Ren'Py - Lab Rats 2 - Reformulate [v2024.5] [Tristim/LZ_Starbuck/Trollden]

The original game was good, but this version is pretty bloody awesome. Hits a LOT of the feelings that the original had, but is even better. The expanded stories from the base game, the new features all work together to turn this into one of the best games out there.

There is an clear inverse relationship between how pretty are the girl models in a game and how much freedom you can give to the player. For this mod, as the original game, it heavily realies on the second trait. Said that, this mod fixes a game wich was quite amazing in its corruption, management and girl customization. Few games came into my mind more replayable and entretaing even if the girls aren't the pretties.

This might be the corruption game with the best replayability of any othe game out there. It is very dynamic, with new people, new serums, new effects and so forth on each playthrough.

This is the same game as its predecessor, but with an extremely good mod wrapped in that adds a lot of content and quality of life improvements.

The gameplay loop is that of a management game, which is actually fairly fun. You can always use the cheat menu to skip over parts of that if you just want to get to the nsfw parts.

The Positives here are:
Replayability
Really good corruption
Length of gameplay
Fun gameplay loop
Ability to customize your own gameplay
Lots and lots of outfit combinations

Negatives:
Girls are bit on the ugly side

Lab rats 2 was a great management game.
it was about using chemistry to mind control, corrupt, bimbofy and everything else that feeds your inner mad scientist needs.
sadly it was abandoned.
this is that just with lots of gameplay/UI improvements.

Reviewed Modified Version: 0.51.3.1

Lab Rats is one of the games I have been following from the start, and it has been a complex ride. However, it is one of the few games I keep coming back to play every 6-8 months.

But to enjoy this game, there are a lot of caveats that you have to accept:

-Sandbox game: There is no clear goal; it is a playground for you to explore, use, and abuse as you desire.
-Randomly generated characters and models: The modeling system is genius, but it limits the graphics and will never match custom-made renders.
-Steep learning curve: There are a few essential actions you must take at the beginning of the game; otherwise, you will lose. This is somewhat mitigated with the easy difficulty setting.
-Setting up your company for the first time can be frustrating and confusing. I will try to provide a quick guide at the end of this review.

Once you get past the initial setup at the start of the game for the first time, it becomes easier to repeat and redo for your second or subsequent playthroughs.
And with the setup done, you can enjoy the game's strong points: a world of randomly generated girls for you to charm, corrupt, and defile. Additionally, there's a mod team that keeps adding small stories and other nifty shady mechanics for you to explore.

I hope you make it through the initial learning curve so that you can take a vacation in Lab Rats 2 when you feel like taking a few days off for some personal time.



For my final trick, here's a quick start guide to achieving a stable income by getting your company started:

First, you need a product to sell. In R&D, you can invent them, but you need to add some traits to make them valuable.
-Research and develop a few traits.
-Design a new serum with a target profit of 50 or more.

Next, you need to start production:
In the main offices, you can hire more staff. Don't worry; you can fire them and hire others once you have settled in. What you need is cheap labor to manufacture your product, so look for wages at 30 or below.
-For production workers, aim for wage < or = production.
-For supply workers, aim for wage * 2 < or = supply.
-Aim for supply = production.

Eventually, you'll want a marketing and HR team as well, but you can handle that part of the company until you have upgraded your maximum employee count.

This should be enough to get you started. I wish you good luck and happy corruption.

Probably one of the best modding community out of all games on this site. The mods add a metric ton to the game. It's seriously insane how great the experience is becoming. Highly recommend.
It would be nice if we got more documentation of what/when exactly the mod would get triggered/general info about it, but it's also quite fun to figure it out yourself.

[v0.51.3.1]

Incredible corruption options and for lots of people, plenty of different yet related stories and many systems to play with.

It's basically a (5 - 2) / 5

But it fails due to fairly awful balancing.

• There's way too much grind for research, since that has to be done multiple times over and then put to use, logistics for resources and staff.
• Making sure to not get too much attention, using multiple formulas and still having to check everything is really tedious.
• nanomachines, that are exclusive in function/formula and are messy, having only once/week controlled exposure.
• No idea how to progress to tier 3,
• no idea how to make supply match production,
• no idea how to activate certain special NPC interactions, especially when some pop-up due to other people or depend on them.
• Threesome commands don't make sense.

the late-game is tedious, obscure and until it's less so, no matter how hot the game is (because it's fucking hot) I don't see how to continue with it.

v0.51.3.1

I've played the original and this version various times over man updates and i honestly think this is the best game on the site and the modded version is absolutely the best version to play hands down

The UI improvements alone make this mod a must in my opinion. In all aspects this mod is a strict improvement over the base game and is the definitive way to experience the game. The mod also changes some of the story beats so they make more sense and added features that expand on the mechanics of the base game. The only issue is the low quality of the face models and some clipping in the clothes choices but those issues can be easily fixed

I've only played the full game download version of this game, and not the original, and I have to say this is one of my favorite adult video games, period. I would describe this as somewhere between Rogue-Like and the sandbox mod in Strive for Power in how it blends visuals with varied, interactive gameplay. There are also a lot of options to configure the game to the player, so once the ideal settings are figured out, and the gameplay is figured out, it can be quite fun.

