Finally finished this one and boy, it was felt like a long one. I didn't hate the game, but I'm going to write out my main criticisms that kept me from giving it a higher score.
The game starts out pretty slow and boring. It feels like it didn't truly pick up until the cast leaves the school (which is considerably far into the game). Even then, the pacing is sluggish.
That feeds in to my next problem. It feels like so much of the dialogue in this game is recounting what happened to other characters. It makes sense that it'd would happen in real life, but it does not make good dialogue or story. Whenever something of note happens, I knew I'd spend the next minute clicking through dialogue about shit I already know, while skimming to make sure I don't miss anything new.
Speaking of dialogue, the sex dialogue is really not great. As others have mentioned, I'd start clicking through lewds just so the story would move forward.
As far as lewd scenes? They're good, for the most part. The dev uses some default Honey Select animations (like initial penetration and climaxing) but not too often. He also uses HS audio for the girls, which I'm sort of on the fence about. Some animations that were clearly made by him can look a bit janky and sometimes the penis will clip outside the girl's body, but at this point I feel like I'm nitpicking.
There's also too many lewd scenes. I get the feeling the Dev made them to fill a sex-per-episode quota. Every time you're alone in a room with one of the LIs, it's gonna go down. This also severely bogs down the story. So much of the game feels like boring day-to-day apocalypse survival, followed by banging one of the girls at night, over and over again until something interesting finally happens.
The game is old. There are some pretty ugly looking renders here. I might chalk this up to the Dev's inexperience with lighting and shot composition. Also, this old-school "don't show the MC's face" really limits what can be down in renders and animation. Especially since this MC is NOT a blank slate by any means. He's got his own history and personality.
The games title, "Now & Then" is also the game's main narrative device, or gimmick, if you will. The MC will have flashbacks to before the outbreak and compare/contrast to what's happening in the present. Unfortunately, this wears pretty thin by the middle of the game. After a while, it starts feeling forced: "Well, I named my game this, so I've gotta add a few flashbacks this episode." I feel like nothing new is really ever learned, and I never felt big feelings, especially at the very end of the game before the epilogue.
As a side note, flashing back to when 2 of the main LI's were underage made me pretty uncomfortable.
I couldn't fit this in anywhere, but the whole "Kill All Men Cassie" plot point was pretty weird.
Julie somehow ended up as my main lover which feels impossible, given how little she's the character with the least screen time by far. Alice gang.
So you're reading this, trying to decide if this is worth playing? If the premise sounds good, and you don't mind really long games, give it a go. Like I said, I didn't hate the game, several aspects of it left me feeling unsatisfied. I'm still interested in trying out the dev's next game.
The game starts out pretty slow and boring. It feels like it didn't truly pick up until the cast leaves the school (which is considerably far into the game). Even then, the pacing is sluggish.
That feeds in to my next problem. It feels like so much of the dialogue in this game is recounting what happened to other characters. It makes sense that it'd would happen in real life, but it does not make good dialogue or story. Whenever something of note happens, I knew I'd spend the next minute clicking through dialogue about shit I already know, while skimming to make sure I don't miss anything new.
Speaking of dialogue, the sex dialogue is really not great. As others have mentioned, I'd start clicking through lewds just so the story would move forward.
As far as lewd scenes? They're good, for the most part. The dev uses some default Honey Select animations (like initial penetration and climaxing) but not too often. He also uses HS audio for the girls, which I'm sort of on the fence about. Some animations that were clearly made by him can look a bit janky and sometimes the penis will clip outside the girl's body, but at this point I feel like I'm nitpicking.
There's also too many lewd scenes. I get the feeling the Dev made them to fill a sex-per-episode quota. Every time you're alone in a room with one of the LIs, it's gonna go down. This also severely bogs down the story. So much of the game feels like boring day-to-day apocalypse survival, followed by banging one of the girls at night, over and over again until something interesting finally happens.
The game is old. There are some pretty ugly looking renders here. I might chalk this up to the Dev's inexperience with lighting and shot composition. Also, this old-school "don't show the MC's face" really limits what can be down in renders and animation. Especially since this MC is NOT a blank slate by any means. He's got his own history and personality.
The games title, "Now & Then" is also the game's main narrative device, or gimmick, if you will. The MC will have flashbacks to before the outbreak and compare/contrast to what's happening in the present. Unfortunately, this wears pretty thin by the middle of the game. After a while, it starts feeling forced: "Well, I named my game this, so I've gotta add a few flashbacks this episode." I feel like nothing new is really ever learned, and I never felt big feelings, especially at the very end of the game before the epilogue.
As a side note, flashing back to when 2 of the main LI's were underage made me pretty uncomfortable.
I couldn't fit this in anywhere, but the whole "Kill All Men Cassie" plot point was pretty weird.
Julie somehow ended up as my main lover which feels impossible, given how little she's the character with the least screen time by far. Alice gang.
So you're reading this, trying to decide if this is worth playing? If the premise sounds good, and you don't mind really long games, give it a go. Like I said, I didn't hate the game, several aspects of it left me feeling unsatisfied. I'm still interested in trying out the dev's next game.