Ren'Py - Mind Control [v0.13] [specialmind]

Review as of 0.13

So first I’ll address the first problem people seem to have and I somewhat have with the game. Unavoidable lesbian, there is unavoidable lesbian in the beginning. You don’t have to see it but it happens. It’s between the sister and another woman who is a bitch. It’s especially frustrating since the MC gets shafted a sex scene. So I understand the frustration in the fact that we as the player in control of someone with these abilities is unable to have any influence on how something happens.I would say it would be better if the dev slightly rewrites it with an option of “They get in a relationship and have sex.” and “They get in a relationship but don’t have sex yet.”option. I will say that the Dev somewhat saves it by giving us the choice to stop the next sex scene between the two which was a good call. As long as moving forward we have the option to completely cuntblock then that would be good and save the fact we couldn’t do anything before.

Also I don’t see the reason why we had to get Emilie to stop being interested in Rosie. She was absolutely no threat to us. In fact it would have been better since we could humiliate Emilie as we fuck the women she wants.

What I think would be one good for the Emilie slave route. Complete humiliation, I want to humiliate her for her audacity, I want her to watch us dominate Mia as Mia says stuff like “Oh god! You’re so great Mc!. Show that bitch Emilie how much of a loser she is!” Or something along those lines. Along with her resisting along the way like you showed some of. I don’t want her to become an obedient slave, that;s no fun . I want her to be a reluctant slave as she watches helplessly as we ruin her and show her who owns Mia.

Another thing I saw people upset about was the MC using his mind control to help his parents' marriage. The real problem was that you gave the player no choice in the matter of an obviously important choice. But I can see where it can go as we only used it on dad. Where he really wants to win her back but we come in and steal her anyways or he’s so desperate to get her back that he becomes a cuckold. So I see the vision. With the Mom we better be able to dominate that cheating whore and show her that that shit isn’t gonna fly with us. And show whatever type of fuckboy Evan is a terrible time.

I just hope the dev actually commits if they’re gonna do a dom path. A lot of devs half ass it.

The game mechanics I actually really like, I think it’s actually well implemented. The rolls seem kinda pointless though with the fact you can just rollback but it’s no different from just being able to save scum so it’s fine I wouldn’t worry about it.

The biggest mistake the Dev made in my opinion really is the fact he created situations where we the player had no choice in some actually important moments and they shouldn’t do that moving forward.

I’ll give this game a weak 3 out of 5 mainly for potential alone and I may change it depending on how the game progresses. There’s potential but it had some egregious decisions.

Good game, with interesting interaction and personalized character progression. It would be good that there could be more interaction with other characters, including (at the choice of the player) incestuous relationships (with the sister and/or the mother) but perhaps it is planned for the Continuation of the scenario? I look forward.

Loved it; the characters seem real (for a game and such short interactions) if horny, which is rather expected on a +18 game. It has some of the best 3D art I saw in an indie porn game, good deal of scenes despite being an Alpha 0,13 built at the time of this review, doesn't run you into a wall with sudden "This will come later" message, nor does limit you in choices due to in game restriction that aren't justified by the story. The MC is a blank enough for you to mold to your own preferences, and the personality and level system affecting your possible interactions and choices, at least to me, worked out great. The game is easy to understand, mechanically, and you see the result of your actions in either stats updating or choices and story changing.
Most of the real Mind Control is probably yet to come, but you do get a taste and can try a few things, depending on how you play.

I recommend it if you don't mind actual story progression rather than just dropping the porn in your lap. Even at 0,13 you would had to play several times to take all paths, and you might not want to attempt everything, depending on your interested.

Looking forward to more.

To be honest I didn't expect much from game with such generic name and mediocre models. Therefore I was positively surprised, how much I enjoyed it. While plot is rather barebones (you get mental powers, have fun in Highschool) story and characters are enjoyable. I was impressed with many ways you could deal with any given scenario. Maybe no true branching story, but impressive nonetheless.

The game is pretty meh, with a protagonist who doesn't stand out much, abrupt story changes, and forced plotlines, like that whole NTR thing and relationships that seem shoehorned in. It would have been better if it focused on how the main character uses their powers more interestingly instead of throwing in forced plot twists.

Long first release, good renders and some good idea. It isn't like other mind control games. Usually, at least for now, girls don't become robots or zombie. They have still some control over their action

Mind Control 0.1 and 0.12

There is a lot of content in 0.1. It's amazing, really. I'm tired of developers who have extremely short releases.

This game's point system makes the game interesting. Choices affect points. You get three points at the beginning of the game that you can distribute and you get an extra point at the beginning of other parts of the game. Your decisions can be simple as have sex or don't have sex. But I noticed one time that if I did not cum, I had an erection the next morning. But if I did cum, I was soft in the morning. And it is possible the choices have bigger effects on the game than that, but I am not sure.