The main problem I have is the lack of proper explanation of all the different options of the game, so initial gameplay can be awkward and frustrating for quite a while, but once I was able to figure out enough to get going, it really does become a great game for power fantasies.

I haven't even gotten through all of the content in this mod yet and it's still amazing. There is a vast amount of content in this and is truly amazing how much is added and improved from the base game. Vren should definitely look into having the modders hired to work with this game. I played the base game a lot of times, but this is dramatically different and adds life to the game. Honestly I don't think I could play the base game, unless this was added to it permanently. It's that drastic of a change they made to the game.

Amazing job modders.

There is only one problem with this mod - vanilla game is pretty much unplayable without it once you try it. It adds so much content that Vren should just look into incorporating it into the vanilla game and maybe even hiring the contributors.

If you dont like vanilla, this mod will not change your mind. If you like vanilla, this mod will make you love it.

What a mod. I wrote a rather scathing review of Lab Rats 2 calling out a bunch of problems with the base game, and this mod seems tailor made to fix all of them.

The biggest problems were mechanical - the base game is too unapproachable, particularly in its difficulty curve and complexity. This mod helps soften both by buffing certain stats and adding TONS of features for the player to take advantage of. On one hand, it's solving a problem of complexity by adding more complexity. On the other, the new additions are very straightforward, and include things like an easy mode and cheats menu for players who find the gameplay more frustrating than fun.

That said, not every addition is for the better. I feel like this mod adds too many new characters. That might sound like a weird complaint, and even hypocritical since I've complained about the lack of content in the base game, but adding a bunch of new characters solves that problem by introducing another. After a certain point each new character starts to take away from the others, lessening the appeal and novelty of each one individually. I like the new characters, but I'm not sure we need so many. Lab Rats 2 was already a game that felt, "Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle," in its writing, and some of these new additions only serve to widen that puddle. Personally I'd rather have new content and especially artwork for the existing cast (granted the mod does provide some, it's just not the main focus).

Obviously that's much, MUCH easier said than done - VRen's code is famously difficult to work with. Putting my nitpicks aside, this mod is a major accomplishment. At this point I basically think of it as the real Lab Rats 2, while the base game feels more like a beta release to test new features.

So thank you perverts, I mean developers.

It is one of the best in video games, it completely powers the original, it makes it more agile and friendly. A great mod. Completely advisable.
excellent excellent excellent excellent excellent excellent

Okay, I think this is the 2'nd mod I have tried installing for a game in 5 years of being on this site, so that is saying something about my desire for the contents of the mod.

Tried LR2 a few years ago, and while the game has progressed since then, it is severely lacking in story and meaningful engagement. This mod fixes A LOT of those issues.
Combine this with the (IMO) far better UI than the base game, and this mod is a must-have in my eyes.

The original game is already fun and somehow unique in this forum. The mod pushs forward and bring some nice features and stories. It's definitivelly an improvement of the original game. Well done guys !

An absurd amount of high quality content that fits almost seamlessly into the base game, including entire new characters and quests. Hard to imagine playing it without this - looking forward to the next branch that includes the major new features from vanilla.

It's a superb addition to a pretty fun game that fixes or improves just about everything that sucks about the base game. It adds bug fixes, characters with stories and events, and interesting mechanics that bring the game to life. Most importantly if you have an idea, it could potentially be worked into the mod. The discord is welcoming and helpful. It's really a necessity if you want to try Lab Rats 2. I was skeptical LR2 could get better with mods after I first found it a year ago, but these guys really blew it out of the water. Once you've played with this you no longer see it as a mod but more like an expansion.

Great game to begin with, and the mods add so much more customization, QoL and UI Improvements! I can't count the hours I've played this game or the faps I've had WHILE playing this game!

5/5 - Would play again (and again, and again...)

As a PC gamer, mods are where its at. The mods and tweaks version takes an already great base game (Lab Rats2) and makes it even better. Please keep doing whatever it is you do. I could seriously see this game do well on Steam, but like an addict I would need the modded version.