Originally posted by Dee:

Note! This review is too long for steam's reviews! This is an abridged version of the full review, and as such is missing specific sections that I've found to not be absolutely vital, but is still missing pieces nonetheless. Read the full review on this google document:

Originally posted by Dee:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/111FuUzCoCNgQCa8OVsXTLYYoWHQ5XC1f_k_I4L4M9kA/edit?usp=sharing

Third Crisis is a game that I have a lot to thank for. It effectively started my side hustle of trying to find unique and interesting eroge games that break beyond contemporary content and quality standards for the genre, trying to find gems that are overlooked by most consumers because the game has an adult only label slapped on its ass. This is definitely one of them, and I’d like to tell you about what this gem has to offer. It’s a 7/10, for the standards of a normal video game with no adult content in it. It’s a 9/10, for the standards of the eroge game genre. But for me personally, it was an experience like no other. Clocking in 30 hours on the full release, and 6.3 hours in the demo, the game is chock full of content made by a team that definitely put their all into a game that took over 7 full years to develop and eventually fully released out of early access! So without further ado, let’s actually get into reviewing this behemoth of a project.It’s an eroge game, so you wouldn’t expect much, yet the game definitely does its best to deliver ...well…more than the competition. It’s not going to blow you away, but the narrative here is definitely above what you’d expect for a game of the genre. They even have in-universe reason as to why everyone is so sex crazed (mind control used by the antagonists to lull people into being too busy with sex to care about serious attempts at rebellion), and this mechanic isn’t a throwaway gag either, every character seems to be affected by this with the presence of purple text symbolizing a character being affected. A big highlight goes to worldbuilding, of which plenty was done through journal entries and visual storytelling, as well as some side quest chains that can even lead to early alternate endings. A big shout out to the writing too, which at times can be genuinely enjoyable and funny! While it’s a bit hard to ignore that Jenna has a bit of main protagonist power going on, especially compared to the rest of the cast, I never really got tired of the banter between Jenna, Throb, Jewel, Rida and Floria: they got a really good chemistry that never really got grating. I appreciate that of the 5 main characters, the straight man is a gay man named Throb, who’s interested in getting together with a guy named Tiny. (which, confirmed by the developers, is a reference to the 2 gay guards in undertale??? like cmon thats rich)Unfortunately, the game is far from perfect, and the gameplay is the sore thumb of Third Crisis. To say the gameplay is half-baked is giving it a bit too much credit. There’s ideas here for sure, but you can definitely tell there was a point in developing the gameplay where the developers just toggled the in-game skip mode to completely skip the combat (confirmed by one of the developers, actually lol). From all party members besides Jenna having no alternate weapons, to stats that barely function or can’t be affected, to Jenna being absurdly overpowered while the rest of the party is very unbalanced, it’s clear that at some point the devs decided to give up on the game play. Personally, I’d recommend you do the same. I can appreciate the attempt in trying to add in a combat gameplay loop, but I’m very glad their next title is ditching the combat entirely. The combat is very buggy, has tons of features that exist but don’t really do anything, and besides knocking back enemies into walls, it’s very barebones. And while that’s not really a problem for the standards of an eroge game, I try to review these games as if they were normal games, so it’s not something that I can ignore.Unlike the gameplay, you can definitely tell even from the screenshots where most of the focus of this game went. Despite the majority of CGs not being very appealing to me personally, there is no doubt that a lot of time and effort went into every single one of them. It is frankly baffling how many animated, slideshow, and interactive CGs are in this game. The gallery reports 101 animated CGs, but there’s a few missing from that total that still appear in-game. There is a LOT here, and even some kinks and fetishes that go beyond the scope of what’s seen as normal or typical to include in an eroge game that isn’t advertised as being beyond a traditional audience (heterosexual men), there’s monster girls, tentacles, robots, and much more. And notice how I said that “the majority of CGs” aren’t appealing to me, and not every one of them. This game has Rita! Rita has girldick!!! This came to me as a HUGE surprise, as I nowhere near expected that in a game not with an LGBT+ label, and I massively respect the developers for trying to push the boundaries of what’s seen as acceptable to put in a “traditional audience” eroge game. Games that do exactly this is what my review group, The Twink Treehouse, is all about trying to find and showcase, and Third Crisis did not dissappoint here.Despite the negative things I’ve had to say so far, I do believe that for the majority of players, I’d be easily comfortable recommending Third Crisis. It’s far from flawless, but I think that’s just as much the fault of the expectation of the genre shaping the priorities of development, as it is with the development itself. Even if I believe this game could have been much, much more, I’m happy it exists, I’m happy it kickstarted my side hustle of reviewing weird wacky and unique eroge games, I’m happy that there’s at least one game that took 7 years to make and ended up a content complete package, with a complete start and 7 endings! I’m proud of Anduo Games for even getting this game to a complete state after so many years, and I’m excited to see where Neon Nights goes. As for this game, I really do believe it’s worth your time. There’s still plenty more in this game that I haven’t talked about, and don’t want to, as I want there to be things for you to experience and discover yourself. However you choose to play it, from trying to be me and deciding to slog through the combat, to using skip mode and treating the game as nothing more than a museum of CGs, it’s still a memorable experience that has had tons of love put into it over the years, and it’s definitely worth your, and my, time.

-Dee, of the Twink Treehouse