English:............5/10
User Interface:.....5/10
User Experience:....7/10
Art:................7/10
Dialogue:...........8/10
Story:..............5/10
Opinion:............5/10................
Avg:.............6.0/10 [3.0/5]
For whatever reason, I felt compelled to review this. Before getting into things, this is my first time playing the game. USUALLY, I play a few releases to get a feel for how much comes out per release. But we're doin' it raw this time. I will also say, I am a huge fan of the last game by this dev. However, the SAME issues persist into this one, from what I've seen. As well as the fact that this makes you take over the least likable, or even thought about, character from it's "prologue." A prologue that sets up exactly none of this. This has about as much relation to the last game as you would have to another random person in the same room as you in a theater. Yes, you were both there watching the movie, but that is the end of the through-line. The issues this has is one: THE ENGLISH. Yes, I have seen much worse in many other games. But it is annoying to read the dialogue a lot of the time. And two: The facial posing. The faces in this look like either some weird SFM(source filmmaker) video, or the old Mass Effect mods that amp up the facial animations to look like something outta uncanny valley. The faces also make MC in the top 5 for ugliest MC's I've seen in these games. I get it, he can't sleep or whatever, but this MC and the last one, who makes an appearance by the way, both look physically ill on top of having a face made out of play-doh(children's modelling clay for those that don't get that). All that said, and I will shout this from the rooftops, I am perfectly okay with minimal sexual content in an AVN. The buildup makes the payoff worthwhile. I have very mixed feelings about this story's buildup so far, but I hope it levels out. I'm also ABYSMALLY tired of MC being an ex-soldier that can't handle his own emotions, and not just can't but WON'T. It is slowly creeping up the ranks of overused AVN garbage. At the current time of writing, only being a short way into the story, I'm at a hard 3, but hope it gets to a 4. I also want to comment that I sincerely hope that the title is explained before someone drops a bombshell on the MC. Last game waited until someone said they're leaving to establish why the game had the name it did.
The story starts with MC on some Job. None of what is said during this scene matter or makes sense. One because the translation is less than stellar. And two because none of it is explained, as far as I know. All you can assume is it was an undercover operation and it went well. The whole time the splinter cell looking guys are trying to recruit MC, signalling he's so good at his job. I'll give them points for not just flat out stopping the story to gush about how amazing MC is. Something A LOT of these games like to do, instead of character building. But ALL WE'VE SEEN is MC asleep at a steering wheel. And right after all this he hallucinates some old lady most of the time. But before that, we meet Elodie. I'm ASSUMING, the primary LI for the game? She acts shy and bashful a little too much, her and MC CLEARLY have a thing for each other. She's also 6'9 because funny number, I guess? You also see a big MISSING poster for the lady MC sees in his psychotic episodes that we'll get to in a minute. It says she's 28 but she looks 45. So who knows. Anyways, Elodie and MC did the sting or whatever, get commended and Elodie pretty much hints she wants to date MC even though she has a wife(girlfriend?). But MC has PTSD that we won't learn about because these games can only communicate struggle through 2 minute flashbacks at a time. So many games do this, it's a big issue I have with narratives nowadays. But this handles it alright, I guess. Then you meet Carmine, MC's mom, from the first game as well. Her introduction highlights a big issue I have with the faces in this. Their sclera(the whites of their eyes) all look grey or at best bloodshot. And maybe a smile or two looks good but most of the faces look like they animate for the sims. Then MC goes "home" to his RV on the beach. He starts waxing poetic about nonsense and immediately starts hallucinating the 45 year old 28 year old while he has a panic attack because of her. I get it, super soldier PTSD, whatever. But we're like 10 minutes into the story and MC has either been asleep, reclusive, or hyperventilating. Not to mention an eyesore. I REALLY wish this was more 1st person like the last game. But we all know the "alpha male" inferiority complexes couldn't take looking up at a taller woman.
