I know I played this in the past, and didn't like it.
I found I hadn't deleted it, and so wiped my saves and gave it another go.
Man, I don't know. I see enough here that I want to come back, but I see enough that drives me nuts that I just don't get why characters would act that way.
Right now, playing through a 3.1 version, here is my biggest gripe: how Nicole has been handled.
I recall a lot of people not liking Nicole and thinking she was controlling and overbearing. I recall someone else pointing out that, no, she loved you, but work stress and income stress caused some tension, and you losing your job and sulking about it didn't help, and she basically wanted you to not sulk, and get a job to help cover bills, until the job that she pulled strings to get you in the fall came into being.
Maybe all of that was rushed so it rubbed people the wrong way, but I agree with that view of her. You and her had been a couple for years, never cheated or anything, and were in love.
With that in mind, I have, carefully, aimed by playthrough at gaining points with the girls to grow my relationship with them, while STILL not accepting advances. Biggest example being the twins, and when one of them basically propositions you at the mock wedding. I flatly tell her no.
I wanted to play a character who wanted to be friendly with the girls, and maybe let himself be tempted, but ultimately didn't cheat. It was my "Nicole" playthrough, for all intents and purposes.
Then we get to the video call where Nicole suggests you two should have an open relationship.
It took literally a week of you being gone for her to come to the conclusion that maybe your entire relationship was a mistake, maybe you should both sleep around, and if you or her find someone you'd rather be with before summer was done, you would break up with each other.
I'm sorry. What?
In the very beginning of the game she gets very mad at you for admitting to dreaming about a threesome, despite it just being a dream, not something you actually pushed for, and if it ever happened would happen as a couple. How do you go from position and being offended a non-serious suggestion was made, to proposing an actual open relationship?
More than that, WHY DO I NOT HAVE THE OPTION TO BE ANGRY?
You can agree or say no, you don't like the idea. Why? Why can't I get angry, offended, or upset that she offered it? Hell, that could play out in other ways. There could be a path where she explains why shy came to that conclusion, that this isn't a test, and she really is up for it, and then you agree. There could be a scene where, upon hearing how upset her proposition made you, she actually reflects for a moment, realizes you have no desire to be disloyal, feels amazingly guilty for even expressing the idea, and even admits how relieved she is that you said no.
And for people who don't want Nicole in their lives, there could be a path where you are so offended by what she proposed, and convinced that the only reason she would suggest it is because she either doesn't trust you, or has been sleeping around behind your back already, and the MC declares as such, and breaks up with her there.
That seems like it should at least be a valid option. Whether you accept or refuse her proposal, your reaction to it, to the mere fact she would ever propose it and the amount of thought she put into it, is so tepid it is shocking. Even if you choose to accept her proposal, shouldn't you have SOME kind of visceral, emotional reaction to that kind of proposition?
But, if that didn't bother me enough, I see updates for new versions took that choice out. You are forced into a narrative of passively agreeing with her, like a spineless little bitch.
And then, LATER, you can choose to stay on that path, or dump her.
No option to stay loyal. No option to beg her to stay loyal.
This takes out of the players hands the option to be angry, or fine with it. The option to cheat, be loyal, or be open. It hamstrings us into a narrative that, frankly, up to this point in the game we felt we'd have a say in.
It's almost funny. I love Harem. I love incest. The fact that I'm bent out of shape that I can't turn down my sister and stay loyal to my long time monogamous girlfriend is kind of a joke. But I like that option being there, and if we start a game in a relationship with someone who hasn't hurt or betrayed us, I don't want to take a path to hurt and betray them. If they do hurt and betray us (by, for example, suggesting an open relationship), I'd like the option to play someone with enough balls to get upset about it.
And nothing, in game, about pursuing the open relationship path, tells us that Nicole won't bounce on other dicks, but will be open to being with your girlfriends. Even if that is how the harem path will be written to play out, an no other cock ever touches her, there are no story indicators to tell us that. All we see are red flags that massive NTR is coming.
My three biggest other issues?
Brodie, relationship points, and the MC accepting anything he's told.
So, we are meant to not like Brodie. Except meta narrative shows us that, while a little stuck up, he isn't a bad guy and doesn't want to hurt our sister. They've been in a relationship for 3 years. Does she really think the entire relationship was just to try to get her to sell the hotel?
Here is an idea, if the player wanted to go monogamous with Nicole, and thus sis is no longer an option: image meeting with Brodie, and talking (you know, like a LAWYER does, to understand the situation), coming to realize that the dude's a good guy and is mostly forced into a situation where he believes his dad will ruin your sister, and so he's doing what he can to mitigate damage to her and doesn't understand why she is so upset. With sis not being a romantic option anyhow, one path the story could take is to repair her relationship with Brodie.
Instead he's just treated like shit, and the worst is presumed about him, by everyone (including the MC who, again, as a lawyer, should know better), when we, the player, can see it really isn't deserved.
On that issue, what is with the MC taking everything at face value? Again LAWYER. Ashley spills her sob story about why she left, and not only do you have no option to point out that that doesn't explain why she hurt YOU, you also have no option but to believe her. Everything she says, MC just takes as gospel truth. Buddy, two sides to every story, remember? We also have reasons to believe Ashley lies without second thought, manipulates people to her own desires, and genuinely feels no guilt for hurting other people if it advances her interests. Why are we taking her sob story as given? Again, another opportunity where the option to forgive, forget, get angry, believe, accuse of lying, anything else, is just taken from us.
The ONLY times in the story we are given options to be mad about anything, it is ALWAYS the wrong choice, because we're expected to just be a doormat for what ever pair of tits is talking to us.
Lastly, relationship points. They don't do anything, do they? The only person I'm actively trying to fuck over in my playthrough was Ashely. I don't like her, I don't trust her, and the MC has bountiful reasons to tell her to fuck off. Well goody, I'm given the choice to bury that relationship. With -2 relationship points with her at the end of ver 3.1, you'd think I felt like I was done with her. Except... why, when relationship points are in the negative, is she still trying to show of lingerie to me in the mall? Or intentionally soak her shirt in the shower? Why do her thoughts still seem to proclaim how attracted she is to me? My relationship with her is in the negatives. The points don't mean a damn thing.
I wrote a lot. I worked a 60 hour week last week. Today was my only day off. I work another 60 hour week starting tomorrow. With nowhere to go, and being tired and shot, I wasted my one day off playing this game, which has enough going for it that I REALLY want to like it, and instead getting pissed off (mostly at the fact that the game won't let my character ACTUALLY GET PISSED OFF).
So, yeah. Today is shot anyhow. Might as well write a fucking college length essay about why a free porn game pissed me off, I guess.
