Eugenics Reviews

eh

Clicking orgy and not a single fun mechanic or outcome. Bunch of pacifist hermaphrodites with elefant ears and monkey tails walking around in a building is the epitome of what you can achieve here... oh boy.

One of the levels is busted, it starts up in French which isn't clarified anywhere, the "Spanish" version is only tooltips with everything else in English, the Discord link is busted, and the "report bugs" Google form link is also busted. I've only got so much time in it because what's there is just barely functional and hard to find in other "genetics-y" games. Also, satire requires a function? Like, you have to be poking fun at something, not just doing the thing and calling it satire. There's rampant typos, like the "exit" button being called "Settings" and having a stereotypical gear icon which should be settings and not exit. Finally... Black + White = Vitiligo is a literal game mechanic.

I am in the midst of the game and will probably go a little further as every new level in the story mode keeps introducing a couple new alternatives for us to choose from. The game is basically a "Mastermind (board game)" minus the "mind" part. You have to guess what gene you just unlocked and what genes the mission tells you to find (or mix). The game is destined to have a repetitive play. There are bits of Huxley's book here and there and some satirical pieces here and there. On a side note I had this game in my wishlist for a good while and I am disappointed overall.

I really want to like this game but I just can't figure out how to play it. I did the tutorials but nothing is really explained. I try putting genes in the slots randomly and checking them, so they'll at least show up as words, but I can't tell what the green, yellow, or red lights mean when I check it, since it gives different colors to the same words in the same places when I click 'Check' a second time. I don't know if selecting a trait when a kid gets born makes it get replaced or keeps it, either. And why is the trait already selected a negative for your total change count when you don't select it anymore? And what does the rebel caste do? I don't know any society that has a rebel caste... Also, the people breed with people from other castes, which seems incredibly counterproductive. It would be nice to have the option for people to get married too, just for realism's sake. For some reason, 95% of the people's descriptions are talking about their gender, which is kind of off putting for various reasons: they're either implying other wo/men are not 'real' wo/men, talking about privilege which when unrelated to anything is annoying no matter which side a person is on, or have an unoffensive statement about what gender they are that is only annoying because it seems to be the only facet of anyone's personality. I do like the animal trait options since I dig that fantasy stuff. I figured out eventually that the child's outfit is what indicates what caste they're suited for. But honestly it's just very frustrating trying to 'discover' genes, since I don't get how the system works at all. I hope this game will update the tutorial soon so that I can enjoy it fully. Having an FAQ or walkthrough available would also be nice.

The game mechanics is not that advanced. It is a world building game with some deduction parts. I can admit that the game play could be improved with more mechanics. However, I believe this game is about how people with some genes are more desired than others and if we allow genetic engineering in humans what the society will become. It is a commentery on a possible dystophia. At least I think it tries to be, but It could use some updates and new game mechanics.

I was curious despite the negative reviews. Here's what I said in my refund request: The game is poorly translated from French, but that's not the main issue. There's something wrong with how the font displays. It drops letters, sometimes entire blocks of text, and replaces them with periods. I can tolerate a janky game but I can't tolerate not being able to read what the game is trying to say. It's not worth it.

I genuinely tried to refund this several times and never got past the arbitrary bot system. Don't buy it. I waited to see if any updates might come, they never did. I had to idle on the screen just to reach the playtime threshold to leave this review even though literally all the problems I have with it were experienced in under the 5 minute requirement. The English is machine translated, and the menus keep defaulting back to French even if I change it in options after I close the game. It's a clickathon with little meaningful progress, and poor trait expressions that were really not what I anticipated when I was looking forward to this title.