Note: I don't believe a complex opinion can be properly represented by a number but I do understand some people are impatient so I don't use the star system normally, my ratings are as follows. 1 don't recommend, 3 unsure please read review, 5 recommend
Okay so MIST is an overly used video game title, it's also this textbook male fantasy game where you are the only male left on earth and you have to be the glorious savior of the remaining female characters.
Honestly this game is annoying to me, it has lots of what like, like optional incest, harem shit, intrigue. But it pairs that with things I don't particularly like in porn games, mainly "gameplay", and repetitive dialogue.
Since I mentioned it and now need to explain myself lets talk about gameplay, and my problem with it. Okay so obviously I don't hate "
"gameplay" in general but I take issue with this idea that it should be the focus of the game specifically in porn games. I didn't boot this up with the thought "Oh I can't wait to get back to needless resource management the game" I had my dick in my hand and was ready to go. Luckily there are people like me who exist with more technical knowledge and skill and one of those nice people made a cheat mod, I didn't use it with reckless abandon I did try to keep to the games pacing as best I could but upon finishing the most recent version, 0.9 at the time of writing, I wish I hadn't.
What is the gameplay then? It's just resource management, that was not an exaggeration the moment to moment game play is to click through different backgrounds and interact with objects doing this costs stamina, occasionally you fight enemies this costs health and possibly stamina and also possibly ammo, later in the game you can cast spells but it curses you which is another resource, and you need to have enough food not to die. I wasn't a huge fan of the gameplay if I'm honest it's too simple to be engaging on it's own and too complex for a porn game so it ends up being more of a burden than anything else. Though to be fair I cheated and only had to manage resources for the first few hours until I found the cheat menu. Perhaps I would have found the gameplay more interesting on it's own had I not cheated, but I again I don't want interesting gameplay I want virtual titties. I will mention that the pacing of difficulty seemed apt for the game, it felt the game was growing with the player even if it didn't really effect me. Pacing, by the way is gonna come up a few times here so be for warned.
Story then, is it any good? Yeah actually the story is quite good, might be the games biggest strength, which also might be damning praise you don't know yet. It starts with the titular MIST that consumes all men except 1 who is spared this fate, you! Wonderful and cool you. You then save a nearby camper from a monstrous being presumably born of the mist and that jump starts the story. The mystery's start to slowly unravel as you try to survive and learn more about the mist. This story has the best pacing in a porn game I've ever played, even if you did cheat and didn't try to keep the pacing intentionally slow like I did the story will still stop you from progressing and builds itself up. It's genuinely intriguing and interesting, more so the further in you get. I said "best pacing in a porn game" just a second ago and I feel I should clarify that more, this stories pacing is unbeatable in the porn game space, it's on par with non-porn indie games I can't mention. There are a few lost idea's here and there but they're all small and forgettable one thing among many more I will praise this developer for is that they're focused.
Okay now we talk about characters, of which there are 6 in total. There is You, Robin, Mia, Lily, "THE EYE", and The villain. Not gonna spoil anything I swear. The characters are well written, each character has a unique voice and their own personality, Mia seems to be the favorite as there are more scenes with her than the other girls despite her showing up second. Mia also showcases one of the things I personally didn't like too much, something you might not have as much of an issue with. The game can be a bit too serious for my taste, Mia is the best example, not giving anything away but when she joins the harem she's kind of traumatized from her experience in the MIST to the point where she has panic attacks and it becomes a big part of her character and how she develops, and I liked her development but again, and I cannot make this more clear, I am here to masturbate, not deal with my new wife's tragic past.
Then there's the dialogue, holy tap dancing Christ is there way too much dialogue. You don't need dialogue walls to create a character, you don't need to repeat information the player already knows 20 times, if they didn't pick it up tough shit, it's Ren'py too they can scroll back. Most importantly you don't need the inner monologue to explain to the player how thePC is feeling the player should be able to figure it out if you lay out the PC's character well enough, you don't need to explain to the player how they should react when someone the PC's loves is in danger, they should understand perfectly well. Still the game lets all the characters develop very well, though I did feel they left Robin behind a bit, It's paced well, oh look that word again, hmmm.
What about the art, the porn bit's, the sex, the muff diving? The art is good IMO I think the girls should have more pronounced facial expressions during the deed but other than that the art is quality, even though it's 3D which I know some people aren't into. But now we need to get into the real meat and potatoes, my real visceral problem with this game. The gameplay's pacing is good, so is the stories and the characters but none of that is as important in a porn game than the pacing of the sex scenes. When they show up and how often you can repeat and expand on them trumps all else, and that's the one area where this game lacks, and it lacks hard. It takes forever to get to sex scenes and that's with me cheating and on the easier difficulty, I can't even imagine trying this on a harder one, you'd be lucky if you see a nipple by hour 5. The main issue is the game likes to get to points with each character and then not focus on the sex basically at all for hours and most of the gameplay is so void of any sexual content that you forget you're playing a porn game until you finally progress a little with someones story then all of a sudden SEX. There are points where it really feels like the developer just forgot what we're all here for. It gets better later and there is a gallery but even still ya get board of seeing the same scenes multiple times, at least change up the dialogue in the scenes. This is by far my biggest gripe with the game, I hate how long it takes between scenes and how much of the sex scenes seem to revolve around Mia as opposed to the 2 other fuckable characters, I would assume that's more of a patreon voting issue though.
In conclusion I'd say the game is almost too good for it's chosen genre, There is a lot of talent and hard work on screen. This game was made by a motivated individual whom I commend. I recommend the game despite my own gripes because I think it's a good game and should be played even if I think it isn't the best "porn" game I've ever played.
