Ok so I decided to give the 1.0 update a play just because why the heck not? I wanted to see how it all rounded out. & TBH, I was actually surprised. Before I go into that, I just want to say something briefly about Exactly how NTR is applied in most of these games which I think not only illuminates a lot about most of this game, but about the genre & the community as a whole.
Think of the stories or even the sex in them like a meal. Maybe a thick juicy steak. Kinks are like the seasonings we use to flavor them. For example, I like to cook my steaks in coconut oil with some caramlized onions, garlic & some select seasoning salts & spices. You get the gist of it right? So, just like with any kink, NTR, when used appropriately & in the right amounts can greatly enhance a meal, even for those of us that don't particularly enjoy the kink. Let's look at Lessons of Passion as an example, (please hold your groans). Let's look at living with temptation 2 as a good example. Based on the decisions the MC makes, the wife might or might not cheat on him. In the scene where she cheats, the MC is watching it on a security camera live feed. Now the choices he's made up until that point will affect how he can respond to that which can lead to endings varying from MC being completely crushed, losing everything & his life ending in ruin or him recording the affair, lawyering up & springing a divorce on the wife with the affair as grounds for him to take everything, replacing the wife with the cute redhead nanny & leave the wife a washed up has been. The reason why it works in games like that is because it's a consequence of choices made & variety on how it will play out in the end. In Living with Serena, there's 2 to 3 potential NTR events that again, could leave the MC alone & crushed, or moving on to better partners, or even his cheating partner coming back wanting him back but ultimately getting basically friend zoned. For all their faults, they do have this thing down right. & that's because they season it into the bigger meal with more broad variety to what the final product will be depending on how it interplays with the rest of the ingredients. It's like adding the right amount of hot peppers to the skillet with the onions & garlic when cooking the meat.
In contrast, how NTR is USUALLY approached my most creators, & what most of the NTR fan base seems to clamor for is the same tired old cliche's of "microdick beta cuck husband & hot wife are happy & in love, in enters mega donged antagonist, (usually black because raceplay is highly utilized in this "genre"), Antag pursues wife whom fends off his advances at first, but slowly, (or quickly), succumbs to temptation because they live in a world where the concept doesn't exist of "Just because something turns me on or I have a physical response to it doesn't mean I actually want it as much or more than the consequences that come with it, let alone the pain I'd cause the people I love". I mean let's be real a second fellas, let's presume you have a wife that you are head over heels in love with & you'd do anything for, you'd even take a bullet for her, you love her that much. Now imagine you're out to lunch with her & the waitress is a gorgeous knockout with a perfect body. We all know that grabbing that waitress & fucking her right then & there would get you hard & make you cum like crazy right? So do you just conclude "Oh, I guess that's who I really am then. A psycho that just loves raping any attractive woman that I can get my hands on & this whole marriage & love for my wife I thought I felt was just a lie I was living. durr". No, obviously not because that's fucking retarded. You might note the hot waitress for the fap bank, maybe even talk with your wife about trying to seduce the waitress & inviting her over for fun if you're poly & she likes girls too, but for most of us, just the guilt & shame of knowing that we hurt someone we love that way is enough for most of us to say "No thanks, hard pass on that", & that's not even to mention the other consequences that come with it, (loss of marriage, jail time, you get the point). But in these "NTR" games, the mentality is, "My body feels this so muh brain must be dum liar & muh body sez troof". So then wife eventually cheats, loses any moral compass or personality she had & just becomes a sex starved cock sleeve, MC is left empty and sad, the end". Wash, rinse, repeat YAWN. It's the same damn thing over & over & over & over & over & over again.
& it's not just that it's overdone, it's that it's lazy, paint by numbers & really has nothing to offer except the kink itself. In short, the way NTR games are made, it's not like a steak seasoned with salt, it's like a meal made entirely of salt. No one wants to eat a plate of just salt. It's gross & inedible. & THAT is a large part of why NTR gets such a bad rap. Sure, some anti NTR people have fragile egos & say "I can't handle my widdle feewings being cwushed by other dicks", Fine fuck them, but for most that aren't into what yall call "NTR", when they see the NTR tag, they don't think "Salt seasoned steak", they think "plate full of salt, PASS!"
So Maybe if more creators used NTR properly as a means to enhance the story with more variety of if it will or rwon't happen & what the outcome would be instead of trying to use it as a replacement FOR the story, people might be more willing to give games with NTR a chance. Ok rant over.
So While I still stand by my criticisms of this game, I do have to give credit where credit is due. The creator did at least write endings for 2 of the 3 endings, (the "good" wife path just abruptly ends, so kinda lazy on that one), but they did add one last chance to back out when Karen breaks it off with Jason & the ending for that is more of a swinging / maybe polifidelity arrangement between her, Eric & one of the side characters. I was actually pleasantly surprised by this. THAT is a good example of how ethical non-monogamy is SUPPOSED to work, (or at least as close as we can expect from a game like this). Karen get's her needs met while still being decent & ethical to her husband, being open & honest with him & giving him some say & involvement in the matter. I have to give them credit in including that reasonably ethical & decent poly ending, so major kudos to the creator on that.