MC's psychoses go on for a long time. He even starts to see the therapist from the last game too. But he forces himself to sleep with pills, then visits his mother. There's a lot about this scene that doesn't work. I SUPPOSE MC pushed away Carmine's hand when he stood up? But the way the scene played out he just looked like he broke his spine. And he just doesn't want to be touched? I guess? I don't get a story about someone like this. Every time there's a MC that's so abrasive it's hard to read. The other games usually just throw 48 LIs at you and hope that the contrast in sex and depression make it seem deep. But this is going to be a slow story and I've already started to dislike MC, so if nothing else I can understand the low ratings. Then MC has a talk with Roy. I don't quite get what he does. Is he a detective, is he a doctor? But MC asks him a question about, I suppose, his ex and then gets offended and leaves? This whole section is hard to understand. It desperately needs to be translated better as well as expanded upon, because you could cut it out and I don't think anything would change. And it leads into the most underwhelming sex dream that's ever been made. Next day MC gets tickets and goes to Elodie's girlfriend's art exhibit. You finally meet Emma. She asks MC a few normal questions and he wants to hit her in the face? Why? You're just told she rubs MC the wrong way. Then a giant "MISSING IMAGE" screen. I'm not that far into the game, either this was newly broken or hasn't been fixed for multiple releases. This is one of those things that upset me a lot. Renpy, especially used in this way, is so simple and easy to test, that this just seems negligent to let a missing image slip. And it's all cut short because MC's mom passes out before sex with a prostitute. The CHIEF OF POLICE(?), was given a PROSTITUTE by the COMMISSIONER. Okay? I also want to state now that I have no idea what the "PSA" is. I thought it was just "Public Service Announcement" but it's a whole organization, I guess (Public Service Agency, learned later)?
After all that, MC "rescues" Carmine and he takes her home. Then immediately has a panic attack of his own. They learn that they're both dealing with shit and grow closer. It's a little rocky, but done decently enough. While I like this to an extent, it feels like it's happening too much. How did MC complete this job with these constant panic attacks? Then, after meeting back up with Elodie, and one sudden cut, Elodie's been drugged and there's a full sting on Emma because she's an artist that is also a doctor now? And she sells drugs to drug tall women. I'm so confused. And I've been reading this fairly slowly. Everyone's a doctor, everyone's a cop, everyone's successful? Huh? And there's this constant stuttering that the characters do. I wouldn't point this out if they didn't happen at weird times. And I just now realized I'm almost three paragraphs deep and just now got to "Part II." And when it does you're just thrown person to person, investigating Emma. You, the player, have no idea how they've arrived at any of these people or conclusions. Just shut up and accept that the investigation is happening. Eventually, they spy on someone named Elise. How and why? Nobody fucking knows. However, she dressed herself up to look like MC's missing ex. But somehow she also instantly fell for him? Not only that but with the spy cameras you watch her have sex with some escort that looks exactly like MC because she's already so smitten with him. An issue I have is MC's been made out to be slightly crazy, so at first, I couldn't tell if it was a dream or not. But no, the only sex in the game is watched on a spycam. And not much later, Emma and Elise are telling them all about their drugs and operations with almost zero effort. Yeah, Emma has a gun pointed at her, but Elise just wants a date, even though she's about to go to prison? Read the room. Then, another cameo by Xiomara. MC and her bicker like family somehow and everyone dotes on him because it's supposed to be endearing. But MC makes it hard for you, the player, to like him. Also, another error screen. A missing Fade. Ep3 line 1686 if the dev ever reads this. This is also paced very similarly to the first game. All the explosive extra stuff happens. And then it's just a bunch of day to day nothings where characters suddenly get closer. If one of them leaves at the end I'mma laugh.
