The Point Of No Return absolutely was not what I expected, but it is an interesting game. An experience that treats heavily traumatic events - involuntary penetration, molestation and abduction - like just any other event. It seems to be purely aimed at people with a kink, rather than giving such subjects the weight they would have in society. If you go into this game knowing it never really respects trauma and might glorify a lot of things most people would feel horrified about, you're set for the ride.


STORY 
Jennifer is a standard nerdy housewife living together with her husband Andy and her daughter Maya. Things are fine as the husband leaves for a work trip and Jennifer’s 'past' catches up with her. A former assailant enters her house and occupies it, holding her and her daughter hostage. The scene turns darker afterward, as the men prey their urging sexuality on Jennifer and Maya. You won’t be able to save the women, you will just get to pick whether they enjoy being involuntary penetrated or not. If this throws you off, this game is not for you.

While the game plays out the hostage situation for far too long, it’s actually more sensible than the latter part of the game - where you (or your daughter) are taken elsewhere by the criminals. Depending on your playthrough, the game focuses less on the mental instability of Jennifer and more on the lore around the world. Gangs are controlling parts of the world outside the city and you eventually end up in an.. illegal fighting ring. It’s quite silly actually and takes away from the thing this game set out to do - break Jennifer and her daughter to the point where they submit.


That said, the game features porn logic and dialog - although the developer does write well in the moment-to-moment dialogs. There’s too much internal monologue and a lot of heavy acts of molestation - but without the trauma that comes with it. Sure, there are some dream scenes where something like a ‘conscience’ seems to play up. But honestly, it’s just another way for the dev to throw sexualization at the main characters.

An earlier review said the criminals felt too good of character and I tend to agree with that. Someone who breaks into a home, sexually violates women and holds them hostage has hatred in their heart and won’t get this carried away romanticizing his victims. But the main antagonist has a fascination for Jennifer, so I guess that explains why she isn’t involuntarily molested and penetrated to the point she can't walk.

The tree branching paths spread out pretty far and is impressive, but honestly none of it really stood out for me. There is NTR here (by way of phone) as well as family intimacy, but all of that’s missing the psychological scarring and the visible outer molestation. It’s like you get to enjoy the violating without the backlash - and maybe that’s the fantasy trope here. Honestly, it feels like it destroys the weight of the actions - because the game treats things like 'just another thing to happen' before moving on.


PRESENTATION 
The game looks good, sometimes great I’d say even. MC Jennifer seems like a standard nerd mom and Maya is average, but pretty. Developer DS23Games made an effort to create appealing women. Interiors look alright, aside from the shitty basement you’ll be in mostly. Violation scenes look okay and the act of using the women for personal gain is captured pretty well, so if that’s up your alley you can definitely enjoy this. The outside-of-house scenes look pretty believable as well and overall, the graphics are the strongest department of this game.

Sex scenes are a plenty and while they don't really match the subject, most of the are captures well. The women and men have various outfits and scenes happen across a variety of locations. 


GAMEPLAY 
This is a visual novel, but your choices do have impact. There are roughly three branches you can follow with minor tweaks and each branch will give you a different experience. There’s a pure unconsented intercourse route and basically two corruption routes - with one pulling the mother out halfway to start somewhat of a redemption arc. You’d do well to play that arc regardless because it gives you extra information about the world you’re in, and at least 10 extra characters to experience.

Overall, the worldbuilding is nice and gives a picture of what desolate world the characters live in. While you as a player can't influence the story too much, the paths branch out pretty far and it can be interesting to experience all the stories in order to build a full story.





OVERALL 
The Point Of No Return wasn’t a hit for me, but I can definitely see how people could be into it. The graphics are nice, the story paths are varied within the subject and while the characters operate on adult movie logic level, the surface responses work well enough to keep the story going. There’s just no sense of trauma, urgency or emotional distress that would actually elevate the dark topics this game handles. It's a degeneracy simulator with little consequences and that keeps it from being a truly memorable experience.

Rating: 6.5/10
Developer: DS23Games