HTML - Course of Temptation [v0.6.4g] [Anthaum]

This is tough. I really want to like this Course of Temptation, and there are clearly a lot of people who enjoy it in its current state. But it's shaping up to be a life simulator that's both wide enough to be cumbersome and shallow enough to be unsatisfying.
What I mean is that this game is basically 3 games all fighting each other at once:

1. A Text-Based Sandbox RPG where you are a student in a university that can enroll in classes, join sports teams, go on dates, work part-time jobs, and just live as a college student trying to improve themselves and meet people. Most characters are randomly generated (which you can adjust with world generation settings) but there are also some essential NPCs with unique roles and storylines.
2. A Tedious Life Simulator where you must regularly go to the bathroom, study, and even do your f-ing laundry, most of which doesn't have much narrative impact on the game's story.
3. A Shallow Dating Simulator that allows you to date the various randomly generated character that populate the town, with sex scenes that end up being obtuse and narratively incoherent. Some aforementioned "pre-built" characters have more content and restrictions compared to the randomly generated ones, but most lack any meaningful storylines as of now.

All 3 systems ultimately have the same flaw which is that they don't contribute to any narratives enough. Let me explain:

Customization:

• There are a lot of customization options including those for hairstyles, body types, clothing, RPG-style skill points, and quirks. They can be really minute and refined, which might fool you into thinking that they matter. But the majority of these options are just flavor text, with very little implications on the story or available choices.
• The one bright spot is the Inclinations system, which involves specific character quirks that do affect the story options and storyline, such has having a character be dominant, submissive, into exhibitionism, smelling weird, etc. This is great, because they're much more intuitive to understand than the RPG stat system and customization the rest of this game has where you don't know what actually matters to the plot. The one downside is that some of these Inclinations are redundant and honestly should be condensed. For example the list of Inclinations includes "Helpless Exhibitionist", "Proud Exhibitionist", "Lewd Exhibitionist", and "Cautious Exhibitionist" like are we being serious here?

Sex Scenes:

• And now for the sex scenes. This game makes most of its money on Patreon. As such, it's bound by certain rules concerning sexual violence and other loosely defined objectionable content. So I completely understand why the devs don't want to make rape a thing like Degrees of Lewdity, and quite frankly I think it's a good thing because DoL is fixated on being raped in a magical world while CoT is supposed to be more grounded.
• But the problem is there is rape in this game, and as of right now it's pretty divorced from whatever relationship dynamic and narrative your character has with the NPC. Depending on your stats and inclinations, sex often turns into a WWE-style wrestling match where either you and the NPC fight for dominance to then essentially rape the other until both of you cum, after which you two pretend like nothing happened because that stuff doesn't have an impact on the game. You can quite literally go on a series of wholesome dates with a virgin, pin them down and rape them in their ass during a sex scene, pee on them, and go back to dating like normal. And it's not even something like the other character is sticking with an abuser (which would be pretty dark for this game) but simply because the sex doesn't matter to the story itself.

Depth of Content:

• CoT is really trying to do it all, and that's admirable. But I can't help but feel that the plans for this game were too ambitious when you look at the massive amounts of work needed. Right now the NPCs are either:
  • Special NPCs with their own storylines. These unfortunately have several limits on what you can do with them, because they're meant to be given specific scenes and storylines at some later point.
  • Standard Randomly Generated NPCs which give you a lot more freedom to interact with. There's a dating progression system that is supposed to give a sense of compelling, spaced out escalation in intimacy. But unfortunately there's just not enough scenes right now.
• So the scene progression being shallow and incomplete is understandable since it's a work in progress, but when you see how much new systems are being added to the game it makes you wonder why the devs don't focus their efforts on just building up the existing scenes and storylines before doing anything else. Because without those scenes this game is clickhell drudgery, despite its many thoughtful optimizations. Yes there are cheats, but even with them you're doing all this work keeping your various life simulator stat bars up including hunger, bladder, composure, hygiene, attention, rest, relaxation (redundant), and release, for not very much in return.

