*V11 content taken into account at the end.
TLDR: A messy game so close to greatness. If it could stop shooting itself in the foot every update, it might just make it to the top of the mountain.
When any game starts off, its expected to slip somewhere. But due to the process of how they are released, this can be fixed in future updates. Until you slap a {Complete} tag on your project, it never really finishes. So there is always room to improve.
I have had an eye on this game since version .3 and my hope with every update was that the issues it had would be fixed with the next update, but instead of fixing its issues, it seemed to embrace them in defiance.
Gameplay
Sandbox games will always have points of disconnect, you can't prepare for every possible combination or path the player chooses to pick, so you do your best to simplify the choices and make them seem larger than they are. FOTM has chosen to completely forego the attempt, making many of the encounters seem as if they were missing half or more of the scene. Characters go from clothed to fucking with nothing more than a single dialog box or with dialog that doesn't even match the action it implied.
This constant divide between and in scenes is made worse by the grind and guesswork that is required to open a scene. Rather than making it an enjoyable hunt or guess, it becomes manditory to load up a walkthrough just to figure out what day, hour and room you need to be in and what random bits of dialog you need to complete the scene.
Characters/Scenes
The characters themselves bounce between lucid to deranged without much warning. One example regarding the character of Will, the husband of Melinda:
MC "Funny how he's acting all powerful here, while at home he's crushed by Aunt Melinda."
If you have played the game for more than a few updates of content, you know that this is farther than the truth in nearly all but one or two scenes that seem completely random. This is an issue with most characters, constantly being changed by each line.
"I am going to wash my hands" = Give will a random bottle of booze while random dialog appears about a bitch.
Scenes like this happen more often than not, leading up to cockblocking the MC to the point where it seems more like a joke than anything else.
Updates
Some content, like Cynthia feels shoved into the story and left to rot without much thought, with everything from character icons to dialog written as if it was the first draft in every aspect. As more updates begin to repeat this, it becomes a worrying sight in a game with an already large cast of characters that seem to be thrown to the wind at a moments notice.
Renders
Renders are one of the highlights of the game when they are not plagued by a grainy haze seemingly at random. Yet there are times that even these have a lifeless and nearly thrown in "cuz" kind of feeling.
Choices/dialog
Proofreading and such can be overlooked at times, but with how little is given to scenes to begin with, they stand out when they appear. This includes choices that are worded so poorly and can lead to the strangest dialog trees that seem nowhere near what was intended.
The MC
Everyone has their own fetish and desire when it comes to games like this, but for the most part it is a power fantasy in one way or another. You give clear options to the person playing as they shape the character in the way they want. While games like this are far more linear, You still give people the option to pick the ways they want to play it. But for a character like the MC of this game, the constant jumping back and forth between no balls and big balls is so jarring, that its hard to figure out what you are going to do next. One scene he acts like a spineless coward, while others hes acting like a mastermind. With no in between.
With the most recent update came unavoidable NTR, something that, like most scenes, comes out of nowhere along with the excited response of the MC. Showing no continuity to any other scenes that he plots to make the women his. Meanwhile his a bitch to anyone who sneezes in his direction.
The UI/Game issues
A mess. The hint system is a mess. The choice boxes are covering most of the screen.
Meanwhile the 2.99gb size seems to show the complete lack of image compression comprehension the team has. The quality of the renders can be brought down severely without ruining image quality, but much like many issues, the dev doesn't seem to care.
Final Thoughts
The game has potential, but sadly seems like it will continue down its path of dragging dragging a player along a path it decides while claiming it is a sandbox game. Sloppy/lack of writing in scenes and no plan forward, it becomes a dreadful what this game might look like at .20 if it makes it there.
As if a joke, with the release of V.11 Beta of the game, they posted on the patreon:
"Thanks for your patience, I hope you still have some because you will need it while playing, a lot of old events are still there."-SerialNumberComics
That is exactly what you need in this game. Pantience to wade through the slog, endless grind and confusing/drunk plot to get NTR'ed without a choice. Regardless of how you stand on that, turn it to a fetish you despise and ask yourself if it would be ok.
The potential as of V.11 Beta is wasted and only seems to be as strong as they number of backers they have. I hope that i am wrong, but until I see otherwise, it is best to stay back and wait for the fan remake 2-3 years down the line after the dev moves on. I will be glad to be proven wrong.
