04/04/2021 - Version 1.21 added via Mega: includes unlockable cheat device for manipulating stats (use at own risk!). Examine the device to get the unlocking code. :)
Claire Boissay, wannabe reporter, is contacted by an old friend who seems very interested in Claire's recent thoughts on the disappearances of women local to her home town of Portsville.
Attempting to meet her friend doesn't quite go as planned, and Claire unwittingly draws the attention of Hive International, a large and extremely technologically-advanced cult-like organisation bent on world domination through brute-force mind control and extreme bodily transformation.
Claire is easily captured and re-programmed by Hive, beginning her new life as an "Overseer" two months later. While the final dregs of her fading humanity struggle with the irresistable power of her new Hive "protocols", the newly-renamed "twenty" is suddenly thrust into the centre of an ideological "civil war" within Hive itself, where both sides attempt to use her as a pawn for advancing their respective beliefs and principles.
Will "twenty" survive long enough to choose a side, or will she simply be reprogrammed as a mindless Pet slave before either half of Hive turns her to their way of thinking?
Will "twenty" escape Hive International, or will her experiences deepen Hive's conditioning until it is all she ever wants to know?
Are the Hive slaves vying for power themselves in control of their thoughts and actions, or is everything "twenty" experiences simply further indoctrination into her life as an Overseer?
If you Fluff without enough Fluff left, do your Fluff become sad an unfluffable?
General details:
This is the spiritual successor to Space Ditz, including much of the same type of mind control and transformation.
This game is in fact two games twisted around each other. There is a turn-based strategic asset-management engine, interwoven with a standard RAGs adventure game system. Similar to something like the "Sims Medievil" it is "Dungeon Keeper lite meets Mass Effect lite".
Almost all plot points and losing endings involve a high degree of non-consensual, invasive "attacks" on the protagonist and/or other characters, but the methods are all contrived comic-book or very soft SF in nature, setting the games tone as swinging wildly back and forth between hopelessly extreme darkness and self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek silliness, sometimes managing to be both at once.
This game is the result of a completely unexpected manic phase during early 2013 when I suddenly realised that if I didn' bother trying to create all my own images for a game using 3D rendering, I could easily piece together the story I wanted to tell with Space Ditz 2, in a different context/fantasy world, without having my brain explode.
This game accidentally "borrowed" a lot of game machanic principles from The Lilith Device, and when this was realised it was decided that the two games should cross over and therefore Overseer features several cameo appearances (some tiny, others huge and game-defining) of that games' protagonist and supporting characters. Several minor references to other organisations and characters from famous MCStories and other mind control-themed RAGs games are also made throughout.
This game broke RAGs, in that it was the first game with enough multimedia, variables and other assets to strain the RAGs engine to the point that inefficiencies were discovered in the game loading/saving process, that were then reviewed and (hopefully!) improved.
couldn't make it a minute in, that music is annoying as hell
i see the annoying music is STILL there
This was/is a really good game that suffered a lot from "WTF was the author thinking?". The extra clicks needed to get around, like the elevator (if you've played it you know what I mean) is annoying as phuque!. Also, the distinct "WTF is that and WTF does that mean?" when trying to actually play the game is annoying.
BUT! Once you figure stuff out and you drug yourself up so the carpal tunnel in your wrist from phuquing clicking 14 times just to move 2 steps,,, the game is amazing.
It's very sad that this game's been abandoned, because it's very close to being something very special. The concept is awesome, as well as under explored, and there is actually a game here, unlike a lot of experiences on this site, not that interactive stories are bad, just that an actual game is ncie and refreshing.
But, this game does have some issues that make me wish that it was still being supported. Namely, over complexity and difficulty. There is a lot going on in this game, which is impressive that RAGS can ran it at all, as there is some real management gameplay here, but, that game is not very good at explaining to you what it is you have to do, and it is very easy to stuff it up, and loose the game before seeing any of it. I've put quite a few hours into this game, and yet I've barely scratched the surface, as the opening hurdle is so high, I have never been able to actually get into the game, because I always manage to mess it up.
