Unity - Loser [v0.11.00] [Night City Productions]

OK, so I have mixed feelings about this game. On the one hand, it’s a Night City Game, with all the good renders, characters, and story that entails. On the other hand, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Overall, I see a lot of potential here, but I think it, unsurprisingly, has a long way to go.

To be clear, I’m mostly going to be criticizing in this review, but I want to quicky cover all the good. The characters are interesting, with developed personalities and interactions. The sex scenes are great, as should be expected, and while there aren’t many yet, those that exist have a decent range of content. The world is pretty, the navigation is… reasonable (though I have complaints), and overall I look forward to playing more of this.

There, now that I’ve covered what I like let’s get down to gripes.

First, and not super important, there’s no real introduction. We get the scene of the player in jail and then get dumped into our room. I assume the actual homecoming will be added later since development is in such early stages, but even just a placeholder screen would have made things a little less jarring.

Second: the navigation. Overall I think this is quite good, it’s similar to many other games. However, with the fact that going to a location where a door is locked pops up a dialogue box (which in general are slow to progress and close) we end up in an annoying trend. I see that a character is present in a room but because I don’t know their schedule (because my memory is terrible and there’s no in-game resource for it) I must click on it to check. This wastes time as I have to wait for the dialogue box to go away to move on. This isn’t incredibly annoying on its own, but the annoyance compounds as it happens again and again. I have two recommendations for this. One: mark locations where characters are present but not available differently, either not putting the silhouette there or changing it in some way since there’s nothing for use to do there, and two: speed up the dialogue box, or add an alternative display method for those messages, maybe one of the corner messages like we get for XP and whatnot?

Finally, my big gripe, the one that really strained my desire to keep playing and would have made me drop it if I hadn’t installed the cheat mod and edited my save: the gameplay. Look, I get at least the general idea of what you’re going for here. I can see how it follows on from SuperPowered’s conversation and stats system. That said, there doesn’t seem to be much actual gameplay here, just a lot of grind. The only time the game actually feels like there’s a challenge or interesting puzzle is when you need to trigger a transformation and must get the right items, variables, and events. Otherwise it’s just performing the same routine over and over with little to no change and basically no fun. So here are a few suggestions of thing that I think could make this more interesting, understanding of course that this is an early stage game and obvious has a lot of refining to go through so many of these issues are likely only due to it’s unpolished state. Still, here’s what I’d like to see:

• More permanent topics and more ways to get them.
  • As the game goes on you can mostly get by with permanent topics once you’ve leveled up, but there’s the occasional specific one that causes problems. I’d love to see a way to convert temporary topics to permanent ones, maybe through number of uses? Maybe this way you could eventually have all available topics as permanent ones, provided you put in a lot of work to do so. This would reduce or remove having to randomly grind for a very specific topic in the late game because you need it to activate an action or whatever. Which leads us to…
• Don’t require an item to be in the hotbar/inventory to use it.
  • There’s nothing so annoying as getting to an interaction only to see that an option is greyed out because the item required is in the wrong inventory, especially for those interactions that happen rarely since it means going through another week to try again. This is also the case for interactions that require a specific topic to be available. I have the topic unlocked, but because I didn’t know I’d need it for this event it’s not set so I have to go back to my room, change my inventory up, go back to the character, and now the window has passed. This is incredibly annoying and doesn’t really present a challenge since there’s no way we could know we’d need that specific item or topic unless we’d done the interaction before, and even then we’d have to remember it since all but the archetype transitions aren’t recorded anywhere. Please just set it so if we have the item/interaction it just works, regardless of where it’s located. I could maybe see an exception for temporary topics, since we might not want to burn them, but maybe an option in the settings or something to pick the behaviour for them.
• Add a “Pass Time” button.
  • Yes, the Sleep and Relax options exist, and I thank you for adding them, but any game like this that is very schedule and location based begs for an ability to wait in the current location until a given time. I understand the scheduler may cause an issue with this, but if possible I’d highly request a button to advance time by one hour, just for sanity and a reduction of the number of times we have to go back to our room to sleep.
• Add more descriptions and details on the Archetypes.
  • The archetypes are really cool, one of the best parts of the game, but as others have said they can be confusing. It’s not generally clear what exactly an archetype will be like, and the only source I’ve found have been forum posts here stating which is the “vanilla” or “slutty” option. Ideally I’d love to see a brief description for each when they’re hovered over or something, a way to know what we’re getting into, especially when we have to choose between two. Some way to see the paths each archetype could go to would be great as well, even if it was as simple as saying it’s the vanilla or slutty path. Additionally, I’d love to see an easier way to revert to a previous archetype, we already achieved it, honestly grinding to it again is annoying. On that note, marking which of the available archetypes was the previous in the available section would be helpful as well since it’s not always easy to remember.
• Less grind.
  • Look, this is likely because the game is so early in development, but it feels like it takes way too long to make much progress, and the curve doesn’t seem to change as the player levels and develops, it’s always a grind. XP gains (both player and character) are quite small for how much we need to acquire. I think increasing the amount of XP gain would help with this immensely, even just 2X. Additionally, and I realize this may already be planned, passive XP gain would help immensely. This was a great part of SuperPowered, expending resources now to get a steady trickle of change. Maybe this could be more items purchased for ourselves that increases the player’s XP over time and some kind of options to ask the other characters to do things for us that increases their stats, possibly at a constant or large one-time cost to us. Either way this would mean we could be passively gaining in areas that are harder to improve through conversation while focusing on other topics or tasks.

