Ok so this is my second full on review of a VN, I'll post this on the discussions thread aswell. So I'll start off by reviewing the overall experience then dive into the story. This review is as of Chapter 6c
First of all I want to briefely talk about Zoey Raven who's the dev of this game. Before I tried this game I already knew Zoey from their various walkthrough mods of a lot of the games on this site, and they're without a doubt the fastest modder out there to the point where most of the time a walkthrough by Zoey is often up before the compressed version. And since a few devs are a little detached from this site or are not that active here, I was intrigued as to what a game by a modder would be like, especially one as active in the community as Zoey is.
And speaking of the Dev, I want to start by talking about the most impressive thing about this game, which is the
Development/content. Let me preface this by saying that
Zoey is absolutely INSANE. While I'd say from experience that most games update bimonthly with an average render count of 400 renders per update which at times can be filler garbage, this game gets updated almost every single month without fail, with an insane average render count which is about 1500 renders per update, which can never be filler given the story of this game which I'll touch on later. Seriously though, this game i barely 8 months old and it has over 8200 renders (adding up changelog counts), take a break Zoey goddamn .
So as for the
experience of the game. The game is quite smooth, it runs without any real problems, the gui is clean and I like the font but I would've liked to atleast had the option of having a text box as some of the text is hard to read when the background is bright, I am aware that there's a "Text box visibiity" option in the settings but it doesn't seem to change anything. Also the main menu background render is quite blurry compared to every other render in the game. And speaking of
renders, they are quite good, they are pretty smoot and they aren't blurry or pixilated, I can tell that the dev did the best they can with their rig, which is impressive given how much and how fast this game updates.
Dialogue. The dialogue through out that majority of the game is quite good, it's easy to read and not too wordy or irrelevant, and I love the MC and Lydia's banter, and I find the excessivness of movie references hillarious . However, I am not a big fan of the dialogue during sex scenes, as most of it is internal dialogue of the girl describing every move she makes during the scene instead of talking with the MC. Which leads me to another issue with the game which is the
animations. I don't have a major problem with the animations but they look a little off, and the viewing angles of the sex scenes are strange and not that good if I'm honest. And the final point when it comes to overall gameplay is
music. I like music, I like it a lot. I feel like music inhances any experience so this game automatically gets points for that, but I felt like some tracks didn't fit well with the scene. An example of that would be the track playing in the pawn shop during the MC and Becky's scene. The track is great and I love it, but didn't reallt fit that scene imo, and I'd like to see more variety but that's just me
Now onto the bread and butter of this game, which is
the plot and that's where this game really excels. This is a very emotional plot, I can tell that it means a lot to the dev and writing it was probably emotionally taxing for them, which paid of big time because this plot is incredibely unique ad is impeccable so far. From the very first chapter you have a clear understanding of the situation and what the end goal is without being unnecessarily cryptic and evasive. This is so well done that I have to point out how perfect the name of the game is. And even though I thankfully have no history of addiction in my family or in my close cricle of friends, it's amazing how much this story gripped me. The exploration of themes of addiction and recovery is extremely fascinating and this game does a good job touching on that subject through it's choices, and showcasing the desperation of these characters.
The
characters are really appealing and you can really empathize with them and you can see how much your choices can impact them without going into a million different branching paths and 10 saves. So far I find Barb and Audrey the most interesting of the bunch, as they give Lydia and the MC something to strive for. On that note though, I am impartial to the girls' looks, I am not particularly smitten by any of them, and nor should I. Most of them are heroin addicts and they shouldn't look like actresses or models.
As for the
direction of the game, before playing chapter 6 I was wondering when the coices of the sober path would come into effect and it looks like it started to. And while I'm on that, I'd like to say that I really liked how The MC's will readiness to stop came at random series of events and not after some world shattering epiphany, as most characters said, it just happens when you randomly just get sick of the way your living. And this is really the games greatest strength which is how realistic and unsettling it is, this isn't some school dating simulator or a fantasy novel, and while I do love these games, this is real shit, and it's the ugly side of the world and it's a real disease that destroys families. Anyways, I am excited for
the future as you can really tell that the MC will have to make some really difficult desicions, and that there will be a lot of drama and falling out and reconciliation. I just hope that Zoey really goes through with this and fully explore the potential this topic has to offer because I don't think we'll be getting a game about addiction any time soon.
Finally, since recovery is always a process the
format and length of these updates is perfect, and since the novel shows their day to day lives, there can never really be a filler update. I do really want to see the improvement of their lives as they go on, and how they overcome the obstacles they face, I can tell that there will be some setbacks that we, the player won't be able to dodge through choic, which is necessary to the development of this plot imo.
This has been insanely long, but I really enjoyed sharing my thoughts on this game. The Fact that Zoey only has a little over 200 patrons is criminal, and I really wish them all the best and support
My rating for this game is 4 stars, I'd rate it as 4.5 if I could, but I can't, and I'm not rating it as 5 stars as it's not perfect. This has been my review of this game, if you read all that you're a mad lad and thank you, lemme know what you think