This central lull in story is a little annoying. Not in the sense that "nothing's happening," or anything like that. But you, the player, have no frame of reference for when MC or Carmine's tragedies happened. You're not given a date of any kind just that "It's been some time." Almost as if it's meant for you to fill in the gap there so you relate to it better. But that's cheap. I have no idea how long ago anything's happened, so I just assume it's been a long time and that makes MC so much more unlikeable to me. I'll give credit where it's due, the little bits of personal banter MC has with Carmine and Elodie are charming. You can't deny that. But this whole time he's been dead set on always being alone and not being interested in anyone but Runa. And with the way this dev has made this and the last game, NONE of the choices matter, it's all flavor text for the story to happen. There's also the conversations they have about the guns and operations stuff and NONE of it makes sense to me. On top of the poor English it sounds like they're just saying words to say them. I don't really know how else to describe it. Then suddenly for no good reason MC is conscripted to America for some reason. So you, the player didn't get to participate in the investigation against Emma or Elise. Now you don't even know why MC suddenly went to America. None of this MADE SENSE. That's the issue. Frankly, it's annoying. I'm starting to understand the lower ratings as you're just swept along this path with no rhyme or reason as to what's going on. MC just does a thing and you're gonna like it, or else. Episode 4 opens to MC suddenly being a POW with long hair and all that interpersonal dialogue from 10 minutes ago meant NOTHING. Fun. And suddenly we're in some near-future where USA is divided because reasons? None of this was made apparent before. I thought it was some weird typo when they'd say N-USA. The world-building has been abysmal up to this point. The first game made it seem like MC is from the 80s and it's current day. Now it's some weird future in Mexico(?)(APPARENTLY ICELAND WHAT? WHEN?) with a divided USA that suddenly recruit newly promoted people from some "PSA" that have the ability to uproot their lives at the drop of a hat? Didn't Carmine and Ava have joint ownership over that bakery? There's so many issues I have with how things just abruptly changed. And why MC is now super suspicious of Medea. We, the player, have ZERO information. MC just calls her a bitch in his head because...? Something is happening. And as far as we know, MC doesn't even know why. I could have forgiven the poor police storyline, but you follow it up with a mysterybox military plotline? Come on, man.
To illustrate how put-off I was by the sudden change in momentum, I had to actively walk away from the game for a bit. I understand that in life things can change abruptly like that, but you JUST got me to hate MC a little less. Now we're suddenly across the world(?) and are in secret agent mode because....? No reason given. And for a brief moment, I truly thought "Further Education" meant MC was gonna romantically entangle with one or both of the women before they all separated to go to college again. Although I don't quite understand what all that stuff was about either. A lot of the world is a mystery in this, so maybe you, reader, or someone else understands a society with the "PSA" or whatever better than I do. And as soon as they land, suddenly MC and Elodie are the most sought after agents ever. So much so that they're trying to be picked up as they land. Again, ALL WE'VE SEEN is MC fall asleep and mingle with tall women. Why is he highly regarded? All to put MC and friends in a setup? Still, no idea why they're all big shots. And when they do SUDDENLY get Darius to confess to something WE, THE PLAYER, barely know is happening. It's completely underwhelming. "Oh this guy committed crimes you didn't even know about, blamed it on MC, all of the things were done for no known reason, and MC and Elodie solved it all." Did I miss something? I didn't even know any of this stuff was going on. All I know is MC and friends got fancy guns and those are linked to murders. Beyond that, NONE of the issues were telegraphed to the reader AT ALL. This is piss-poor writing. This is obviously meant to be more than porn but all the exposition is done at weird intervals, and the player is just told how everything went, not given a chance to experience it. And I can't BEGIN to explain how disappointing it all is. I LOVED the first game, as I've said, but PLEASE avoid crime drama for the rest of eternity. This just is not it, Hoss.