Overall, I really like the idea of this game and I very much look forward to future installments. These are just a few things that irked me as I was playing, but I have every confidence that this will get even better as time goes on.

TL; DR
Almost SUDDENLY and surprisingly nice game, I really can't top-rate it atm, but NCP definitely raised its quality to 4+*. For now, + is not big enough to transform in +1, but with some more updates like 0.10.00 it can really get up to that.
Strongly recommend at least to try it, but be ready to really play, even with 2 hands on the table at the start until you earn your one hand down! XD
Guys who reacted to this rating with likes - you may reconsider those, or even better - give this game one more try, it's really MUCH better now than it was when I've posted this!

I always feel bad when I see a Night City Productions title get bad reviews -- I really think the dev is going for something a bit different from other adult games here. If you are into corruption, I think the grind sort of adds to that fetish. Getting a subject more corrupt by just a few button presses doesn't feel great to me, whereas the grind does. Also these games aren't meant to be finished in a sitting and I'm OK with that.

That being said, I think games that do this grind need to be engaging. Sort of like ARPGs. The gameplay can be repetitive but must have a hook and a feeling of progress that feels fun and makes you want to play more.

Does Loser do that? I think it does it a million times better than other adult games, for sure. The chatting and archetype gimmicks are really unique. I think it's a great way to incorporate "corrupting" someone while also providing different directions to go with them and cover a wider array of fetishes.

The one thing I really didn't like is the amount of memorization. If the dev can find some way to keep the difficulty and corruption of the chatting and archetype stuff without having to go back into your inventory and character log constantly it would go a long way to making the grind feel good.

To sum it up: the corruption here is second-to-none. As someone into that, I have to give this 5 stars. Night City did it amazingly with Superpowered and they are pulling it off again with Loser.

Full disclosure, I did review this before, but my review got pulled because I mentioned another game title. Which is not a topic I will complain about at the moment. Anyway, if it's not obvious to you or anyone you know, this game is a grind. And I don't get why. My ONLY idea is that it's for people with a statistics and spreadsheet fetishes. The kind of people that make a living off of fantasy football. On top of that, it's made in Unity which means it's over developed and sluggish. I don't like sandbox games, but RenPy is better for that and has much less of a system impact. The UI is very "early 2000's" if that makes sense. It's ugly.

It also has the same story as 90% of the games on here. MC (which is not renamable for some reason) leaves home for X amount of time. Comes home and, for whatever reason, is suddenly attracted to his family. After that there is no story at all. You literally just grind skills and stats until whatever character you're chasing acts the way you want.

The first time I played this I used cheat engine, meticulously, to dodge the grind. Nothing is intuitive at all. You repeatedly do activities to RNG a new conversation topic that you can't even re-use. Are you joking? And this means MC is a blank slate before this game. You start with no permanent topics and almost nothing takes less than 2 hours to do. I am thankful that the characters have a set schedule and it's not all random. That would be an actual nightmare. It's also been a minute since I played and have NO idea how I got anywhere in the game.

