Game Review: Spread love not hatred with ‘First Person Lover’

 

 

Instead of unloading a handgun directly into the mouth of a helpless civilian, why not blast them with a teddy grenade?

 

Swedish underwear brand Björn Borg, ISBIT GAMES, and Garbergs reklambyrå ad agency dropped First Person Lover last January 28, providing a pacifist alternative to Hatred, an upcoming shooter by Destructive Creations.

 

Announced months ago as a response to the Polish game, Lover deliberately used part of the shooter's trailer to show off its aesthetics and objectives by showering its grimdark villain protagonist with a puff of neon colored-smoke and happy nudity.

 

Dubbed as "an online fashion game experience", Lover drops the player into the role of a female or male secret agent tasked to halt the outbreak of hatred around the globe.

 

But before one could shoot grey-suited NPC's with delights such as the petal shotgun or rainbow crossbow, the game first plops you into a virtual closet to clothe your agent.

 

A blatant advergame, players can buy the same clothing at the main page of the campaign site, which also features a leaderboard for the score conscious.

 

However, these gimmicks are nothing compared to the game's actual gameplay, which has the player shooting neon-colored kisses and rainbows to grey bystanders emitting purple negativity back at them.

 

Instead of expiring in a puddle of goo, enemies are stripped of their clothes and left cowering in pixelated nakedness until the player "liberates" them by spontaneously clothing the bystanders with Björn Borg underwear and training gear.

 

Love points then spontaneously burst from the overjoyed bystanders, fueling the player's guns and allowing them to liberate more as they shut down Hate Harvesters, black machines which harvests... hate.

 

While mostly producing smooth movements, the game freezes midgame sometimes and refuses to respond to mouse clicks during its revival minigame. 

 

Enemy hitboxes are also ridiculously small, as even direct hits may sometimes be left unregistered by the game.

 

More graphically-conscious players would be pleased to find that the FPS makes good use of the Unity engine, producing smooth 3D graphics more than capable of rendering the shifts in lighting and color quality according to the player's multiplier number and health.

 

Of course, the engine couldn't entirely remove the few missing pixels and rough edges of the repeating character models even on high setting, but what truly makes the game enjoyable is its upbeat, relaxed atmosphere where nothing necessitates explanation.

 

And this is what makes it an effective parody of Hatred, a game created to shake up what Destructive Creations business developer Przemys?aw Szczepaniak told Vice is a market "filled with too many sterile and far too polite games".

 

By following Hatred's honest approach, as DC creative director Jaros?aw Zieli?ski described the game to Polygon, Lover creates mindless fun that needed nor offered explanations, allowing players to focus on what they believe makes the game fun.

 

Ultimately, it's up to players if they prefer Lover or Hatred's brand of entertainment. 

 

Both games offer a different kind of mindless experience: Hatred allows players to rack up the bodies with no remorse, while Lover lets them clothe people for higher places on the leaderboard.

 

Check it out here.

 

But if net connection or hard drive space isn't an issue, download or play Lover on browsers for a relaxing jaunt. — TJD, GMA News