Set in the fictional country of England, this game emulates the hellscape of living in Birmingham. Unfortunate enough to be born as a Brit, you advance through life by selling various services or your own body on the streets filled with some of the worst people the earth has to offer. Rapists, drug dealers, murderers and French tourists. Day by day you work your ass off, only for all of your effort to culminate in all of your funds getting taken from you by your happenstance crime lord orphanage manager. God bless the Queen.
I want to start off this review with a simple, but related preface.
I've tried getting into this game 3 times in the past, and failed almost less than an hour in, every single time. Only in my current attempt did I finally manage to pierce through, or perhaps, wilfully ignore the issues I had with the game in my previous attempts.
So, what was the wall that was stopping me, in all of my previous attempts?
Nothing more than the simple fact that this game fucking HATES you. Almost every scenario this game throws at you is meant to demean the player character in one way or another. You're always at a disadvantage, and you always stand to lose. Even when you win, you feel like you lost.
Now, this isn't inherently a fault. There's intrigue to be drawn from difficult games. A fair challenge can be fun, and overcoming it - as rewarding as it is difficult. The problem arises when your reward is.. nothing? Unless your idea of a reward is watching your character get brutally raped(fair game to you, if this is the case) or fighting back against insurmountable adversity, every encounter eventually just leads to disappointment.
This is expedited by the fact that there's about 5 NPC's in the entire game that are even remotely decent people. Everyone else is awful, to an almost comical degree. Here’s a few examples:
The police are a psychic, pseudo-eldritch force that can see your every move, regardless if anyone is nearby or not. They’ll only ever pursue YOU, and none of the people that are constantly trying to attack you or and make you an unwilling sperm receptacle. There isn’t a single interaction in this game that leads to the police helping you in any way, shape or form.
Almost every teacher in the school you attend to, is more mentally deranged than your average twitter user. You could be getting an impromptu lobotomy in the middle of science class and the teacher would just go “that’s the spirit!”.
Passed out from stress or fatigue? Well, shucks, buddy! Turns out the hospital you were administered to is run by a doctor who is quite literally the worst person you’ve ever met in your life. How about getting away from the sprawl of the city and relaxing with some yoga class? Woops! Turns out every single person in the class is a minecraft youtuber who’s ready to make you the subject of their sexual allegation apology video.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.
Now, you might be thinking: “Man, sounds like he fucking hates this game, why did he give it 4 stars?”
Because this game is one of the most compelling sandbox experiences I’ve ever had. I imagine if you’re into the aspect of getting your ass resized by every person you meet, this would likely be one of your favorite games ever. I had no such interest, and yet, the game still offered me a way through this awful world, to a surprisingly wholesome “end” (end is in quotations because this game does not feature an ending of any sort, as of current).
Something that isn’t mentioned in the synopsis is that every single sexual attacker can be repelled. While unfair, this game doesn’t actually ever truly force you to surrender. If you plan out your actions, it’s not only feasible, but also pretty easy to stay a virgin if you so wish. Personally, this is the playstyle that appealed to me the most, because the main aspect of this game didn’t appeal to me at all.
I managed to reach about 90 days in on my 4th run, settled with one of the few nice characters in the game and called it a day. I replayed the game a few more times to see everything it had to offer, out of the sense of completionism and my own morbid curiosity. I enjoyed my time with this game, even though I only drew enjoyment out of a single and very limiting playstyle.
The fact that a game that would otherwise not appeal to someone like me at all, managed to grip me by the balls and made me enjoy my time with it, speaks to the quality of the potential for the sandbox being presented here. However, the keyword is potential. This game is extremely unfinished. There’s a LOT to do in this game, but the depth in the actions you take are nothing more than a pittance. I know this game isn’t yet finished, but this is something that needs to be said.
So, all in all, consider the following.
PROS:
- It’s free.
- A lot of things to do, you can easily spend a dozen or so hours trying to explore all the places in this game.
- Good writing. (Outside of the sex scenes.)
- The sprite artwork is great, and there’s a lot of mods that add more visuals to the game.
