VERSION: 1.0
An interesting premise can elevate any game above its more mundane elements, yet to squander that in addition to poor direction and lackluster mechanics reduces Deep Impact to little more than a tedious bit of exercise for whichever finger operates your mouse. In order to properly outline its faults, and how deeply they undercut the experience, it's best to begin with the least egregious...
Graphically, Deep Impact is a mixed bag, the initial chapters appearing washed out due to excessive lighting with a lack of contrast. Render quality improves dramatically as the game progresses, approaching acceptable levels during the final two chapters; considering those chapters may be completed in less than twenty minutes, however, that hardly constitutes a sterling endorsement. Erotic content is composed overwhelming of static images, a tad predictable in their poses but otherwise well executed, with a token effort having been made to incorporate some animations. Due to their limited frames, and lack of looping, the animations convey a distinctly robotic sense of motion.
Consistency is also a recurring issue where the graphics are concerned; in a scene at the dinner table the mother's hairstyle changes between lines of dialogue, alternatively pulled back and then hanging freely around her shoulders. In a love scene her entire room changes, pictures disappearing and reappearing while the color tone shifts between frames. Nowhere is this more evident than in the doctor's office, where every conceivable aspect of the render is altered between one image and the next, initially portraying Dr. Ling in a warm yellow spectrum, pale pink, then with a subtle blue tinge; that she manages to undress entirely, without changing position, during these same transitions is also similarly unnatural.
Dialogue is often terse and laden with the typical array of grammatical, typographical and formatting issues so common among amateur productions. By way of example:
"I won't bother Sandra in the morning if I were you."
"And we're both stuck is in class."
"Imagine hat I'm jerking off while she licks my pussy.."
"Testerone and estrogen levels, primarily."
Leaving aside the wealth of other errors, the line concerning "testerone" springs from the lips of a doctor; one can only imagine the haste with which any sane individual would flee the office of said professional on discovering they cannot articulate even the most common of medical terms accurately.
The author is also prone to inserting extremely tasteless remarks throughout the script, often during erotic scenes, which unilaterally disrupt the atmosphere. In a scene during which the protagonist's sister is blackmailed into performing a private dance in the "
vip room" she bends over, after the player opts to compliment her body, providing them a better view. Her shapely posterior is practically molded against a thong, affording her just the barest hint of modesty, to which the protagonist mutters: "
I really hope she doesn't fart."
That, in so many words, is precisely how you kill the mood.
As regards the gameplay, Deep Impact attempts to offer the player some guise of a branching narrative by proffering opportunities to determine how the protagonist reacts; most are meaningless and those that remain merely provide the illusion of choice.
A) When kidnapped by the local mob boss, believing you're ideally situated to drive a wedge between his daughter (whom you met earlier that day at school) and her boyfriend (who beat you up immediately after meeting her), the player is prompted to accept his offer or state that he'd like to think about it. The latter option segues immediately into two lines of dialogue wherein the mafioso states that your mother requires funds to fix her car, ergo what's there to think about? You've just accepted the job.
B) You are prompted to either lie or confess your involvement with the mob to your mother; the game explicitly warns you there will be "serious repercussions" to your choice. Should you opt to confess, the player will immediately be arrested and transported to a police station. There, you are provided one of two additional options: admit you worked for the mafia or deny the charges. Admission leads to an immediate game over, as a man enters and shoots you. Denial leads to an immediate game over, as you are released and return home to find your family has been slaughtered.
These do not constitute legitimate choices. When a single branch exists via which the player may progress, offering an alternative that leads to the same outcome (scenario A) or mere fail-states (scenario B) is an exercise in futility. There is nothing amiss with a strictly linear narrative, but ample cause for complaint when one masquerades as something else entirely.
Further inconsistencies manifest throughout, such as a scene in which the player purchases $300 of "
the good stuff" from a local drug dealer and deposits it in a locker at school. The image displays a wrapped kilo of cocaine; three-hundred dollars would hardly merit a few grams, much less an entire kilogram of uncut narcotics. This error clearly arose as a result of the developer employing whatever asset they had at hand, which is understandable but no less open to criticism. This,of course, is also a trend: in a scene at the local convenience store the protagonist ventures in to request a "key copier" and returns, that same day, to ask the cashier for a "password unlocker." Ignoring the fact that such things would hardly be sold alongside the beef jerky and bubblegum on display, the cashier's response of "
Here you go, one password unlocker..." is accompanied by the image of a woman facing a display of cigarettes and pointing at the knock-off Pall Malls.
Why, one might inquire, would the developer emphasize the disparity between the story they are attempting and the assets at their disposal? Was it necessary to show the drugs? To have the cashier point at anything?
Yet, nothing is more haphazardly composed than the narrative itself.
Setting the stage, the protagonist settles into their new home, becomes reacquainted with their family and then attends college. There, they are assigned to a project with a random female classmate, after which her boyfriend assaults them, promptly knocking the protagonist out with one blow. Rather demeaning to be forced into the shoes of such a weakling, yet the player isn't afforded time to dwell on this as they wake in the office of a female doctor who immediately threatens them with expulsion for fighting along with a $3,000 bill for the "
mess" they made... with their blood, I assume? Lacking the funds to meet this demand, the protagonist is obligated to participate in the doctor's human drug-trial in order to dodge the ludicrous penalties that accompany being brutally beaten.
