Peril in Pleasantville was the worst game I ever loved. The writing sucks balls -- there's no better way of saying it. But it has tons of pictures and bucketloads of girls to sleep with to make up for it. Peril in Pleasantville, after all, was the game where you could go out on dates with two girls -- neither of which was your girlfriend, and sleep through a plentiful cast. It was awesome.
...And then there was the weird alien subplot I don't think anyone cared about.
But it was RtP that finally made me learn what PiP was trying to be. The awkward horror elements, wanton shamelessness and terrible writing makes RtP the AIF equivalent of an awesomely bad B-movie. For this reason, I was excited when the cult randomly appeared out of nowhere, thinking to myself "ah, this is where the game really starts!"
As it turns out, that's where RtP would end.
We were all well-warned that RtP was going to be smaller than PiP. Despite that, you can't help but wish sequels to be bigger and better than their predecessors, and so RtP's relatively compact size was a disappointment. I can't help but wish RtP was a different game. For instance, why even return to Pleasantville? Why not set the entire game in the cabin by the lake, bring more of PiP's old characters into it and make them a bit more central? I found myself wishing I could interact with some of the established characters a bit more, like Emily, Katie and Maggie, in different combinations, too. In particular Emily, who was my favorite character in PiP, shortly following Katie. (Lamont, there needs to be a Katie/Emily threesome, make it happen) As it is, the important girls get only fractionally more screentime as the numerous random girls you encounter throughout the game.The ending cult sequence could have been foreshadowed a bit more too.
Speaking of girls, there's a lot of them in RtP, and they range from super-hot (Becky and Ms. Weaver) to scary-looking (Ms. Johnson, crazy old lady). It was especially nice to get with Ms. Weaver, who for some reason has become ultra-sexy between games. If women had the same sex drive as men, they might be in a Pleasantville game. After nearly every sex scene the woman has had a reason to bolt out with nary a word about cuddling or even a second date. One girl even said "Thanks for the dick," as she kicked me out of her home post-coitus. Talk about a male fantasy. I found it all a bit funny, really.
RtP uses a peculiar "flirt" mechanic to seduce strangers. Every time you flirt with someone, you either succeed or fail. If you fail too many times in a row, you ruin your chances. If you succeed enough times, you unlock their sex scene. It's as simple as that, and it's the kind of system I might imagine someone writing an AIF parody would devise. Honestly, it's pretty lazy even for a Pleasantville game, and I think it would have bugged me if I could seduce a major character with it. As it was, I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would, knowing that the alternative probably wasn't going to be much more inspired.
Technically, RtP is more stable than PiP, which isn't saying much. The game doesn't bug out as much, and there are just some niggling errors that I just feel could have been fixed pretty easily.
I really feel that Return to Pleasantville would have been much, much better if it had just merged the first part of the game with the second part. The part where you're moping around town and the part where you're camping just don't fit together. Sure, it's pretty cool to be able to cruise around town picking up strangers, but I think I would have liked to have seen more variety with fewer characters. I would sort of love to see an expansion which fleshes out the second part of the game.
...And then there was the weird alien subplot I don't think anyone cared about.
But it was RtP that finally made me learn what PiP was trying to be. The awkward horror elements, wanton shamelessness and terrible writing makes RtP the AIF equivalent of an awesomely bad B-movie. For this reason, I was excited when the cult randomly appeared out of nowhere, thinking to myself "ah, this is where the game really starts!"
As it turns out, that's where RtP would end.
We were all well-warned that RtP was going to be smaller than PiP. Despite that, you can't help but wish sequels to be bigger and better than their predecessors, and so RtP's relatively compact size was a disappointment. I can't help but wish RtP was a different game. For instance, why even return to Pleasantville? Why not set the entire game in the cabin by the lake, bring more of PiP's old characters into it and make them a bit more central? I found myself wishing I could interact with some of the established characters a bit more, like Emily, Katie and Maggie, in different combinations, too. In particular Emily, who was my favorite character in PiP, shortly following Katie. (Lamont, there needs to be a Katie/Emily threesome, make it happen) As it is, the important girls get only fractionally more screentime as the numerous random girls you encounter throughout the game.The ending cult sequence could have been foreshadowed a bit more too.
Speaking of girls, there's a lot of them in RtP, and they range from super-hot (Becky and Ms. Weaver) to scary-looking (Ms. Johnson, crazy old lady). It was especially nice to get with Ms. Weaver, who for some reason has become ultra-sexy between games. If women had the same sex drive as men, they might be in a Pleasantville game. After nearly every sex scene the woman has had a reason to bolt out with nary a word about cuddling or even a second date. One girl even said "Thanks for the dick," as she kicked me out of her home post-coitus. Talk about a male fantasy. I found it all a bit funny, really.
RtP uses a peculiar "flirt" mechanic to seduce strangers. Every time you flirt with someone, you either succeed or fail. If you fail too many times in a row, you ruin your chances. If you succeed enough times, you unlock their sex scene. It's as simple as that, and it's the kind of system I might imagine someone writing an AIF parody would devise. Honestly, it's pretty lazy even for a Pleasantville game, and I think it would have bugged me if I could seduce a major character with it. As it was, I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would, knowing that the alternative probably wasn't going to be much more inspired.
Technically, RtP is more stable than PiP, which isn't saying much. The game doesn't bug out as much, and there are just some niggling errors that I just feel could have been fixed pretty easily.
I really feel that Return to Pleasantville would have been much, much better if it had just merged the first part of the game with the second part. The part where you're moping around town and the part where you're camping just don't fit together. Sure, it's pretty cool to be able to cruise around town picking up strangers, but I think I would have liked to have seen more variety with fewer characters. I would sort of love to see an expansion which fleshes out the second part of the game.