If this game had some sort of tutorial, some different difficulty modes, a more complete guide to starting off, and possibly a debug mode, than god damn, this it's be definatly one of my top games on the site, patreon worthy. But at it's current, abandoned state, the game has a lot of issues. It's definatly a lot of fun, and a really cool game, but a flawed one.
It's very frustrating, because it's flaws aren't in it's concept, and could be fixed, but as this game's reaching 5 years without an update, it must be accepted that this is all we're getting. And god damn that is frustrating.
This game needs cheats. The level of complication and difficulty snuffs out the erotic content, and while I can see the potential, it's just squandered on too much ambition.
I wanted to like this. I really, really did. It had, and technically still does have, so much potential.
First the good. The concept is one that I love, where you are, in essence, mounting a mind-control slaving operation that builds up your base in an effort to conquer a city. And perhaps more though I never got that far. It really lets you feel like a commander, a conqueror, and a dominator, seducing the city, building your army, and playing with the lives of innocent people for your own personal amusement. That might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it was certainly mine, and I loved it. There is crafting, and research, you can attack facilities, and maintain a standing army. And it is wonderfully erotic throughout the entire process, with plentiful and varied pictures that you wouldn't want to share with your mother. The little actual sex writing I got to wasn't impressive, but it was easily overlooked amidst the ample suggestive content and nudie pictures. In short, this game had a lot worth experiencing for me... And then it punished me for experiencing it.
The game thrusts you into command with very little help available. The help that is there at first looks comprehensive, but at second glance is mainly just story building and telling you what you can get later if you play your cards right. And while that is cool, a step by step how-to would have been nice. A lot of things you can figure out though, fairly quickly even, and then you can start doing things and owning your base! Only you don't! Because you have a mission that you have to perform or else you're toast! And that's fine, nothing comes with no strings attached, and it's a significant time in, so you have plenty of time to perform it... Except that you need specific buildings constructed. And you have no idea what building connects to what in your facility until you actually build them. The buildings needed for your missions will be reliant on other buildings, and they take time and money and slaves, and if you haven't gotten them built then, in the right order in plenty of time, you're screwed. Also, you need to go out and steal a car, without anyone telling you, before you start doing the occasional side-missions, because apparently they figured you'd know to build a garage or parking lot, then go scavenge until you found a car.
Between not knowing what buildings lead to what other buildings, and the timelines for mission success, you're pretty much sure to fail. Everything feels like a mad scramble to figure things out, with stringent requirements that everyone expects you to already know without telling you. If you want to relax, and actually feel like you're in control, you first have to experiment and experience and build as rapidly as you can, JUST to figure out the building patterns, and then write it down so that you never forget and have to go through that pain again. And I could forgive that. It drove me crazy, but I could forgive it. I was actually willing to keep doing that, with ample breaks in-between to get my raging under control, so that I could figure things out, and thus get it all built in ample time to just have fun and feel like I was running the show. And then I got fired/mind-wiped/some combination of the two, for being too nice... ... ... Really? I'd been kidnapping girls and keeping them in my basement before mind-wiping them for storage purposes. That was too nice? It felt completely out of the blue and without proper justification, so I quit, and haven't played the game again since.
So like I said, I wanted to like this game. I wanted to love this game. I could have easily spent weeks of my life playing it if it'd told me how to get the right buildings to do the missions, and just not actively looked for a reason to have me scrapped. But at the end, the feeling of power is a complete lie, your life is in someone else's hands, and that someone else happens to not only be a sadistic bitch (not in the fun way), but almost random in her decision making. In sum, this game has a lot to say for it. It can give you a good deal of pleasure. But it feels like it's actively punishing you for using it, and not in any of the fun ways. Play it for brief thrills, but don't try to get in it for the long hall... It won't let you.
