Editor's Rating
Story - Next Steps, despite promising potential, falls short in the storytelling department. The writing is plagued with overexposition and awkward dialogue, making it difficult to emotionally invest in the characters and their relationships. The cringe-worthy and unnatural interactions between Doug, the father, and Jessica, the stepmom, are particularly off-putting. As a result, the backstory and drama fail to capture players' attention, leaving little room for genuine engagement. - 66%
Visual - The game's visual presentation can be best described as 'just okay.' The rendering quality is neither exceptional nor terrible, striking a balance that doesn't impress or disappoint. The character models are a mixed bag, with some displaying uncanny valley features, while others lack realistic details. Notably, the female character models suffer from the typical DAZ issue of unrealistic nipple rendering. While there's mild variety among the character designs, it doesn't quite make up for the overall lackluster visual experience. - 71%
Engagement - Next Steps manages to offer a wide range of choices, but its reliance on hints can be restrictive and detracts from the sense of autonomy players seek in such games. The narrative seems to revolve around fulfilling fetishes involving stepcest, cheating, and swinging, which may be enticing to some players but feels rushed and lacking depth. The game's abundance of explicit content may cater to certain audiences, but it doesn't compensate for the shallow engagement that arises due to the weak storytelling. - 57%
Core Loop - The game's core loop primarily revolves around exploring different paths with the three protagonists: Bobby, Doug, and Jessica. However, the quality of the animations, especially during intimate scenes, leaves much to be desired. While the scenarios may elicit some level of eroticism, the subpar animations hinder the overall experience. The lack of clarity in distinguishing characters on the stats page and the absence of save naming options are additional disappointments. - 63%
64%
out off 100%
This review is based on author's perspective and actual experience may differ on individual's own preferences.
I like the premise of the story. It feels like there could be route for everyone in the future. This would be really unique game if you could choose something like getting both step mother and daughter to son or father, while other man would just get cockblocked. Story does suggest that something like that could happen and it makes it so interesting. Cheating is clearly option, even it is over used. Pretty much every game has some cheating in it. We will see how basic or unique this game will be in the end. Now it has a good base. Story does move maybe even too fast. Everyone is naked and fucking as soon as the “hello” is said.
Writing does make all scenes and every interaction interesting. Speed of the story does make interractions kinda unnatural. Like the daughter is told to be shy, but her panties are wet and mouth ready for cock from the first interraction. Sex scenes are over before they even begin. With no buildup for sex scenes and so short sex, makes them pretty much non-existent. What little writing there is, is still pretty good.
Some of the women do look acceptable. Huge black bar does block the view always, so there isn’t much eye candy to watch while reading. And the pictures are not that good to keep spamming the black bar removal. Missing sex scenes is also really big problem. But even without them, i still want to see more. The game has so much potential, but for now 3/5.