Love at Elevation Reviews

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 240: ⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (3/10) You know, I've never felt skeeved or peeved when reading in a video game, especially an IF romance. But there's always a first time for everything! [i]Love at Elevation[/i] isn’t offensively bad (or maybe it is?), but it’s definitely not good. It feels like a visual novel that wanted to explore grounded realistic, adult romance, but ended up feeling like a weird blend of wellness retreat propaganda, awkward character writing, and sex-first relationships that never emotionally clicked. I didn’t hate it, but I was left weirded out and deeply uninvested. This game wants you to care about its characters, but it gives you so few reasons to. 🏔️ [b]Pros:[/b] [list] [*] Technically sound writing. Grammar, punctuation, formatting—it’s clean. The prose itself isn’t terrible, and the pacing is readable. You can tell the author knows how to write; the issue lies more in what they wrote, not how they wrote it. [*] Beautiful setting. The backdrop of mountain life in a Colorado-esque town is nice. If you squint past the odd tone of the characters, there’s some cozy potential in the idea of small-town community, nature hikes, and fresh starts. It feels like it wants to be relaxing and grounded. [*] Not a terrible short story concept. As a short, one-off novella about a person moving to a wellness town and navigating romance, the core premise works. It's why I bought it! [*] Decent sex scenes. If you’re here for the spice, the game doesn’t fumble the ball. They’re not groundbreaking, but they’re competent and decently paced. The sexual writing is one of the only areas that feels consistently confident. [/list] 🧘 [b]Cons:[/b] [list] [*] The romance options are just… not likable. I tried. I really did. But every love interest felt more like an awkward person I was being forced to tolerate than someone I actually wanted to get to know. Rae (I picked all female ROs) is described as intense, almost rude, which didn't quite endear me to her. Kaysha is sweet but seemed very insistent on her work and was late to our dates. The ex is ... a clingy ex. The "hippy healer" is a "doctor" of alternative medicine, which is a big turn off for me, sadly. The game insists on making each RO flawed—which could’ve been fine! But instead of depth, it feels like the game is constantly nudging you with “don’t you still want to have sex with them though?” The balance between realism and likability is wildly off, and instead of growing to love them, I felt like I was dragging my MC through a set of awkward therapy sessions with people I barely liked. [*] Sex is treated as more important than emotional intimacy. The game leans really hard into sex as a metric for connection, often at the expense of character development or chemistry. It felt like my MC was supposed to value hookups over emotional stakes, especially when the game kept nudging all the ROs my way. It was hard to engage with the story when I didn’t care about the “romance” side of the romance. Sex and love don’t have to be synonymous—but they should at least feel related. [*] Bizarre tone in dialogue and character reactions. Example: "Kayshe accepts your decision. As you make dinner and talk, she keeps looking at you as if she thinks she’ll be able to talk you into sex later on. You’re not keen on that happening—or on Kaysha thinking it, either.

It’s making you uncomfortable, in fact, because you don’t feel it’s helping to rebuild the trust that you need to rebuild something after your misunderstanding. Maybe that will come later tonight, you hope. And if it doesn’t, then maybe prospects for you and Kaysha aren’t as rosy as you’d like to think." Or even: "It says something about you that you let yourself be chatted up while on a date." I did [i] what[/i] now? [*] Forced hippie-town lifestyle. Now listen, I don't have anything against hippies; I'm just not one. But you will pick between fitness, wellness, or activism. You will hike, meditate, and pretend to be into holistic medicine. You will love coffee and bookstores. A romance option is even someone studying alternative medicine. The game has no real room for skepticism, sarcasm, or being anything other than a crystal-waving 4/20 bro. If you’re not on board with pseudoscience or new-age vibes, your MC will still act like you are. Roleplaying options are extremely limited; your character is pre-written with one worldview, and it’s aggressively hippy-dippy. [*] All romances follow the same structure. No matter who you choose, your dates hit the same beats: same activities, same friend drama, same emotional arc. There’s a recycled feeling to it all. It felt like relationship speedrunning, and not in a fun way. [*] Lack of real branching paths. There’s a veneer of choice, but nearly everything feeds back into the same scenes. No matter who you’re with, the story plays out the same. The “rival” who tries to sabotage your relationship shows up regardless, with identical dialogue. Everyone’s problems start feeling interchangeable. It makes your choices feel cosmetic. So this was weird, man. [/list]