Sure, render quality is good and the models and scenes aren't the same 5 that are in every game on here. But the engine is clunky, the walkthrough is a novel, the entire story is told in two lines on the first post about this game, and nobody has enough time to actually play this. Night City overcomplicates games on top of slow update time. None of the scenes are in engine, otherwise the game would be smaller when it's compressed. And if you like the models install DAZ and use the models there. It'll take just as long to render an image in that as it does to actually get to any content in this game.

My suggestion to the player, get an actual girlfriend, you'll see boobs faster that way. And to the Dev, next game use less stats and skills. You don't make a commision off of my play time and you just make more work for yourself so everyone loses. Cut back and chill out.

My favourite adult game. But definitely not a VN.

The characters are beautiful and dynamic.

I appreciate there being an actual game of collecting topics and transitioning characters between archetypes.

There is certainly a level of grind, but I feel like it creates motivation for the kind of interactions and what directions you want to develop different characters.

Older sister is THICC and there are many fantastic renderings of her lying on her bed with her thiccness on display. That in itself is worth a star.
Archetype system is not something I've seen before, and the neighbor girl is so pale she's gray (which I like).
Current grind to content ratio is a bit high, and enough spelling issues to distract me, personally. Some important events need more than is given in the hints, which is annoying when you then have to wait an entire week to reactivate it. But the game's hardly done yet; probably worth a re-review when it's done.

Very promising. Enjoyed what I played. The grind is a pain but can be easily overcome with the cheats, so can focus on moving the ATs rather than grinding stats. Loved SuperPowered, but honestly think Loser might be better because the concept of using the ATs to organically slide characters into depravity is much nicer IMO than mind control or supernatural powers.

A great idea with absolutely no execution. The UI feels cumbersome and the experience tiring. The balancing is very poor with the game requiring insane amounts of grind. The women look great but the scenes are too few and far between and just do not justify the tedium. Hopefully he balances the game but seeing that he doubled down on his previous one as well I have little faith in that.

Love it! Amazing game, can't wait for more!
I hope for an even bigger iteration among the characters. With a lot more of freedom
My only concern is the amount of grind, beyond that, there is no problem in my opinion.

This game reminds me of Lucky Mark. The dev of this game must have played that one and said sure it's a good game but where's the grind? The dev even posted he thinks it's FUN to watch your character cleaning house, cleaning his room, watching the MC sit and play video games within a game. An example of how much grind there is: The younger sister can ONLY be advanced Fridays at 18:00. There is no skip time button, so you have to just sleep hundreds of times. The writing is OK, but since you see the same exact scene hundreds of times there is basically no story. The Archtype idea cold be cool IF there were options to make them anything you want. There is potential for hundreds of routes each with unique content. But, as it stands you have to progress from exactly one personality type to the next, in sequence. I give it 2 stars because it could maybe in about 5 yrs be pretty good, what little writing there is isn't engrish, renders are not bad.

I can honestly say with no hesitation that I really like this game and what it is going for. That being said the grind is just truly unreasonable. If you have an active social life and work-life this is not for you. As much as I don't want to sound rude this is the type of game I'd only suggest to someone who has no life. You have to put time into this game. In my opinion an unreasonable amount. In my opinion, what you get for all that time isn't even worth it when you can find other quality games with renders just as good as these.

I played for a good bit before I finally said fuck it and cheated. Even with max stats and money you still have to grind. It just becomes bearable. If you want to get to the sex fast here is a tip. Focus on the neighbor. She's the easiest to get anything with but it still takes a shit load of time. Time I, unfortunately, do not have.

It's honestly a shame. I like their other game. It was one of the first games I played here. This one is just not worth it. I couldn't recommend this to anyone who values their time.

Loser, is surprisingly a game. Because, the more I played the game more its felt like a complaints about someone in form of a game.


Perhaps, it's because the game way to look things are very specifics. False accused go to jail for 2 year, but still had no idea to about world. Sounds, very specifics perspective from someone to other person to me.

Self opinion aside, Mechanically, this game giving you an intriguing starting options. Even tho, it kinda bland reward wise for every grinding achievement.

You need to unlock almost everything, I guess, by repeating same process, well it's based on real-life I guess and also reward in real-life aren't that great either. Who would mind to get +1 out of 200 points as reward, no? Well to be honest, you can get even greater than that which are "permanant" topic to talk to.. err.. someone.. don't look at me, I had no idea.