All of that passes into yet another scene where they've not only solved the crime but are about to arrest the guy. Why the hell would anyone be invested in this? It's a slap in the face. You "get" to see them gear up for a some rich asshole. How and why they're there? Just 'cause. I'm just now getting to Ep. 5 and I borderline want to turn the game off. There was a rocky setup, it turned into an alright personal story. THEN BAM! A brick wall of crappy police work and empty spy missions. It's so unbelievably disheartening to have to pull my rating down so much. It almost pulled itself up with good interpersonal dialogue. But MC just turned into every crappy super soldier MC you've ever seen. And the clipping of models never gets better. There's a scene where Alessio comments on Ava's baby bump, and the camera focuses on her mid section, and you get her nipple clipping though her shirt? I'd understand if it was in the background or whatever. But this is THE FOCUS OF THE SHOT. It's also been 2 or three chapters since there's been ANY nudity, so nipples clipping through clothes is all you get, really lol. You even get yet another slap in the face when MC falls asleep and Runa's character model completely changes and he has dream sex with her. You remember dream sex? The most pointless thing in a game? I get he's "dealing with stuff" but he hasn't had an issue in a long while. Only for him to suddenly have an episode? All momentum has been completely taken away. The biggest shock to me is this supposedly has always been in Iceland. But the first game very much made it seem like Mexico, or somewhere Spanish speaking. On top of this weird future tech stuff that's been popping up in this story. When? When did it suddenly become the future? Then there's the choice to FINALLY address Xiomara's relationship with her mother, a WHOLE GAME LATER. Only for the current end of content on a bad cliffhanger with Roy in his car? Remember that guy? No. No one does. He had no point in the story. Now he matters for some reason. It's so disappointing.
I'm not gonna lie, this was rough. I'll scream it a thousand times, I loved the first game. It wasn't too heavy, paced well, and if the English was better it'd have been perfect. This one just takes all the issues from the first one and tells a subpar story about a cop. You get glimpses of that interpersonal dialogue only for it to hard cut to shit that's already been solved. You don't get to know the crimes, don't get to watch it be solved, barely get to see the arrest, and see MC get commended for things he did off screen. It feels like the writer is afraid to write to their strengths. The REASON I tried this out at all. I sincerely do not blame anyone for rating this low. I'll admit it's deeper than most games on this site, and not a garbage porn game with the same old dumb incest plot. But we're now 5 or 6 chapters in and there has been one sex scene that MC watched through a spy camera. But the Dev's OWN WORDS saying there'll be erotica, but she literally sat there feeling nothing as the guy fucked her and didn't even react to any of it. When does the erotic part start? It really feels like we're close to the end and MC doesn't even see women as women yet. I genuinely don't care about the amount of sexual content in an AVN, but there's none here. And no, nipples clipping through outfits don't count. As funny as it is. So you have a lukewarm story, no sex, no good relationships, I can't tell who the LIs are supposed to be, and have retconned bits of the first story as well. The next few releases have HEAVY lifting to do if they're gonna address any of these issues. Pull back on the non-existent cop drama/America stuff and go back to what you're good at. The small meaningful conversations between characters.
To sum it all up, I REALLY want to like this. There's just too much of the story that DOES NOT MATTER. If you pulled us along MC solving crimes while coming to terms with Runa, an event that STILL ISN'T EXPLAINED, and growing closer to people he pushed away. I'd have been all for this. Instead we got a tiny bit of that at the beginning and 3 crimes that were solved off-screen that had nothing to do with MC or his issues. At no point were we ever made aware this all took place in Iceland, a point I STILL can't get over for some reason. The English is barely afloat in this. So many missing or misspelled words, on top of bad grammar this truly needs a proofreader. The UI/UX is alright, it's less customized than the last game which is a shame, but I don't think there's a clear vision with this game at all so I get that there's not a cohesive theme to tie it all together. The art has a bunch of clipping issues, the faces are far too over-exaggerated, and a lot of the images are super grainy. The dialogue, outside of the grammar, is as always, very good. If they stuck to interpersonal drama this would be top tier. But the story drags this through the mud. So little of what goes on feels like it matters. At this point I'm just waiting for one or all of the characters to drop some emotional bombshell on MC like the last game to laugh at him. So, unfortunately, past self, I am stuck at a HARD 3 for the rating. It is definitely not the worst game ever, but it just isn't doing it for me. Sorry.
