I've completed the whole game from the beginning in the past 2 days, I'm 100% done but two scenes won't unlock in the gallery. I used the cheat mod to unlock them, and of course I had played them.
The two are scenes with Charlene on page 3
and 4
So hi everyone, it was high time for me to reconnect with this game after a veeeery veeeery long time and I'm going to try and share my impressions. I'll be absolutely honest, as I've always been in the past; my 5-star review is still up there and it was as sincere when I wrote it as I will be now.
OK, the last time I played this game was probably about 1.5 years ago, when Gina and Tony reconciled under the rain. That scene was really satisfying, but I felt like some other aspects of the game were not advancing as I like, so I was a bit disappointed and didn't even comment on it here. I will mention something later below.
Then I read that the dev had started a collaboration with a great modder and coder and together they were planning a revamp of the UI, mechanics, etc. I was excited, so I waited. And then waited some more, and finally when it was released I read some mixed reviews talking about the improvements and also about the weaknesses and bugs of the new build.
Since a new game had to be started from scratch, I thought it would be wiser to wait until the next update, when those bugs would be gone and I would be able to enjoy much more content now that the revamp was complete. "What will it take? 3 months, 4 months, 5 maybe? I can wait, it will make the experience so much more rewarding".
Well, 10 months later came this second improved update. And I'm truly sorry, but I have mixed feelings about this. I wish I didn't.
Firstly, the new UI and menus are awesome, the girls profiles, the quests... they are all fantastic. Top tier on this site.
The improvement on the artistic side is evident. The girls and renders look phenomenal.
What to say about the animations? To sum up, if they're not the best on this site they are pretty close. Really, they are extraordinary, amazing, breathtaking. The details, the realism of movement and gravity, etc. A joy to see.
Now, the other shoe drops
Firstly, the game mechanics are as grindy as they used to be.
Sure, the dev removed some old compulsory repetitions, such as after breakfast and stuff, but it still took me hours from beginning to end, skipping as much dialogue as I could, to see all the content I had already seen and get to the new scenes. And this despite the fact that I cheated the fuck out of the game with the console and gave my girls increased stats whenever I needed. I mean, how many weekends would I have to play to get the stats with Katia leading to the hospital scene? How many times would I need to wake Gina up and hug her to increase her lust so that I can move on with her story? How many times do I need to make breakfast to accumulate enough roommate points so that I can break into the girls rooms at night or fulfil other compulsory tasks without leading to a GAME OVER? It's ridiculous and enraging. So yeah, I cheated and it still took me hours.
Sandboxes in general are awful; if they are grindy too, they can totally ruin the experience for many people.
Secondly, this is the aspect that I mentioned above. I'm sorry, but I hate the mom's involvement in this game. I hate it. It makes no sense to me, and it drew me apart from this game because I couldn't believe it was there. One of people's main complaints about the game was precisely the teacher's role, and how it made Tony look like a wimp. How could this look like a good idea now?
Besides, it happened so late into the game that I couldn't understand why; it was all going so well, there were so many girls available... Why? Incest for incest's sake? I won't comment on this any further.
Finally, as I said I hadn't played for 2 updates. For around 1.5 years' development the amount of new content I found is underwhelming.
Like seriously, I expected to see way more scenes than what I saw.
I may very well be wrong, but I believe the devs are so extremely skilled at animations and other stuff, and get so excited to produce and share those creations, that in my opinion (I repeat, in my opinion) they have failed to put into perspective what should come first and what is secondary. Having a daily job as they do, I believe they should have prioritized delivering far more scenes and far less animations. The raining animations were great and important to that scene, the new sex animations with different angles are great, the pool animations with Cassandra were fun and enriched that scene, but did we need those super long dancing scenes? Those walking and running animations? Those pan shots with Gina while hiking in the woods? Yeah, they are breathtaking and fabulous, but they should be the icing on the cake, and not replace the cake itself!
That's my opinion: Technical quality comes to nothing if it is to the detriment of the story, and if it's buried in a lot of grind. The improved UI and menus were necessary, but now that it's done we need MORE STORY.
Think about this: It's been over 2 years since Gina and Tony had THAT scene (June 2019 if my memory serves me), yet it's only now that they got their first date after the reconciliation.