Unreal Engine - Abandoned - LifePlay [v2023.04 Stable] [Vinfamy]

I really want to like this game, I play it every other update hoping for improvement, but I don't think it can get better with Patreon's feature creep.

UI :
The UI is the worst part of the game.
The menus are cluttered with options, half of them are too niche or settings that shouldn't be in a frequently used menu. The worst of it is in the contextual menu, very small box full of useless things.
Clicks often miss, when you click on someone, it's a 50/50 if the menu that'll open will be for the character or the location. When you click on the UI, it sometimes ignores it and open the contextual menu.
Contextual menus go out of the screen.
Reordering the menus with the lastest options on top (except edit location, which shouldn't be there at all and stays on top) seems like a good idea, but it shuffles the menu if you don't pick the same option again and again.

tl;dr : if you need a searchbox in your menu, you did something wrong

Modules :
Modules seems like a good idea : you pick and choose what you want, and you don't get fetishes that turns you off. But again, the implementation is really off.
The way it is implemented cause huge shifts in scenes types and can make things awkward.
Examples :
- You discover a fetish multiple times, making it looks like it had no impact on your character
- Character preferences (old-young, interracial, fantasy races) are only accounted when the scene is from that specific module.
- Characters who loves impregnating other hating vaginal sex, making them unable to do it properly
- When married, your Significant Other (SO) can be retrograded as boy/girlfriend coming over

and lot of others... The reason I say it is because of the modules are is because the scenes aren't written as geneal cases, but rather cater to a specific fetish/module, and ignores everything else, even base game rules.

Feature Creep :
Rather than fixing the game's flaws, new features are added with almost every update. They just seem interesting and are shoved in the game in a rush, causing problems where there aren't.
I know it's mainly because you need to keep Patron's interest in sight, but the update list doesn't even contain options like "Improve UI", so there's no way to focus on that for the month.

Immersion :
The way scenes are chosen and played really breaks the immersion. It's not the worst, but it's still a Life Simulator, breaking the immersion every five minutes isn't good.
Examples :
- Small scenes repeating too much : No I don't want to go to the art class, there's nothing there except get raped, why would I go there after the first time. It's the same for the cop searching.
- Scenes breaking the flow : I'm at work, I get a naked selfie/masturbation video. If I choose to masturbate to it tonight, the game will still interrupt my work to place me at home.
- No continuity for characters : Dominant characters are reduced to whimps in some scenes, rapists become nice people... stats aren't enough as character traits. And I won't talk about how incest & relationships work together (they don't)
- Scenes without warmup or ending : The scenes happen in a rush, without taking into account what you were doing most of the time. And after they ended, you're right back to what you were doing. Some scenes should have more impact (kidnapped during the night, meh, back to sleep) and others come from nowhere ("Hey, we spoke once last month, wan't to impregnate my wife?")

Game Engine :
My computer suffers everytime I launch the game.

Final words :
I wouldn't be writing all this if it was only to bash on the game. I've spent more hours playing and modding the scenes that I'd like to admit (Futas are people too), but every time I play the game, I close it frustrated and with an hour of doing nothing lost before playing the new scenes from the console.
I can see the potential, but adding new content on top of an unstable base will make it collapse in the end, and I don't want to see it end like that.

The Gameplay is good, I guess? I dont really know because everytime I start the game again and again, I am lost inside the game. I think the UI is this games main problem. If the def would finnaly work on a clean, compact and clear UI, I am sure that most ratings would be a solid 4,5/5 (5/5 if hair would be fixed)