User Interface:.....5/10
User Experience:....7/10
Art:................7/10
Dialogue:...........8/10
Story:..............5/10
Opinion:............5/10................
Avg:.............6.0/10 [3.0/5]
For whatever reason, I felt compelled to review this. Before getting into things, this is my first time playing the game. USUALLY, I play a few releases to get a feel for how much comes out per release. But we're doin' it raw this time. I will also say, I am a huge fan of the last game by this dev. However, the SAME issues persist into this one, from what I've seen. As well as the fact that this makes you take over the least likable, or even thought about, character from it's "prologue." A prologue that sets up exactly none of this. This has about as much relation to the last game as you would have to another random person in the same room as you in a theater. Yes, you were both there watching the movie, but that is the end of the through-line. The issues this has is one: THE ENGLISH. Yes, I have seen much worse in many other games. But it is annoying to read the dialogue a lot of the time. And two: The facial posing. The faces in this look like either some weird SFM(source filmmaker) video, or the old Mass Effect mods that amp up the facial animations to look like something outta uncanny valley. The faces also make MC in the top 5 for ugliest MC's I've seen in these games. I get it, he can't sleep or whatever, but this MC and the last one, who makes an appearance by the way, both look physically ill on top of having a face made out of play-doh(children's modelling clay for those that don't get that). All that said, and I will shout this from the rooftops, I am perfectly okay with minimal sexual content in an AVN. The buildup makes the payoff worthwhile. I have very mixed feelings about this story's buildup so far, but I hope it levels out. I'm also ABYSMALLY tired of MC being an ex-soldier that can't handle his own emotions, and not just can't but WON'T. It is slowly creeping up the ranks of overused AVN garbage. At the current time of writing, only being a short way into the story, I'm at a hard 3, but hope it gets to a 4. I also want to comment that I sincerely hope that the title is explained before someone drops a bombshell on the MC. Last game waited until someone said they're leaving to establish why the game had the name it did.
The story starts with MC on some Job. None of what is said during this scene matter or makes sense. One because the translation is less than stellar. And two because none of it is explained, as far as I know. All you can assume is it was an undercover operation and it went well. The whole time the splinter cell looking guys are trying to recruit MC, signalling he's so good at his job. I'll give them points for not just flat out stopping the story to gush about how amazing MC is. Something A LOT of these games like to do, instead of character building. But ALL WE'VE SEEN is MC asleep at a steering wheel. And right after all this he hallucinates some old lady most of the time. But before that, we meet Elodie. I'm ASSUMING, the primary LI for the game? She acts shy and bashful a little too much, her and MC CLEARLY have a thing for each other. She's also 6'9 because funny number, I guess? You also see a big MISSING poster for the lady MC sees in his psychotic episodes that we'll get to in a minute. It says she's 28 but she looks 45. So who knows. Anyways, Elodie and MC did the sting or whatever, get commended and Elodie pretty much hints she wants to date MC even though she has a wife(girlfriend?). But MC has PTSD that we won't learn about because these games can only communicate struggle through 2 minute flashbacks at a time. So many games do this, it's a big issue I have with narratives nowadays. But this handles it alright, I guess. Then you meet Carmine, MC's mom, from the first game as well. Her introduction highlights a big issue I have with the faces in this. Their sclera(the whites of their eyes) all look grey or at best bloodshot. And maybe a smile or two looks good but most of the faces look like they animate for the sims. Then MC goes "home" to his RV on the beach. He starts waxing poetic about nonsense and immediately starts hallucinating the 45 year old 28 year old while he has a panic attack because of her. I get it, super soldier PTSD, whatever. But we're like 10 minutes into the story and MC has either been asleep, reclusive, or hyperventilating. Not to mention an eyesore. I REALLY wish this was more 1st person like the last game. But we all know the "alpha male" inferiority complexes couldn't take looking up at a taller woman.