The story, apart from prologue, I had no idea what the story is. it isn't because it's bad story-telling. But, it lacks of in-game progress.

The first, four character you met are extremely rare to be available to talk to, they are too loose as family. they rarely interact or can be interacted, everyone almost locked behind a locked door whole time.

And it seems like, the other family member had telepathic, they know something when they aren't there. Well, I know it's a game. But, I also felt like this game trying so hard to be real-life imitation, so I don't feel like it's out of question.

Interaction, as stated before in story part, interaction are luxury in this game. But, also hassle, you only could choose 6 one-time topic for starter and if you grind enough "smart" you can add 4 more slot.

But, unfortunately, even if you speak to other character in game, they didn't even said anything. Because, it's only represented as the topic icon and the other character doesn't even talk back the same topic as yours as it show different icon most of the time.

But, if you talking about something they like it's adds up to your relationship point somehow, and make sure you slotted correct topic before anything. Which are only available in some specifics place to edit, no biggie.

The artwork, it's decent, looks like they working hard on it's originality, which is cool.

The NFSW, too bad even after an hour playing, I still hasn't found any excluding one frame of peeking a brushing-teeth character in bathroom.

Overall, well idk, maybe it's better for something else? no idea, I just play and tell. So, people know what they are expecting to begin with. I thought, Public version was meant to be a glimpse of appeal what you can do in game if you get not public one or perhaps it's simply I don't understand this kind of appeal.

Version - v0.07.02 Public

As a game it's just a garbage grind, but ripping it with assetstudio lets you see the new cgs without the bs.

Worth a dl everytime and if you want a time sink this is the way to go, grind away.........

So this has many aspects that I really enjoy but it is really brought down by the grind. Grind for stats, grind for topics, grind for exp for yourself an other characters. These numbers need a significant shift because it takes way too long to get anywhere. I upgraded two characters, the mom and the father, once and after that I really don't wanna go through the tedium again another 10+ times. The ideas are great, changing characters simply by talking to them about topics instead of the usual mind control device or magic is novel, and the system is interesting but the numbers needed are too high and the numbers gained are too low. I never even made it to any sexual content because to get there is too tedious and boring. I honestly would suggest with the numbers given for mc exp that the needed exp for levels be cut in half. For changing characters, 50 to 25 talks is too much especially for characters you only get one hour a day to talk to. 10 to 15, maximum of 20, is what I would recommend. Maybe unrealistic but fun should be the focus, not realism and as it stands currently this isn't fun. As for mc stats, I would say the requirements are fine but more skills should reduce requirements and stat usage for activities and sleeping should restore more health and focus, not much but go from 6 to 10 or 12. Overall 2 stars because I know it would be fun with some simple number tweaks but without them this shit is boring.

Not worth the effort. There is too much grind, it's unclear what you should be doing, and the player is penalised unnecessarily for choosing certain options. The renders seem like they would be decent, but they're probably not worth the effort involved in seeing them all. Spend your time elsewhere.

2 stars as of v06.03

What's good:
- The art
- The concept

What's bad?:
- Grinding like hell, really i usually like to grind but this is just tiring. I'm here to fap, you can't be seriouse and thinking i will grind 4 hours straight for nothing.
- Interface can't be understand. How the hell do i raise and lower characters dominance/submission? Its says that dominance perk 2: for every dominant action i gain 1 submission point. That's a total bullshit, i managed to find a strange way to lower dominance and i don't even know if that's the right way to do it. How the fuck could a game be this messed up?

I really have nothing else to say, i know i might not be the brightest out there but damn, this game is totally idiotic. If the perks says one thing, it has to do it. I can't grind 4 hours and in the end the fucking perk is somewhat twisted. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

Sorry i'm not usually this harsh, i usually review for giving 4/5 stars but this game is just some trash as it is for now

v.0.06.03

TL;DR - Loser strikes me as a game where the developer came up with a great idea for a mechanic but than failed at balancing. With a little more time and tweaking, it has the potential to be something amazing. Time will tell if this game will reach it or if that will be in the *next* game instead.

