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

I want to like this game more.
I love the game mechanics in theory. Lots of potential to get it right and build a management game with strong sex content and fun play for those of us who want to play a game and not just spank monkeys.

Here are the problems I have discovered over several hours of play in various versions:

The models aren't attractive. I'm sorry, but when you are competing on this play field, you need better looks and more variety to make it. Outfit changes are a FANTASTIC idea, but you're still stuck looking at the same slight morphs of the same rather terrible girl. She needs a re-work, STAT!

The sexy time scenes aren't very sexy. Mostly stick poses with no action. I am ok with this as I'm more into the game play side... but most guys who spank are going to want more.

I like resource games. I like trying to figure out how to maximize resources without cheating. This game is challenging in that aspect. New formulas and research are cool ideas reasonably well implemented.

But you gotta make the game more sexy if you want it to earn for you and be enjoyable by players looking for a double threat.

I think that Vren really make few bad decision regarding this game.
Don't get me wrong, I understand his original plans.

"The original game was great, so the sequel will be even better, bigger and more complex!"

Unfortunately, quantity does not mean quality.
More than one and a half years have passed and we have ugly characters, boring story, uninteresting corporate mechanics and game which is not fun to play. It's a shame. Personally, I would be much happier if the next goal of MC was to control all the sexy women in his town. All the new corporate bullshit just doesn't work.

I didnt like the first game because there was no male char in it. but game play and dialogs is ok not best but avarage. 2 years after I wanna give a chance to this. After 2 hours play I have to say that this game is sucks.

I cant figure out how to play. Machanic so confusing. Sex scenes is... Wait a munite what sex scenes! A famele char posing and I have to call that shit a scenes. It supose to a porn game but if you dont use mod you can not make any potions. So no potion, no sex if you can call that thing "sex". Even whit mode you cant make one. You rise the stats whit mode so you can see some "scenes". Basicly run, dont look back and RUN!

I literally hate this game.

I think that...when you play a porn game, the last you expect to find is amounts of text for learn something trivial that in the first game of this developer was gave to us so easily that you only needed a click for create...(serum)...now you have to go trought a process that when you realize what are you doing, you begin to think, " what the fuck im doing with my life?"

i have enough study with my career i don't need study a game that have the same copy-paste models..that's another thing

Tf happens with the models?? they are more ugly everytime the dev make an update, their necks are cut. the sister seems like a...wow...a crazy chick with mental disease, did you see her face?, the mom... i think the mom turned into a shemale. and i will stop here because i dont want waste more time in this

This game is fucking trash dude, Im trying to fucking jerk off not play some Dwarf fortress looking shit, Be prepared to read a very long guide to even understand how the mechanics of this game works,
Secondly the models are fucking garbage

I tried playing this for over an hour and kept coming back to the same problem. What am I doing and why am I doing it? This game is, to say the least, EXTREMELY opaque. Unless you spend time finding someone outside of the game to tell you how to actually play this game, I don't suspect you'll be able to figure it out on your own before boredom and frustration take over.

If you want a business simulator disguised as a porn game, this is the game for you.

In my first attempt, I tried researching the basic syrum. This didn't work because all I was doing was upgrading the base and not making any progress outside of it. After a couple weeks my only employee(Steph) wanted to quit. Why? I don't know.

My second attempt was better. I got a syrum! I tried producing it. I don't know if I did or not. How do I find out? What does any of this mean? Why do I need to take a 2 year course in business management in order to understand how to play a game about making women have sex with you?

I was only able to find out some of what to do by searching around for a guide/tips on the forum. I found some stuff, but still had no idea what I'm doing.

This game throws you in the ocean and hopes you know how to swim. Expect to lose. A lot. Maybe someday, after completing my mandatory college level business degree in "how to play a porn game" I'll come back to this and find out if the models are better. Probably not.

5 Start for potential.

alot of the ratings here, are Wrong. yet they are Right too.