MC's psychoses go on for a long time. He even starts to see the therapist from the last game too. But he forces himself to sleep with pills, then visits his mother. There's a lot about this scene that doesn't work. I SUPPOSE MC pushed away Carmine's hand when he stood up? But the way the scene played out he just looked like he broke his spine. And he just doesn't want to be touched? I guess? I don't get a story about someone like this. Every time there's a MC that's so abrasive it's hard to read. The other games usually just throw 48 LIs at you and hope that the contrast in sex and depression make it seem deep. But this is going to be a slow story and I've already started to dislike MC, so if nothing else I can understand the low ratings. Then MC has a talk with Roy. I don't quite get what he does. Is he a detective, is he a doctor? But MC asks him a question about, I suppose, his ex and then gets offended and leaves? This whole section is hard to understand. It desperately needs to be translated better as well as expanded upon, because you could cut it out and I don't think anything would change. And it leads into the most underwhelming sex dream that's ever been made. Next day MC gets tickets and goes to Elodie's girlfriend's art exhibit. You finally meet Emma. She asks MC a few normal questions and he wants to hit her in the face? Why? You're just told she rubs MC the wrong way. Then a giant "MISSING IMAGE" screen. I'm not that far into the game, either this was newly broken or hasn't been fixed for multiple releases. This is one of those things that upset me a lot. Renpy, especially used in this way, is so simple and easy to test, that this just seems negligent to let a missing image slip. And it's all cut short because MC's mom passes out before sex with a prostitute. The CHIEF OF POLICE(?), was given a PROSTITUTE by the COMMISSIONER. Okay? I also want to state now that I have no idea what the "PSA" is. I thought it was just "Public Service Announcement" but it's a whole organization, I guess (Public Service Agency, learned later)?
After all that, MC "rescues" Carmine and he takes her home. Then immediately has a panic attack of his own. They learn that they're both dealing with shit and grow closer. It's a little rocky, but done decently enough. While I like this to an extent, it feels like it's happening too much. How did MC complete this job with these constant panic attacks? Then, after meeting back up with Elodie, and one sudden cut, Elodie's been drugged and there's a full sting on Emma because she's an artist that is also a doctor now? And she sells drugs to drug tall women. I'm so confused. And I've been reading this fairly slowly. Everyone's a doctor, everyone's a cop, everyone's successful? Huh? And there's this constant stuttering that the characters do. I wouldn't point this out if they didn't happen at weird times. And I just now realized I'm almost three paragraphs deep and just now got to "Part II." And when it does you're just thrown person to person, investigating Emma. You, the player, have no idea how they've arrived at any of these people or conclusions. Just shut up and accept that the investigation is happening. Eventually, they spy on someone named Elise. How and why? Nobody fucking knows. However, she dressed herself up to look like MC's missing ex. But somehow she also instantly fell for him? Not only that but with the spy cameras you watch her have sex with some escort that looks exactly like MC because she's already so smitten with him. An issue I have is MC's been made out to be slightly crazy, so at first, I couldn't tell if it was a dream or not. But no, the only sex in the game is watched on a spycam. And not much later, Emma and Elise are telling them all about their drugs and operations with almost zero effort. Yeah, Emma has a gun pointed at her, but Elise just wants a date, even though she's about to go to prison? Read the room. Then, another cameo by Xiomara. MC and her bicker like family somehow and everyone dotes on him because it's supposed to be endearing. But MC makes it hard for you, the player, to like him. Also, another error screen. A missing Fade. Ep3 line 1686 if the dev ever reads this. This is also paced very similarly to the first game. All the explosive extra stuff happens. And then it's just a bunch of day to day nothings where characters suddenly get closer. If one of them leaves at the end I'mma laugh.
