Ren'Py - Abandoned - Lab Rats 2 [v0.51.1] [Vren]

I think this game has come a long ways from its start. One of the few creators and you see constant adds to it. I think the models have improved a lot from the start of the project. The one thing i still like to see that the original had was a little a aheago expressions and gapes. But hey, its not over yet so I can keep on hope it goes in that direction. Be interesting to see as you corrupt them and use them they get more and more gape.... Damn, i got off track.
Thank you for your time creating this game Twistty The Happy Beaver
May we see lots more beavers in the future. =)

What is worse than a grindy game? A grindy game where you have to restart after each release.

The idea of the game is good, but the developer does not seem to be able to deliver a (mostly) bug free game. God knows he had enough practice by now.

The good:
- strategy angle: develop skills -> get girls.

The bad:
- Bugs, bugs, ...
- Annoying GUI.
- Very slow.

Should you play it? Probably not: it's a time-sink and it ends in frustration.

Good game! It kept my interest and the sandbox-style elements don't feel like a grind. There are plenty of girls of various types and tastes to keep it interesting. The Modded version adds even more diversity and events. I have played this off and on since release and I keep coming back as they add new features and avenues to pursue. The serum system is a blast to play with and adds the ability to customize your ladies as to progress.

I am hoping they add a love-harem style aspect to the game. As soon as you make a girl your girlfriend she will get upset if you're with others although she was into threesomes with the rest of the office before being a girlfriend.

The sex-slave system is cool though I prefer the love-harem route more in most games.

The fetish system I like but it does take away some of your control of the girls. IE a breeder fetish means you will have to really be careful if you are not wanting them to get pregnant.

Overall, a very good game that I keep coming back to. I have done 6-7 playthroughs of various lengths throughout its development.

Renders Not bad
Gameplay is bad for a renpy game
Gameplay is also confusing to make a serum there is a whole progess thats so confusing
Lot of sex scenes
Lot of sex positions
to many woman in this game you can corrupt everyone but i see no why
would be more simple If you could corrupt mom sister and work employee and maybe shop owners
Game is actually not so bad But would say it's confusing

First of all, i want to say that i like management games, and the idea of managing a company is something that i find interesting, especially because this game goes in depth allowing you to change rules. I also enjoyed the first game.
My main issue with the game is the models, they are horrible. i think there are maybe two faces? after playing the first game, where every character was visually distinct, i expected something similar. That is not the case. i can forgive the graphical bugs, but every time i try to play, i end up quitting because of the problem with the faces. If there are added at least a dozen DISTINCT facial models, hopefully a unique one for each main character, this game would be golden.

Pro:
- Grindiest grind. Just turn "Skip unread" on, and enjoy simple meditative grind. Or suffer, it's yours to decide...

Cons:
- Everything else:
-- A horde of new bugs. I don't mind to learn Python, but this game exists for another reason.
-- Every update breaks your last save. Download new version, enable console, start new game and cheat.

The game not worth neither a dime nor a second of your time.

4 years in and every update is still predominantly background/tech stuff.

Like what is the actual plan here?

All this coding and the user mostly just gets to experience poorly rendered characters being warped/distorted back and forth as an "animation" and each update is little to know "story" progress.

It honestly doesn't make any sense. It doesn't feel like there is an end game here. I nearly guarantee that the only way to make this game work would be to start over from scratch.

So, here's the thing. I absolute LOVE the basic idea of this. But right now, this is one of the most aggravating games I've encountered on this site. Here are some reasons:

1. Terrible UI. (Clunky, incoherent, redundant)
2. Terrible management of core elements (staff, research, production).
3. Convoluted character interaction system.
4. Quantity over quality approach when it comes to locations and girls.
5. Bad / Not enough feedback for player actions.
6. The "mastery" levels are not necessary. They just add mindless grinding.

I just started writing a list of possible improvements, but then I stopped. The reason is simple: This game needs a complete redesign from square one. It reeks of feature creep and bad planning. The core problem is that it uses the mechanics of a free roam sandbox, but it is a management game. There's a really good management game buried deep inside, but right now, I just can't recommend this.

