Updated review for Mystery of Provenance v0.0.7.a:
This update includes another new lewd scene which, like the scenes in 0.0.6a are better than the older scenes. The grind is still too much and the quest/hint system still needs some work. I have two open quests that I have no idea how to complete. One says you can see Maria in the hallway on weekends, but it never seems to progress. The other says to call Vivienne, but there's no way to make a call. I'm bumping up the rating because I think the quality of the content has improved enough.
Updated review for Mystery of Provenance v0.0.6a:
I was really hoping that I could update my rating after 7 months and 2 updates. Unfortunately, there's been only a small amount of content added and a few minor bug fixes since my previous review of v0.0.4a. The biggest change is the new splash screen that basically tries to guilt players into believing that since they got the game for free, they should keep all negative feedback private.
The story has progressed a little and for anyone really paying attention, it is giving hints at the MC's role in the story while intentionally hiding details. I believe that's a good thing, but this is really where the game should've been for its first public release. The new handjob scene with Petra is well done and is now the best scene in the game.
I didn't replay to see if previous bugs were fixed, and I only noticed a couple of minor new bugs where dialogue was attributed to the wrong character and some text on the quest/stat/info screens refer to the MC as "Mark" even if the player changed the MC's name.
Review for Mystery of Provenance v0.0.4.a:
Overall: 2.5/5 - The game has too much effort put into making a gaming experience with management aspects, but without making things logical or enjoyable from either a strategic or adult content perspective as the game evolves, and currently, the effort is not worth the reward. Hopefully, the mechanics will get ironed out so updates can focus on content. The dev is actively responding to feedback, so expect the game to improve.
Story: 3.5/5 - There is an overarching story about a different race of "people" called Simics from another planet that have been living on this alternate Earth for millenia, but there's not much emphasis on this part of the story, yet. Hopefully, it will tie into the game's title somehow because, so far, there's no correlation between the game content and the game title.
Writing: 2/5 - While the writing is mostly technically correct, the English is frequently awkward and all of the dialogue feels like it was written by an adolescent. It's sometimes painful and cringy to read.
Renders: 3.5/5 - The renders are average to above average. They're not really outstanding in any way like resolution, aesthetics, etc. However, the female models are pretty and recognizable from other games. The model for the MC is somewhat ugly and also recognizable from other games.
Animations: 3/5 - Animations are infrequent and the quality is average, but the resolution seems to be much lower than the renders. Animations are somewhat unnatural, but it's not too distracting.
Content: 2/5 - The content and especially the lewd content is lacking, but that's typical of sandboxes where there's more effort being put into "gaming". The lewd content currently consists of a very small amount of peeping on the MC's roommate and a few scenes with a prostitute who is also a love-interest. The game is missing the [prostitution] tag. The lewd scenes are short and none of them are very erotic.
Gameplay: 2/5 - This game is a grind-fest with poor resource-management mechanics and counter-intuitive logic, all wrapped up in a mediocre sandbox.
Bugs: 4/5 - I encountered only a couple of minor bugs, all related to time.
Other weird things:
This update includes another new lewd scene which, like the scenes in 0.0.6a are better than the older scenes. The grind is still too much and the quest/hint system still needs some work. I have two open quests that I have no idea how to complete. One says you can see Maria in the hallway on weekends, but it never seems to progress. The other says to call Vivienne, but there's no way to make a call. I'm bumping up the rating because I think the quality of the content has improved enough.
Updated review for Mystery of Provenance v0.0.6a:
I was really hoping that I could update my rating after 7 months and 2 updates. Unfortunately, there's been only a small amount of content added and a few minor bug fixes since my previous review of v0.0.4a. The biggest change is the new splash screen that basically tries to guilt players into believing that since they got the game for free, they should keep all negative feedback private.
The story has progressed a little and for anyone really paying attention, it is giving hints at the MC's role in the story while intentionally hiding details. I believe that's a good thing, but this is really where the game should've been for its first public release. The new handjob scene with Petra is well done and is now the best scene in the game.
I didn't replay to see if previous bugs were fixed, and I only noticed a couple of minor new bugs where dialogue was attributed to the wrong character and some text on the quest/stat/info screens refer to the MC as "Mark" even if the player changed the MC's name.
Review for Mystery of Provenance v0.0.4.a:
Overall: 2.5/5 - The game has too much effort put into making a gaming experience with management aspects, but without making things logical or enjoyable from either a strategic or adult content perspective as the game evolves, and currently, the effort is not worth the reward. Hopefully, the mechanics will get ironed out so updates can focus on content. The dev is actively responding to feedback, so expect the game to improve.