Honestly, this game was disappointing. I was really excited for it, but once I realized how limited, broken, and boring it was, I gave up on it. I haven't counted them, but I am guessing that I have around 300 games on my old laptop which has a weak everything - CPU, GPU, RAM, etc. This game was the only game that wouldn't run on my old laptop though. When I read the description and saw the game images, I thought that it would be worth it to install on my new laptop that I mostly use for work. I installed the game, and was a tiny bit excited because I created a motherly figure that I made my mom and a loli cutie that I made my sister. But after that, I just could not enjoy the game. Over half the sex poses are way out of position. I first noticed it when I first installed the game and was making out in a restaurant. My partner would be outside of the wall of the room we were in. Or she'd be leaning against invisible walls. Stuff like that. As I got used to the game and tried doing it at my place, half her body would be inside the headboard. And bunches of other sex poses were messed up. Over half of them are like that, and it's no excuse for the developer to not notice or do anything about it after this many updates, because it's been like six large updates since I first installed the game. There are two types of sex text while you are having sex. One is small text above the partner's head that if I remember right you might not be able to see if your camera is in a different position. This text is so badly written that it does more to peeve me off than excite me. But even worse than that is this paragraph/page long sex text on the top right of the screen. It's actually what got me learning how to mod the game so I could remove it. It was so distracting and very badly written and didn't turn me on at all. I learned that I could remove files from certain folders to remove that text, but I've removed files from like 3-4 folders and it only got rid of around 75-80% of the text. There is some still leftover, which is annoying. In one config file, there are hotkeys for adjusting your anatomy angle. They don't work. In fact, that is one more thing I don't like about this game. If the female's boobs are too big, your hands will be completely inside them so all you can see are your wrists. 70% of the time, my anatomy is poking through a stomach or some other body part when I'm doing the deed. Anytime you want to make out with a girl, it immediately starts out with you both standing on top of the bed with your clothes on. I really hate this, and it makes the game look so stupid and boring. First of all, who in their right mind starts out having sex by both standing on top of a bed with your head almost touching the ceiling? And it's so boring to be standing there fully clothed and have to manually take off your clothes. Not only that, but the game is buggy with how you are positioned and stuff when you are with a girl. It might show you siting at a desk with her behind you talking or cleaning. As soon as you try interacting with her, suddenly you are both on the other side of the room and you have to adjust your camera all over again. I don't even like visiting places on the map because most of the places look the same and there is nothing exciting about them. I would be happy with just my apartment and no other buildings in the game. It got to the point where I would only use the Young Old Dating App to bring women to my place, or I would call a family member over. I'd never go anywhere else. There are way too many events too. I tried to disable them all by quitting all my jobs, but I still get a lot of events that interrupt me when I'm trying to bring someone over from the Young Old Dating App. It took me a long time to figure out how to change male/female anatomy size and other stuff. And then even longer to figure out how to change a females height and build. And then I find out that if you make them too short it breaks all of the animations. If all the sex poses were fixed, I would still not like this game that much. I feel like it requires way too much modding from the player. Modding the game itself. Modding the poses. Modding the women. Modding the descriptions and other things you don't like. Mod mod mod mod mod. This game has a lot of potential, but the developer is wasting time working on kinks than working on the stuff that matters. I don't know if I am allowed to recommend games, so I won't name any, but there is this one game that is wayyyy better than this one, even though it doesn't have character creation it is very similar, and it even runs on my old laptop. I'm going to uninstall this game from my new laptop and I won't bother ever installing it again. When I first installed it, I was excited enough to give it a 4 star rating. That quickly dropped down to 1 star. But because this game isn't complete trash, I will give it a generous two stars. I'm sorry if I forgot to include other stuff, but I might add it later if I remember. I just haven't played this game in ages because despite there being endless possibilities it is in fact very limited (hard to explain) and very boring. It would be easier to creat an attractive female than to meet one. And even after you've created some somewhat attractive women, the actual sex with them is boring. Oh, I just remembered something. If you orgasm, it takes like 10 minutes before you can pick up the pace because either you are too soft or she is too dry. I tried modding the game to fix this, but never succeeded. Oh and the sexual grunts and moans are horrible too. I had to mute them. And let's see. It will prompt you ever 20 seconds to change a sex pose because it's what she wants. You can disable this, but she will still suggest poses.

I have always hoped that there is an adult version of the SIMS game, LP is very close, but not enough.

The interface is terrible, the interaction is terrible, there is almost no automatic AI, and there is no story.

However, Vinfamy's skyrim mod is much more refined, and it is my favorite story mod in sexlab.

Absolutely the best. Completely open world, you can do almost anything you want. The creator takes suggestions, at least from supporters, and supporters have a say in how the game expands next. If you support, you have a say in new cities, scenes, sex positions, etc. It keeps getting better.

I have been playing LP since a late version of 3.somethingsomething. While I have had adaptation friction to this game, my current verdict stands on 5/5. Words which bring a flavour to the rating are that you don't get a better game unless you pay a bigger software house.

