Good evening I’m the game tutor and tonight we are going to be looking at “one night stand” an indie story based game by Independent developer and artist Lucy Blundell.
The premise of the game is simple. You wake up in a strange bed next to a girl with no recollection of what had happened the night before although it quickly becomes apparent that you had sex with the girl in question.
The game that follows is a visual novel/ point and click game that sees you searching for clues as to where you are or who she is as well as choosing how you interact with the girl in question. It is difficult to do the game justice without giving away plot spoilers but let me say that the game has multiple endings and the decisions you make massively change the outcome of the narrative.
My first playthrough I decided to play it as realistic as I could and was squashed when I wanted to see her again. The second time I decided to be a jerk and got a pretty frost reception. I am generally not a fan of visual novels and I approached this one with that mindset. Needless to say, at the time of writing this review I have played through the game 11 times and have still not seen a few of the possible outcomes to the story.
The game is charming and very well written with the interaction with the girl in question appearing very natural and realistic in the given situation. I really cared about the outcome and genuinely felt hurt when the events didn’t go my way. I do not think I have ever felt as engaged in a visual novel before let alone one that takes such a relatively short time to complete and that really is a testament to how well Lucy Blundell has put this game together. Now at about 10-15 minutes a playthrough some may see it is as short but the length is what encourages multiple playthroughs and leaves you desperate to come back and see what happened if you made a slightly different decision. In fact I actually stopped writing this review to go and have 1 more go…. It gets in you…
Strangely the game that I kept thinking of when trying to think of a comparison was actually the “Stanley Parable” rather than any other visual novel due to the short replayable nature and the fantastic branching paths.
Overall “One Night Stand” is an outstanding little story based game that will suck you in for a good few hours and really not let you go. On the face of it I did not think I would give a game like this suck praise but at £2.50 or your regional equivalent “One Night Stand” is an experience that you would be foolish to miss.