The devs are including a system for memories and reputation, which are features that I've been dying to see in a life-sim for a long while. But at this point I'd rather they focus on building up what they currently have instead of falling victim to constant feature creep. CoT feels like it is quickly turning into a bloated game that's mostly work and little reward. It doesn't feel immersive when you have to make your character eat, sleep, pee, and do laundry in game while going through very repetitive daily grinds as a student, just to get extremely half-baked dating sim content and sex scenes that are sandboxed away from the rest of the story.
This game could be good, and I really hope I'm wrong about the devs struggling to add meaningful progression and interactivity in the scenes. But to me it seems like that is unlikely unless the devs take a good hard look at what they want this CoT to really be, and also trim a lot of the excess fat that has nothing to do with the game or story because otherwise it's going to be very hard to Immersion is not about descriptions or stats, it's about reactivity to what the player does. And as of the current build your character is a walking ball of stats that interact with hundreds of things in the game world in a very shallow way.

IDK how people rated this game so high, this game is the so boring, and why Real life simulators fall flat.

"You'd be sitting in a design review, and somebody says, “that's not realistic.” And you're like, okay [...] explain to me why that's interesting. Because in the real world I have to write up lists of stuff I have to go to the grocery store to buy, and I have never thought to myself that realism is fun. I go play games to have fun." - Gabe Newell.

This game is super realistic to the point of being boring and not at all sexy. The intro does a great job at subverting expectations, because on the bus going to the college there is a girl that openly lets you and your best friend grope her tits, it even says later on how lewd this college is, saying on how most people came to this school to have lewd things happen. And when you are free to run wild, it's boring. You go to your classes you have to worry about grades, making your best friend fall in love with you is a chore and so time-consuming, the sex scenes are mid as fuck, being only 3–4 sentences while just meeting a NPC gives you a paragraph. And a serious missed opportunity, to make the NPCs go a little wild! You are walking by and some random girl flashes you, someone asks to blow you while you are in the library, this and so much more could have been added, but the dev wanted "Realism" if I wanted realism I would just go to a community college and have the same experience! This game is doomed from the start by being interesting in the intro but threw it away for "Realism" this game is boring. And I say that with a hundred percent, and a thousand percent.

Really wanted to like this game, but I can't.

- Initial character descriptions (before you know their names) are ridiculously long.
"You chat with adjective noun adjective noun adjective noun adjective noun adjective noun adjective noun, while adjective noun adjective noun adjective noun adjective noun adjective noun adjective noun sits there in silence."
How about, idk, calling these characters "the guy" or "the blonde girl" or "the hispanic guy"?

- Things that would be interesting are skimmed over a lot. "You sext with him/her." Cool. How about actually including some dialouge?

- Half-baked sex scenes. Often turns into casual body horror. Uninteresting and very repetitive dialogue during them. Often doesn't make any sense to me why characters "force you to relent". Like, you try to straddle someone cowgirl. Hard no. Okay, I roll back one and try to straddle reverse cowgirl. Perfectly okay. Why?

- Many interactions are incredibly childish.

- Lack of visuals. I understand that this is a very big ask, and would involve the author paying an artist and take time to integrate. Regardless, the lack of any kind of visuals apart from the map doesn't help.

I love this game but it definitely needs improvement. Looking forward to more updates and reworking.
Mainly I hope for sexual encounters to be reworked. Some actions just don't make sense unless both the MC and the partner are made of elastic.

While pregnancy is not my cup of tea, I enjoy pumping and dumping every girl I encounter. Maybe the clinic will double as a daycare in the future?

I don't rate often... mostly cause the games change and they can eitehr get better (needed rating higher) or worse (need lower rating)... but, this one? I play it often. I like it. It's not my usual type of game, don't really like the need to do repetative tasks, but this? It's worth it. It's no in depth and the added mods seem to just better too. Keep it up! 4 starts, easy.

I'm disappointed in this game, because I thought it was going to be a DoL-type game but more realistic, and with adults. And it definitely WANTS to be that, it wants it so bad. And for the first hour or two, it really does feel like that's what you're going to get. But as you keep playing, you quickly discover how hollow and soulless it is, how many corners it cut.

