Review: Man of the House

 Ed's H Game Review!

Man of the House

Game Type: Unity Time Management / Dating Sim

Creator: Faerin Games

Version Played: Steam Retail Release + Christmas DLC

Man of the House is not a game that changes the way we look at porn games. You play as a dude just out of college, he lives with his mom and two sisters, and you can basically imagine the rest. Build your harem, bang your ladies, find your happy ending. The writing is solid but nothing special, except for the part about the Urban Angel. There's a superheroine in the game. It doesn't really make much sense in a game otherwise grounded in reality (other than the porny bits, but what can do you?), but you know what, why not? She's actually a pretty cool character. No character strikes me as offensive or problematic except a couple of side characters, and neither are painted as particularly sympathetic. In fact, getting revenge on them is a big part of the game. The renders are nice but not incredible. The environments are fine. The game is a bit grindy, especially when it comes to money, and I'll admit to turning on the in game cheat menu about halfway through just to save myself some tedium. The characters are largely likeable, but also largely forgettable. It's got a bunch of different endings, including the prerequisite harem ending (Though I personally preferred one of the side harems. It's a thing.) It's fine, it's a fine game. There's a few things I'd have liked to have seen, but truthfully, nothing that I can't live without.

So for such an average setup, why am I talking about it? Well for one, Faerin makes pretty good use of the unity engine, with a smoother UI, map flow, and menu flow than anything I've ever seen in Ren'py. The backend is stellar, the game just plain works well. The only bugs I found were inherent to Unity, so QA was really well done. From a gameplay experience, it was as solid as I could ask for and honestly, I have to respect that. Second, the game is actually finished. That's just a rarity in this genre, so many creators start a project and just stop it. I've been guilty of that myself. It's hard to see a game of this scope through to completion, and as a reviewer, getting to take a look at the finished product is a satisfying feeling, even if the game itself left me a bit cold.

And then there's the third reason.

You see, I played the creator's second game, which is still in development, first. And Mystwood Manor is VERY interesting. Also built in the unity engine, but this one gets just about everything right. Interesting management gameplay loop. Cleaner visuals. Much more interesting story and characters. The main character has motivations beyond just getting his dick wet. There's an overarching, supernatural plot. The gameplay is... an actual game! It's so much more impressive than Man of the House is.

Seen through the lens of this second game, Man of the House makes more sense. It's intentionally average storytelling because Faerin clearly wanted to make a simple, digestible game first. Get the practice in, get it right, make sure they can do it, and THEN start working on the fancier narrative and gameplay. It's one thing to say "you have to walk before you can run," it's another to see a clearly very talented creator put that into practice. With that knowledge in mind, I was all to happy to purchase Man of the House on Steam, because I've seen firsthand what this creator is clearly capable of. This isn't a story of an average game for average players. This is the story of someone who stuck the grueling process of creating a game like this all the way through to the end, and then started again on something much grander with the knowledge that yes, they can ship a game clearly being a reality. Making games is hard. Completing them is harder.

Pros: Well designed, solid characters and visuals. 

Cons: Kind of a blah game. Nothing special unless you're interested in the development self.

Overall: 7/10

Mystwood: 10/10 PLAY THIS.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/faerin