Photo Hunt is a very ambitious sandbox game, with an enormous amount of content that it is simply impossible to see everything in a single playthrough.
The quality of writing is very good. While the opening of the game is more tell than show, it's a crude approach to set the scene as fast as possible- you return to your childhood home, a lax peninsula. You are met with several objectives in the early going: paying off a debt to some old geezer for a camera, keeping up your grades in school, and repairing past relationships and forging new ones with a cast of characters. There are eight main LI storylines, with most of them having their own forks, a romantic path and a corruption path.
Some of the LI are rehashed tropes - a shy Librarian type, an ice queen with walls thicker than Fort Knox, an uptight authority/school figure that looks to be unwound, as a few examples- but they have enough depth to them that make their stories interesting. A game with such a massive scope and breadth, there will be parts of storylines that do not resonate as much as others, but there is still a veritable smorgasbord of content. The LI narratives interconnect at points, and it is almost impossible to complete all of an LI's content without having explored another or several LI routes. It can be an issue if a player is only interested in a single LI, but there is a worthy payoff with more available scenes/dialogue that can accessed.
The art of Photo Hunt is some truly stunning work, especially for a DAZ game. The rendering and character designs are absolutely gorgeous, and this is coming from someone who cannot stand the uncanny valley look of DAZ models (much prefer HS). The animations and lewd scenes are fairly reserved in the early going but get much more intricate and spicier as the storylines progress.
Gameplay-wise, the dev makes great use of time and money as resources in a free-roam game. Playing through the first few weeks give an overview of the flow of the game, and the early game is about managing time and money of trying to build up stats and interact with the cast. If it isn't apparent, this is NOT a fast fap game.
Most of the storylines take considerable time to get to the lewd content, but it is worth the wait. The mid-game grind in this game is a minor annoyance but acceptable as it helps to pace the flow of certain narratives. Once you get past it, a lot of the early to mid game resources become less important, and the rewards are being able to access the spicier content of the game. That said, I would highly suggest using the gallery unlocker if the wait through the mid-game becomes annoying.
There is a non-linearity to the game that makes it replayable in trying to see what order of LI stories to pursue from the start. Content is not time-sensitive, as it might be in other games by improper sequencing, but additional dialogue to scenes could open up if you've pursued other relationships (similar to that of Bioware games). The only content that is inaccessible is when the hard forks of certain storylines present themselves.
As mentioned earlier, there are romantic paths and corruption paths to some LI and it requires at least two save files just to see all the content. Having played through up to 0.19.1 and probably spent upwards of 30 hours exhausting the blue routes available, I surmise I've only accessed 60-70% of all the available content.
I'll caveat this next section by mentioning I consider myself a fairly casual gamer and I generally have an aversion to exploration/sandboxes. This game would be difficult to complete without a walkthrough, especially if the intent is to see as much content as possible in the shortest path/time. There is an in-game walkthrough that is functional, but still a work in progress. As of 0.19.1, the in-game walkthrough via laptop is a nuisance to return to as it can only be accessed at home when free roam is possible, but it looks like it may be accessible from the pause screen in the future.
The biggest knock against the game for me is a narrative stumble that appears mid-way through the game. Spoilers forthcoming.
Overall, Photo Hunt is a marvelous game and one that is worthy of your time. This is a slow burn game that is hugely rewarding (there are quite a few lewd sequences that are mind-numbingly hot). I cannot help but admire the scope and breadth of this project, and I look forward to all new content.
The quality of writing is very good. While the opening of the game is more tell than show, it's a crude approach to set the scene as fast as possible- you return to your childhood home, a lax peninsula. You are met with several objectives in the early going: paying off a debt to some old geezer for a camera, keeping up your grades in school, and repairing past relationships and forging new ones with a cast of characters. There are eight main LI storylines, with most of them having their own forks, a romantic path and a corruption path.
Some of the LI are rehashed tropes - a shy Librarian type, an ice queen with walls thicker than Fort Knox, an uptight authority/school figure that looks to be unwound, as a few examples- but they have enough depth to them that make their stories interesting. A game with such a massive scope and breadth, there will be parts of storylines that do not resonate as much as others, but there is still a veritable smorgasbord of content. The LI narratives interconnect at points, and it is almost impossible to complete all of an LI's content without having explored another or several LI routes. It can be an issue if a player is only interested in a single LI, but there is a worthy payoff with more available scenes/dialogue that can accessed.
The art of Photo Hunt is some truly stunning work, especially for a DAZ game. The rendering and character designs are absolutely gorgeous, and this is coming from someone who cannot stand the uncanny valley look of DAZ models (much prefer HS). The animations and lewd scenes are fairly reserved in the early going but get much more intricate and spicier as the storylines progress.
Gameplay-wise, the dev makes great use of time and money as resources in a free-roam game. Playing through the first few weeks give an overview of the flow of the game, and the early game is about managing time and money of trying to build up stats and interact with the cast. If it isn't apparent, this is NOT a fast fap game.
Most of the storylines take considerable time to get to the lewd content, but it is worth the wait. The mid-game grind in this game is a minor annoyance but acceptable as it helps to pace the flow of certain narratives. Once you get past it, a lot of the early to mid game resources become less important, and the rewards are being able to access the spicier content of the game. That said, I would highly suggest using the gallery unlocker if the wait through the mid-game becomes annoying.
There is a non-linearity to the game that makes it replayable in trying to see what order of LI stories to pursue from the start. Content is not time-sensitive, as it might be in other games by improper sequencing, but additional dialogue to scenes could open up if you've pursued other relationships (similar to that of Bioware games). The only content that is inaccessible is when the hard forks of certain storylines present themselves.
As mentioned earlier, there are romantic paths and corruption paths to some LI and it requires at least two save files just to see all the content. Having played through up to 0.19.1 and probably spent upwards of 30 hours exhausting the blue routes available, I surmise I've only accessed 60-70% of all the available content.
I'll caveat this next section by mentioning I consider myself a fairly casual gamer and I generally have an aversion to exploration/sandboxes. This game would be difficult to complete without a walkthrough, especially if the intent is to see as much content as possible in the shortest path/time. There is an in-game walkthrough that is functional, but still a work in progress. As of 0.19.1, the in-game walkthrough via laptop is a nuisance to return to as it can only be accessed at home when free roam is possible, but it looks like it may be accessible from the pause screen in the future.
The biggest knock against the game for me is a narrative stumble that appears mid-way through the game. Spoilers forthcoming.
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Overall, Photo Hunt is a marvelous game and one that is worthy of your time. This is a slow burn game that is hugely rewarding (there are quite a few lewd sequences that are mind-numbingly hot). I cannot help but admire the scope and breadth of this project, and I look forward to all new content.
