Defending Lydia Collier by White Phantom Games reviewed at Version 0.17
Story - At its core, we have quite an interesting story here. What begins as a seemingly simple crime of passion quickly evolves into a web of deceit, intrigue, and corruption, with our MC sadly having to untangle that web. Unfortunately, the pacing means much of the narrative time is focused on the LIs, so you might feel it's just a poorly structured story centred around wooing certain LIS. Much of the lore is also hidden in news articles, emails, or other media... making it easy to get lost in the complexities. It's actually a very narratively rich game; it just requires you to do a lot of the legwork to uncover it.
Renders - We have some relatively good-looking models here, and some stand out more than others. While each of our girls here does look individual, most do share the same body type, that is, thin with big boobs. There are no over-the-top body types, and every girl presents realistically proportioned. There are a few instances of clipping with hair, here and there, but nothing major and no character really experiences clothing warp. Environments are varied, while at first the game seems contained to your house or office, we do eventually spread out to another country or other homes, they are well-lit and, where needed,d filled with NPCs. The game features animations, but they are not the best; they can be janky, but I didn't know if that was the quality of my hardware, as I cant deny some of them have had some effort put into them.
Characters - Boy, do we have a few, and the most are shaped by your actual actions, which is nice. The first LI we meet, Ellie, can slowly be corrupted over the game if you so choose it, actually having the opportunity to go pretty dark with her family later on in game. Steph, our second token blonde, has the option to be bimbofied - though even if you do not take that option, her kinks are quite varied and out there. We have the detective Vanessa, who is here for the MILF fans, though she can drop into the Cuckquean fetish later on. We have the titular character, Lydia, who can cater to all the BDSM fans out there. While each of the characters grow sexuallyover the course of the game. Few actually get any history and development... they are basically there to fill a kink filled hole. In fact you could probably remove everyone but Lydia, and the game could continue.
Minigames - The minigames here are unavoidable, and unfortunately, one is very important to the plot. This means one mistake can cause you to roll back to avoid an early game over, which the game does have. The main one, occurring late in the game, is essentially an asset management strategy game... where you need to send certain characters to perform basic tasks. It doesn't quite work because much of what you should send is buried in reports and evidence you have previously been given. It could have been implemented better than it currently is, which often feels like a game of chance.
Overall - I think this game is one of those that you either love or hate. There's probably not much middle ground. Given that the game is quintessentially British, I could call it marmite to match the setting. I do believe, though, that at its heart, this is mainly a game that caters to a kink crowd, cleverly hidden behind an attempt at a story — a story that started with promise but has since begun to waver. If you’re after an actual game, you'll need the walkthrough, but if you're here for the pervy bits, well, there's something for everyone.
Acceptable 7/10