Capsule Review: Sacrilege
A short Twine game in which you play as a straight young woman at a dance club looking to get safely and responsibly laid. There are four men you can pursue with different personalities and while the story broadly takes the same path regardless of your choices certain events will occur differently based on what you do and in what order you do it.
Where the game succeeds is in its emotional authenticity and punch. The game is about several ways sex and relationships can go wrong and how to avoid falling into those traps. To get its message across, it attempts to emotionally break the player down before building them back up. The main story is essentially a series of surprisingly relatable gut punches and is followed by a short manifesto containing the game’s intended lessons. It’s a little unfortunate that the moral couldn’t have been better integrated - it ceases to be a text adventure and is now just text - but it’s well-written and if the prior gameplay has done its job the player is in exactly the right emotional place to receive the message.
The game worked well on me, and I learned from it. It was useful to see the other perspective on situations I’ve been in, especially when it’s articulated as effectively as it is here. And while the game’s painful moments definitely left their cathartic mark, the ultimate message is optimistic as well as useful, steering the player toward healthier relationships.
I Stopped Playing When: I finished the game. I’ve played it again several times in the years since, usually to refresh my memory so I can properly recommend it to someone or explain the impact it had on me.
Four Stars: Great. Not only did I finish the game, I probably played through the whole thing again and/or completed any optional objectives. It's an easy recommendation for any genre fan.