[h1]Hire a hot boyfriend! For one hour.. [i]maybe[/i][/h1]
[i]Boyfriend For Hire[/i] is an animated narrative game with visual novel elements in that you click to move on the story and have the occasional decision to make which alters things slightly, but ultimately doesn't make any difference to the ending.
The game features six “chapters”, which, once seen, can be replayed sequentially or individually in any order you care to try. Taking a leisurely, relaxed approach to progressing the game, each chapter will last up to, but not beyond, 10 minutes, giving the player a maximum of one hour's entertainment.
At the beginning of chapter 1, we join the MC, provisionally named Amy although you have the freedom to change this; being approached by the “cool girl” at her school, and also her frenemy, Christie, who wishes to play one-upmanship by pointing out that she has a new boyfriend who possesses all of the attributes any sensible girl could wish for. Amy's friend defends her, stating that she also has a boyfriend; only for Christie to then challenge her to show him off at their upcoming club night.
This leads us into the discovery of the boyfriend for hire service, and after receiving pressure from her own mother to prioritise dating over her education (with mothers like this, no wonder society is going to pot), Amy decides to gamble on the service.
The brief story that follows is light and fluffy, and for the most part, I felt entertained as it unfurled; sporting a smirk every so often as teenage familiarities revealed themselves.
[h1]Positives[/h1]
- Amy has a choice of clothing every so often, and her sprite is seen in the chosen outfit for the remainder of the scene.
- The supporting musical accompaniment is jolly and fun initially, although it does become repetitive quite quickly. The game [i]just about[/i] carries it off due its own brevity.
- The story, at least what is there, is lighthearted and aspects of it ring true to life of a teenager of dating age.
- The static sprites look story appropriate and quite pleasant, certainly representing the character ages accurately. And the hired boyfriend is, well.. attractive.
[h1]Negatives[/h1]
- Although the sprites look perfectly respectable when in position, they walk on and off screen, and the walking animations are, putting this nicely, fine for a cartoon made to entertain infants. For the rest of us, they are stiff and awkward, and I started to feel a bit embarrassed about playing a character who moves like that.
- The text is available only in English, which makes the standard all the more disconcerting. No caption is unreadable, but the error count, notably in respect of English tense, is way too high for a story of this length.
- The user settings total a home button (back to the chapter select menu), and a sounds option. That's it. You don't get a save, although, in fairness, it would be absurd to need one when you can select the chapter and you're going to max out at 10 minutes on any one of them.
- The “ending”. I'll discuss this in a moment.
- The price.
[h1]Verdict[/h1]
On first run through this game I was amused sufficiently to feel that I could ignore the language slips and dodgy animations for the cheap price of £2.57 and give it a “gentle” thumbs up (in other words, “get it if lighthearted and no drama suits your tastes”), but then I reached the last caption of chapter 6, and that immediately turned my view to a [i]cannot recommend[/i].
The problem is that the story doesn't finish, it just stops. Imagine reading a novelette, that it has built up to the conclusion, you're looking forward to seeing how it ends.. a character makes a statement that leads the reader right into the finale, and the next words are “THE END”.
There, I just spoilered it for you. Sorry about that. Maybe.
The absence of a conclusion is a total mood killer, as unsatisfying as it could possibly get.
I also wish to point out my playing time, at 89 minutes, will look high and possibly have you questioning the max 1 hour statement I made initially. This is because I originally played through two months before writing this review, and chose to quickly rerun the whole thing to refresh my memory of it. Bear this average playing time in mind, because here comes the real kicker:
Two weeks before Christmas, they hiked the price! In the UK, the full price is now £12.79, the original full price (which is also above fair value) was £4.29. So, presumably because the game is not selling and the publisher wants a return on their efforts, they've imposed an increase of almost 300%!
I see on SteamDB that the highest number of concurrent players since release is one. I am not surprised. An absence of polishing before release, followed by an act of greed, has completely killed what could have been a cosy little one-evening narrative game.
Let it stay dead. Your money is better spent elsewhere.
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