The game begins with an intro to be added later, leaving you standing in your room with little idea who people are. Fortunately it's easy enough to start piecing that information together. The renders aren't horrible, but they aren't anything to write home about.

The AT/Conversation system is fascinating in how it functions, albeit with some serious time balancing issues. Currently it is so much of a grind that it detracts from any experience with the game. It's a massive grind with the cheats and a virtually impossible one without it.

Despite all of this I am still giving the developer a 3/5. Accepting this as a work in progress which is trying to differentiate itself from other other games of its type, the developer still has a lot of work to do but is off to a fairly promising start. If the system were balanced a little better it could really have a lot of potential.

If you check the discussion you'll see that this game generates quite a bit of controversy, which is why I felt it worth reviewing.
I give it 5 stars because it's amazing, flawed, but it's also unfinished, so, like "A for Effort." It's perhaps the most thought-out and intricate game I've encountered on this site. Such a refreshing change from the usual, you know what I mean. There is, I think, real creative talent in putting this together. On the plus side, that means you have:
- excellent renders;
- complex gameplay that serves as a surprisingly involved analogue of real-world relationships;
- distinct, fleshed-out characters;
- titillating, ever-evolving plot;
- excellent dialogue. None of the usual suspects (such as self-pitying inner monologues, excessive narration, jarring we-just-met-but-you-have-a-big-penis chatter, bizarre renpy-speak);
- Clever humour. Actually, it's more wit than humour, and that makes it even better.

On the negative side... good Lord this game is frustrating. First, it's not a VN ,it is a game, and it's complex. I normally unren and look at the images to get an idea of quality and flow before I even decide to play, but that doesn't work here.
I think the biggest problem is simply the slowness of the transitions, and the lack of optimization in button-clicking. You think you're going to do something and it doesn't work, and then you click-click-click through the week to cycle to the next once-in-a-week opportunity. It's perverse; normally I hate grind, but the personality-evolution (AT) system in this game is so well-done that anticipation keeps me going. I've put in easily over 30 hrs into this... No other game on this site comes close.
There are half-a-dozen changes I'd love the developer to do, but if you read the discussion you'll see they've already been asked and explained why they won't.
So, as long as it's a work in progress, 5 stars. But if it's still the same brutal slow-moving click-fest at completion, right down to 1 star.

GRIND, GRIND AND MORE GRIND. Terrible game mechanics and a lot of characters, but very few things to do with them. Renders are good, but there are only a few for every character. You will get sick of seeing always the same few scenes.

First, you need to grind for a long time to get the stats (money, stamina, focus, points... things like that) that you need to interact with the other characters. Second, you have to remember the day and hour when you can make that interaction, and when that moment arrives... usually you don´t have in the inventory the item or the ability that you need (the inventory system is just a mess), or you don't have "focus" or "stamina" enough... so you have to grind more... And when, at last, you are ready to make that interaction with the other character (let´s say, for example "talking with X"), is grind too, since you need to repeat it hundreds of times to get some results, always seeing the same scene and renders... Finally, you get the result you want: you can influence that character, corrupt her, you have your reward... and it´s a lame scene with only a few renders and a generic dialogue. Something like being able to peep the character in the shower and see her tit, take a photo or give a massage (if you have the stats, of course)...

The initial premise it is supposed to be about a boy that lives with his family, but the members of the family act like if they were room mates. They barely seem to know each other since they rarely interact with each other and the interactions of the MC with a member of the family don't have any effect in the other members. It would have been a much better choice for this game to have less characters, about only half, or 1/3 of the actual characters, but better written, with more scenes and interactions with them and between them, and some kind of story instead of just random scenes.

FRUSTRATION OVER FRUSTRATION AND HOURS THAT WILL NEVER RETURN, LITERALLY WASTED. PLAY THIS "GAME" AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Version: v0.07.00 Public

You will need a cheat mod to play this

Review:
Holy fucking grind! This is one of the games that contains the most grind content here on F95. It is a truly sandbox game, but with a lot of exhaustion and time consumption. In theory the game looks like fun, but in practice it is very tiring and you quickly give up playing. As I can tell, the idea of the game is good but in practice it is necessary to decrease the amount of grind present in the game because it will consume all your time for small rewards. Everything in the game ends up being painful, searching for the right topics to increase the female character's stats, grinding for topics, in short, nothing is fast, even trying to craft a quick administration you will be barred by the time it will consume. In the end you get frustrated for wasting your time.

