Ren'Py - Love & Sex Second Base [v24.6.0a] [Andrealphus]

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is v19.5.1e...

This is one of the most grindy games I have ever played in this genre...

The visuals are 2D hand drawn, and look decent... Reminds you very much of Japanese Hentai style VN/Games, without the characters all looking Asian and child like... The UI is easy to figure out and even includes a tutorial to point everything out... The navigation is ok, but can be a bit tedious as it uses sub-category like locations based on where you currently are... Such as only being able to go to the City from the House Livingroom... Or having to go to the City before going to the Mall, and so on... I was getting a lot of missing file errors when it came to the male character, who owns the home (I had selected the female protagonist)… So a generic looking fill in model was used in it's place...

The script is pretty spot on, as I didn't really run into any spelling/grammar errors during my play through... The plot revolves around either a male or female protagonist (your choice) who ends up moving out of his/her apartment and moving into a house, with some other characters (depending on your sex choice in the beginning)… Now, the entire introduction story was cute and had a few funny moments... I really liked the writing style and was hooked... But after that, the game became a complete grinder, in order to hopefully open up any new content...

And when I mean grinder, I really mean it... You have a bunch of personal stats that have to be maintained through each day... Such as food, cleanliness, energy, and fun... Add to that, you have 3 social stats to be concerned with (that can be effected by activities and clothing)... Then add in the fact that you need money for both rent, as well as purchasing all sorts of items that may be needed... And then there is also the characters lewdness score (at least that is what I guess it is)… And because the game has dozens of locations, and uses a day/week/month/season cycle, where certain characters are only found at certain locations at certain times on certain days, etc... You can see where I'm going with this... Plus you have relationship scores with the different characters, that can go up and down depending on what you select to talk about, and/or attempt to do with them... And in the beginning, it's a guessing game as to what will anger them or make them like you more... You can even get sick, and so on... And you have some other thing to worry about, like doing house chores each week...

You end up wasting more time worrying about your personal daily stats and so on, then you do with getting through the relationship stuff... I spent at least 2+ hours playing, and didn't get anywhere new with the other characters (outside of helping the female tenant move her stuff in)... With the initial ups and downs, and somewhat randomness of finding where they were and when, it is a complete uphill struggle to play this VN/Game... And some content and choices are hidden behind those personal and social stats... You have to figure out what you need and when you need it, and hope for the best... This VN/Game is more like a life simulator then a Dating game and/or Erotic/Adult VN/Game... The repetitive grind is immense... Just too many things to worry about... If I wanted to concern myself with all the normal life day to day activities in a game, I would just go do real life stuff, rather then play it all out in a game... It doesn't add realism, but instead adds tedious, repetitive, and boring game play mechanics... That maybe, one day, will lead to something meaningful for a short period, before it's back to the grind again...

Overall, I liked the visuals that I experienced, and thought the introduction was top notch... The game play mechanics on the other hand are some of the most grindy I've ever seen in an Erotic/Adult VN/Game... I really tried to give it a chance, as the introduction had me hooked... But I just felt like I was wasting my time with all these tiny bits of game play, that had nothing to do with progression at all, just to keep my choices open... And even then, most choices were highly repetitive, when I was able to find and do them... I'm sure, there will be a small set of players who have no qualm with the grindy stuff, but there is grind and then there is super-grind... And I think that will put a lot of players/readers off... The promise was there in the very beginning, but the execution of the game play mechanics are just too much... Too many things to micro-manage for very little gain over a lengthy play period... Best of luck to the developers... But I will most likely not be revisiting this one, and I feel like that is a shame...

I'd say this is pretty average so far. Way more grind than payoff, and without a real clear-cut walkthrough it is very easy to waste your time on paths that have not actually been fleshed out whatsoever. Also a lack of H-scenes in general and a lack of completed storylines. Overall the game has good mechanics and it is definitely playable, but cannot call this a great game just yet. Will update as it progresses

So freaking great ! Great job N7 !