As I've said: The basic idea is fantastic. It's just not a good game.

Updating my review: 3.5/5 if I could
When I first found this game (0.35 or so) Vren had a really well designed gameplay loop. But there was an update that absolutely crashed the flow of the gameplay loop, and that was the clarity system. It was disappointing, but it's still playable. There have been times where I've been frustrated with the development pace since mechanics like clarity are prioritized. I always thought the character models were good enough. (At least miles better than the creepy honey select models). The game can be buggy too. The porn stuff is fueled by text, not animations. The management is complicated, but you can figure it out if you're willing to learn. Ask questions if you're having trouble. But at the end of the day, it's the mod that makes this game worth playing. I was stubborn thinking LR2 couldn't get better, why should I add mods? Bug fixes, more characters with unique stories and events, and better configured mechanics. That's why.

I really love the setting and mechanics of this game. If you like somewhat slow burn games you'll probably have a blast when you get the hang of the game. I can already see it dethrone Wife Trainer in the near future!

The game has been developed with modularity in mind. The developers are really dedicated and it also has a great team of modders adding a lot of new content and mechanics.
In fact you're not doing the game justice if you play it without the mods package.

The graphics are procedurally generated and look good, but could use a little more variety.

Performance wise, if you have a weak system you may run into some problems due to the heavy calculations being done behind the scene.

Overall the game is one of my favorite slow burn games.

The UI is counterintuitive, there is no tutorial (there's FAQ but it's not the same thing) and you have to do a whole lot of crap before you get to the sexy stuff. Not my thing at all. I like the concept but it is badly implemented.

As everyone else i have my problems with this game but even how it is i really like the game already, very few games have the openness this games has when it comes to controlling people with drugs and such or any mind control in general, if it just keeps its constant updates and improves in renders and ui it will blossom to one of the best porn management games ever.

Great game with emphasis on player choice,
The serum research mechanic could use some work though
Especially the ui, if you research alot of strains it could clutter the screen.
for the graphics i think it's good enough for renpy render game. only complain i have for this game is lack of cum texture layering (multiple bukkake should add thicker/more cum).

I just tried again, with 0.49.1. A year has passed, and the UX and performance is as horrible as before. And I need to change my opinion. Do NOT add more features. Make the game playable, performancewise and UX. No matter how good the game could be, the horrible UI and the embarrassing performance just make it a a very annoying game.

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I like the type and setting of this game. But (as of 0.36.1) it is not a good game.

* Graphics are not good. The women are procedurally generated, but all look similar, and age is not taken into account. I can live with that, the game has another focus.

* UI/UX is horrible. When moving around you always have to click "Return". One click too much. Needing to move around in the lab just to do stuff is also just annoying and serves no purpose. Chatting with staff should be able to be initiated via "check staff". Other things are too scattered and hard to find/understand. Take serums: in the production screen, you can set auto-sell amount, but also in HR. They are sold in Marketing. UI/UX is very annoying, but I also can live with that, if the game is good.

* Performance is too bad. I got a good computer, and there is no reason for my fan to start working for a game like lab rats. Besides showing some still images and neglectible calculations in background, there is nothing happening that needs cpu cooling. And further in the game with more employees the perfomance seems to degrade. This is a point that bothers me. My fan working, ok, but a lag after clicks is really annoying.

* Storyline: not enough of it. There should be more story, main/side quests, that would make you to focus on some specific serum designs, for example. Currently, its just (broken) sandbox.

* Quest overview would be nice.

* Balance: There is only one challenging time in the game. When starting, you need to make the right decisions for a few days, and after that you get more money than you can spend. No need to use serums on your employees etc. There are several posssibilities to remedy that:
1) Change the scaling of Business policies, for upgrades charge 10x and 100x more.
2) Make recruiting way harder after early game. Maybe for a fee of X, there will show up to Y applicants per week. Let this fee increase when higher level policies are active (there are only so many peoply who will work naked)
3) Generate more possibilities to spend money (lab maintenance etc.)
4) Make Serums really useful and necessary. To convince applicants to work in the lab. To reach story goals. etc.
5) Do not overpower serums. I have people running around with 350 obedience and 800 happiness, without me doing really much.

