Wish the blackmail tag was in there earlier. I would have avoided this game entirely rather than hitting the "you're fired" scene and returning here for answers. Required blackmail scenes are always trash and have never resulted in a good story. I will not be returning.
Edit: You know what? No. There is a lot more that needs critique here.
1. Forced Blackmail scenes take away player agency in the worst of ways. Blackmail is one of those things that is rarely done well, because blackmail in itself normally requires someone being able to take advantage of the player's mistake. Forced blackmail requires a 'mistake' or sudden idiocy be thrust onto the player for the sake of plot, and when the character makes a fuck up that the player would easily be able to avoid, that is bad storytelling. You have immediately given a character power over the player, and in a terrible way.
This is your first foot in the door, and you have established that the player has no control. Throwing a bad end, "do this or else", choice into the first chapter is a very bad move. We don't know what you have planned. All we have to go on is what you've shown us, and this does not appear to be a good game in the making.
2. The fake out. You might not have intended it, but you screwed yourself over with this scenario. You made it appear as though the player would have a chance to avoid blackmail. Blackmail getting involved was obvious from when the theft was first suggested, and the choices that come after appear as though we should have some way of keeping it from happening.
You set up an actually interesting scenario for the player:
- Do I use this to get ahead in my field, but open myself up to possible blackmail?
- Or do I report this and accept the results of my work?
- Who should I report this too? Who all could be in on it?
Turns out, you get punished for not using it by not getting the advantage that comes with the information and still getting blackmailed because of it. And the guy that was "in on it" was some rando that hadn't been introduced yet but cannot be avoided. Way to ruin the fun.
3. The idiocy. What kind of retard is the boss? Why the hell would she report herself directly to him and still not actually use the stolen information? Why in the world could he not fathom the idea of someone using someone else's log-in information to do something illegal? Why did he think she did it? For the lulz? You turned an actually interesting and interactive scenario into a railroded experience that NEEDS everyone involved to be practically brain dead. We know he isn't in on it, cause he just fires us rather than trying to use his leverage as a boss with blackmail material against the player to make her do what he wants. This means the boss is just really fucking stupid.
4. Change your summary of the game. It is inaccurate. The way you describe it sounds like we would have the choice of playing it as a professional that keeps pleasure out of business or using dirty tactics and feminine wiles to try and get an advantage in the MC's field of work. That is not what is being displayed here. This is generic blackmail office corruption. Some people are into that, but you aren't going to attract the right audience with that summary.
