The protagonist is such a hilariously awful person that it actually makes me interested in this game. I love it.
I get what people are saying about him not being relatable - but not every porn game protagonist has to be a stand-in for your dick, you know?
Besides, it's already implied that Max is what you'd call an unreliable narrator. It's pretty heavily implied that what's really going on is quite different from what he
thinks is going on.
My guess is that Max will turn out to be hilariously wrong about most of his suspicions towards Sarah, Cheryl and Stella, but that he will actually be right that
something is going on. And Max was right about one thing: pretty women like Sarah (who's probably in her mid-30s, which is about as young as she can be if Cheryl and Stella are at least 18) really do have better options than some random single dad in his fifties. There really could be something iffy going on here (though that's admittedly not a given).
+ The girls are pretty - but what's the point if you're playing a mentally challenged incel?
- This game might feature the ugliest MC I've ever seen... and Max, really? XD
- Max is a fucking incel... zero likeability
I actually suffered through this. The girls are looking very nice but we're forced to play the role of an idiot. Not sexy at all. What a shame considering the good render quality.
The whole point of incel is that you
want to get sex and/or relationships, but can't. But Max seems weirdly uninterested in sex
No, seriously; an actual incel protagonist would have already spent two thirds of this game bemoaning his involuntary celibacy, and the other third thirsting for his stepmom and stepsisters in between bouts of angst and self-loathing. Max hasn't done any of that so far.
What Max is is a narcissist. Seriously, everything he's said and done in this story so far fits the textbook definition of narcissism. His inflated ego, his self-absorbed personality, his contempt for his peers at school, his sheer lack of consideration for other people's feelings, the way he hates his stepmother and stepsisters right off the bat for no reason other than the fact that they are invading his personal environment - everything. Even his misogynistic way of deriding his stepsisters has more to do with him justifying to himself why his stepsisters don't deserve to be in 'his' house than anything else.
He's also an interestingly messed-up kid in other ways. He's completely disconnected from his social environment, be it at school or his step-relatives. No friends, no social circle, and some antisocial tendencies on top of that. He comes across as the kind of edgy loner kid who has yet to realize that he's socially isolated. That, and paranoid delusions. He's not mentally challenged at all, but he's definitely what you'd call socially retarded.
Speaking of which; being intelligent
≠ being well-adjusted. In fact, intelligent messed-up people tend to be worse than anyone because they're better at getting away with shit. Things like lying, manipulation, hiding your true feelings and intentions, and covering your tracks all require intelligence in order to pull them off, after all. And while Max is a maladjusted teenage edgelord, the stuff he said about his intelligence really does seem to be more than just his ego talking. Getting published as a writer at such a young age is an achievement, even if it is smut.
Of course, the fact that he's actually successful in some ways only makes him even less inclined to admit that there's something wrong with him. You'll see the same problem with a lot of artists and academics.
And... what about his father? Or his mother, for that matter? All we've been told so far is that Max' father was single up until he married Sarah six months before the beginning of the story. But we've heard nothing about
why his dad was single. Is he just a regular old divorcee? A widower? Or did he just knock up a girl and get stuck with the kid after she ran off?
Does Max have any blood-related siblings? This is a real possibility if his dad is divorced. And how does he feel about his mother? It's not all that unusual for kids of remarried single parents to hate their step-parent because they feel that s/he is stealing the place that rightfully belongs to their biological parent. That last part might also be playing a role here with Max, because he's especially hostile towards his stepmom Sarah. Hell, there might even be a little Oedipus complex in there on Max' part.