So, most important for me is improving balance, and then story. UX and performance is horrible, but acceptable for me.

I wanted to like this game, I really did, I think that as a business management simulation it is actually kind of fun, but that is where it ends. I played Lab Rats 1 and I will have to say that the art in #1 vs #2 is night and day, #2 is a major step down, the characters are blocky, they don't look realistic, and go too far into the uncanny valley to be attractive or compelling. I also do not understand this whole solo CG thing, where the sex scenes are simply a naked woman in different positions with different clothes on, there is not even a hint of penetration, so its more like a text based erotic novel rather than a visual novel. It has a major dependence on RNG in order to move the story along with any of the characters, more so than #1 even. At least in #1 you then when a person would be where and you could use that information to repeat actions that would lead to greater corruption or obedience, but in this one you are essentially waiting around for events to happen in order to even get through that barrier.

I have spent many hours plaything this game, and although I do appreciate the strategy element to it, I think that too much work has gone into stuff like, a dress up game, random characters, and body modification, and not enough work has gone into quality art assets, realistic sex scenes, or flow of the game.

If I was the creator I would take a hard look at the quality of my characters from #1 to #2, I would revamp those visual elements, and I would go with a more traditional sex scene, even if you want to continue on this these posed 3d models that is fine, as long as you do some kind of cutover to an actual sex scene with actual sex, I think that would be a major improvement, even if those cg images are just stills. I understand why they would want to make a very gooey kind of game where there can be all sorts of random characters, and I appreciate what is being attempted, but rather than having 100 random characters of low quality, I would say its is better to have 10 high quality specific characters. Not all of the workers need to be romanceable initially, and perhaps if they focused on just a few characters at a time they would be able to produce higher quality models.

The mom has the face of a man.
The sex scenes are not compelling.
The bodies lack definition.
The 3d models are blocky and hard lines can be seen everywhere.

This is a review of Version 0.36.1

Lab Rats 2 is a complex and ambitious game. It certainly gets my interest and, while grindy, is rewarding in its own way. I can understand some folks frustration with the difficulty. My main issue with the game is the randomized character models and lackluster H content.

I still recommend checking this one out though just for the sake that it's somewhat unique in its premise. The only game I've seen that is similar would be SuperPowered.

Of all the games on F95, Lab Rats 2 is the only one I consistently come back to, and is one of only two games I actively support on Patreon.

There are areas I'd like to see improved for sure; some new models and renders would be great, and the learning curve for the business elements is too steep, but the strengths of the game shine through in the player choice and depth of customisation.

Vren deserves massive kudos too - of all the developers I have followed, he is by far the most reliable in terms of regular, on-time, substantial updates.

This game broke my mind for several days. I forgot to work.
If you're into mindcontrol, bimbofication this game is the top.

You can do many many things. Example : at the end one part of my company was dedicated to obedience and humiliation (cattle stock as I called it) , another was for top looking bimboslut trophies. My mom was forced to come along as I was " checking" my staff.

Sole weakness the UI.

Honestly, I love this game. No matter what people say. I played the original which was okay frankly, this one's already looking far more promising with some really intricate systems already in place. I look forward to the dev expanding the business side of the game, perhaps taking over other companies and drugging their hot female CEOs or something.

The biggest complaint against this one has always been the renders, but they're obviously a work in progress, and I kinda like them as they are anyway. I'm willing to put up with subpar renders if the gameplay more than makes up for it - and it does here.

I'm basically a F95 boomer and I'm telling you this is the most promising title on the website right now. Yes, it has THAT much potential. Keep an eye on it.

It is one of the few games with actual gameplay. A bit grindy so I recommend the cheat mod if you are not at the first playthrough.
Models are likeable but not the best.
I would really like it if ther would be a male model for the sex scenes. Having a girly blowing "air" takes a lot out of the immersion.