#it was 2 sims i didn’t know plus ava; who’s one of my other sims

[fingertipsmp3]

I love sim drama

[was-it-really-worth-it]

Game 41 - Love Hues! by Oneirocritica Games

I picked up this game through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. I chose to donate 10 dollars, and I found about 153 games in the bundle that I was actually interested in. So, the consideration for this game will be if it was worth the 7 cents (rounded up) that I paid for it and the hours that I played it for. The bundle has since ended, but I still encourage you to make a donation to the organizations listed here.

What did I think it was at first? Another day, another dating sim.

How was the character creator? I got to choose between two character portraits, as well as a course of study and my pronouns. 

How was the game? At first glance, it’s got a standard first-day-of-college plot. Everything felt very familiar. I played through the first 30 minutes of the game, got through the first day of college, and... it ended.

This felt really abrupt. However, I realized that this game was structured a little differently than most visual novel style games. Instead of following a story and adding content with romance, you need to choose a character at the start of the story and then follow their route. Other characters appear throughout their route, but you don’t have an opportunity to spend time with them or get close to them.

I played through two routes (Toby and James), which is my typical barometer for checking out these sorts of games. There were similar themes in both routes, but they were also a little different, too. It was definitely a little more tricky trying to get invested in these characters - they didn’t seem to have the same charm. I think that if I had been able to get to know them more before locking in a route, it would have been a more engaging game.

The game warns you at the start that it does collect some persistent data throughout your playthroughs. I was expecting to see this a little more throughout play - though it seems there is a love interest you unlock after one playthrough and a love interest you unlock after getting true endings for all other characters. This is a cool concept that I really enjoy.

[spoiler]

The game is also very Canadian. I kind of got taken out of it when my main character mentioned that a medication cost 20 dollars, and I was like ‘wow that’s cheap why did he put off getting it’ but apparently it’s expensive? man I’m mad about the country I live in now. Does everyone in Canada eat tons of poutine and hot chocolate? Are all Canadians saddled with tragic health conditions? Do Canadians sensually hug in classrooms and on soccer fields?

What did I not love? The game seems to have a lot of intriguing world building throughout, but I didn’t really see that as I played through two routes. The first route had a tantalizing cliffhanger-type ending that seemed to promise more information about the hidden world, but then I played another route and got...no more information. I think another breadcrumb leading to the ‘secret story’ would have helped me feel more invested in the story. There are a lot of secrets left (what is the bad thing Toby did? what is James’s necklace? who is Ava?) but I don’t feel invested enough to play again and try to find out.

At 2 hours and 7 cents, was it really worth it? The premise is exciting, but I think a bit more development could be done to help really integrate it into the rest of the story. Getting it in the bundle was defintiely a plus, but I’d say that it’s worth the current asking price, too. There are 41 different endings, so it’s a completionist’s dream come true.