This central lull in story is a little annoying. Not in the sense that "nothing's happening," or anything like that. But you, the player, have no frame of reference for when MC or Carmine's tragedies happened. You're not given a date of any kind just that "It's been some time." Almost as if it's meant for you to fill in the gap there so you relate to it better. But that's cheap. I have no idea how long ago anything's happened, so I just assume it's been a long time and that makes MC so much more unlikeable to me. I'll give credit where it's due, the little bits of personal banter MC has with Carmine and Elodie are charming. You can't deny that. But this whole time he's been dead set on always being alone and not being interested in anyone but Runa. And with the way this dev has made this and the last game, NONE of the choices matter, it's all flavor text for the story to happen. There's also the conversations they have about the guns and operations stuff and NONE of it makes sense to me. On top of the poor English it sounds like they're just saying words to say them. I don't really know how else to describe it. Then suddenly for no good reason MC is conscripted to America for some reason. So you, the player didn't get to participate in the investigation against Emma or Elise. Now you don't even know why MC suddenly went to America. None of this MADE SENSE. That's the issue. Frankly, it's annoying. I'm starting to understand the lower ratings as you're just swept along this path with no rhyme or reason as to what's going on. MC just does a thing and you're gonna like it, or else. Episode 4 opens to MC suddenly being a POW with long hair and all that interpersonal dialogue from 10 minutes ago meant NOTHING. Fun. And suddenly we're in some near-future where USA is divided because reasons? None of this was made apparent before. I thought it was some weird typo when they'd say N-USA. The world-building has been abysmal up to this point. The first game made it seem like MC is from the 80s and it's current day. Now it's some weird future in Mexico(?)(APPARENTLY ICELAND WHAT? WHEN?) with a divided USA that suddenly recruit newly promoted people from some "PSA" that have the ability to uproot their lives at the drop of a hat? Didn't Carmine and Ava have joint ownership over that bakery? There's so many issues I have with how things just abruptly changed. And why MC is now super suspicious of Medea. We, the player, have ZERO information. MC just calls her a bitch in his head because...? Something is happening. And as far as we know, MC doesn't even know why. I could have forgiven the poor police storyline, but you follow it up with a mysterybox military plotline? Come on, man.
To illustrate how put-off I was by the sudden change in momentum, I had to actively walk away from the game for a bit. I understand that in life things can change abruptly like that, but you JUST got me to hate MC a little less. Now we're suddenly across the world(?) and are in secret agent mode because....? No reason given. And for a brief moment, I truly thought "Further Education" meant MC was gonna romantically entangle with one or both of the women before they all separated to go to college again. Although I don't quite understand what all that stuff was about either. A lot of the world is a mystery in this, so maybe you, reader, or someone else understands a society with the "PSA" or whatever better than I do. And as soon as they land, suddenly MC and Elodie are the most sought after agents ever. So much so that they're trying to be picked up as they land. Again, ALL WE'VE SEEN is MC fall asleep and mingle with tall women. Why is he highly regarded? All to put MC and friends in a setup? Still, no idea why they're all big shots. And when they do SUDDENLY get Darius to confess to something WE, THE PLAYER, barely know is happening. It's completely underwhelming. "Oh this guy committed crimes you didn't even know about, blamed it on MC, all of the things were done for no known reason, and MC and Elodie solved it all." Did I miss something? I didn't even know any of this stuff was going on. All I know is MC and friends got fancy guns and those are linked to murders. Beyond that, NONE of the issues were telegraphed to the reader AT ALL. This is piss-poor writing. This is obviously meant to be more than porn but all the exposition is done at weird intervals, and the player is just told how everything went, not given a chance to experience it. And I can't BEGIN to explain how disappointing it all is. I LOVED the first game, as I've said, but PLEASE avoid crime drama for the rest of eternity. This just is not it, Hoss.