Management, events, quests.. Great graphics, great writing, interesting & profound yet intuitive game system.

I hope more characters & scenes will come ! Definitely one of my favorite games.

My Rating of this Game (v19.3.2 ) is:

Pros:
+ Nice Renders
+ Nice Story
+ Easy Playing
+Game-play very well Explained
+Different Graphics
+Great Speach

Cons:
-None

Conclusion:
What I like about the Game is that it tells you at the beginning a short tutor as how to play the game,wish that other games had this,because sometime I don't know what to hell to do.
Also I like the Graphics, comic style like reading a Comic.
Also the talking in the Game is also Great.
Looking forward into seeing more.
Worth the Download.

An very nice open ended, free roaming dating sim. But not perfect.

I recently discovered this gem. It’s not perfect, but it does its job well. I for one dig the art style a lot. This got me into the game in the first place. The sad thing is there is just too little. The scenes are beautiful but I wanted more. All the girls are very detailed and distinctive (Especially my girl Sasha <3 )

One of the drawbacks is the grind, but this is the nature of this kind of games. It should be noted that off time of writing the female-start is almost unplayable and very much unfinished. Mechanics are just not in place.

If you find this game at least somewhat appealing you should give it a shot. It’s one off my favorite in the genre.

An excellent open ended, free roaming dating sim.

The artwork here is original and high quality, the gameplay is satisfying and rewarding, pick your own path through the game and which relationships to pursue.

There is a wide cast of characters, all with their own personalities, and a range of body types and kinks are represented.

One of the most notable things about this game is the consistency, monthly updates with significant content added, and a very active and engaged creator who listens to and respects his fans.

Highly recommended.

After playing Love and Sex: Second Base for several updates now, I have come to thoroughly enjoy the game.
While still in a developmental phase, naturally with a smattering of bugs, the game has a significant amount of content, allowing players to pursue several different relationships and stories.
The game also caters to a wide variety of people's tastes, with a fair number of different girls with different personalities, as well as a number of different kinks and situations for the main character to find themselves in.
What's more, Andrealphus is an active and interactive developer, quick to fix any serious issues brought to their attention, as well as managing to put a lot of fun content into each of their updates.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this game progresses in its ongoing development

- Good things:
- The concept of a sandbox dating-simulator is not new but it´s good.
- There are several kinks.

- Meh things:
- The art. There are only a few drawings for every characters and are not so good. It looks like a bad copy of shadbase´s works.
- The writing is not really good. Most of the conversations with the girls during the process of seducing them are stupid or lame old jokes.

- Terrible things:
- GRIND. Terribly boring repetitive task. Without cheats, this game is umplayable. This is a date simulator, and all the dates are the same. "Talk about X subject", "Play pool", "have a drink"... Most of the actions don't even have a image, and of course, there are not real conversations or actions with the date. Just clicking the option and receiving a point of some stat.
- Unattractive femenine characters. It´s suppose that every girl has her own personality. Problem is MOST OF THE PERSONALITIES OF THE GIRLS IN THE GAME ARE NOT ATTRACTIVE. The dev seems to think that characters that talk and behave like dykes that despise men (even if at the end fuck with the male character) are attractive; well, probably they are attractive for other dykes. If those are the target that this game is directed to in Patreon, mision acomplished. There are also brats, crazy girls, white trash girls, cugars... All cliché. The only reason to try to date with those girl is... well, they have tits in the drawings. That´s all. They are not good characters at all. In real life, if a girl behaves with something remotely similar to the bad manners of some of the potential dates of this game, she would find herself dating only with a dildo or with lame assholes pretty soon.
- Political correctness BS. The dev even set traps to the player. There is a dialogue with one of the characters about sex in which the female character gives some kind of stupid pseudofeminist cliche speech of "I´m not a slut, I´m sexually liberated woman", and if you chose one of the options the dev provides, the dev says to you that "you should make yourself tested". Amazing. THE DEV INSULTS THE PLAYER IF CHOSES ONE OF THE OPTIONS OF DIALOGUE THAT THE DEV INCLUDES IN THE GAME. I don´t play (better say, pay) a game to be lectured or insulted.