Lab Rats 2 is Different game then Lab Rats 1
so if you come here and expect more of Lab rats 1 you Will get disappointed.

this game is not a VN its more of a sim city. but with the story from lab rats 1

let me try to explain.

the events of Lab rat 1 happened but not super successful. MC hade a little fun but everyone returned to normal. after the summer. and you moved to the city. or there about, it not like we play this game for the Deep story.

so you are back to point Zero. in this game you stil have mom and sister, and Stephani from the lab

but instead of going to a lab. and have events and multi choice.
in Lab Rats 2 you build a lab, you run the business, hire staff, get positive finances and build better seriums. -- and then you corrupt them all.

so completely different game play.

but the reason i really like this game is that anyone other then you mom,sister and Stephani, are randomly generated.
looks, likes, dislikes, it gives this game alot of replayability.

there are still gaping holes of "not in use". like the location map. you only use a few locations and the rest dont have a function.
so it is easy to get a feeling that the game is bad. but the Dev has focused on getting the basic company game play and serum part up and running.

keep a open mind and look at the potential, of unlimited girls. and what the mite be in the future.

there is enough of the game in there to see what this is about. but it needs alot more polish, and once the Dev gets more events in the game, we will start to see the full potential

Lab rats 2 - v0.14
Lab rats 2 is a very different compared to the first game, gameplay has clearly been focused on. The game is overwhelming at first as you have to micromanage a bit but once you get the core mechanics of the game sorted the game does become quite a bit easier. The game is grindy but these can be avoided using cheats.

Pros:
- The clothing system that the games is very good, highly customizable
- You can interact with everyone in the game and corrupt them
- Gameplay isn't bad, definitely better then previous game

Cons:
- Models used are terrible, worse in my opinion than the 1st lab rats
- The game does get repetitive
- No sounds
- Many locations in game are not developed at all, the only locations you can interract with is your lab and bedroom, There is nothing to do at the mall.

Overall i think it is a good game with potential and I look forward to the next update

I want to echo the sentiments of many of the other reviewers. The models are literally some of the worst I've ever seen in a porn game. The fact that it is in fact, a porn game, seems to have been lost.

It would be forgivable to assume the models are placeholders, set so the Dev could develop a business sim type game. Except it does not seem that fixing the models is even on the radar for the Dev.

The content itself is grindy but, some guides and/or cheats can be found in the thread to help alleviate that.

Unless you are into ugly chicks give this one a pass for now. (and hey if that's your thing, no judgement here, you do you!) Maybe the Dev will fix the models some day.

I'm on the boat that prefer H-games that stimulates the mind as well as the dick. I don't really feel the grind since I'm mostly just doing what I like to do anyway, and while I'm doing it I'm even turning a profit and turning my employees into sluts, that's awesome!
The good thing about this game is that it is actually a bloody fucking systemic game, while there are good VNs out there I'm utterly bored with them, it's primarily just story and very little else, content, content, content bleh. I'd much rather have complex systems along with my content please!
Try it, it's good, and it's not that complex, but it is very stimulating, especially since the payout feels so much better when it is a product of your plans and preparations that come into fruition

PS. Lab Rats 2's clothing system is unmatched, and its getting better and better with the newer releases.

Reading through the other reviews, I think this game appeals to some people a lot, but not at all to others.

I'm definitely in the first category, and this is one of the few games I'm actually excited for seeing updates.

The positives:

• This is one of the few open world you can corrupt everyone games. As girls get corrupted, they will wear more and more revealing clothes while being more and more willing to partake in some lewd activities.
• Can create new outfits, which will be worn depending on the character's lewdness levels. Outfits are rather varied.
• There is definite and interesting progress through the game as you build out your lab.

The negatives:

• The models, while versatile, tend to have girls that look somewhat ugly. This also doesn't seem to be a focus for the dev.
• The grind. Cheating is easy, though, so this isn't as big a deal.
• Not that much customized content yet. Most girls bark the same, despite the varied rules for the things the like and dislike.
• Not a lot of location content yet.

Horrible game, too much complicated, when you play a porn game u expect have fun and not think, so much troubles for make a serum, and so much trouble for lvl up your character for give serums to girls, complicated game with 0 sex scenes , you need spend a lot of hours for get a girl willingly to give you a blowjob, the development of this game is slow and low, not like in the first game of this serie, i understand isn't easy but then you can't expect to make an ambitious idea like this game, if you can't do it properly, sorry, so bad for me. LAB RATS is in my top 5 porn games. but....second parts are never good,,, that's true for real.