I've seen around 18 updates that add just a bit more to the game as well as mods that stared from an additional bedroom to now playable inserts that add more content. While one could say that the game came a long way from previous versions, it's still coming a long way. There is plenty of possible future ahead in this. This is one of its success pillars.

Incredible sandbox freedom can be intimidating or not entirely to your liking, but its the second great pillar of success. It's so big it's advisable to add roleplay flavour or fluff to your character to enhance the experience. Character engagement is key and the game offers possibilities instead of holding your hand while forcing you to save the world in a hero scenario. You play a person with agenda after the player's liking. This is not for everyone.

The graphics are not comparable with AAA titles form big software houses but this is a free game with fan donation budget. You can't buy a genuine Ferrari for the price of a Hot Wheels car. While this is a downside, it's not bothersome enough for me to lose a rating star over. While ratings are arbitrary, the blah above might give you a better understanding if this is worth a download, like or support subscription.

To Vinfamy: good stuff, keep it coming!

The game is good, a huge number of options for actions, poses for sex, detailed study of the characteristics of the characters, not bad models.

But with all this, the game has a lot to grow. For example, now I have not found an opportunity to edit models in more detail, to be more precise, I have not found an opportunity to make my presonage thinner or thicker, increase muscles, for the whole body or part of it (but maybe I just didn't figure it out).

Auto generation of characters by attractiveness is also controversial, since everyone has different tastes, so it was easier to add random options for different body types (for example, fat- thin, muscle relief - not athletic-athlete, high - low, hip and shoulder size narrow- wide, etc.).

There is no editor of female genitalia (although the penis can be edited to a millimeter).

The fact that the number of poses in the game can also be increased, you can not even say, since their options are inexhaustible.

A great open life sim game with great customization, a wide variety of fetishes to suit everyones taste, and a very active and caring dev who consistently pushes regular updates and bug fixes in addition to new content. One of the few games I feel comfortable supporting on Patreon. Keepup the great work dev.

This game has really progressed to a point where it is now VERY addictive. It feels like I am playing The Sims, but I have total control over my little person's life choices. AND I don't have to bother with building the house and all that stuff. Considering the current 2 GB download size, there is an amazing amout of content in the game. I am most definitely looking forward to future updates!!! Keep up the great work!

I've been playing this game off and on since around the 2.0 or 3.0 version of the game and it's not bad but not great either.
The Good:
Sandbox
Customizable
Quite a few animations
Moddable
Multiple OS support

The Bad:
It gets repetitive pretty fast
Outstanding bugs
Source code hasn't been updated in awhile
Misaligned poses and animations

Basically it's not bad for a few hours of play but the "fetish of the month" usually takes priority over making the game more polished. There's a bunch of quests that feel like they could be expanded or continued but haven't been. Models won't sit right in some chairs, for instance the movie theater or university seats. Some sex animations don't really line up on beds for group sex usually and spend a lot of time readjusting everything.

Overall though it just feels like it needs more of a story or quests or whatever you want to call it to make the game feel more full. Right now it just feels a bit empty with a few quests or scenarios here and there.

Review for version 4.8:

I like what this game is trying to do here, a Sims-type of game that focuses mostly on sexy stuff sounds like a great time. The game has a lot of options and cheats that are easy to access so you don't have to waste time grinding if you just want to get your fap on. The scope and everything is pretty cool for a project made by one dude and the fact that it's always going to be free and moddable is another plus.

However, the game is seriously just not pretty to look at. Characters, no matter what you do, are always hideous and slightly creepy, especially when they're smiling. Animations are extremely rigid and simple, each model going from point A to point B, then back from point B to point A. The only variation is the playback speed, and that makes things look even more wonky if you crank it up too high. On top of that, the "CUMMING" that pops up on the screen during climax is obnoxious and kinda lazy. I know animating is very difficult and tedious, but I'd personally rather have a handful or really good animations over having like over a hundred shitty ones.