Pros:

1- Artstyle is good.

Meh:

1- Since this is a dating sim, there's no "story" per say, you're a guy who moves in with two girls, and from there on you can do whatever. Very character driven.

Cons:

1- Insane amounts of grind. Most people who want to extract any minimal amount of enjoyment from this game, will want to play with cheats ON, but the player needs caution otherwise it can break some parameters and make some events not trigger.
2- Very buggy, even in a clean run (aka: no cheats).
3- While the artstyle is good, the amount of CGs (including it's variations) is minimal. The proportion of CGs to text ratio is very small as well.
4- UI is not the best, you need to click a lot to do very basic stuff, games from over two decades ago already made systems while did not eliminate the grind, you could at least automate it. Here the player manually needs to do so, which can create a very frustrating experience.

The game is such a tease.

The grind is horrific; I spent three hours playing it in one session, and didn't even get to a single sex scene or even get to see nudity. It takes forever to build a female's "reputation" up, and it is far too easy to lose it (ie you can maybe increase it by +1 or +2, EACH day, and need to get them to 50+ to get anything started).

I like the artwork and some of the gameplay, but I play porn games for porn... and if there is porn in this game, you can't access it legitimately, without cheating. Also, I tried the cheats, and it broke the game and still didn't let me access the sex scenes. Shame.

First of all tried playing without cheats, which gave me 1% progress of a girl per day... nope. tried cheats and still it has taken me 50 minutes and yet i havent gotten anywhere. for me so far, this game is grinding for an entire day with bugged conversations and short animations.

I've been playing this game for a while now, through a lot of versions and must say to like how things progress.
True it's not the best game out there, but it has it's own unique style and art, which for some might be a bit of fresh air.
Would love to give it 4 or 5 stars, but it does need more for that so can only be honest with an average rating.

Constructive criticism should be what any artist value the most, so here is a bit of mine:
1. The grind is long, but thank God for the cheat function Only concern with that is I might have missed some scenes or something by using it?
2. Would be nice to be able to recall already seen scenes, like a diary flashback function, as story scenes only happens once and can't be replayed without starting a new game.
3. It can be tricky to keep track of dates and since multiple dates can be booked for the same day it will lead to negative love for those you miss dates with. My suggestion is a warning box when someone ask for a date on a day already booked with another.
Again it's not a huge issue if using cheats, even without cheats it's a minor setback with more grinding to get the relationship back to max.
4. For this latest version I was able to use scroll-back wheel in a lot of cases, but not in all of them. This is a vast improvement, but would be cool to be able to scroll back in all cases, for example when giving a gift.. if it's the wrong one I have to reload the date (if remembering to save prior to it) and that's mildly annoying

Overall I'd have to say this game has come a long way since it started, there's been a lot of improvements and I'm looking forward to see it's future progression, so keep it up

For v19 of the game, I expected there to be a lot more sexual content. The art was not really my cup of tea either. However, at the end, the insane grind killed it for me – I cannot imagine playing without cheats.

All you can do is kiss and go out with the girls . Only nudity i saw in this game was the bathroom scenes . The affection options suck you can kiss a girl give them items like sexy dress but You never see them wearing it

I like the overall theme the game is going for, giving you plenty of option and a freedom of movement, but like many games of this kind, it falls short on breaking up the monotony of such a game, due to its general lack of events. I mean, there are plenty events to be found and they are fine by themselves, even written quite good at places, but are still drowned out be the grind.

