Power Vacuum is another one of those projects I wish I could like. But several things mostly ruin the experience for me. And this after turning off NTR since I have a zero tolerance threshold for this kind of content, I mostly enjoy more wholesome vanilla stories and games, but the option to entirely remove NTR from the main game convinced me to give this a try since the setting sounds interesting.
Power Vacuum wants to be a sex comedy with some serious undertones here and there. And the game actually succeeds in being very funny at times and some of the situations / scenes are really great comedy, think your typical 1980s raunchy sex comedy. The game shines in these moments.
The characters in this game range from pretty (the mother Ophelia, the oldest sister Brenna and a few others) to not so pretty (the youngest sister) and outright hideous (the antagonist). Body proportions are more or less realistic, though usually leaning towards the busty side of things, the mother character has the archetypical overexaggerated "Milf" bodytype (giant boobs, very wide hips, you know the drill), it must be some kind of unwritten law or rule that mother characters must look like that in VNs. It would be refreshing if someone bucked that trend. This game doesn't.
As the game advances more and more animations are included which are really well made and very smooth, they are not interactive though and you have zero control over anything.
That brings me to what mostly ruins the game for me.
There is zero choice in the story. In order to progress chapters you absolutely have to complete all the events. There is no way to focus on certain characters or to ignore others or to avoid events entirely.
And the game does what so many others do... instead of mostly focusing on the main characters (the core family) it pads the story and the game by adding more and more characters as the game progresses, many of which I found absolutely uninteresting or outright unappealing. I still do not know why the cousin is in the game or Eva or Mallory or the maid and the two Asian characters. I wanted very little or even nothing to do with them. Maybe some devs do this to keep a good thing going (understandable of course) and to prevent the game from coming to a conclusion too son, but it can turn things into a meandering mess, especially when you have zero interest in pursuing yet another new character and are given zero choice about it.
I wish this game at least had a "skip character or event" option, so that stuff still happens if it's absolutely necessary (it's not though, these characters add nothing really to the main story) but you never need to experience or see it.
A few more words about the story.... at the beginning of the game the MC is a 19-year-old male virgin who never even kissed a girl in his life. Ok, a premise that is nothing original, but something you can always work with and which can make things interesting.
Now in my opinion this premise basically begs for the story to let the MC touch 1st, 2nd, 3rd and any other bases with one of the main LIs, namely either his mother Ophelia or his oldest sister Brenna, so it adds to the growing relationship and gives the acts meaning.
But what does the game do? Pretty early on you get everything presented on a silver platter since the oldest sister has this slutty bi-curious best friend who absolutely wants to give everything to the MC just because the game resorts to the usual porn logic (as do many others).
And thus everything that could ever be maningful becomes pointless. I suppose the developer chose that route to offer (funny) sex scenes early on, but the entire story is based around teasing, more teasing and then some more teasing only to add even more teasing on top of that and I think it would have been the much better choice to not include Eva at all and to have the MC experience his fist time(s) with one of the actual main LIs over the course of the story. Even if that means early chapters have little or maybe no "action". I know that this can be a tough sell though. But you can get around that by not turning each and every main LI into a tease, just have one of them a bit more open to get things going a bit sooner. You can get the teasing with everyone else still.
Eva ruins several of the arcs by her forced inclusion, in my opinion. She is NOT needed in any way shape or form, at times she's somewhat of a female wingman trying to help the MC get into the panties of his oldest sister, but you could achieve more closeness or steamy scenes between the oldest sister and the MC any other way.
Of course you are forced to have sex with Eva several times throughout the story, unskippable, not avoidable. Sometimes it's group sex with the Main LI Brenna, other times it's with another side character, which is probably a pro for those who like that, I usually don't, but that's just me and I am probably in the minority here.
The complete lack of choice also means you get various scenes with anal sex, because several of the main LIs feel vaginal sex would be "wrong" or too "taboo" (after oral sex, humping and all kinds of other things including kissing etc) or "too early". Ok, this is probably the usual porn logic ultimately meant to tease and to pad content, whatever. What it actually does is merely delay the inevitable and it just adds to the very, very, VERY teasing nature of the game.
Which must not be a bad thing, teasing and slow burn can be really rewarding and the arc for the oldest sister Brenna almost achieves all that, it could have been literally perfect and it's one of the highlights of the game for me.
However, Brenna's arc is severely hurt by the unavoidable inclusion of Eva and the sister ultimately being yet another bi-curious sex fanatic at the end of the day. Despite all that Brenna's arc is a highlight of the game and is worth experiencing, even if everything is watered down by the forced inclusion of Eva and making everyone bi-curious group sex fans without any option to choose otherwise (other VNs often do give you a choice about these things).
Without giving too much away the game eventually reaches a point where almost everyone is a bi-curious slut and open for group sex. There is also some semi-rapey action in chapter 10 between various females without involvement of the MC. The game does give an explanation for that since in the latest chapter the antagonist pumps some psychoactive drug through the air vents, turning the inhabitants of the house more or less sex crazy, making them shed all inhibitions.