Story: 3.5/5 - There is an overarching story about a different race of "people" called Simics from another planet that have been living on this alternate Earth for millenia, but there's not much emphasis on this part of the story, yet. Hopefully, it will tie into the game's title somehow because, so far, there's no correlation between the game content and the game title.
Writing: 2/5 - While the writing is mostly technically correct, the English is frequently awkward and all of the dialogue feels like it was written by an adolescent. It's sometimes painful and cringy to read.
Renders: 3.5/5 - The renders are average to above average. They're not really outstanding in any way like resolution, aesthetics, etc. However, the female models are pretty and recognizable from other games. The model for the MC is somewhat ugly and also recognizable from other games.
Animations: 3/5 - Animations are infrequent and the quality is average, but the resolution seems to be much lower than the renders. Animations are somewhat unnatural, but it's not too distracting.
Content: 2/5 - The content and especially the lewd content is lacking, but that's typical of sandboxes where there's more effort being put into "gaming". The lewd content currently consists of a very small amount of peeping on the MC's roommate and a few scenes with a prostitute who is also a love-interest. The game is missing the [prostitution] tag. The lewd scenes are short and none of them are very erotic.
Gameplay: 2/5 - This game is a grind-fest with poor resource-management mechanics and counter-intuitive logic, all wrapped up in a mediocre sandbox.
- The sandbox implementation has navigation icons for the interior map and avatars to show which location NPC are in, but that feature is partially broken because some navigation icons don't appear until the player clicks on another icon. E.g., if an NPC is in the kitchen, you can tell, but an NPC is in the dining room, you can't tell unless you click on the kitchen first.
- The sandbox is boring because it's empty with nothing to do almost all of the time.
- The conversation/activity menus need work. They mostly appear at the bottom-right near the navigation icons where space is limited and they aren't very visible. It would be much more intuitive if players could interact with NPCs by clicking on the NPC, in the same way players can click on the bed, TV, and computer to interact with them. There are other times during an event where the choices are centered on the screen, but there are also a lot of choice screens where only one choice exists, which is pointless.
- The grind is contrived through broken mechanics. So many things can only happen one day per week (this is probably the worst issue). Losing and restoring energy is very unbalanced in the way sleeping, resting, working, bathing, eating, watching TV, and just waiting work. The MC can't receive packages while he's working, even when packages are left on the doorstep. Online stores are closed on weekends. The MC works from home, but his very specific working hours and the specific length of his work shift are designed to force grind.
- The user interface is mostly good. It could use a little optimization with navigation and viewing stats of the love-interests and a few other things to reduce the number of clicks for those common actions. The UI displays messages that relationship/mood points are increasing even when they have stopped increasing because they have reached a temporary limit unknown to the user. Lots of UI features still say, "under construction", so the UI may improve.
- Unrelated quests have dependencies that force progression to be more linear, which undermines the sandbox.
- The hint system needs work. There are times when the game hints tell the player to continue do things that only have negative outcomes without any reason for it. E.g., asking Petra about the letter or teasing Petra. There are times when the hint says something vague like "after a while" or "maybe something will happen", but players can grind away for many in-game days and nothing happens either because there's an unknown counter or, more likely, an unknown and unnecessary dependency on another quest. Sometimes, hints just change without alerting the player, again, due to an unknown counter or dependency.
- The game encourages the player to make a choice that causes a hard game-over with no way to recover if the player doesn't have an older save.
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Bugs: 4/5 - I encountered only a couple of minor bugs, all related to time.
- Petra comes over for coffee at 12:00 and leaves at 13:00 but the game won't let MC work another shift after she leaves, even though it normally will let MC start working from 13:00 - 15:00.
- If the MC starts working before noon, a 3-hour shift actually takes 5 hours and a 6-hour shift actually takes 8 hours, but if he starts working after noon, shifts take the correct amount of time.
- After some of Vivien's events, time doesn't advance, but after she leaves, the next action by the MC will advance time by 3 hours instead of 1 hour.
Other weird things:
- The MC's first thought when he gets horny but has no money is to hire a prostitute instead of simply... masturbating.
- MC is a 22-year-old man that has had sex only once in his life, he's so horny that he hires a prostitute, but when he meets her, he can't get an erection.
- All sex with the prostitute is unprotected. Are there no communicable diseases in this alternate Earth?
- The prostitute says she's developing feelings for the MC during their 3rd meeting. Isn't that what all prostitutes say to their clients to keep them coming back for more.
