This is a very good game for the price. I had a lot of fun with it, and I would recommend it.
Here are some thoughts after playing it.
I assume the game was originally intended to be a zombie-apocalypse survival game in the style of This War of Mine. But with games like Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days coming out, I think the developers wanted to differentiate this game by giving it more of a dating-sim feel, particularly through the girl next door. I think that works quite well.
However, I also think the game feels incomplete in several ways.
The fact that there is a basement and a bed on the second floor makes me wonder if the game was originally designed around having multiple people living in the same house.
Likewise, the washing machine, shower, massage chair, and other late-game items make me think there may have originally been plans for more long-term content. In the current game, however, these items are essentially meaningless. For them to really matter, I feel like there should be a scenario where, for example, after 100 days, the girl next door moves into your house and the two of you start living together.
There are multiple endings, but I honestly couldn't tell where the actual choices that determine those endings are made. If I replayed the game, I feel like I would probably get the same ending again, which makes it difficult to feel motivated to do another playthrough.
I think the game would benefit from more dramatic and clearly defined choice points and endings.
For example:
You explore the hospital and choose to bring justice to the people there, but as a consequence, the girl next door is rescued separately and leaves without you.
You choose not to install the antenna and decide to continue living there together with the girl.
You sacrifice yourself so that the girl can escape.
You choose to survive at the cost of the girl's life.
Choices like these would make the relationship and the ending feel much more meaningful, and would also give players a real reason to replay the game.
Second, I think the gameplay role of the girl is somewhat unclear. I assume she was intended to be specialized in cooking, farming, and perhaps defense. But in actual gameplay, you eventually end up eating rats anyway, and farming is relatively inefficient. In the end, she feels less like a genuinely distinct character and more like a weaker version of the male protagonist who simply can't craft Molotov cocktails.
Third, regarding the warehouse manager: I suspect there may not be many players who have progressed far enough to play this character, which might explain why there isn't much feedback about him. But his balance also feels off.
His starting skill levels are low and his overall stats are poor. If this is intentional, and he is supposed to be a deliberately incompetent character simply to increase the difficulty, then playing him mostly feels tiring rather than interesting.
There should be some other distinctive trait, mechanic, or story element that compensates for his incompetence. Looking at the warehouse itself, it feels like there should be some interesting story or something worth exploring there. If there isn't, I think that would be disappointing.