Ultimately, nothing you do matters, and nothing has consequences. It seems that the game originally intended for things to have consequences, but the dev ended up wimping out and taking the lazy/uncontroversial path every time there was an option to do something interesting. For example, you can get offered too much to drink by sleazy frat boys at a party. You can even pass out drunk. At which point... you wake up in a bathroom with a penis drawn on your face in sharpie (that is the worst possible outcome).

Basically nothing really bad can ever happen, and nothing really good can ever happen either. You can get laid. Sex scenes are very boring and after the first two you'll quickly just start clicking through them, because it's just generic modular text that doesn't matter and isn't hot.

Ultimately a giant waste of time that keeps you clicking in the hope of something interesting maybe happening eventually. Nothing really does.

Finally a DoL type game that is actually pretty dang good. The game focuses on college life where you're student doing student things. Going to class, finding a part time job, and managing your social life. The game right now (v0.6.3) already feels very fleshed out and will give you a lot to work with. I'm looking forward to more updates and events that eventually get added.

Okay! this is like the FIRST game I have been like ADDICTED TOO! Something about having such an open world that I can explore is more amazing than any other game I can play. I keep neglecting other games to come back to this one. It is like it has me hypnotized

Needs pregnancy.

That’s about the only useful thing I can input here. I love games like this, but I feel like there are some immersive elements missing, “consequences” in general.

Doesn't really matter who you hang out with or fuck, every character is almost self contained, leaving no room for narrative consequence or mechanical consequence, like pregnancy.

Good game though, I just felt this criticism was the best information I could provide.

This game is the ulimate text-based college sim.

I've played this since its earliest days, I think the version 0.3. And it's been a hell of an experience. Each updates brings only the good stuff. The gameplay is super good. Even though there is no CG, the game feels alive.

The amount of customization in terms of character, clothing, accessories, etc is too good. The gameplay is simple and straightforward. The skills system is well thought out. The best thing there is, is the Cheat menu which is easily accessable. No paid content, no paywalls, no patreon versions, just pure fun gameplay.

As a thorough enjoyer of Lab Rats 2: Reformulate and modding, this game has me hooked for so long now. Though the modding may be a bit hard to understand at first, it is treat that it actually works without killing much of the base game.

Even though I have some complaints about the base game like some of my desired in-game fetishes being ignored or weirdly inputed, some about the way RNG works and some about interactions and locations. This is still a game I come back to. It's simply incredible.

Anthaum, if you're reading this, you're a legend and even though I am unable contribute, I love this game. You've made a diamond that just keeps shining.

Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle. That isn't to say it's bad, I'd actually go so far as to say that CoT is the best game of this type, but unfortunately the genre has problems up to its neck that can never truly be escaped. It's just built into the design, sadly.

Sex scenes, for example, are a mess. It's the same problems you'd see in something like Degrees of Lewdity or Unholy Arts: the descriptions are a mess and nothing feels particularly good. For example, you can lick your partner's feet while she eats your ass and you jerk her off while receiving a titjob while she slaps your tits. Does that sound strange? I'd imagine so, it's practically impossible, but you can do it because there simply aren't enough checks to make sure that the sex scene doesn't devolve into insane contortionist nightmares. As for it not feeling good, that largely stems from the descriptions not being very good and there being no variety among sex positions. There's ~20 different sex positions you can get into, including being up against a wall, on the floor or a bed, but it doesn't matter because all it really changes is a couple words in the bland, flavorless description of whatever's happening.

It's not all copy-paste cookie-cutter scenes with random NPCs though, there's also deliberate scenarios with their own unique events. This is where the game shines, in my opinion. Things like flashing customers while working at a burger joint, twerking on webcam while streaming and accidentally flashing your bare ass to the audience, and getting involved with "special" NPCs with pre-determined events and personalities. The problem that these scenarios run into, however, is the ultimate end-goal of them is to end up in the aforementioned boring, generic sex scenes with those characters. After you run out of unique interactions, which won't take long, there's nothing left to do but message them on your phone to set up a bootycall whenever you feel like it. That's it. The jobs like the QuickieBurger one or streaming also end pretty abruptly and nothing much ends up happening. Nothing really feels like it goes anywhere.

