So, after reading the last three years of reviews on Power Vacuum (yep, I actually did all that), I noticed that a large group of people were praising it, and a large group of people were damning it. I decided to download and see for myself, and after ~9 hours playing and firmly being in Chapter 4, I can say I completely and utterly agree... with the latter group.
+ Attractive models (but overly large bust/booty sizes diminish their allure)
+ Unique LI personalities, though it seems like every girl is bi-polar and swings wildly (permanent mensuration?)
+ Renders are well done with good color/lighting and environments
+ Some good humor, but it is far too overused
+ Fun "minigame" of thwarting gramps' machinations towards the LIs in the house
+ Good animations, for the very few you actually get to see
--- Tease, tease, tease! It took the MC 8 fricking hours to actually penetrate a side-story girl and lose his virginity. And that's RL gameplay time to get there. I hear sex with the main LIs doesn't happen for another 5-6 chapters. Insanity.
-- The humor actually happens in almost every 2nd to 3rd textbox, and destroys most of the enjoyment you'd otherwise have. It's like a psychotic clown on cocaine babbling to a monkey on heroin, nonstop.
-- Despite being a "sandbox", the game is anything but. You can only change the order of interactions/scenes within a chapter - you truly have NO choice in how the story unfolds (unless you have NTR turned on and fail a challenge). This is a disguised kinetic novel.
--------- I can't give this one enough minuses: The MC has NO FUCKING SPINE. He's a wimp, a simp, a pussy to the Nth degree. If there was an option for him in-game to commit suicide, I would have chosen it. Not. Kidding. At. All.
--- LIs around the house constantly walk all over the MC verbally, switching from teasing him, to debasing him, to apologizing, to doing it all over again in the next 10 minutes. Almost like it's a family tradition.
--- MC is constantly apologizing to the LIs, despite nearly constantly supporting them and their needs. Again: utter wimp.
--- There's almost no equality in the house with regards to pleasing LIs, and the LIs reciprocating - the MC is basically just a boy-handmaiden working for their needs. Again: total simp.
I could probably drop in another 7-10 negatives, but it's just exhausting and depressing to think back on the last 9 hours of gameplay. This COULD have been a phenominal game, right at the top with some legendary AVNs. But for the reasons above (among many, many others), it swung and missed. It's Femdom to the extreme, but veiled in such a way as to try and have the humor and renders cover it up, unsuccessfully. I hate to have to do it, as I really did want to enjoy PV, but it ends up a firm 2.0 rating from me.
Had to add this last bit:
Brenna: "There you go...lick it up....you sister fingering idiot..."
Yeah, I'm out. The femdom and male subjugation is just out of control on this one. Zero respect for the MC from any of his family members. Zero. Down to 1 star.
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Edit: So I pushed through a few more chapters, trying to give the developer the benefit of the doubt (for poor pacing in the early game), hoping it would get better. It did, slightly, with the MC gaining a bit more self esteem (a TINY bit), and sex scenes becoming more frequent.
And then the bastard writes the MC into a FORCED SUB relationship with his mother. Zero choice - the MC is back to being a sex toy, a sex slave, a sub.
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Finally pushed myself to finish the game, since I'd already spent ~16+ hours in it. It -does- get better on the frequency of sex (actually turns into a fuck-fest in Ch 11/12), and the femdom -does- lighten up a little bit. But the wacky overused humor continues throughout, and it remains basically a kinetic novel with the NTR-whoops-goback moments it's always had. The huge femdom moment that turned me off prior -does- go away (thank god), so it's not an abysmal failure anymore.
Against better judgement I'm going to give the game (through Chapter 12) a 2-star rating. Partly due to the glacial pacing for the first ~8 chapters, partly due to the overriding femdom elements, and partly due to the overused humor which wears super thin.