- Speaking of which, this game has a lot of mod support - most of them are pretty great additions to the game. So much so that I’d be remiss to play the game without them.
- A very large amount of character customization. A fuck ton of hairs, clothes, different transformations, makeup, you name it.
- Robin
NEUTRAL:
- This game is quite grindy. It might seem strange to put this as a neutral point, but the truth of the matter is that I didn’t mind this aspect of it that much. Granted, after a few long runs, it really started getting old. Furthermore, this is what I meant by the game lacking depth. There’s a lot of repeatable events with minor variations. Generally speaking, the variations run out very quickly and you’re left with a come to Jesus moment of “what the hell am I doing?”
- Almost everyone is either a rapist or some sort of do-no-gooder. If you like this sort of thing, this is most likely a pro. If you don’t, this is most likely a con. Therefor, neutral. Personally, I’m not a fan, but I’m leaving this here because judging from some of the reviews here, a lot of people like the fantasy of this.
- The combat system is.. alright. It’s usually quick, and once you understand all of the mechanics - incredibly easy.
CONS:
- Browser game. Suffers from the same issues as any other browser game would. I hope you have a good internet connection.
- You can (almost)never be the aggressor. Yes, the game advertises itself as such, yes, I’m not the primary audience for it, but come on. This removes a very large sense of agency from the player character. There should be at least some, even if infrequent, bouts of dom-play or something. This is a sandbox game, after all. I understand that this is the developer’s intention, but I’m vehement on this point through and through. The game would be better off with more options.
- The sex scenes. The sex scenes lack almost any sort of eroticism due to the fact that most of them are limited to very few exchanges of words and very robotic descriptions of what’s happening to the character. This sort of writing actually benefits the regular events, but the scenes that should be hot, are neutered down by this very same aspect. If you’re anything like me, watching the simple ol’ dick in the pussy mashing together doesn’t do it for you anymore. See, what makes sexual encounters erotic is the nuances and the context behind them. It’s the small details of leg jolts, muffled moans, quiet pleas, and more - that’s what makes it hot. And in some ways, this game has moments like these, but they’re brutalized by the robotic motions of every sex interaction feeling like you’re refueling your fucking car. What’s worse is that this isn’t only present in the generic encounters. Even the love interests aren’t exempt from this. Oftentimes they’ll have a great leadup to a scene, but then when you get to the sex scene in question, it’s the same as if you were getting your back broken by a random NPC, only that you get ONE more line per thrust. If you’re lucky, that is. There are a few exceptions to this, but they are VERY rare.
- The way the game handles the save system serves as nothing more than a hindrance. Loading back to a previous save is fine, but loading back to a save before it will exempt you from earning any achievements, which removes your ability to gain perks for a new run. Why does this exist? Is the idea to make the player’s “choices matter”, so that they can’t save scum to an earlier point to avoid consequences? Who cares about that? It’s a singleplayer sandbox game that’s heavily based on the choices you make. Of course the player will want to see the “what if” ‘s. Very bizarre.
- The amount of encounters feels like fighting off mosquitoes on a camping trip. It gets old very fast. While I’m lukewarm about the combat system itself, the amount of encounters is absurd. I’m aware that they can be vastly lowered by fiddling with the settings, but they disable the perk system, which in turn imply that the developer believes that this is the RIGHT amount of encounters to have. They don’t make the game harder or more challenging, they just make it more annoying.
There’s many more smaller issues I have with the game, but they’re extremely subjective, so I’ll end it at that.
To summarize, I like this game. I might even like this game a lot. I can’t believe I’m about to say this about a game that has you get raped every 40 seconds, but.. it has heart. Granted, only if you look at the right places. The rest of it is littered with wild (although fortunately toggleable) fetishes and jank unfinished ideas.
If you’re not interested in the introductory aspect of this game, much like me, but the idea of persevering in a brutal world seems like a fun idea, maybe give the game a chance.
If you’re interested in being a neighbourhood bike and getting banged by every living creature in sight, then you’ll probably love this game.
If you’re not interested in either of the previous two scenarios, it’s probably best you stay away from this game.
Thanks for reading.
