STORY [9/10]
A mysterious plot that threatens the world as we know it — this premise serves as a compelling framework in which to develop the cast of characters. There's enough meat to the story that it makes for a varied experience throughout — part thriller/horror, at times sinister and gritty, but with plenty of detours for humor, fun and erotic encounters.
CHARACTERS [10/10]
Every protagonist character in this game brings something unique to the experience, and they are all given sufficient backstory and in-game treatment so that nobody feels like a cardboard standup. The key to a rewarding erotica story is to develop reader sympathy for the characters, establish believable motivations, and take us on the journey of their growth, so that their decisions to engage sexually with the main character (or whomever) feel grounded and more satisfying. In this, the author has succeeded spectacularly. In every erotic encounter, I felt vested in the characters and empathy for what led them to that moment. Kudos!
(SEMI-SPOILER: There is one scene early on that almost made me think the game wasn't going to give its characters adequate investment. As I watched it I was thinking, "If this is not a dream sequence, I am so done with this game." Fortunately, it was a dream sequence. Whew!)
The supporting cast brings a lot of fun elements to the story as well. There are some great humorous moments precipitated by many side characters. And look for not-so-subtle shenanigans going on in the background during some of the dialogue. I found some of them hilarious!
GAMEPLAY [5/10]
This game bills itself as a choice-based visual novel, but there are some key deficiencies in the design. The main issue is that the story does not actually have any significant divergent storylines. Consequently, the most keenly felt variations are whether erotic encounters will take place or not — and this undermines the fundamental point of an adult visual novel (AVN), where the reader is engaged specifically for the erotic content. The issue is exacerbated by the fact a decision can end up negating current and all future encounters with a particular character. (The game even has a tracker that depicts this as "Path Lost" for a character. Ouch.) In fact, I discovered the hard way that one can lose the ability to have an erotic encounter with any of the female protagonists, and this is achievable by the time the game is only halfway through (around the time the character returns from Japan). From then on, the game doesn't even feel like an AVN anymore.
Further confounding the experience is the fact that the game also employs a dating sim-style relationship scoring system, which also governs whether many erotic encounters will take place. This system does not jive well with the "path" system described above. It is possible to accumulate relationship points with a character even though their "path" (the possibility of future erotic encounters) has already been lost; and the points don't offer any "redemption" pathways to put the main character back in the good graces of his romantic interests.
Ultimately, then, this game is more of a Kinetic Visual Novel with an illusion of choice — insofar as the only consequences of your choices are the suppression of the erotic scenes that constitute the primary reason for consuming the content. Choice-based mechanisms are only worthwhile if they result in meaningful variations in how the story plays out. For an AVN, choice-and-consequences design must focus on alternative erotic opportunities — if a choice is going to close a door, it should open a window somewhere else. Since this game only takes away erotic opportunities without offering anything in return, there is really only one choice.
Consequently, players are advised to either consult the included walkthrough document (which basically tells you exactly what choices to make to retain access to all of the scenes), or they must keeping using the Back navigation to rollback their choices once they see the impact — if the impact is even immediately evident. Neither option is conducive to an immersive experience, nor do they leave the player feeling comfortable to RP their character in any way.
VISUALS [7/10]
First of all, props to what I assume is a sole author for the incredible number of scenes that this game has. There's a lot of assets that were modeled for this game (hence the 5GB download size!), and the sheer volume is impressive.
That said, overall, the scenery tends to look pretty flat, and evokes a feeling of GTA3-era graphics. I believe lighting is key to giving a scene depth and character, and the use of lighting in the game is pretty simplistic. Water effects are also simplistic and not terribly believable. On a technical level, I expect that the scenery is mostly texture-based with minimal use of shaders, which would explain the very flat feel.
The character models benefit from more attention, which is arguably key in an AVN. Here too, though, some shortcuts have been taken. Hair has been modeled somewhat simplistically, which leads to some jarring artifacts in some poses and camera angles. For the most part, though, the character models work well and provide the requisite pleasing aesthetics.
Animations are mostly well-done, again with some shortcuts taken. This is especially noticeable in water scenes, where increases in the speed of copulation also causes water ripples to move faster, suggesting that a separate animation was not built to maintain consistency in the water's behavior even as the character's movement speed increased. Points of coupling between characters are usually modeled just well enough to get across the point, without devoting a lot of attention to detail in the physics of two surfaces rubbing against each other.
Where the animations might lack some attention to detail, they make up for in sheer energy. As the story progresses, the erotic encounters become increasingly complex and stimulating, and the animation manages to keep pace. In later encounters, more camera angle options are offered; there is more variation in camera angles between stages; and the character's poses are adjusted between stages in ways that help avoid a repetitive "same motion but faster" vibe.
SOUNDTRACK [7/10]
The game does not have a huge amount in the way of sound assets. What's there is reasonably well done — mostly background sounds for select scenes, a few basic music tracks, and key sound effects such as gunshots or knockouts. Some erotic scenes contain sound effects to depict the sounds of physical contact (or, in one scene, squeaky bed springs). There is NO voice work for this game, and the erotic scenes do not contain even generic sounds of the characters' pleasure. Use your imagination.
INTERFACE [8/10]
The interface is rightfully minimal and mostly consists of click, click, click. My main gripe is that keyboard shortcuts were not spelled out anywhere that I could find, and it took me a while to figure out that I could actually use keyboard keys to advance or back up the story. Everything about the interface is probably standard Ren'py; but as the game engine itself does not self-document its keyboard shortcuts, it would be helpful for the game to offer some documentation, if not fully configurable keyboard shortcuts. (Case in point: "Tab" apparently engages Skip mode, and can be triggered on keyup when using Alt-Tab to return to the game window. Very annoying if you weren't intending to skip.)
OVERALL [8/10]
This game is definitely worth a playthrough! It has an engaging story, very well developed characters, and rewarding erotic content. Aspects of the game design and visuals are somewhat rough around the edges, and the use of the included walkthrough document is almost mandatory, but much can be forgiven for how satisfying the story is when all of the scenes can be experienced. I look forward to seeing how Caribdis improves upon their interactive storytelling formula in the next project, Eternum!