All of that passes into yet another scene where they've not only solved the crime but are about to arrest the guy. Why the hell would anyone be invested in this? It's a slap in the face. You "get" to see them gear up for a some rich asshole. How and why they're there? Just 'cause. I'm just now getting to Ep. 5 and I borderline want to turn the game off. There was a rocky setup, it turned into an alright personal story. THEN BAM! A brick wall of crappy police work and empty spy missions. It's so unbelievably disheartening to have to pull my rating down so much. It almost pulled itself up with good interpersonal dialogue. But MC just turned into every crappy super soldier MC you've ever seen. And the clipping of models never gets better. There's a scene where Alessio comments on Ava's baby bump, and the camera focuses on her mid section, and you get her nipple clipping though her shirt? I'd understand if it was in the background or whatever. But this is THE FOCUS OF THE SHOT. It's also been 2 or three chapters since there's been ANY nudity, so nipples clipping through clothes is all you get, really lol. You even get yet another slap in the face when MC falls asleep and Runa's character model completely changes and he has dream sex with her. You remember dream sex? The most pointless thing in a game? I get he's "dealing with stuff" but he hasn't had an issue in a long while. Only for him to suddenly have an episode? All momentum has been completely taken away. The biggest shock to me is this supposedly has always been in Iceland. But the first game very much made it seem like Mexico, or somewhere Spanish speaking. On top of this weird future tech stuff that's been popping up in this story. When? When did it suddenly become the future? Then there's the choice to FINALLY address Xiomara's relationship with her mother, a WHOLE GAME LATER. Only for the current end of content on a bad cliffhanger with Roy in his car? Remember that guy? No. No one does. He had no point in the story. Now he matters for some reason. It's so disappointing.
I'm not gonna lie, this was rough. I'll scream it a thousand times, I loved the first game. It wasn't too heavy, paced well, and if the English was better it'd have been perfect. This one just takes all the issues from the first one and tells a subpar story about a cop. You get glimpses of that interpersonal dialogue only for it to hard cut to shit that's already been solved. You don't get to know the crimes, don't get to watch it be solved, barely get to see the arrest, and see MC get commended for things he did off screen. It feels like the writer is afraid to write to their strengths. The REASON I tried this out at all. I sincerely do not blame anyone for rating this low. I'll admit it's deeper than most games on this site, and not a garbage porn game with the same old dumb incest plot. But we're now 5 or 6 chapters in and there has been one sex scene that MC watched through a spy camera. But the Dev's OWN WORDS saying there'll be erotica, but she literally sat there feeling nothing as the guy fucked her and didn't even react to any of it. When does the erotic part start? It really feels like we're close to the end and MC doesn't even see women as women yet. I genuinely don't care about the amount of sexual content in an AVN, but there's none here. And no, nipples clipping through outfits don't count. As funny as it is. So you have a lukewarm story, no sex, no good relationships, I can't tell who the LIs are supposed to be, and have retconned bits of the first story as well. The next few releases have HEAVY lifting to do if they're gonna address any of these issues. Pull back on the non-existent cop drama/America stuff and go back to what you're good at. The small meaningful conversations between characters.
To sum it all up, I REALLY want to like this. There's just too much of the story that DOES NOT MATTER. If you pulled us along MC solving crimes while coming to terms with Runa, an event that STILL ISN'T EXPLAINED, and growing closer to people he pushed away. I'd have been all for this. Instead we got a tiny bit of that at the beginning and 3 crimes that were solved off-screen that had nothing to do with MC or his issues. At no point were we ever made aware this all took place in Iceland, a point I STILL can't get over for some reason. The English is barely afloat in this. So many missing or misspelled words, on top of bad grammar this truly needs a proofreader. The UI/UX is alright, it's less customized than the last game which is a shame, but I don't think there's a clear vision with this game at all so I get that there's not a cohesive theme to tie it all together. The art has a bunch of clipping issues, the faces are far too over-exaggerated, and a lot of the images are super grainy. The dialogue, outside of the grammar, is as always, very good. If they stuck to interpersonal drama this would be top tier. But the story drags this through the mud. So little of what goes on feels like it matters. At this point I'm just waiting for one or all of the characters to drop some emotional bombshell on MC like the last game to laugh at him. So, unfortunately, past self, I am stuck at a HARD 3 for the rating. It is definitely not the worst game ever, but it just isn't doing it for me. Sorry.