But for me that made many events in chapter 10 instant skip material, but since you can't skip anything you have to resort to speed pressing the space bar to get things over with as quickly as possible. I could have done without roughly 50% of all the scenes in chapter 10. It was nothing I need or want to see.
A short word about the sandbox character of the game: It's repetitive at times but not annoying since you always know where and when to be. Still, some of the events that unlock other events can feel a bit grindy especially combined with the teasing nature of the game. A few other events like the dinner or so do absolutely nothing and why they are even included every day is a bit puzzling.
One more word about the teasing: it takes a LONG time before you get to meaningful interactions with the main LIs and one main LI still doesn't have any real action, unless you think anal sex is the epitome of everything, then you'll be pleased perhaps. The amount of teasing is eventually turned up to 11, several times the MC has almost sex with his oldest sister only to be interrupted either by the somewhat annoying youngest sister (who interrupts scenes with several other characters - all of which is meant to be funny and comedic but in my opinion it's just annoying after the second or third time) or sudden moral qualms or premature orgasms.
Now this can be funny and it is funny at first.... good teasing and slow burn can be very rewarding, but in my opinion the teasing eventually outstays its welcome especially when things get so close various times, even reusing the same tease like almost penetration several times.
You will have played literal hours and hours until there is any meaningful action between the main characters. At least the scenes with the oldest sister Brenna are very rewarding and it's one of the few games where an "I love you" actually feels genuine (if you ignore Eva and everything else in the game though), the same can't be said really for the youngest sister though, her events don't really feel rewarding at all.
And the mother still has not reached 100% as late as chapter 10, which means hours and hours and hours of content. So maybe 2023 then when chapter 11 is released, since things have become really close now. But the tease is strong with this one, so who knows... but chances are that the scene with Ophelia will eventually be similar to Brenna's, i.e. meaningful and rewarding.
A few quick words about the mother... she seems very confused... at one point in the story she turns into a wannabe dominatrix who calls her son "slave", if you like that, good for you, I don't. It's another one of those things that really hurt her arc and overall story though. She drops that act eventually which is good, but the mother feels bi-polar at times. It is kind of refreshing though to have a mother character in a game with actual inhibitions, so that is really positive. The teasing between the mother and the MC is not the issue here. It's the fact that she too is a bi-curious sex fanatic at the end of the day who breastfeeds her youngest daughter and gets a bit naughty with her sister (probably due to the drugs she's exposed to). Thus any qualms she has (especially as late as chapter 10) about doing certain things with the MC feel a bit forced eventually, meant to just delay the inevitable and to make people (pay) and wait for chapter 11.
I just have to admit that this game was not made for me, which is ok, there are other VNs that focus more on the wholesome aspect and allow you to pick favorites or to avoid certain options completely. I just wish I could enjoy it since the basic premise and the basic ingredients are all really great.
Brenna's arc and to a lesser degree the mother's arc show that the dev can write really good scenes and content, it's even more disappointing then that the good writing is often overshadowed by lazy porn tropes, sharing and unavoidable side characters that are inserted into the arcs.
I felt everything takes a very wrong turn very early on when Eva just gave the MC every first time there is without build-up or meaning, making things trivial and arbitrary, void of any deeper emotions. And this ruins almost all arcs, the inclusion of mind altering drugs that turn people sex crazy and lower inhibitions make this even worse in the latest chaper.
So to sum it all up...if you like teasing, lots of teasing, characters that are all bi-curious, with several of them having at some point sex with another female character without the MC, paired with silly comedy that can at times be really funny, then Power Vacuum will most likely appeal to you. It's a mostly well made game with a sandbox that does not annoy at all (even though it can be a bit repetitive) and most of the characters are visually appealing.
But if you want something like love or romance and some wholesomeness then Power Vacuum will probably disappoint.
There absolutely IS love and romance in the game and even genuine wholesomeness, that's not it, but the forced inclusion of various side characters, unavoidable threesomes / sharing and the complete absence of ANY choices that would allow you to ignore people or maybe even pursue a solo route (or at least to pick favorites) make the romance and love aspect feel very hollow and disingenous (something many VNs suffer from of course).
Of course the developer can do as he pleases, it's his creation. And for a solo project this is extremely impressive. I just wish the writing would not resort to the usual extremely overused porn tropes at times and gave a lot more options - which is of course often time consuming since you have to account for various routes and I understand that this may not be always feasible when you are the only person working on something.
So, chances are the average F95 member will enjoy this game, I am probably an outlier due to my entirely "boring" mostly kink-free vanilla / wholesome preference who usually derives zero enjoyment from sharing, anal, bi-curious characters with very little inhibitions or plot devices like drugging people.
If you are ok with that or like it then Power Vacuum will absolutely deliver. As you can see by the many very high ratings here many people absolutely enjoy this game. I can understand it. It's just not for me. And if your interests or preferences are similar to mine then it will probably not be for you either. Just give it a try though and see for yourself. Which is always the best option anyway.
I'm not a fan of NTR but the dev makes it all optional and easily skippable. Honestly, I still check out the NTR scenes because I'm curious and it's still good content. Chapter 10 was phenomenal. I don't usually review games because I'm rubbish at reviews, but this latest update was so good that I have to give it praise.
