It's complicated...
That's really about my impression and feeling of the game, but I suspect the same could describe the game itself. First a little about my own tastes and biases that might affect my perceptions and enjoyment of the game.
It is a 'sandbox' game (except it isn't really, it is merely a free-roam game, as there's no real sense of being able to create your own game within a game that a true sandbox has), and while I know many dislike those, I actually prefer sandbox games. In theory then I am probably liking this game a little more on that aspect than average, and certainly much more favourably than those who dislike sandbox or open-world/free-roam games.
The CGI is all generated primarily with Koikatsu (the game from Illusion) which has a simple anime style, is very easy to use for developers, already gives them huge amounts of animations., etc. Here my personal taste is to slightly dislike Koikatsu based images, partly because I already played Koikatsu to death (and it is a far more polished game than this one), partly because anime imagery is cute but lacks the visceral photorealistic qualities I prefer for porn of any kind, and mostly because it is just so massively overused that we've seen it all, endlessly, removing all visual novelty before the creator has even started. The story makes no real use of the 'cutesy' aspect, at all, set in a gritty, visceral world, so minus marks here. It's the wrong art-style for the story being depicted.
Finally, I really like novelty and innovation. I tend to prefer games that have big ideas and ideals, where the dev is really trying to push boundaries. I can tolerate games that are similar to other games only if they truly exemplify the very best quality of the type. It is okay for a game to be essentially similar to other familiar ones if it is a 'best of class', doing it exceptionally well, like a true homage to the already existing art. Anything else is just "me too" copying without any originality, which I dislike. The tropes in this game are all things I have seen before in other games, and usually better realized than in this one.
So, with my biases explained, this game really wasn't ever likely to score above 3 stars unless the writing, gameplay, and interface were all noticably above average or even exemplory. None of them are.
Let's talk about the gameplay. The interface is okay. It is pretty clear and well laid out. Travelling between one specific place and another is one of those annoying experiences where you first have to click to go to the general area, then click from there to a sub-area, and in too many cases (e.g. the lake/beach and the Truck Stop) you have to sequentially click through a whole path of different locations you don't need just to get to the one you do. It is clunky, click-wasting, and unenjoyable. A chore, not 'gameplay'.
There's very little sense of direction. I don't just mean in the sense that many free-roam games leave it to the player to decide what to do or how best to spend their time. It is that, but more-so. No, I mean that right now there's very little choice or objective to any of it. After two playthoughs (the second being a fresh-start to see if I'd just made bad choices on the first) and many hours spent, the game feels like a limp and listless experience without any sense of reward, and there's so little kind of help or pointers within the game that I still can't tell if it's me missing something or if the game just isn't very good - which of course means that, for sure, the game isn't very good.
Can the writing and storyline make up for it? No. I mean, the basic concept, The Fixer or troubleshooter who can get things done in any way they choose sounds pretty good, but it just doesn't deliver. There's very limited real sense of agency, and in reality there are a very limited number of viable options at any point. There's no real sense of a strategy or tactical element of your own devising. And the writing is dull, uninspired, and lacking in any real sense of life. You never feel even for an instant that any character is a real person, or loosely based on a real person with real ideals and goals and expectations. Instead, each character is entirely a very shallow stereotype without any warmth or charm, existing purely for a story-function and so having no sense of character or reality. When 'The Fixer' is all about an agent who can be anyone they need to be, the story needs to have a sense of real characters, and that the author actually has an idea what a personality or persona is, and this just doesn't.
There's a couple of good basic concepts to the fundamental world and plot, but they are so poorly realized, and so buried in the senseless and mundane, and the deeply unrewarding, that they may as well not exist at all, and for many players they probably won't.
This all sounds pretty clear and straightforward a tear-down, so you may be wondering what on earth was 'complicated' as stated in my opening line. Well, as I say, I like open-world and sandbox games. The idea of 'The Fixer' as a character concept was good (even if not all that original). I wanted this to be a good game so I could play it. That's the complicated bit. I feel bad for rating this a 2-star game - but it absolutely doesn't merit a higher score in the current form.