Another review here mentioned character creation being overly complicated and they're correct. Normally a detailed character creator is something worth praising, but this game has too much detail and not enough of it changes characters as a whole. There are no simple "Dick Length, Dick Girth" sliders, it's like "Dick Size A, Dick Size B, Shaft Length, Shaft Length B, etc." and cranking these sliders all the way results in minimal change. There are like 5-6 pages in character creation and each page feels like it has at least 50 different sliders on it that don't really do anything. I honestly think this game would have benefitted a lot from a more stylistic approach to character models, similar to The Sims or even Breeders of the Nephelim. It would have really helped minimize the creepiness of the character models and maybe even allow more diverse looking characters through easier, more simplistic options. I love character creation, but I don't like it when I'm trying to create a cast of characters and each one takes me 20-30 minutes of trial and error for me to get a product that I'm happy with.

I don't want to completely trash this game, because I love the idea of it and it really does let you explore and live out a wide range of fantasies and fetishes. That alone makes it worthwhile to at least give it a try if you haven't already. But the flaws I mentioned really hold it back from being great, so I suppose I'll just stick with Wicked Whims for the time being.

v4.8 - current version at the time of writing this

Cool game. I'm having fun with it. The fact that the game respects your time (by allowing you to change almost any setting, activate cheats, speed things up, etc.) is very important so that's a huge plus right there.

Visually the game looks good for a small project. The guys you can create can be quite cute/hot so definetly enjoying that.

For future releases I'm hoping gay (male/male) content gets some loving as well. But seeing patreon polls and comments (here as well) shows a pretty homophobic playerbase with dev(s) doing basically nothing to counter. As such gay content is just there so they can be "inclusive" but it's really an afterthought. Dissapointing. Definetly a big negative and the reason I'm starting to lose interest after playing through several updates.

< Edited for v4.13 >

This is one of those things man, like this is a must play game. I don't understand some of these reviews man. The scale and scope of this project is spectacular, and even if the game ends up not being for you, there are things worth checking out 100%.

Why 1 star? Six basic reasons:

1] No physics or even animations of genitals, breasts, or orifices. This makes sex extremely bland.

2] You can choose the position, but not where the position will take place. So you could choose doggystyle, and depending on the room, may result in you clipping through walls and/or floors. Like there was a classroom, with a raised section, stairs leading down to the lecture stand. Leaning up against the wall, had me near the chalkboard, clipping through the wall and doggystyle had me in the raised portion, but 2 feet below ground, with only my head and boobs visible.

3] Some positions have extreme clipping problems, such that the penis doesn't even go into the anus or vagina or mouth. Or with cunnilingus, the person's head clips through the futa's penis.

4] The character creator is expansive... a bit too expansive, and I felt overwhelmed with a lot of choices that didn't seem to do much of anything. There is no simple sliders like penis length, penis girth, or tip size, but rather about 60 sliders that modify portions of these slightly. Also for hairs, they get different sliders; like the bob gets a simple hair length slider, but the long straight hair has like 20 sliders for affecting length (and of course the hair clips through the body). But with all this choice, you still have no way to affect the butt size, visible muscles/tone, or manually choose makeup rather than an entire group of makeups. Also I had freckles on my character's face and I found no option to get rid of them.

5] There has to be some kind of hidden requirements to get paid for jobs, because I did 7 sex work jobs, and only got paid for 2 of them, even though my character came multiple times. I also tried multiple times to do cam shows and photo shoots, but either nothing came of them, or I didn't get paid for them.

6] The game has a piss-poor tutorial. It goes over the basics of movement and UI manipulation for the character creator and the sex, but that is it. It doesn't explain how you are supposed to find a place to live, or where to go to look for work, or even how you are supposed to know what is the price you should offer for your services, to avoid getting shafted but also to avoid over-bidding and losing. Like the Witcher 3 system of haggling over the price of a bounty, would be super useful.

Until they address these issues, I don't see myself playing this ever again.

Okay first and foremost the sex aspect of the game is solid enough. If that's all you're here for then you would probably enjoy this game. However, my main gripe with this is the lack of an interesting gameplay loop. You just take care of your needs and stumble into sexual encounters. The writing isn't particularly great either. Vinfamy deserves credit for making this as it certainly has potential and has a dedicated following. I'm not a supporter of the game, so I understand my wishes for the game are relatively irrelevant. I think this game would significantly improve if the life-sim aspect of the game became the focus over kinks that the patrons vote on. If I remember right there's several months dedicated to these kinds of updates. The latest was a visuals upgrade, but perhaps it would be better suited if these updates were spread out and more varied.