Tip: Even if a choice has a low percent chance of being allowed because of your stats, you can keep going back and trying again and the choice will eventually be allowed.
Tip: Maybe don't spend any points on Authority because you can get free Authority up to 100% at the movie theater if you keep doing a certain choice over and over.

The renders are good. Not grainy looking. The character models are good. I like how the characters look a bit diverse. The long haired MC, the ginger head friend who has a crush on his sister, the slim and beautiful sister, the slightly attractive big titty female who has a crush on MC and is a tiny bit chubby, the cute but overly slutty two hair bun girl, etc.

The developer did a good job with the poses. The characters look very genuine with their body and facial expressions.

There is music and good sound effects like the shower running.

The English isn't so good, but it's not horrible. There are mistakes where the gender pronoun is wrong. Sometimes you see him/his when it should be her/hers. And the translations aren't great. But it's not horrible and is still readable.

[FEEDBACK] It would be better if custom names for family and classmates are saved permanently in another location in the game. That way if we rollback to the beginning of the game and change our Initial Stats, we won't have to rename everyone again.

Normally I avoid "school setting" games but this is a very promising start.

The "MC finds he has special powers" idea is nothing special but the way the characters react to discovering this is well handled. And the insights into characters' private thoughts is excellent.

The devs do need to find a native English speaker to help with the translation, especially with mistranslated grammatical gender.

But I wish this game every success and look forward to future updates.

Another game with beautiful graphics, but with a regrettable story, the MC has powers... great, but he uses them to give others an advantage, just another story where the MC is a dumb idiot who no one respects.

This could easily be presented with a revenge game or as a game where the central point is how corrupt the MC becomes thanks to power, but no, basically with or without powers the MC is a pathetic submissive... but HEY it is Avoidable (of course).

Wonderful game! I think all the scenes are really hot and the story is interesting. I wish you could choose to sway mum and dad away from a relationship but maybe you can do that later. Having the option to cheat stats if you wanted would also be nice or a mode to turn off stats. Love the game though and looking forward to further releases.

Very realistic handling of an unrealistic situation, that is many young men's dream. Dialog is very believable, which increases immersion, and if mind control has any kind of appeal, the immersion also increases fappability. The characters are well made, with villains you really love to hate, and damsels in distress made to drive the plot towards use of the powers. Sure, there'll be people who isn't interested in a religious girl-next-door type, and who wouldn't see her as worth corrupting, but others will be forced by their conscience, to corrupt her for her own good.

[v0.1]

I normally don't rate v0.1 games, but this one has enough content to warrant a rating.

The story is apparently intentionally made very simple: teenager starts hearing nearby people's thoughts and discovers he can also telephatically give them orders, which they will follow almost unconditionally (there appears to be personality/mind issues if an order is given, which the person would be totally against).

Total cliche, a clear cut powerfantasy harem game, but the important part, as always in such games, is execution, which in this case is excellent. At least so far.

The MC in this case is NOT an idiot and NOT a wet blanket, which two things are major turnoffs in a lot of power fantasy games.

MC has stats 2 major stats (domination/submission and "cleanness"/"lewdness"), which can be pretty maxed out by the end of the play. He also has minor stats of virility and stamina which seem to be quite OK with default values for the playthrough.

However, the major stats mostly don't seem to hard lock your options, they just give you % chance to make a choice, so if you have let's say only 25% domination, your options to choose some dominant option work, but with only ~25% chance.

On one hand it is superflous, as you can rollback and try the choice again, until you succeed. On the other hand, it turned out for me that I kinda like it much better than the hard locking of paths usually seen in such cases.

So, you can still mostly do whatever you want, you just have to spend some time to do it, if it's uncharacteristic for you. Weird, but actually works well for me. Better than having to replay whole paths from start in order to unlock a particular option.

So. Ratings:

Plot and Personalities: 5/5 -- very cliche, but very believable. Normal teenagers, different families, normal people in normal settings. European (apparently French) high school, where pot and alcohol is not some huge issue, is a welcome change from the American sitcom-style high schools portrayed in AVNs so often.

Dialogues: 5/5 -- YES. I know there are LOADS of spelling errors. Especially grating are the frequent mistyping of "he" vs "she", as well as some directly translated words from French that simply don't make sense in English. Nevertheless, it's made OK for me by the actual things being said. Again decently normal teenage/family dialogues. Very believable, especially when you can hear the thoughts. There might be needed some suspension of disbelief on the ease with which characters reveal their sexuality (MC's sister and her new-to-be gf), but that is addressed sort of OK, imo. Definitely better than a vast majority of games here.

Models, Renders & Graphics: 5/5 -- Good renders, lighting and backgrounds.

