Do androids dream of eternal grind?
Version reviewed: 0.2.2
I don't imagine they do. And neither do I. So this is definitely not a dream game for me, but how good or bad is it really? Let's find out.
The setting.
The game is set in an utopia where all the problems are solved because everyone is happy, by being drugged with a mysterious pill. This is very similar to Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" utopia where everyone had to rely on the same drug to keep the society going - Soma. Otherwise both Huxley's world and this world turns into a dystopia instantly. Which happens in this case for one man, who is obviously brought to the brink of crippling depression by just refusing the drug.
The plot.
The plot of the game is in the description. The main character has a bucket list: buy an android maid and fuck it. Simple as that. And this all happens in first 10 minutes of the gameplay, in what could be considered a tutorial or intro. What next? Well, the main character draws a pistol and shoots himself in the head, but is saved by his maid. And the hero of the story is left to live his miserable without the saving drug life while being on the brink of depression and suicide.
The gameplay.
And oh man is his life miserable. The job he has is so simple it could be solved with a tiny microcontroller, which in a world filled with human-like robots should not be unheard of. And this man is placed to grind this stupid action for hours, producing nothing of value to society and waiting for someone to realise how useless this job is and replacing it with said microcontroller. So the player is left with grinding this mind numbing activity all day, every day, for the main character to get enough money to not starve.
The player has to measure 2 gauges, which are the energy of the character, raised by sleeping and lowered by working, and saturation, raised by eating and lowered by simply existing. And also the unseen third gauge which is the player's own sanity, raised by doing something we like and lowered by playing this game.
The entire progression is stated as following: "Wait for MAID_NAME to request something from you". And this can take days, this can take weeks. Every day the player has to work a mind numbing shift, buy some food to not to starve, go home to meet the maid, talk to her and hope she has something to request from the MC. In any case, MC goes to bed and the same thing happens on the next day.
So what if, what if this does change? Then what? The player gets a quest which looks like: "Buy module N for over9000 coins you grinded so far and enjoy at best another sex scene, and at worst nothing." The game intentionally stalemates the progression behind the artificially created time constraints, forcing the player to spend more and more time doing same goddamn action.
The art.
What is this all for?
6 scenes. 3 with the maid, 3 with the shopkeeper. Which are not bad, but also not really great either. The player can chose between faster or slower loop playback, but it is only one angle and one action each scene, and the angle is not really the best possible. The art is not bad, but it is what is currently a lower end of "acceptable" in the industry. And considering the underwhelming quantity, it is not carrying out the rest of the game.
The summary.
Current content took me 65 days to unlock, with infinite money, which I obviously cheated in by editing my save because I value my sanity over the mastery in a simplistic game. 65 days is over 2 ingame months, during which almost nothing happened with the main character. Ah yeah, he tried to end his life twice during this period. Rookie numbers, if it was me, I would be more decisive.
The gameplay simply sucks. I hate every part of it - the grind, the intentionally stupidly simple minigame, the gauges I need to manage as if it was some kind of a Sims game, having absolutely nothing to do outside working and buying supplies and waiting, waiting for something to happen.
The art is average and does not carry anything else.
Currently, the game has a nice idea, but it looks like the author didn't really plan to get further than the intro, at least the game looks like that. There is not much to play the game for currently. There really isn't.
I really hope the game will improve in the future, but as of now, it is just poor - 2/5. I am supposed to review the current state of the game, which does not allow me to imagine how the game could develop and drag the points from future into my current review. As for now, great idea, but poor execution, in every aspect. I do not recommend this game in its current state, maybe give it 2-3 years and stuff will change for the better.
Version reviewed: 0.2.2
I don't imagine they do. And neither do I. So this is definitely not a dream game for me, but how good or bad is it really? Let's find out.
The setting.
The game is set in an utopia where all the problems are solved because everyone is happy, by being drugged with a mysterious pill. This is very similar to Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" utopia where everyone had to rely on the same drug to keep the society going - Soma. Otherwise both Huxley's world and this world turns into a dystopia instantly. Which happens in this case for one man, who is obviously brought to the brink of crippling depression by just refusing the drug.
The plot.
The plot of the game is in the description. The main character has a bucket list: buy an android maid and fuck it. Simple as that. And this all happens in first 10 minutes of the gameplay, in what could be considered a tutorial or intro. What next? Well, the main character draws a pistol and shoots himself in the head, but is saved by his maid. And the hero of the story is left to live his miserable without the saving drug life while being on the brink of depression and suicide.
The gameplay.
And oh man is his life miserable. The job he has is so simple it could be solved with a tiny microcontroller, which in a world filled with human-like robots should not be unheard of. And this man is placed to grind this stupid action for hours, producing nothing of value to society and waiting for someone to realise how useless this job is and replacing it with said microcontroller. So the player is left with grinding this mind numbing activity all day, every day, for the main character to get enough money to not starve.
The player has to measure 2 gauges, which are the energy of the character, raised by sleeping and lowered by working, and saturation, raised by eating and lowered by simply existing. And also the unseen third gauge which is the player's own sanity, raised by doing something we like and lowered by playing this game.
The entire progression is stated as following: "Wait for MAID_NAME to request something from you". And this can take days, this can take weeks. Every day the player has to work a mind numbing shift, buy some food to not to starve, go home to meet the maid, talk to her and hope she has something to request from the MC. In any case, MC goes to bed and the same thing happens on the next day.
- Vaas, Far Cry 3.
So what if, what if this does change? Then what? The player gets a quest which looks like: "Buy module N for over9000 coins you grinded so far and enjoy at best another sex scene, and at worst nothing." The game intentionally stalemates the progression behind the artificially created time constraints, forcing the player to spend more and more time doing same goddamn action.
The art.
What is this all for?
6 scenes. 3 with the maid, 3 with the shopkeeper. Which are not bad, but also not really great either. The player can chose between faster or slower loop playback, but it is only one angle and one action each scene, and the angle is not really the best possible. The art is not bad, but it is what is currently a lower end of "acceptable" in the industry. And considering the underwhelming quantity, it is not carrying out the rest of the game.
The summary.
Current content took me 65 days to unlock, with infinite money, which I obviously cheated in by editing my save because I value my sanity over the mastery in a simplistic game. 65 days is over 2 ingame months, during which almost nothing happened with the main character. Ah yeah, he tried to end his life twice during this period. Rookie numbers, if it was me, I would be more decisive.
The gameplay simply sucks. I hate every part of it - the grind, the intentionally stupidly simple minigame, the gauges I need to manage as if it was some kind of a Sims game, having absolutely nothing to do outside working and buying supplies and waiting, waiting for something to happen.
The art is average and does not carry anything else.
Currently, the game has a nice idea, but it looks like the author didn't really plan to get further than the intro, at least the game looks like that. There is not much to play the game for currently. There really isn't.
I really hope the game will improve in the future, but as of now, it is just poor - 2/5. I am supposed to review the current state of the game, which does not allow me to imagine how the game could develop and drag the points from future into my current review. As for now, great idea, but poor execution, in every aspect. I do not recommend this game in its current state, maybe give it 2-3 years and stuff will change for the better.
