Defending Lydia Collier by White Phantom Games
I had this one sitting in my “to test” folder for about eight months before the time was finally right for me to start playing it. Now I’ve come to the end of the current content (well, 0.16.2) I don’t really know what to think of it. It felt a bit like three or four different games, just with the same MC, the same core group of characters, and the same setting. Once you missed a path, for the most part, the character completely disappeared, leading to wildly varying storylines for the different LIs.
There was also a change halfway through to a sort of management simulator game, adding that in to the regular AVN that we had until that point. I didn’t like this at all, as it’s not what I like to play, and I don’t think it was incorporated into the game that well.
Anyway, as far as the usual stuff goes, the graphics were middle of the road, and most of the LIs definitely in the same boat. There were a couple who really stood out though, and not just in looks, but in character as well. I really liked the “normal” girlfriend Steph (there are slave/bimbo options for her that I avoided), and thought there were some really nice moments with her. She was still pretty kinky, if you picked the choices for it, but I think she gave my save a bit of a wholesome feeling.
The choices, path selection aside, were not too bad, although there were some odd ones, e.g., tell your girlfriend that you’re thinking of her, or tell her you’re thinking of her hot roommate who you’ve met exactly once. Tough choice… Once you get into the management side of things though, a lot of it just felt like a lucky dip to me – Which of these teams do I want to join in a non-reversable decision? Which three of six suspects do I want to check out? Which three of four team members do I want to assign to surveil each of those…?
The overall story itself was interesting, defending a billionaire’s estranged wife from murder charges after the husband is kidnapped (but no murder is confirmed…). I just don’t feel like I really did much work on that key case, with all the other stuff going on. It made me feel that I was just being given a bunch of different girls to woo, each with their own kinky traits, and then a random story to wrap around them. I do like how the game is unashamedly British though, with some proper London vibes in setting and dialogue. It’s nice to see that every once in a while, rather than the generic fictional settings most games tend to have.
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