Desire

Reviewed by Craxton (craxton@erols.com)

Publisher: Himeya Soft Cost: $49.95 US Graphics: Okay. Animations look stilted, though. Music/Sound: Okay. NPCs: Good. Writing: Good. Plot: Not good. Confusing, farfetched even by Sci-Fi standards, and with rather sexist execution to boot. Interface: Good. Sex: Average in Al's scenerio, less then average in Makoto's scenerio. Kinkyness: Lesbianism, Child nudity in a non-sexual context, Facials, Anal, Rape, Domination, Bondage, Enema, Fisting.

*sigh* Good old C's Ware- one step forward, three steps back.

Their latest game, Desire, starts off with a rather impressive Lucid-Motion opening, but seeing it after completion of the game, I realized that most of the scenes in the intro have little relevance to the actual game. A situation that can be used as a metaphor for Desire as a whole- the game doesn't quite live up to the promise.

The story certainly has potential. You play two characters: Albert, a journalist allowed to do a piece on a top-secret research institute code-named "Desire," and Makoto, Al's long time girlfriend who works at Desire but knows almost as little as he does about the research. Of course once Al arrives things start to go wrong: an amnesiac girl named Tina washes up on the beach, the control disk that keeps Desire's experimental reactor from going cirtical is stolen, and Al and Makoto's relationship falls apart due to Makoto's involvement with the brutish Kyle and Al's cheating on her with... well, most of the women on the island. The story also involves a sleazy doctor named Gates (no Microsoft jokes, please), the cold and impersonal head researcher Martina, and rumors that Desire is developing weapons of biological warfare.

Desire comes on two CDs, but it's really a one-CD game with an extra disc to handle some spillover. The game is also slightly bugged so that you get a string of error messages when you try to change CDs in mid-play, and that's annoying. Also annoying is how the game routinely froze for several seconds on the map screen. But these minor bugs are the least of Desire's problems. First are the graphics. While not bad in the traditional sense, they suffer because the main characters are visually identical to those in EVE, and not drawn as well in Desire. This becomes especially aparrent during the Lucid-Motion sequences. The characters motions look stilted, mechanical, like they were animated by someone who didn't really care.

The music is average -- not hard to listen to (unless it's drowning out the vocals), but nothing to write home about either. The same could be said for the sex scenes, which didn't really interest me. They try, but the writing just doesn't click. (Although Al & Cynthia's night together had me rolling on the floor in laughter.)

These flaws aren't my main complaint with Desire, though -- the plot is. A labratory on a deserted island researching weapons technology is a good idea for a conspiracy tale, but C's Ware screwed it up royally. Exposition is shaky and concentrated almost entirely in the last third of the game. Plus, a last-minute plot twist makes the entire game even more confusing. That twist is exceptionally farfetched, too- the kind of dubious idea commonly present in bad Sci-Fi films like "Time Cop." More serious is the fact that the game's multi-sight design is lobsided- As the game goes on, the plot centers more and more around Al, and Makoto's scenerio devolves into a rather bland side-story. And, rationally, Albert shouldn't be sleeping with three other women and trying to win back Makoto at the same time, unless he's a cheuvenistic player, which seems inconsistant with his character. It all seems rather... well... sexist. Then there's an unforgivable problem- early on, Makoto gets raped by a big brute named Kyle, who forces and blackmails her into several humiliating scenerios over the course of the game. Kyle eventually becomes Makoto's romantic interest. Now, if you're going to try to pull something like that off, you better have one HELL of a plot angle.

The angle here? Makoto's a closet masochist.

*BZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!* Sorry, thanks for playing, C's Ware.

No-Spoiler rules demand I not give away the ending, but I will say this -- it sucks. There are actually four endings. Not four seperate endings, four endings occuring along the same timeline. There's one each for Albert and Makoto's scenerios. Finishing both unlocks a third scenerio that you just watch. (Similiar to the "green scenerio" in EVE Burst Error.) It explains some of the plot's ambiguities, and also presents a third, "true" ending, accompanied by credits. While very emotional and poignant, the third ending makes absolutely no sense. AND after the third scenerio, the player is presented with a short "epilogue" scenerio which has the opposite problem: It makes sense, at least in relation to the other endings, but almost completely undoes the third ending's emotional impact.

Bottom line: Some very great potential, mauled down to mediocrity by lousy execution. Desire does have high points, but not nearly enough to offset the mangled plot. When all was said and done, I felt cheated out of my money for buying it.