Review updated as of v0.72
I first played Hail Dicktator at v0.20 and have played every update since. The game is very good and the developer has an excellent track record for frequent updates. The theme of this game is BDSM and humiliation, so if you're not into that, you're probably not going to enjoy it, and if BDSM is a turnoff, you'll want to steer clear.
Gameplay: I'm not a fan of sandbox games, but the sandbox in this game is very well done, both from a UI and a gameplay perspective. This game actually fits nicely into a sandbox compared to the vast majority of sandbox games that use the sandbox only to waste the player's time. I never encountered a bug, which is very unusual for a sandbox game, so major props to the dev for that. However, there are some minor inconsistencies with the sandbox where characters can appear in two places at once, which breaks immersion. Additionally, the need to manage the hotel/resort effectively disappeared in later updates. The management is a major part of gameplay early in the game. However, the change is appreciated because frankly, it was getting boring. I suspect that the hotel management gameplay may seem different for players that start a new game compared to players that are just playing the latest update each month. It's also worth mentioning that the hotel management can be completely automated once the player earns enough money to purchase the maximum "efficiency" and "persistence" upgrades. Something else that has little value in later updates is the "status" for the love interests and the status screen for a few love-interests has been bugged and has not changed for dozens of updates, so the stats seem to have been abandoned. The addition of the parallel gameplay playing as Nyx is a bit dumb. This is really just a way to show what's going on somewhere outside of the MC's visibility and control. Strangely, it stopped when she went back to the Island, even though everything she does is still not visible to the MC. The Nyx part is just a linear story and there's no need for the player to play it as a sandbox. A lot of development time and effort were wasted on the Nyx gameplay for nothing.
Story: The sci-fi story is better than average for an adult game. It does have a lot of holes in the logic, but it's not a cookie-cutter adult game story, and that's refreshing. The writing is pretty good, too. Most of the characters have an innocence and naivete about them that is a bit overdone, but it certainly takes the edge off of the BDSM theme. The dream world updates that started with v0.69 make me think that the developer is just trying to extend the game a few more months instead of wrapping it up. I'm worried about the ending.
Visuals: Very good rendering and cute models. The occasional animations weren't very good in earlier updates, but they've become good in later updates.
Lewd scenes: The lewd scenes in the game are exclusively centered around BDSM. BDSM isn't my thing, so people that are into it should take this with a grain of salt. My impression is that most of the lewd scenes are relatively short and shallow and not very erotic. Some scenes do try to express the love that characters have for each other (sometimes even going a bit overboard), but it just seems unearned and/or undeserved. Again, maybe it's my lack of understanding of the fetish.
Other: The game could be more immersive if there were interactions with other people besides the game characters. Players never interact or even hotel guests besides the handful that become part of the main story. There are only a handful of renders that even show any other island residents, hotel guests, or military personnel.
Overall: This is pretty close to a masterpiece for an adult game... but only for BDSM fans. It's a shame that a game this good is so focused on the BDSM fetish that it will have limited appeal to most potential players.
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