I like the fact that there are different bodytypes; that MC's first LI is not a thin supermodel, but a very attractive just exactly right level of plumpness girl with slightly wide hips and large (but not comical) breasts. One of the others *is* a rather thin girl with small breasts. Etc.

A special note and bonus stars for MC. Starting from the fact that he looks OK, not a creep and not a supermodel, and main thing -- HE HAS NORMAL SIZE DICK. Thank goodness for an adult game at last.

Maledom: 3,5/5 -- as it is of interest to me, I always put in a rating. So, currently you can be rather dominant, and actually sort of enslave people sometimes (up to the point of last 0.1 scenes, where you can directly tell somebody to be your slave).
It is tempered by MC's attitudes towards the people in question, he is not at the moment trying to make everybody his toy. As well as he does these things mostly on the go, and has no good scheme for correct orders for everybody. It is also somewhat inconsistent in that he can be harder on somebody he knows well, vs can't imprint his will on a stranger (eg. Joyce).
Nevertheless, there are decent options, and while the achieved domination is not very much expressed now, it looks something that can definitely be expected in future releases.

All in all a very promising start. I wish luck to the devs, bring it on. Perhaps in the next version the MC will be used to his power enough so that he starts to actually think what he wants to achieve with it.

Minor gripe: The stat values are in white, and can't be seen when the scene has a light background.

A lot of errors in the writing and below average renders.

The story isn't too original and quickly becomes tiresome. Main character is generally unlikeable and looks like a creepier George McFly.

Even suspending disbelief with it being a super-powered porn story, it gets into eyeroll territory with how horny everyone is.

I'll give it another look in the future. For now it is in the reject pile.

This is the best game in a long time! The character, the story, the sex scenes, the art style. All of that is 5/5. I am looking forward to seeing where this is going. It's definitely my favorite game atm. Really good scripting as well.

The system of how those stats affect what you choose is unique, and it makes the importance of stats more immersive. It gives me a D&D feeling,.

The characters are attractive in a realistic way, and that makes the game so much more believable and appealing.

The flaw of the story is great because it kind of makes sense of things unfolding even tho the situation usually does not happen; it still feels like it could happen.

The only thing that I whis was better is the way MC looks. He looks very unpleasant.

The potential for this game is insane, it just needs some heavy polish. The translations are really poor, especially for the UI. Also, I think it might be better if the stats were just either for flavor, such as personalizing how you want to play. Since it's just a random % chance of working right now it just means you have to scroll forward and back until you get the outcome you want. If it was personalized I think it would be a lot better. For example, more points into being dominant opens up options towards being dominant that would otherwise be greyed out. I think that would work better. Also I think there needs to be some better information to the player. Sometimes choices were greyed out. Why were they greyed out? Some options seem to be an instant fail state that skips the scene but others seem to progress the scene. For example, with Rosie in the movie theatre, you can just straight up whip your dick out and she denies you, but if you finger her she's ok with it. Why did one work but not the other? That information needs to be clear so we can pick the choices we want to pick. Other than that what's here is very good so far and I'm glad it's a proper VN and not an annoying sandbox. Keep up the good work.

I don't know anyone who hasn't at one point fantasized about making the object of their affection return their lust and/or affections, if only for a little while. That conceit alone is enough to sell tickets, put asses in seats and keep the lights on.

But at the end of the day/game, it's the execution that matters most. To the Dev's credit, we (via the MC) learn the rules of our newfound powers rather quickly. While I can accept the downsides that come along with said powers, on too may occasions that weakness turns up when we need our powers. Once we learn of our powers limitations, it's overkill to purposely steer us into a narrative corner just to move the proverbial plot train to the next station...

I also have a problem with the illusion of choice. The Dev knows who and what we're going to want use our powers on, and to his or her credit there is a good variety. But it's merely window shopping, as we don't really get to choose.

That said, the MC is a total perve yet gets weirded out about his sister's budding sexual curiosity about him. The Mom is presented as needy and in a bad relationship situation but nothing can be done and no choices are offered. Yes it's the first release, but just like our powers, we need to establish rules and at least get some hints as to the possibilities.

In summation, I feel manipulated. We're literally slaves to the narrative, only able to do what is necessary to move the plot forward as written, and not as we'd have chosen. Case and point, there's a girl who we use our powers on for sexual favors. But dig this, we can only get an hj out of it. Did the rules change and I miss the memo? Did I need to recharge first, recite the green Lantern oath?

Speaking of GL, this would be oh so much better with a little more imagination. The sky should be the limit, we should be getting busy with the mean girls, the head cheerleader that thought we weren't good enough or the hot MILF of a friend. We should certainly NOT be reduced to mind pushing Lesbians --okay, that was fun.

A fun but somewhat frustrating start to this one. Oh, what could have been... yes, I'm looking at you weird roulette wheel response options.