I believe there's a few fans out here who want this to be more like The Sims, and maybe that's unfair to this game. At the end of the day, Vinfamy can't please everyone or have the output of a major studio. What we have now is fine, and the potential for this game is huge

“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”

This quote is as relevant in the porn game industry as on the battlefield. With hundreds of garbage, low-quality games being released every month, only to be abandoned within a few patches or slowly become a Patreon cash grab with one update being released every third month, one starts to become cynical of the entire industry.
Luckily for us, once you get through the incompetent, the targets, and even the fighters, you reach the warrior. If there is one word to describe the Lifeplay dev, it would be competent. No game has ever progressed so consistently towards such a large scope without falling apart.

In the beginning, the game was a complete mess. The models were ugly, the game was boring, and the UI was terrible. However, as time went on, and overhaul after overhaul came out, one could see the game progressing towards a destination. The word "potential" has almost become void in this industry because of the frequency of failures, but in this case, I dare say that the potential is starting to be realized.

Naturally, there are plenty of things that still need to be done for the game to be considered a masterpiece. The gameplay still isn't truly immersive and the UI still needs work. In its current state, the game is better than a fully modded Sims or Bethesda game, and thus the best in the genre, but not by a large margin. However, after what I've seen the game go through, I have full faith in the developer to create a complete masterpiece in due time and deliver what the ninety-nine others could not.

As many people that have reviewed it, I really wanted to like this game. The idea is commendable and the effort is worthy of huge praise. Yet, the execution is unfortunately quite poor. This game really needs a bigger team to work on it and remake simple stuff like UI, controls and basic models. The huge amount of stuff you can do and all the features show the potential this game has, but as it is, it leaves a lot to be desired.

It honestly seems like it might be a good sandbox game once it's finally implemented. Sadly, after about an hour of setup, I keep getting fatal errors when trying to do pretty much anything. The UI could be a lot more user friendly (i.e. locating a place to go to, reducing the number of locations with nothing to do, etc.)

Hope it improves over time, and I'll probably look to circle back by the end of the year to see how it's progressing.

I want to preface by saying this is a really cool idea for a game. I love life sims, especially ones that feel real. The premise for this game ticks all those boxes really well and has great potential. The problem unfortunately is in the execution.

I'll start with character creation. It's easy for me to say this since I'm not the developer putting undoubtedly hard work and a lot of effort into it - which is most certainly visible - but the fact of the matter is the visuals simply aren't that great. The models aren't terrible - I've certainly seen worse - but they unfortunately can be somewhat uncanny. The hair feels the worst part - some of the hairstyles are downright horrid, and the game feels lacking in variety - there's only one or two ponytail styles, and there aren't any hairstyles appropriate for black characters (such as fades, afros, braids etc).

The clothing leaves a lot to be desired - there's a lot of issues with clipping, the patterns on a lot of the clothes are ugly, and all of the clothes feel generic, without any particular styles. To make matters worse, both clothes and hairstyles seem to change to something you didn't set them to; custom NPCs will randomly be given a different hairstyle from the one you set, and even your own character seems to randomly put on clothes you didn't choose for them, mere seconds after you put an outfit on.

The maps themselves are a highlight - it could definitely do with a lot of fleshing out and in general polishing, but it's still a great concept to have an entire real city to walk around, and at relatively realistic speed. It's a bit weird however how your character always seems to be displayed indoors, even when travelling between two locations. It's also weird how everything seems to take place in bedrooms (not sure if this is a bug or intentional).

All in all, great concept, great effort, but unfortunately greatly lacking in necessary details and visuals in order to be a fully enjoyable game. I will continue to follow though as I am sure it will get better as time goes on, and I look forward to seeing what more can be done with it. I'm hopeful that I'll eventually be able to give it a 5 star rating!

Nice idea, terrible execution so far. This needs time and a lot of polish. Interface for starters should improve in some way, this is more tiring to play than simcity. I cant imagine anyone trying to casual play this game, it requires actual intelectual effort from you in order to understand some basics.
Visually just sucks, i understand this is supposed to be a big project but design is just bad. Breasts and faces are decent, some hairstyles are decent also, but everything else is quite poor. I tried myself for years and i know there are struggles with nude models in certain areas, but this is IMO hard to look at.

There are some good parts that i could see the 30 minutes i played, but are hard to enjoy in the actual state.

Lets see in future releases how muhc it improves.