PORN GAME REVIEW: BOOK OF BONDMAIDS

REVIEWED BY: NoxAeternae

You are a hero and a traitor. And before you lies a crossroad of corruption, redemption, and personal gain. That is the premise of Book of Bondmaids, but does the game deliver on this premise? Let us find out!

Oil-painting style art used for the sex scenes is astonishing

First of all, I absolutely adore the setting. For some reason, the Slavic cultures lend themselves incredibly well to dark fantasy. Book of Bondmaids is no exception. The grungy character designs with the dark and stifling city create a witcher-like atmosphere.

The story is intriguing. There is political intrigue, power struggles, changing allegiances. All of the ingredients for an epic plot. Unfortunately, ingredients alone do not make a good dish. But let us first establish what is good about the game, and there is a lot of good.

There is no way to talk about this game without mentioning its greatest strength: the artwork. Oil-painting style art used for the sex scenes is astonishing. It fits very well with both the setting and the story. And yet I was just as equally impressed by the more stylized, simplistic artwork used for the in-between scenes. Their simplicity makes a great bridge when shifting between them and somehow keeps the charm. It reminded me of the stylized sketches Age of Empires used in its campaign scenarios way back in the day. And that is always a good thing in my book!

It seems like the game has all the elements required for a good experience; so, what went wrong? Well, it is a series of strange decisions that drag the whole experience down a bit.

Let us take a closer look at the main character. In adult games, the developers often have a choice between a well-developed character and a blank-slate character. Neither option is wrong inherently, and both can work depending on the game and the story. What becomes a problem is when you can’t decide which option to go for.

As I mentioned, the main character is supposed to be a hero. A hero who betrayed the royal house and serve an ancient lich instead. This is a bold choice.  A choice that makes things interesting in terms of our MC background. Unfortunately, the rest of the game doesn’t support this. Most of the time, the main character comes across as passive, weak, and lacking confidence. Getting shy about seeing a pair of tits is a far cry from what you’d expect from both a hero and a servant of evil.

I understand why the developer might have gone for a more blank-slate character. Throughout the game, you can shape your decisions around three basic morality options: good, evil, and neutral. A blank-slate character can more easily fit all three of these routes, however, it also creates a disconnect between who the main character is supposed to be according to the story, and how they appear in your playthrough.

This brings us to the problem with choice-making in the game. Although some of the moral choices seem strange at first glance, for the most part, I’m okay with those. You also make choices that only affect the dialogue, and they are also fine. What I’m less fine with are the choices that lead to bad ends. Most of these happen during combat scenarios. The problem, however, is that it’s almost impossible to gauge what the right choice is from the options you are given. In the absence of clear consequences that you can predict, these choices devolve into random options that you get through by saving and loading. And I think we can all agree that this is not a good feeling for the player.

Left me with a feeling that I had, in fact, made all the wrong choices

Despite the problem with the choices, the scenarios in which you have to make them, are really well done. The writing is solid, the pacing is good, and the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. I was especially impressed by the orgy scene near the end.
Nearing the end, however, is when things start getting worse. Being quickly thrown into the endgame, you notice things start happening on their own. There is a lack of proper build-up and your input as a player is taken away. Rushed is the only word I can think of to describe how it unfolds. Revelations and plot twists happen with little to no foreshadowing and you are left feeling like what you finished in 15 minutes should have taken an hour or two.

What compounds this problem is that the revelations throughout the story are not things that you discover as you play. Instead, they are revealed to you by other characters because of things that happened off-screen. All of this leads to a very unsatisfying final part of the game, the actual ending.

 In my first playthrough, I went for the good moral choices. The idea of a hero-turned-villain trying to redeem himself was interesting to me.  And yet instead of finding redemption, my character was punished and swept to the side. Now I won’t deny that there’s some poetry in that; after all, redemption is never guaranteed no matter how hard you try to make past wrongs right. But as far as I was concerned, I had made all the right, moral choices in the game. And I was punished for what my character did before the game even started or things I had no choice over. And this left me with a feeling that I had, in fact, made all the wrong choices. That I was a fool for trying to be moral.

 So, where does that leave us? The game has a great start, an interesting and fun setting, and stellar artwork. Despite the promising start, however; the boring main character, the systems that feel unfinished, and the incredibly rushed ending leave a bad aftertaste. And yet I want to end this review on a positive note. Despite the mistakes, it is clear there is plenty of talent behind The Book of Bondmaids. If Kamti can learn from this experience, the next game is going to be so, so much better.

So is Book of Bondmaids worth playing? I would say yes. Despite the disappointing end, I enjoyed a significant portion of the game. Especially some of the longer, more developed scenes were extremely fun. Give it a try; form your own opinions and keep an eye on this developer!

BOOK OF BONDMAIDS WAS SELECTED AS ONE OF THE BEST COMPLETED GAMES DECEMBER 2021

DEVELOPED BY: KAMTI