HTML - The Ember Institute [v0.0.2.1] [GlitchDoll]

a great start with a good range of kinks. lots of great writing and a really fleshed out user stats experience. the only worry is that its so good how often or large the updates will be, hope that we get them with incremental on all and not one by one. but whatever's best to not lead to burnout.

I played the very first version that was on the site and I have to say that this might become one of the best HTML game on the site. For an early version, with only two days of content, there is quite a lot of content here.

PROS:
1. There is a lot of replay ability. I played two different characters and while the underlining story goes in the same direction, the scenes are very different and even which character you interact with is different.
2. There is a lot of paths depending on what fetishes you like or dislike. You can be male or female, dominant or submissive, and you can choose from what seems to be 4 major paths: bondage, service, punishment, and pet play. All of those paths are also influenced by the previously mentioned choices. On top of that there are also other fetishes throughout the paths such as gangbang, NTR (to you and/or others), transformation and more. But it all seems to depend on what choices you make, so you can most likely avoid them if you want.
3. The UI is also the best I have seen for HTML. Instead of a simple link that you click, each of the major choices has it's own box that provide context to the choice and also what stats the choice affects. There's also a system of stats that can make choices harder or easier to do, but it doesn't seem to stop you from doing those choices and instead only affects the whether that choice causes you stress or not.
4. Some of you might think that the last point just makes the game harder to play, but the in-game tutorial is pretty clear and also funny at moments, so it's really not an issue.

CONS:
1. It's an early build. That means that there is limited content(1-2h of content per path, it seems) and that it will depend on how often a new version is added.
2. While the different paths offer a lot of replay ability, it can be hard to know what choice will lead to what result, so it's hard to choose a specific path. For example, my first path had more scenes with the best friend while the second one had more scenes with the sisters and I have no clue if it was because of me choosing sub for one and dom for the other, or because I changed the sex of the character or even because those where the people I masturbated to the day before. I would love to see something where you could activate or deactivate an in-game walkthrough, so if you want to know which choice does what, you can know it, and if you want to go in blind, you can do that too.
3. While the game certainly got me excited, due to the low content and a lot of the scenes being world building, it hasn't gotten me over the edge. I don't think this is bad if you go for a corruption/ transformation story. In fact, I think that's the way to go, but if someone wants a quick fap, this is probably not the game, as of now.

TR/DR
If you are into story driven games, but still want good mechanics this might be for you.

This game has one of the best (and arguably the best) UI of any HTML game on this site. It is readily apparent that the developer has put in an enormous amount of careful thought and dedicated work into crafting that UI, and she has put an equal amount of effort into the writing of the character dialogues. Players who take the time to read through the walls of text, and not simply scroll to the bottom of each page, will be rewarded with a much richer play experience.

This game will only get better as more content is added, and I eagerly look forward to seeing it.

For a first release, it is very impressive!

Unlike other "games" which focus on having one storyline with a couple of arches and later update the UI, choices system etc.

This truly feels like a game. The UI is good and feels complete, any expansions to the game's UI could also be made more or less seamlessly as the general theme and functionality of the UI has already been well implemented.

I will not comment on any of the writing as I didn't read most of it and quickly sped my way through the different choices to see what the game felt like to navigate. I must admit, I have been very pleasantly surprised and this game page is now bookmarked, hoping for more content to be released soon-ish so that I can spend a bit of time reading and learning about the story.

The use of imagery is quite well done, it is neither a VN nor a full text game, the images support the storytelling and increase immersion as it combines well with the scenes being exposed or provide nice visual cues to the UI.

10/10 first release. Score will be adjusted after each release played.
last update: 03/May/2022

One of the best UI's i have seen at HTML based Games.
The Game Tutorial, how often you can rate a tutorial? Here i think i can, its well done and funny.
System complex and clear together
Storywriting realy well done

Its atm a bit short but worth waste a bit time with it, i'm waiting for more of it

it looks unique and familiar at the same time, i like the clips, however maybe an alternate absolute power route as male would be fun and maybe along the line normal characters can be bimbofied , pretty good, would love to see more development of the game