Wicked Choices Book 1 is an excellent start in what I hope will be an outstanding series of games. @ASLPro3D has created a world like our own, but with some unique differences that offer one possible explanation for how we got to where we are now. Be warned there are minor spoilers ahead!
The main character starts as a middle aged man who has been shielded by his wife’s family from the world that the family inhabits that has featured incest between fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, and brothers and sisters, for centuries. The incest was used as a form of protection from the outside world as the family was charged with protecting an ancient relic from an unknown religion centuries ago.
The game follows the MC on his journey of discovery that the world as he knows it is not quite what it seems and he has been given an important role in shaping the future of the Earth.
It takes some time for the MC to embrace his destiny and there are multiple places where the player can go off the path and “lose”. That being said, it is not completely linear, there are opportunities to tailor the MC’s responses to setup the future games and how the player envisions the role of the MC.
There is also a section of the game where the player is introduced to two alien races and a need to play a princess from one of those races with the MC nowhere in sight. Once again, the player’s choices have meaning and can lead somewhere unfortunate in the later games.
Wicked Choices Book 1 continues this way switching between the main characters and the worlds they live in.
By it’s nature, Wicked Choices Book 1 needs some time to set up the back story and lay out those different worlds and plays more like a visual novel than an RPG. There is a lot of information given out, particularly in Chapter 4 where we learn a lot about the two races that have been battling each other for many centuries and are now using the humans on Earth to wage a proxy war. For spacefaring races, there is very little advanced technology on display, instead they focus more on magical abilities, and not in the Arthur C. Clarke way. So far, it does not look like they have technology backing up their magic. The worlds they have chosen to inhabit are medieval in nature, always tinged with the magic that seems to be part of their beings.
There are some sexy times with the MC and a couple young women and some lesbian action with the alien princess. There is also some implied NTR with the MC’s wife, some implied beastiality, and a rape scene that is necessary to advance the plot.
It is one of the best RenPy games that I have played. It makes good use of the game engine and a unique split screen system is in place to display the renders. The interface looks good and works well. Even so, I did install the interface mod to change the color of the text and replace the text box with a darker, more transparent box.
The reason I wanted the new text box was to see the renders better as the images in the game are outstanding. If you are familiar with Victoria 4, you will feel at home with the models as they all seem based on that generation of 3D figures. That’s okay as there are plenty of assets available for the models now and the characters don’t look like any you have seen in another game. The environments are nicely put together and there is variety in the clothing choices. The aliens in particular have chosen to wear less clothes that are more revealing than your standard Daz3D clothing. The nighttime scenes are properly lit and I never thought an image was too dark to see the details that were important to the story.
Once you have picked your route through the game, I recommend a few alternate paths be played as there are gorgeous renders and some surprising scenes on the “bad” paths as well.
Some of the drawbacks: the game doesn’t give immediate feedback on the results of choices so often you need to play through a section a few times to choose the best path. It is easy enough with RenPy’s skip function but none of the game variables are revealed to the player without console hacks. @ASLPro3D has stated that the game should play like real life, where there is no popup stat increase box when you make a decision, but wouldn't that be nice in real life too. I don't need constant feedback, but the game lacks any feedback at all so you are basically flying blind, which we know is a bad idea.
Another is during the MC’s power up scene where some of the paths lead to sections of dialog that seems perfectly acceptable in most adult games, things like "pack your daughter's mouth with some dick meat", "Not to disappoint her craving snatch of the baby-making juice it desired", "into Miriam's babymaker", and "stuffing her Mistress's ass with cockmeat", but seem out of place for the MC to think or say at that point in time no matter how depraved the player plans on making the MC later.
Then there is the section that leads to the setup of the next game in the series, which is actually a side story to the main game called "Adventures of a Changed Boy". The MC suddenly has powers that he never anticipated ever having, and he naturally knows exactly how to use them. And there is no option not to use them in that way.
Lastly, it's good that it is a RenPy game as you can have lots of saves as there is no gallery system in place to allow the player to replay sexy scenes, and potentially keep track of scenes you might have missed. It is the only real oversight in an otherwise excellent game.
But like every good Saturday matinée serial, the game ends on a cliffhanger that leaves you wanting more and I am eagerly awaiting whatever @ASLPro3D has for us in the next installment in the world of Wicked Choices.