Deep Impact progresses erratically from then on, jumping between locations and times with minimal player input. Three static images of boxing in a gym, one at school in a classroom, then home, sleeping in bed, now in the doctor's office, the gym, your sister's room, the gym again, as days flit by and chapters abruptly conclude.
Chapter three, for instance, flits by as the protagonist awakens on a Saturday afternoon and becomes embroiled in a bizarre variation of spin the bottle with his younger sister and her best friend ("
Just spin the bottle and whomever it lands on, they have to do something to the person to their right"). Afterwards, the protagonist notes that he plans to "sleep in tomorrow." The image changes and it is now Monday morning in the doctor's office.
Chapter five ends after a series of brief sexual encounters, during which you drug and essentially rape the various members of your family, inexplicably opening chapter six after a two month timeskip. To be precise, the text explicitly states it has been "
a little over two months..."
The protagonist's elder sister, Sandra, abruptly bursts into the room shouting "
What the fuck did you do to me, you piece of shit!" and appears to be in an advanced state of pregnancy, at least six months along judging by the size of swollen abdomen. She then, in no uncertain terms, sexually assaults the protagonist in a very tasteless display... after which the younger sister appears, sporting an equally large belly. This sister is despondent over her pregnancy, as it threatens to prevent her from finishing art school (the most demanding of all curriculums, attorneys and doctors be damned); somehow she failed to notice prior to now. The siblings copulate again which, bear in mind, is literally the second time they've done so and, if her earlier admission of virginity was true, her second time ever. Naturally, after the protagonist "helps'' the young lady back to her room, his mother appears: equally pregnant and sporting a major baby bump. She seems delighted and, after they have sex, kisses him gently goodnight.
"Finally got that out.
At least one of them is happy with the result.
What's that sound?"
This dialogue follows the mother's departure and prompts the protagonist to exit his room. Neither the time nor date has been altered, it is still the same night, yet now he runs into his fully-clothed mother at the foot of the stairs. It appears Sandra's water broke. Her water broke at two months into gestation, when the fetus is roughly the size of a walnut.
Two months.
In the very next scene Sandra gives birth.
Sophia, the younger sister, then follows suit in the next scene. On the same night.
Immediately followed by the mother.
Three women simultaneously giving birth after two months!
A genuinely disturbing scene then appears: each of the women clutch a nude and fairly plastic-looking infant while the protagonist strikes a Michael Jackson-esque pose, one hand raised behind his head while the other covers his crotch, as the mother appears to be losing her grip on the child entirely.
A few lines of unadorned text state that bonus content has been unlocked.
The game then promptly flashed to an error screen. "An exception has occurred."
And so it ended with a genuine choice: rollback or exit.
I chose the latter.
GRAPHICS ------------------------------- 5 / 10
+ Render quality improves substantially during the final two chapters.
+ Some decent erotic content, though composed primarily of static images and rudimentary animations.
- Most images are washed out, prone to artifacts, poorly lit, lacking in continuity and clumsily staged.
- Model quality varies, and models exhibit noticeable alterations from scene-to-scene, with certain objects appearing distinctly out of place.
- What few animations exist are cobbled together from a limited number of frames, lacking any sense of fluidity. Animations do not loop.
- Low resolution textures, uniformly, that are unflatteringly employed during close-ups.
DIALOGUE ------------------------------- 1 / 10
- The protagonist lacks any semblance of a fixed personality, vacillating between compassion for his family, lecherous behavior, serial rapist tendencies and dim-wittedness as the narrative demands. No immersion is engendered when the player is asked to inhabit the mind of a frail sociopath.
- Overarching narrative is chaotically portrayed in bursts that lack internal consistency, defy their own continuity and skip entire days, even months, without explanation or input.
- Errors abound, grammatically and typographically. Formatting is awkward.
- Dialogue during erotic sequences is stilted and devoid of passion.
- The protagonist is prone to making vulgar remarks that detract from the erotic content.
GAMEPLAY ------------------------------ 2 / 10
- Restrictively linear sequencing, player-agency is relegated almost exclusively to illusory choices.
- GUI is outdated and employs a high-contrast palette that is harsh on the eyes.
- Unavoidable fail-states masquerading as choices.
INNOVATION --------------------------- 3 / 10
+ Interesting premise, an organized crime angle, albeit with a deeply flawed execution.
- Relient on established incest tropes; no original perspective, analysis or subversion.
SCORE ========================== 11 / 40
UNWORTHY OF EVEN A CASUAL ENCOUNTER
Deep Impact is unbefitting of such a grandiose title, thoroughly lacking in depth, complexity and artistry; an overwhelming degree of the player's time is spent in befuddlement as the narrative skips about spastically. In spite of some decent-quality images, an experience this shallow does little to recommend the investment of your time.