"Every NPC, including the unique ones involved in events, actually exists in the world and can be encountered dynamically and organically by the player" is a really cool idea, but it does unfortunately create problems. For example, the manager at your burger joint job is a perv that wants to get in your pants. The problem? You can meet him at a bar, get drunk, then get railed by him but he'll never mention it at work and it impacts nothing. Nothing changes. No new dialogue, nothing at all. It's like it never happened. Asking for all of those potential scenarios to be taken into account would be a lot to ask, I know, but that's why I think that designing the game around every NPC being available somewhere at all times was a mistake. The tradeoff simply wasn't worth it.

Overall, CoT isn't bad, it's just that I don't really think it does anything particularly new or interesting. It's fine, but it's one of those games I can play after waiting for several new large updates only to be bored within ten minutes. It doesn't have the TF elements of something like Lilith's Throne, or the depraved nature of Degrees of Lewdity. It's store-brand vanilla ice cream. Not bad, but not great.

This game has the same sorts of problems as Lilith's Throne. It's so customizable that it's nearly impossible to write sex scenes. There are a few main plot/quest scenes that are well written, but the sandbox sex minigame is boring as hell. Reading lists of "A does B to C" over and over is the opposite of arousing to me.

I'm also all for inclusion, representing all body types, sexualities, and identities, but I think this game is too worried about not being problematic that it forgets that this is a fantasy.

Depicting dangerous, bad, or evil things in a fictional scenario is not the same as endorsing them. Everyone playing this game should be adult enough to separate fantasy from reality.

In this game, non-con is never actually non-con, cum milkshakes aren't real cum milkshakes (unless you consent first), you can let people touch you on the bus, but you can't be the toucher, creepy construction workers will invite you to get gang banged, but they'll never corner you when you say no. So on and so on.

3 stars from me because I enjoyed what's here but lost interest when I realized there were no real stakes.

Interesting WIP game, I'm excited to see where it goes. I think the biggest problem right now is that the writing seems a bit too controlling of your characters thoughts, feelings and actions. My character was an extremely experienced slut and yet he was blushing nonstop like a kid, its a bit weird lol, still there's a lot of love in this and I'm interested to see where it goes.

Quite an impressive project. Really liking it after several in-game weeks and still finding new stuff in it. You can also either go full prude, inbetween, or fantasy sexy doll if you want. Wish we had some more control on some aspects like why do people just hate you for no reason. But I guess that's also for irl.

With every update, there are just more and more generic half-assed, leading-nowhere randomly scattered and grindy routes everywhere.

Above all, this game lacks direction and a more iron-fist handling. Like, planning and then really going trough with a plan.
What I mean by this is, that nowadays, each update mostly focusses on providing features or new routes which were requested by the supporters.
Old features and old routes are left behind, never finished.
And now, in this game, on the one hand, there are lots of things to discover all around.
But on the other hand, none of them have any real impact, none of them are really thought through and none of them really fit in with others.

And the writing... has gone downhill during the past 2 major updates.
It's all simply boring and feels censored in a way.

On top of that, for the past two major updates, the dev heavily went back on providing more extreme features. It feels like this game is heavily censored, trying not to offend anyone by not providing any real conflict.

Noncon is mostly not in the game.
Bad Consequences to bad decisions is not in the game.
Pregnancy is not in the game.
Cheating consequences are not in the game.
Example: Consequences for running around like a total slut, cum on your face, plug in the ass are not really in the game.

Oh and don't even get me started on the bugs... I checked the sugarcube js code and holy shit.... There are a ton of functions that need a total rewrite from someone actually knowing how to code... Example: The auto-undress function doesn't even work right now. Ever wondered why most sexual encounters in this game start with all actors fully dressed EVEN if the prior text said something about the actors undressing themselves? That's because the undress function is just a complete mess, uses a broken for-loop (even thought just 10 lines prior the correct one is used) and broken condition checks and it has been like that for the past year.
During my time as an active supporter of this game, I wrote the dev a message with a lot of fixed code attached that he could just drop in but nothing has changed.