Where to start?
The age of the grind fest is over. The age of the super mega ultra grind fest is a buried corpse. There is no reason for this type of content.
Even with streamlining, this might be too much investment in a gaming style that is dying out. Faster paced, animated games are the future.
The payoff is just not good enough to slog through the level of static, dull grind that Lab Rats 2 has to offer.

At 0.9.1 this game is steadily getting better. The grind isn't too bad, as you can hire women to automate the processes for you. The sex system definitely needs improvement as it's way too static in it's current state. Technical issues like text hanging below text boxes and typos are also abundant.

Despite the issues, I actually quite enjoy the resource management in this game. In addition, Vren has one of the best work ethics in the business. Another positive is the customization of serums, with different serum traits. Will update my review in a few months.

It's got kind of a rocky start, with maybe a bit too much focus on the business side. But the basic premise is fun and a good continuation from the first game. I'm looking forward to seeing more features implemented!

First thing This is Not A carry on from Lab Rats 1.
What you have is a micro manage system With great Mechanics, I Was So confused when i started, When starting a New game Forget All the shops Go straight to Experiments Lab And make the first batch This could take a couple of days, Once you complete this Stay in lab & choose the Experiment you just made & start tests then when that's done, Go to Mains hall & start ordering materials This also can take a few day to get 250 once you done that Go to productions & start making the Batches, Then go to main room And choose to sell the Batch you just produced Go to marketing And sell it!!! this is the bare bones of the game then it's trial & error The hiring of staff comes later, & that's when the fun starts....

Although LR1 is definitely in my favorites list, for this one, smth has changed.
Not sure, maybe its art that just doesn't look so nice as in the previous one.
Maybe management system that looks TOO complicated to me, c'mon I'm not here for a RailRoad Tycoon, or EVE management.
So as for the current version's state, can not recommend this game to anyone.

This game at 0.6.1 is terrible.

The UI is maybe the worst I have seen, the grind factor is high, there is no story, there are no compelling characters.

Lab Rats 1 was very good. This is very bad right now.

The first Lab Rats game is one of my favourite adult games I have tried. It managed to give a fairly simple storyline, which still allowed for enough flexibility to make it both fun and challenging to complete it.
The only issue I really had with the game, is the HS models. They look alright, but only having 5 pictures for an entire sex scene, where you never even see a shadow of your own character, makes the experience less enjoyable.

Hence, when I saw that Lab Rats 2 would switch over to Daz models, I was thrilled. However, several months later, I am pretty disappointed in the game.
The first lab rats was small, with only 5 characters, but at least those characters felt like characters. The characters in this game, feels like cardboard with some dialogue glued onto them.

The game feels like it is focussing much more on the business management aspects of the game, which only serves to strain the fun aspects.
After playing the latest version for 10 minutes, I closed it down and wished that I had just played LR 1 instead. I would really like this entire "random generation" of npc's to be scrapped, and instead just have 10 characters, who are all fleshed out and in better quality than the ones we have now.

With the direction the game is currently heading, I sadly don't see myself playing it. It simply feels like an empty shell.

My BoY Vren needs some direction. This game certainly is ambitious. It completely changes the entire small story feel from his first game and thrusts is into this monolithic mantle of business management. See now I am not complaining. In fact I really like the Idea behind the game. However the sheer magnitude of the games extremely complex system is dropped right on he player at the beginning of the game. After a few hours... HOURS. I completely ran into the brick wall that is the lack of entertainment that is this game. I love you Vren but you really need to have an overarching narrative and a way to ease into this whole shift of a gameplay loop. The randomly generated women do not look good. They look much worse than the honey select models of the previous game. Instead of focusing on the mechanics of this game first. I would recommend trying to draw your core fanbase back into the world of Lab Rats using the old characters (in new forms maybe.) and slowly teaching them everything they need to know to be successful and enjoy the game. Also some dialogue is choppy and needs work.