say, all models seem to look pretty unique! i especially like the guardian angel and her looks. none of these faces remind me of any other games. nice! this game's version was way too short to tell ya much of all the ingame characters unfortunately, yet it's clear that several characters play a foul game. but what their intentions are,... no clue so far.
graphics, animations & sound:
the graphics are the game's major plus. really nicely done here. lots of images are fully fleshed out with shadows and lightining effects. even the fucking minimap has shadows included xD. the game also comes with animations. but since i gotta be nitpicking every shit, i got some flaws for ya. while the animations don't look too bad, they still lack a lot of "appealing" things that make an animation erotic. it doesn't matter how big of a cock the protagonist has, you won't see bulge animations when he rams that monster in a girls throat, which is a bummer. you will also miss wetness on skin like sweat and other fluids ^^, afterreaction to skin (like a reddened skin, bruises, whatever) and skin that actually moves a bit after an impact (only thing i saw were boobs wiggling around whenever the protagonist "pushed in"). hair doesn't move around either...must be the best hair gel in the world xD. but the biggest flaw is the animation speed. it's like you are fucking girls in slow-mo. there is simply no energy involved during the sex scenes. jeez, increase the speed a bit dev. make'em go wild! humans fuck like rabbits on drugs not like turtles ^^. apart from that i only found one corny sex scene fairly at the end of the version with tracy...and one lil' clipping during the bonus sex scenes at the end of the game with the guardian angel. while the protagonist fucks that angel's ass you can see her eyelids clipping a bit. but all in all he did a great job avoiding corny graphics and clippings. overall all sex scenes lack that "umpf" behind it, thus making it less sexy than they could be.
about the sounds: no sound ingame (and ofc. no synchro), however you can listen to some music in the background. better than nothing i suppose. i just wish some devs would have the guts to use music from newgrounds or so. that would be awesome.
bugs'n'other stuff:
the dev did as great job hunting down all the bugs. yet i still found one
.
after fucking that blonde girl bethany in the car with brandon, when ya go back to school to open up the locker in the hallway, go to your inventory right before you open the locker and then click X to close the inventory. you will suddenly be teleported back to the car scene. but don't worry, it's not a game breaking bug. the technical frame is extremely solid and another major plus in the game.
overall i give this game, as it stands right now, 3 stars. i must say that i had to think whether or not to give it 4 stars, but too many small flaws clinched it for me. the game has the potential to be worth 4 stars, but i highly doubt it can reach more. the thing is, that the story is so "jammed" and linear (and so far also shallow), that lots of great possibilities are simply left unused. but who knows, maybe the dev will surprise me with something spectacular in future updates.
so far: 3/5 stars! (actually around 3.5 stars, but you can only give full stars here, yet rounding up to 4 stars would be too generous here).
last but not least: is it worth playing? well, jeah...why not. it won't hurt ya to play it ^^. however it's also pretty short so far. you might need a second game as a "finisher" xD.
cheers!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
some thoughts (don't affect the score or anything; it's just my mind talking here): i would love to see this type of game (with the exact same beginning) as an open ended sandboxy game where you just get thrown into the world as a spirit and decide on your own what ya wanna do. wanna take over a loser and make him a motherfucking hero, criminal, womanizer, whatever. do so. wanna take over a boss of a huge company by taking over one employee after another and then stepping up until you are in reach, do so. wanna help others with your skills? do so either. wanna be the worst scum on earth? do so xD. the possibilities with this idea of being a spirit who can interact with the world by possessing other human beings are endless.
