STORY
In Man Of The House, you are the only man in a house full of women - and are expected to handle your business to the best of your abilities. You'll eat with the family, go to work and build your riches. Soon you figure out the best ways to deal with the women in your household, only to find out there's an entire world outside of the house you are in. When you finally go into the outside world and visit things like parks, the gym and even a stripclub - you'll really see what the city you live in is about.
Most if not all of the relationships (safe for some) were interesting and well-written. While they may not have been the most original in the scene, the attention to detail in their responses and mannerisms more than make up for that. The three women in your household are your main concern, but there's.. room to look for distractions outside as well. For fear of spoiling too much, you'll have to figure that out yourself.
The main story is somewhat all over the place, but never feels out of character simply because the vibe can be quite wacky. You'll be delivering pizza's, shadowing tennis coaches and even helping out heroes. All of this happens through time-locked story events and it's up to you to figure out when the moment will happen.
PRESENTATION
By all accounts, Man Of The House is visually average. It's often a rendered 3D sprite over a background and the characters sport a doll-like appearance. It's a game from 2017, but the graphics work and looks consistent to be believable. This game is more than a standard visual novel - and thus there are icons and graphics for maps, minigames, store shelves and much more. It all works together well to create a world that is more than just a collection of conversations and sex encounters.
If you don't like a doll look for your characters, it could become hard loving this game Facial design doesn't always look as complimentary for the women of our house, but the amount of renders makes up for all of it. Personally, I found all the women to be attractive, including the ones outside of your house. If you're looking to play around in a city that's well-fleshed out and feels like a city, this is your game.
The intimate scenes are dated, but work well for the story. There are animations available and Faerin allows you to speed up or slow them down. For each characters, there are multiple moments and outfits - which really help sell the idea of a big world.
GAMEPLAY
This game consists of time-based actions within a sandbox where a day consists of a 24 hour-loop. Which means certain things happen at certain times and often, it's up to you to find the right time to have events happen. Alongside the time-game mechanic you will be grinding money in order to pay for stuff you will need to advance the story. That actually makes this a story-based relationship game. It feels like an AVN at times, but mostly you'll be thinking about how to best approach the order of events with the time that is given to you before the next event. It's time-management and that might not be for everyone. In addition, there's the layer of needing food, stress relief, sleep and hygiene.
If you can get through that layer though, there's some seriously nice stuff in here. Work minigames, puzzles, collection challenges - and of course the dialog options. You'll often run into not having enough points for an action, so you will have to find new or repeat interactions to raise points and unlock new ones. I found it to be refreshing not having to focus on dialogs and relationships all the time, so often I would swap an event for a minigame and then go back into story mode. There's even a minigame when traveling between places, but you'll figure that out when you start playing.
Gameplay is easily the best part about Faerin's games because he spends so much time mixing the story with the grind. That isn't for everyone though - so make sure you have time on our hands if you want to finish this game. Otherwise, find the cheats and just spend time finding out the time-cycles. This is not a game for easy intimate scenes, so players beware.
Man Of The House became one of my favorite AVN games because it's different from many games in the adult. The love Faerin put into this world bring the story to life and all the little details help build it. One of the best AVN's with gameplay that stretches it beyond an AVN for me. Definitely recommend this if you're into an immersive game with sexual excitement.
Verdict: 9/10
Developer: Faeringames
