Title: Under Control 2
Release date: 2024-06-25
Developer & publisher: Higurashika
"Under Control 2" is a sort-of prequel to the previous game by the developer Higurashika "Under Control", and it basically has the same premise - a setting within a special college, where any and all sexual acts are encouraged. It has a different protagonist and the core cast, but a lot of characters from the first game return in the supporting roles.
 |
| A hospital with naked doctors. |
This time, the main protagonist is not a cute innocent girl, but a delinquent, who got in trouble with the law and had a choice of going to jail, or attending the St. Johnes College. Of course, she chooses the latter option and arrives to the promised place, to find it a hive of unbound sexual activity.
Just like with the first game, the main draw of the game is the veritable kitchen sink of various fetishes that are explicitly portrayed for our enjoyment: starting with something simple like public sex, to bestiality, scat, BDSM and other fun activities. Incest remains a large theme of the game, as a lot of characters have convoluted family trees, and are not shy about fucking their relatives, however, this time the game takes a darker turn, and explores even darker deviations. While technically, those darker themes are optional, they comprise such a large part of the game, that calling them optional is at the very least slightly misleading.
 |
| Happy bimbo is a dumb bimbo. |
Higurashika continues a slight moralizing tone, trying to convince us that none of the consensual sexual activities, no matter how bizarre or disgusting they are should be frowned upon, and while I wholeheartedly agree with that, I also feel that the second game manages to lose this message when the darkest deviations are explored in detail. After all, the game takes inspiration from "Resident Evil 8", and at least four of the characters are direct expies of that game's characters.
The game notwithstanding, I feel that UC2 has some unintentional similarities to "Resident Evil" movie series by Paul W. Anderson. Just like these movies, UC2 doesn't seem to have had a clear direction when the production had started, thus the developer throws everything at the wall, hoping to see what sticks, while forgoing any clear plotline. Sadly, very few things stick permanently, and the most exciting plot thread gets way too little attention to my liking.
 |
| She looks like a fun roommate. |
Shortly after arriving to the college, our protagonist Sarah (though she later changes her name) makes friends with two very kinky girls Leah and Samantha. Together, the trio makes a plan to secretly create a sex cult on the school grounds, whose members would worship them. Unfortunately, while I found the concept fresh, in comparison to the first game, the execution is lacking. The cult plotline gets very little attention for like two thirds of the game, and only receives some action at the end, but nothing as exciting as I have hoped. It doesn't help, that every time something interesting is about to happen, the protagonist gets distracted by some sidequest that has nothing to do with the main plot, and is there just to add some fetish fuel to the fire.
Not to mention, that I didn't particularly like the protagonist, as her reactions to everything were inadequate in some way. She takes the most outrageous things happening calmly, like it's just another Tuesday, but reacts hysterically when someone tells her the most obvious things everyone already knows anyway. It might have something to do with the developer being Russian, and the text clearly reflecting that it has not been written by a native speaker. Many conversations read surreal, like aliens pretending to act human, while not understanding the most basic things about humans. I admit it adds some charm to the wacky feeling the whole visual novel has, but it's clear the dev has not improved since the first game, which suffered from the same issue.
 |
| When the boys are away... |
I admit, at first I forgave the game its flaws, as the manner in which it throws one weird fetish after another in your face appealed to me, but therein lies the main problem. "Under Control" was a relatively short game that lasted 13 hours for me, which was a perfect size for it, and it didn't get boring during that time. "Under Control 2" is a much longer game. Just a single playthrough took me 33 hours, and I only played a purely submissive route. I'm not sure how much difference there would have been if I chose to replay as a dominant, but probably not much, if the first game is any indication. UC1 only had minor differences regarding the Sub or Dom playthroughs, and I believe UC2 is the same - from what I have seen it seems to be almost completely linear too. After playing for ten hours I was still very much into the game, at twenty hour mark I have started getting bored, and the last 10 hours were a chore to go through. There is only so much of fetish sex that is very light on plot one can stomach in a short time. I only hope that Higurashika takes at least this lesson to heart and makes the third game (which is currently in production), of a more manageable length.
 |
| Toilet etiquette. |
Just like UC1, "Under Control 2" is entirely composed of photographs and videos - there are no 3D renders, hand drawn images or AI graphics. Everything you see is taken from various fetish videos, which also makes the scenes very inconsistent in regards to character looks and environments, but I was personally fine with that. I knew what I was in for when coming into the game, and frankly this gave the game a raw aesthetic I moderately enjoyed.
All in all, "Under Control 2" is a very similar game to the first one, both in looks and in style, even though it explores the darker side of certain fetishes. However, it suffers from being way too overlong, especially taking into account the lack of coherent plot, and the wacky writing style. I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it, but the direction it took makes me warry of the third game, and I'm gonna approach it cautiously.
Links of Interest
Final Verdict: 56%
0 comments:
Post a Comment