It’s probably my most boomer complaint, but I’m of the firm and unchanging opinion that the world would be better off without the vast majority of reality TV.
As such, I approached Nerial andDevolver Digital’snew realityTVshow simThe Crush Housewith guarded interest. Would stepping into the role of the producer on a 1999 reality sensation offer a fresh perspective on a world I’ve always found to be seedy and grim? Not really, it turns out.
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The Crush Houserevolves around a simple premise: as producer, you pick up the camcorder and put together your own season of reality TV without getting cancelled. You choose the cast, decorate the house with props, and set about filming various conflicts and romances.
A “season” lasts Monday to Friday, and to avoid getting cancelled you have to satisfy the various audiences that tune in on each specific day. For example, on Monday you may have to focus on filming the cast from a distance to satisfy the voyeuristic audience, while Wednesday will see you doing lots of shots of people’s butts.
As the game progresses you’ll have to satisfy larger and more varied groups of audiences at once. Some audiences may want you to show them specific props like paintings or plumbing. Others want to see fancy filming techniques or arguments break out between the cast.
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For the first couple of seasons shadowing the cast and seeing how the various characters interact is fairly interesting. But it soon becomes clear these are vapid, awful people who spend the majority of their time fighting or screwing with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Things just seem tohappenin the house, and the best you can do is spin around with your camera until you catch something the audience cares about.
You’d hope the audience satisfaction system would add a layer of strategy, too. But when you’re spending 30 seconds pointing your camera at a bathroom sink so fans of plumbing don’t tune out, you start to wonder if there are other things you could be doing with your time.
There are some really nice ideas inThe Crush House, but ultimately it’s unable to tie any of it together in a meaningful way. Fans of dating sims will probably get a real kick out of the first few seasons of the game, but before long the crushing repetition sets in and you find yourself sinking to new lows to satisfy an ever-dwindling audience of perverts. I guess it’s a lot more like reality TV than I gave it credit for, actually.
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Pros: A fun central mystery
Cons: Awful characters, repetitive gameplay
For fans of: Dating sims, reality TV
5/10: Average
Topics:Indie Games,Devolver Digital