Maybe in different hands, this game could become something more, but with the current dev and direction, I don't see this becoming a gem anytime soon.

I give it a below average 2/5.

Not worth your time.

A very safe, sanitized and an 'HR is in the room' type of a grindfest game.

If you can even call this a "game", CoT might seem like an attractive, polished, realistic lifesim at first, only to show its true colors after you spend a few in-game days playing it.

There are no images, it's purely a text-based game, which I'm fine with, but the sexy parts always turn out the exact same way with every single NPC. The text mostly stays the same, your clothing doesn't really matter, your bodily conditions (Pain, Arousal, cum on body, Beauty or Looks) doesn't really matter, makeup doesn't matter and so on... Imagine if outside of a few curated storylines, everything else was just names that are replaced with $NPC1 to $NPC2 and the text turns out exactly the same, well, yeah that's CoT in a nutshell.

Losing virginity? Well, there is one line that is copy pasted everywhere and that's about the extent of its mentioning. The other party never acknowledges that the FMC was a virgin, nor did the FMC really care who was her first. If this wasn't bad enough, the game censored and removed all the rape and non-consensual content because the cowardly dev couldn't stomach having any miniscule amount of mature themes and opted for a lovey dovey bullcrap college simulator narrative.

Have a look at the content options that don't amount to anything:

>>"Wandering Hands: Scenes involving being groped or exposed without forewarning."

Guess what? Nothing happens as such. No one gropes the MC without forewarning. Every single encounter requires your input and consent.

>>"Bad Situations: Situations alluding to physical force or coercion that you may find it difficult or impossible to escape from."

Clear proof that non-con content was planned but removed. Currently there is no such content of coercion or physical force that can't be escaped. Every encounter has an 'End' option. No one stops the MC from leaving.

The main setting of the game is supposed to be university/college, and yet, it feels the most barebones ever. Despite choosing a negative trait for MC to be prone to bullying, I saw absolutely none. Outside of a few events, there is largely nothing sexual happening in the college.

No one bullies the MC, no one gropes her, no one harasses her—as I said, completely sanitized. There are zero consequences, zero pressure, zero bad guys, zero man of mystery.

TLDR, this is a gigantic waste of time quasi-lifesim that takes way too long for something to happen while you constantly click pointlessly to do useless things 99% of the time and the rest is grinding for stats that have little to no reward. There's largely nothing happening 99% of the time and you'll waste 6 hours behind it only to realize you saw maybe one or two events that were worthwhile throughout the playtime.

Version Reviewed: v0.5.5f

Overview: Slightly less work than going to an actual college

Story: You are a college freshman who has a number of duties to accomplish from going to classes to feeding yourself to making money to send back home every week. It's a good thing you are at easy access university and everybody is DTF. The game has story elements related to some of the named characters, things like discovering the evil plans of a party throwing frat, or the proclivities of a repressed librarian, but they're fairly thinly spaced and don't affect any kind of overall storyline.

Gameplay: There are a handful of games on this site that are more grindy, but only a handful. Your basic gameplay loop is to get up, take a leak, change clothes, take a shower, get breakfast, go to class, sit through class, sit through class, sit through class, sit through class, sit through class, get lunch, go to class, sit through class, sit through class, sit through class, sit through class, do some afternoon or evening activities like making money, doing a "special assignment" for a teacher, or grinding up some skill, go home, do homework, go to bed.

This may not sound all that exciting when written out like this, but don't worry, you'll be repeating it hundreds of times. The main character has a laundry list of stats, some of which are actually important, but all of which take many many repetitions of some activity to increase. It's not always clear which activities will raise stats and which won't, the game gives very little feedback on this and the bars move so slowly that it's hard to even eyeball a difference when you do something.

As for the world, it is fully populated by a few primary characters that have custom story beats and hundreds of generated people who you know originally by hilariously long descriptions like "a slightly dressed up blonde-haired college girl with a flat-tipped nose". Figuring out where and when you can unlock the chat options that allow you to ask for their name is one of the hidden gameplay tasks in the game, and also one of the grinds as figuring out everyone's name takes hundreds of interactions. The game has a boatload of locations to explore, all of which take a little (or sometimes a lot) of time to get to. The game thankfully has a fast travel system, but it honestly should be the default since the standard section by section navigation system is woefully inadequate for the size of the map.

