Dominate them all

Foreword

Drunk Robot studio sent me a free copy of this game. I’m surprised they did, after the somewhat scathing review I gave for the last game they gave me, Pleasure villa. I had a really bad time trudging through Pleasure villa, and to be frank I was leery to play another Drunk Robot title. But I retained hope that this game would be something better. Ultimately, I would be disappointed. However, I think there is much room for improvement moving forward. I hope that my words on Dominate them all will assist in future updates and releases.

Gameplay

Mash through text boxes and hope you make the right dialogue choices (to prevent rereading the same content again and again). If at any point you select the wrong choice, you’ll have to restart the conversation from the beginning on another day. Exacerbating the issue is the fact that progression is often tied to repeatedly talking to characters, even when their dialogue remains the same. The “CTRL” button will skip text — you’re gonna need it. Generally speaking, the goal is to increase your “domination” with each girl you meet, (eventually) granting access to their goodies. Once you get ahold of their numbers, booty calls are well, just a call away.

. . . yes, this is a game you can play one-handed!

Story

Ethan wallows in sorrow, recounting memories of his (now) ex-girlfriend Diana. Eventually, he pulls himself together and decides that he needs to take life by the reigns, and dominate every (attractive) woman he meets. Among his subjects are an Asian, a cosplayer, an exhibitionist, twins, and handful of (dangerously) promiscuous individuals. Eventually, he is forced to house his sister. Unbeknownst to him, his sister aims to be his right hand woman. As the goal of Dominate them all is to lay every character, everyone’s playthrough will probably differ in terms of who Ethan dominates, and in what order.

Visuals

Though well composed, the titlescreen looks like a joke — as if it belongs to some sort of comedy. To be fair, it’s actually somewhat fitting (except I seldom laughed). You can adjust text settings from the “gearbox” icon at anytime, but I could not find a means to mute/unmute audio. The game can be fullscreened, but not until you finish the prologue. This, and the lack of audio controls are unacceptable. The user-interface looks awful. It looks like it’s from an old textbook. I had hoped that Drunk Robot would have made improvements to the user-interface (or switched engines) since the last game they sent me, Pleasure villa.

Now uh, let’s talk about the in-game visuals.

Dominate them all utilizes a combination of 3D models (much like those of Daz Studio or Poser) and stock photographs to render scenes. The 3D characters are acceptable, but I’ve seen better. I had an issue with the repetitive use of facial expressions and poses — this is per the course for illustrated games, but 3D models can posed in a variety of ways for a fraction of the cost of hand-drawn graphics. The 3D renders are grainy and blurry, but they seem to be slightly higher quality than those of Pleasure villa. The way they were imposed on photographs looks cheap, but I can imagine provided tremendous relief on development costs.

The Goods

There are sixty-four unlockable scenes in the gallery. However, not all of them feature sexual content. Sex-scenes consist of dialogue and a series of static CGs, sometimes featuring slideshow animation. There are a handful of fetishes represented, including domination, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and urine. The sex scenes are okay. I didn’t find them particularly arousing, and the models that take part are hit or miss (and mostly miss). Hidden throughout the game are many “Easter Eggs”, which contain single, nude CGs.

Verdict

I don’t recommend this game, but it’s worth a shot during a good sale. I found Dominate them all to be a frustrating experience with too little payoff. It’s painfully repetitive, and it’s difficult to tell whether or not you are progressing. The 3D renders super-imposed on stock photographs cheapened the feel of the game. Sometimes, I wasn’t sure if I was playing a serious, erotic visual-novel, or another piece of memeware. Hadn’t I received a free copy of this title, I probably would have rage-quit a two or three hours into the game. Dominate them all is a below-average title, but if you’re out of VNs to play, this game is worth a looksy.

Wombat Woe — Hardlock
When speaking to Johnny about her black eye, if you reply “No Matter” (paying no regard to her explanation regarding her injury), the the game will hardlock. You must restart from a previous save.

Wombat Woe — History Lessons
There’s a character in the game that requires you to answer long strings of historical questions. This, in my opinion, is stupid. It’s not fun looking up historical questions on my phone, and having to re-input my answers and re-read dialogue with every failure is a failure of game design. Sure, you can save before each answer. But encouraging players to save-scum is also called bad game design.

Wombat Woe — Misspelling
“New York City” is written as “New Your City” the first time it is mentioned. Actually, this would be the first of many spelling errors I would see later on, including the word “I” being uncapitalized, and generally incorrect spelling. I’m not a bug tester or a spellchecker, so I can’t be bothered to lay-out each and every issue with the script — that’s the developers’ responsibility.

Curator Page

Steam Review

Steam Store