Elena's Life is a light-hearted adult game that can either be a slice-of-life with occasional erotica or a series of sexual escapades depending on which route you take. Elena(the main character), her fiancé David, and their children from their previous relationship move into a new city. The couple hopes to earn enough money to have their dream wedding and honeymoon. However, there's no specifics like how much money is needed nor is it shown as the ultimate goal in your quest log. Despite the question of "Will Elena resist and remain faithful or will she surrender to her innermost desires?" from the game's description, this isn't how the story is structured. The real question is "Will Elena follow what she truly wants or stay in a relationship because it's familiar?" This review will be based on playing version 0.24 to version 0.27 of both routes.
The gameplay itself is very simplistic due to its RPG-style format with using either the mouse or keyboard to control Elena and perform basic actions like opening up the menu, pick up items, etc. Unfortunately, exploration around the game's setting is limiting; some areas will always be restricted. For instance, in the city, you can travel the east, south, and west sections but never the north side. In my opinion, this doesn't fit for an RPG genre. The core factor of its gameplay is the choices you make and its Corruption mechanic like a visual novel game. Corruption Points(or CP) is either gained or subtracted based on your decisions, leading to either Elena remaining faithful or becoming a corrupted cheater. My main playthrough is corrupted Elena, which I find a guilty pleasure. What I love about the Corruption system is the freedom to completely reject the men I don't like while still gaining alot of CP from the ones I do like. The tricky part is in the beginning of the game; if you reject too many options that could you give CP, you may be locked from accessing future sex scenes and get an alert saying you don't have enough.
The best part about the game is the characters and sex scenes. I love the distinct personalities of the men and women Elena meets, and how her relationship with them is very unique. For example, Mr.Johnson(who is David's boss) is confident, highly competitive, shrewd, and dominant. He treats and exposes Elena to the finer things in life, courts her, and is sexually in control. Their dynamic is a scandalous love affair that could potentially lead them into being a power couple. One of the many other notable characters is Tom, who is a student at the school Elena works at. He's good-natured, creative, clever, and has a puppy-love type towards Elena. I think it's perfect how the sex scenes and how they speak to Elena during it also reflects their nature. Another aspect I deeply enjoy is it proves there's ways to make the naughty encounters fun and varied without heavily relying on it being extreme. This is something I wish more adult games would do and make it a choice for those with different tastes.
There is some notable flaws that keeps me from giving this game a higher rating. The first is the presentation with character renders and 3D backgrounds. While the base models, objects, and environments are fine, the lack of extra lighting makes everything look dull and still a work-in-progress. Somewhat relating to the first is too many of the men have the same type of look. With the except of Chad, David, Peter, and Edward, many other guys are either ugly, old, overweight, bald, average-looking & lean, or a combination of 2 or more. I think it would help to add other fantasy types like a Fabio, a Italian Stallion, and a debonair look-wise to make the game stand out from the trend.
Next is the music and animation. There's only 3 soundtracks used for the entire game: one for outside in the city, one for the school, and one for at home. This is a major flaw for me because music is so important for immersion. There many times where the music doesn't fit the scenario like in naughty scenes or when Elena is blackmailed because of the generic, relaxing music playing throughout. The animation of the sex scenes are unfortunately not fluid; they're very stiff and akin to a slideshow. I think it would be better for it to be still images if there's not going to be improvement on the animation.
Lastly, is the non-corrupt route itself. My playthrough of being faithful is obviously the "wrong" way to play this game, despite it's there as an option. Besides the developer's statement of "this game is mainly about Elena releasing her sexual side", another sign is how there's no content specific for the faithful wife route. The only notable difference is Elena being content with David sexually instead of complaining. Certain scenarios that would somewhat make sense in the corrupted route would make no sense or expose the poor writing in the non-corrupt one. For instance, there is a moment where Brad(Elena's possible future Stepson) attempts to give her a "special drink". I refused the drink and not long after the power in the apartment goes out. Yet the elevator still works, haha. Another part is most of the days will be like this...
*Elena goes to work, says it's boring, goes home, watches movies, and goes to bed.*
I'll give this 3 out 5 stars. Hopefully it'll be improved in later versions.