The game offers close to zero help in discovering the little bits of storyline that exist. You are on your own to dig them out from a moutain of grind. It also doesn't warn you if an action is useless for whatever reason, so you can waste a lot of time trying to level something up when it's locked behind a different stat or you just have not found the right time and place for some trigger. The other storyline bits involve one of several clubs that you can join. Computer gaming, swimming, football, and a couple of others. There are regular tournaments and how much you grind your stats can determine how well you do. Interestingly enough all of the tournaments happen regardless of which you choose, so you will be regularly reminded of how your school did in all of the stuff you are ignoring.

Sex content varies. For the primary characters like your best friend and the teachers it will take a long time and possible an extra dating card grind to get anywhere with them. For the randomly generated students it's hilariously easy to trigger the sex mini-game. Sometimes it's easier to start sex than it is to learn their name. The game even recognizes this, giving you a bit of extra "shame" meter if you screw someone without knowing their name.

On a side note, I rolled a male character and the game supports this, but I have a feeling it was originally developed with a female main character in mind. The clothing seems a bit heavily weighted towards women and as you walk around pervy gusts of wind are always trying to blow up my non-existant skirt. A lot of the shame and embarassment mechanics seem a bit more woman centric as well. I think the male mode is a little bit of an afterthought.

As far as the sex scenes go, they can feel rather mechanical. Apply lips to nipple. Apply hand to clit. Click go to advance one time slot. Congratulations, arousal succesfully increased by 5%. It's more of a sex battle system than a sex simulator. Some of the actions are only unlocked if you level up certain skills, but since they make little to no difference anyway that's also a disappointment. There are even opposition checks when you attempt to perform certain actions (like changing positions) and you can fail if your opponent is stronger. Annoyingly no matter how good or poorly you perform it doesn't seem to change your partner's opinion of you. Nor does it let you grind up your sex stats very much since the maxium bonus is capped at a very small value, so spending an hour holding back orgasms while you try to maximize your oral stat doesn't work.

Graphics: There are none, this is a strictly text based game. You know that lovely hand drawn art in the header for this game? It doesn't appear in the game.

Conclusion: For as highly rated as this game is I was let down by the long tedious gameplay and while the text based sex scenes you do occasionally get are well written they're spread too thin and it's just too hard to track them down. I'm rating this three stars mostly for the strength of the writing on the scenes you do get and the relatively large number of supported activities, but with the caveat that you're going to need to dedicate many hours to grinding up stats if you want to see all of the content, especially with the team activities since you can only do one at a time and they're very grindy.

This is a very large and complete game. In the same vein as Degrees of Lewdity, but as a much more traditional girl life sim. Kind of caught me by surprise.

Kind of scratches that Girls life / New Life / Cursed itch.

Course of Click Chores.

It's like playing The Sims except your sim has no automatic functions. It's a bunch of click chores involving going to the bathroom, taking a shower, paying attention in class (I love clicking that I'm paying attention in class 5 times), working on XYZ stat, making money, etc.

It comes to the point where you're just doing a routine. The game hardly even becomes about the adult content. The sex/masturbation rigmarole ends up being very mechanical; just a way to recover your release bar. You work for hours to cover your ever-increasing weekly debt. It's very grindy yet the game warns you not to increase the skill gain multiplier or remove the daily cap. There also isn't enough events in between to make it not a boring slog.

The game also needs to be more streamlined. If I'm not interested in watersports, do I really need the bladder bar? I already know what I'm going to do in class outside events, do I really need to sit through it every time after a while? Can I just quickly exit the dorm to the outside? Can I just quickly go in and out of town without having to navigate to the bus stop? Can I just optionally skip the sex/masturbation scenes after a while if it's not bringing anything new/interesting after the 20th time? There's many little time wasters like this that plague this game.

Excellent game, it's rare to find games with this much freedom and I really like the exhibitionism content I have seen so far. Granted I do feel from time to time there is some thing missing but that's just me being greedy lol