Alright, this ones a difficult review. Theres much to be said of this game , so for whats its worth heres an early run of commentary.
The premise is fairly simple because its basically the bread and butter of every dystopian storyline. Government is ruled by oligarchs and everyday life resembles what it feels like to be a lower middle class person in a dickensian world that hates you. Oh, and in the middle of it all, you find an illegal sexbot.
The overarching story may be simple, but have to say that the writing is excellent for the most part. Many of the characters here are fairly well written, and even your bumbling protag is not an easy archetype. From the church priestbot to the crazy revolutionary, I repeatedly find myself stunned by the events provided, and every choice made seem to present actual dilemmas without coming across as too contrived.
Gameplay is sandbox. So many choices in fact, that its easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choices simply by exiting the main hub i.e. the house. Most of your actions will be to gain money, whether through stockbroking or a tireless thankless job, or as a simulation onlyfans streamer. You then use that money to customize your bot to fit your needs, ranging from entires limbs to cat features.
H gameplay is fairly solid. There are four positions with plenty of moving parts and slight animations. The girlbot's reactions are simple but at very least its reactive to your actions rather than being yet another meter bar to be filled. Big fan of H gameplay that allows the player freedom to pursue rather than simply watch.
Conclusion, and it pains me greatly...
...because I cant recommend it to a general audience. For all the praise I heap onto the game itself as a concept, actually playing it feels more like a trip to the dentist. Imagine having a shit job, shit life, coming home, booting up your H game and then landing onto a virtual life thats just as bad if not worse.
For starters, its yet another game where the payoff is ruined by the fact that youre allowed to fuck the girlbot from the very start, negating any sort of growth as you suffer through the repetitive grind. There are multiple customizable options, and contracts to give the sex some agency, but make no mistake: you'll be fucking that bot the same way regardless. The girlbot is a well written character, but because the fucking have already been initiated there's simply no carrot being dangled. You progress her story because theres just nothing else to do. Perhaps you may argue that intiating sex is a player choice, but there's just no reason not to do it. The protag is hardly incentivized to hold back, which I feel is missed opportuinity.
And secondly, this game needs, nay, absolutely requires a guide. Fair enough that your game has more storyline branches than an actual fucking tree, but theres just too many 'deadman walking' syndrome running about here. Its like those 90s Sierra adventure games where one early decision with little to no context can absolutely brick the game days later, or at very least make it highly unpleasant to suffer through when a bad end arrives. I appreciate that actions should have consequences, but a lot of the good choices presented always seem to require a leap of faith rather than a congruent assessment of the current situation.
And thirdly, this game is taking a lot of piss by introducing stockbroking and minigames as part of the grind to gain money. I'll say it again: no one plays a H game to simulate the shittiest portion of their real lives. We have real jobs, and do not need to suffer through a virtual one.
Its really frustrating, because the game itself absolutely has every potential to be among the better H games made, but much like its dystopian narrative, playing through it is dark, brown, unpleasant and synthetic. There's something to be said about the direction of the game, when much of the glowing reviews given are all about the H gameplay rather than the narrative, which ironically is seemingly what the devs are laser focused on. I will concede that the game is technically unfinished and a little spit and polish might just change my opinion but Id wager at least half a decade would go by before that happens.
But if youre dead on going to play this game despite my misgivings, here's a small hint. Just type 'iamacheater' into the in-game browser and save yourself a ton of grief. And like those 90s adventure games used to say: save early, save often.
