Freshman Orientation Reviews
Author: Villainy
Date: 2004
ADRIFT 3.9

What does AIF stand for? Adult Interactive Fiction. If you likely to be offended by games with sexual content, you are advised not
to open these files.

Reviewed by A. Ninny

Freshman Orientation is a game in which you play a college upperclassman who still lives in a freshman dormitory, presumably so he can have sex with newly arrived freshman women for a few days before his own girlfriend returns. Most seniors I knew who lived in the dorms weren’t the type of guys who could easily pick up freshman women, so from the perspective of my own cultural bias, the very concept is questionable. But this is AIF, so we take what we are given.

Unfortunately, what we are given here is a game filled with bugs and puzzles with no direction. What leads us to the fact that we are supposed to show Becky the pool? She never mentions having to go swimming, at least not in the obvious things to ask. Once you ask her about swimming, sure… As far as bugs go, the only way to avoid them, it seems, is to know exactly what to type from the beginning through to the end. If you don’t, it is easy to get trapped by following a bug path in no-way-out situation. A round of beta testing could have definitely cleaned the game up.

The sex writing is actually better than I expected after fumbling through the opening scene. This is obviously where Villainy spent most of his effort, and it pays in the end – you can almost forgive the poor execution of the game’s introductory and puzzle phases. There are decent descriptions of body parts and actions, and the five closing command options are a nice touch.

Scores:
Concept: 6. It’s a setting for the PC to meet the NPC. It isn’t the hottest, but it works.
Characters: 3 The PC is a little rounded, but Becky is pretty much totally void.
Technical: 2.5 The game has a lot of bugs.
Playability: 4. There are traps related to the bugs from which the game cannot be completed.
Hotnesss: 6. Better writing than some, especially owing to the final five options.
Enjoyment: 5. Very average effort overall.

Freshman Orientation is scored 7th overall.

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