Unreal Engine - Open Life [v0.0.3] [Secret Layer]

Great foundation but certainly needs some polishing. A long way to go but this game for sure has its potential. Graphics are nice, needs a mission tracker asap, character creation screen is currently the most annoying thing on earth, dealing with crops is tedious.

I like the game and idea, definitely has some potetial. Of course it has some bugs in the current version, but in general good work so far. Would love to see this game finished in the future. Tired of all the visual novels, this one spices things up.

Has potential. Unique farming game that could focus on loosing your genitals with random objects like food or tools. Potential incest as well.

Sadly it is an unreal engine game and that means poor optimization but so far it is still early.
I just hope the sex scenes and the gameplay as well is oriented more on freedom than just scenes that have no control.
And of course, any amount of looseness should be affecting the gameplay.

Still, worth to watch over and maybe support if you wish, has potential if done right, wisely and carefully

Give it some time guys!! This game has potential to be great.. The developer has just got started. Hopefully it gets better with each update. Fingers crossed. Plus there aren't many games like it. I personally like the open world exploring aspect of it.

*EDIT 1: v0.0.2 fix several issues outlined in this review. Given the responsiveness and willingness to fix bugs I'm updating my rating to 3 stars as I'm a bit more optimistic about the future development of this game. It has a generally interesting gameplay loop and the story attempts to emulate a realistic taboo scenario.

That being said there are still bugs that affect gameplay and the NSFW content is sparse. Once those two items have been addressed I'll provide one final update to this review to reflect the overall quality of the game.

I typically avoid reviewing games during their debut release, but I feel as though this time I'd be doing the public a dis-service by not warning them of what's inside since the dev didn't label this as a "tech demo".


First off, the settings are limited to 5 or so items, and none of them happen to include volume controls. Even worse is the "supported" resolutions: 1600x1000? I'm genuinely impressed with that particular issue.

As for the bugs... Well, to take a page out of Joseph Anderson's book... "The 1001 glitches of Open Life":

• Loading a save game just selects the file to load before kicking you back to the main menu, only on hitting "continue" will that save load
• You can fall through the map while walking on the side of the house
• Planted crops will persist the next day in a locked state in which they can't be interacted with and won't grow
• The seller takes all of your money if you buy seeds from him despite only reading $0.2 on the purchase screen
  • Bonus bug: you can buy some crops without money
• Sometimes toys will stay in place
  • Typically happens when the mom catches you
• The dad is a T-pose master
• The mom mastered the crab walk during the cutscene in which you look out the window
• Both NPCs will softlock into their cutscene animations/clothes
• The player character will sometimes load into the default appearance (can be fixed by putting on article of clothing)
• Cutscenes can be replayed unintentionally
• The mom's dialogue sometimes glitches out to a weird shop dialogue

Now onto the criticism:

• Food and water deplete at an insane rate AND during cutscenes
• Objects are haphazardly tossed onto a pre-built terrain without and thought or care
• You can easily miss cutscenes as the game doesn't tell you when/where you should be going
• You can't sell items, meaning the mom's quest is impossible to complete
• The mom can somehow see you through walls?
• The masturbation mini-game breaks half the time I'm using it
• Some dialogue can't be skipped while others can, but just allow us to skip all dialogue
• and various other issues (I don't want to further bloat this review)

To reach the current max looseness for the player character you need to use the following items in this order:
Toothbrush/Pencil -> Wrench (basement) -> Banana (fridge) -> Cucumber (grow in field) ->Double Dildo (found in parent's bedroom)
Afterwards you can use all toys without restriction.

How to see all the cutscenes:

1. Immediately go downstairs (breakfast scene)
2. Talk with mom right afterwards (homework dialogue for points)
3. Go to sleep, wake up, walk to the window in the hallway near the parent's bedroom and climb out (sex scene 1)
4. Sleep for the night, then sleep until 1700 and walk to the window in your room (poolside scene)
5. After the poolside scene, immediately go down the hallway and climb out the window, then walk to the mom's window (masturbation scene)
6. Sleep again, then repeat the steps above by walking to the window and climbing out (sex scene 2)

I genuinely wanted to be positive about this game given the Dev seems to be trying despite their skill level... but I take great issue with how broken the game currently is even if it was released as a tech demo. The game seriously needed to bake for a few more months (or year) before it can even come close to being considered stable enough to release to the public.

6gig download for... . . . . death by pencil insertion. only 1 really random resolution. I'd almost call it a tech demo, but I feel like I've seen this all before in about 20 other games that did it 20 times better.

Reviewing v0.01
Far too much talking about farming and inane bullshit, no ability to skip it (I think that will be the easiest fix, really it needs a major rewrite). Main issue is pacing at the granular level, the AI generated voices (and text?) say too much too slowly it's soooo boring.
Graphics look okay but have glitches like depth-of-field not applying to eyelashes and clothes not big enough to cover the body underneath so it glitches through randomly.
I gave up before reaching any sexual content.
I like that it starts with character creation options but they are quite limited - I wouldn't focus on improving that though, doesn't really matter.
The music is forgettable but at times too loud and can't hear the voices.