In terms of gameplay, its standard VN style. The game itself is extremely repetetive, you're constantly grinding the same things, either attributes, money or affection/kink. The good thing is that you at least have multiple options per thing you're grinding, at least you're not locked into sleeping everytime you want to recover energy, for example. On the other hand, you will find yourself doing the same thing over and over anyway, as you will just spam the interactions that raise affection/kink for a good part of the game, which takes any kind of potential out of the standard interactions and are just padding. Giving the same compliment for the tenth time just to earn 1 (out of 100) affection can't be described as especially good.
This is especially obvious because the game lacks unique options for special people. You can mostly do the same things with everyone, there are exception, like being able to eat or watch TV with your roommates, but they are few and far between.

The art is improving, as far as I can tell comparing the older with the newer drawings, but I'd still call it one of the weaker points of the game. I personally didn't have a problem with it, but you might. Backgrounds however are pretty solid and at times nicely done, adding cute details to otherwise mundane locations.

There is a decent amount of H-Content in this game, but it doesn't feel very good to unlock it. Most scenes are unlocked by going on a date and filling a success-meter by doing the right actions, which consist of the same few things you can do via location and make the dates into a thing you save before, try and error yourself through it and are done with it. They mostly don't add anything to the characters.
There are some hidden behind events, like watching porn with people, but they don't really "naturally" flow into each other. Other natural options, like having scenes with your roommates when you both are naked in the bathroom, being absent.
It's also really awkward how you can't really initiate any H-Scenes besides going on entire dates, especially when you receive text messages that are pretty much inviting you to do so.

The characters are okay, they are extremely clichee, of course, but that's par for the course of h-games. It's pretty obvious which things will lead you to advance with certain characters, but the spectrum is broad so far, especially if you include the sneak peek characters.

Otherwise, the game fails to deliver to alleviate any signs of it being a very, well "systemic", game. You push buttons to increase numbers and you're very aware of it, there is a lack of possibility to suspense your lack of disbelief, even for a little while.

In conclusion:
I think the game is okay, even though it sounds like I've criticized every aspect of it. It still a decent game, especially in comparison with the average game on this site.
The game is really hurt by not having the ability to play back h-scenes to you though.

I am usually not a fan outside of the linear visual novel type, but I gave Love & Sex a shot due to it's awesome character art.
I love it!
My only complaint is the length of time it does take to romance each girl. It sort of falls into the same cliches as most of these grindfest games fall into.

i love this game all kind of relationship good sex seen good story i like every ting of this game and i this is hard for w8 for next patch always. this game is what story i really like to play for a +18 game.

the reason i hate these "sandbox" games is because almost no one can make them.
navigation is absolutely terrible. you have to click all over the screen. want to talk someone ? well you cant just open talk menu and choose topics, no. you have to press talk and then choose the topic. every single time.
stupid calendar system. other games have somthing similar too, but its only a week that is on a loop. here if you miss something, thats it, gone. playing for 2 hours and all i got is one H scene, 1 peeping in the shower scene and thats it. the rest is grinding and talking to character.
because of the atrocious implementation of the sandbox crap, story makes zero sense. characters are totally fine to send dirty messages with some guy they met 2 hours ago.
some girl refuses to go out on a date but then acts like i cheated on her because i kissed another girl.
im too lazy to write about everything, and yes i say everything because every aspect of the gameplay is annoying.
ill keep shitting on these sandbox games because 90% of the time they are a clusterfuck, this one fighting for the top spot. why do you keep trying to implement such gameplay mechanics when you totally suck at it ?
writing is alright.

Pros:
- Good art work
- Various character personalty and appeal
- Storyline is on-point

Cons:
- Some actions repeat too much (like work to gain money) which is understandable at this stage, I think adding colleges/boss later on would helper

Total is ard 4 but I would give 5 star since not much similar games can reach this quality

This game will be a 5 star game, once it gets a little further along. The art is fantastic, Bree, Sasha and Samantha are adorable, hot and sexy at the same time. The progression system is great, and the game is intuitive enough. The dev is active, and progressing the game. Right now it feels unfinished, because it's still in development. Samantha for example is not completed, but the framework is there for a great game, and i don't doubt it will be soon.