Gameplay:
If the gameplay had less grind or was more fair, those who like sandboxes would enjoy the game. I like sandbox, the game has a unique specialty but the problem is having to grind for hours that will take days so that in the end you get frustrated. His game has characteristics similar to RPG (bad joke), you need to manage your resources, getting topics and managing them, some of them (like aggression) are very difficult to get, you need to see what the positive and negative topics of each NPC are, and then evolve them to the next stage and ends up being very time consuming and tiring, besides you need to increase your skills, always keep an eye on the status bar, so, whenever you talk about a specific topic you will be gaining exp from that topic, which is positive but everything is very time consuming. I say this because at the beginning you think the idea of the topics is cool, but then it all gets tiresome and annoying, at some point you will say, ENOUGH! I'm not going to waste my time grinding this out! so you feel a little regret for having wasted your time and the worst thing is that the game doesn't look bad, the game needs to be adjusted in the best possible way for the player to have more comfort and to have fun in the best possible way.

Graphics & Sexual Content:
The graphics of the girls' renderings is something that draws the attention of this game, practically, if the renderings were bad, this game would undoubtedly be abandoned in the second version. Gina's model is great, as are Becky and Diane. Of course it is a DAZ3D model and etc, it turns out that there are renderers that can't create a decent rendering, so the ones in the game are fine. The other girls in the game are kind of 'meh', only these characters are more interesting at the moment. The sexual content of this game is average to good, the problem is that there is very little content for the amount of hours you spend grinding. You evolve 5 ATs from Becky and you can't get a decent blowjob from her, of course, there is a development in the game, for each character, this is nice, but it also leaves you with blueballs. The sexual content of the game is OK, but don't expect too much or else spend a lot of your time grinding to catch up on one or two scenes for each ATs of each character you evolve. The animations are pretty basic, nothing impressive, better to say 'meh' than bad.

PROS:
Each female NPC is specific, only Gina's I found a little strange. Each AT evolution will corrupt the character and its look will change. It's hard to find this in some games, where you see a rendering of Becky fixing her hair, changing her look, there are sandbox games that don't change and it's kind of frustrating, but in Loser it's a stupid little detail but I thought it was cool. The incest story is not so bad, the problem lies in the gameplay itself. It is not a forced story, but it is not a silly story either. Typical incest story. The dialogs are also ok, it won't impress you but you won't mind too much either.

CONS:
The exaggerated excess of grind is absolutely bad. The problem is that it takes you a long, long time to evolve a character's ATs. It takes a long time to find a specific topic, it takes a long time to do things. Worst of all there is no in-game cheat or developer to remove this excess grind he has put in, I won't say that this game is impossible to play but it is very tiring, you will take days until you get tired of it. And you know, there are other games, maybe not very interesting for you but certainly faster than this one. There are many CONS in this game, time consuming, bugs, ugly interface, complicated mechanics or hard to master in the beginning, slow save, problems when saving the game, freezing, many things.

Why I did gave 2 stars?
I don't know why I am giving it a two star rating, in no way is it worth more than that, and I'm even being a bit dishonest. I mean the game is not bad but at the same time it is. First, the game mechanics are interesting but at the same time annoying. Second that the renderings are good but there is not much sexual content to enjoy, spend 10 hours, fap at the first sex scene you find, go to sleep and move to recycle bin. So, I'm being dishonest in saying this, but let's say it's a feeling, you've probably already felt this, but you always give it a chance, one more, one more, new update, want to know about the new content... The game is fun if the grind is drastically reduced, or rather balanced, but who thinks that the game management is balanced, the person must be crazy. So, this is my frustration, a game that looks like fun, is even fun, but will frustrate you so much, you only realize it when you play it at night and look out the window and see the sun shining and then wonder, did I stay here wasting all my time? Anyway, I don't think it is a game to be abandoned, because it has a huge potential, hard to find incest games but what this game deserves is a reduction in the grind and some other things to be easily accessible, for example aggression topics, because the RNG is bad. I hope this game improves, but at the moment, I can't recommend it if you're looking for something quick and don't want to waste your time. If you have free time, give it a try. It's not a bad game but it needs to be fair and balanced, reduce time consumption.