The Crush House Reviews
In a lot of ways, The Crush House was not what I expected. It's a systems-driven gameplay experience that turns the passivity of watching reality TV into a surprisingly hectic and fast-paced one, where meeting the needs of your audience is more important than any bit of drama that might unfold in the house. Through some genius decisions from Nerial, The Crush House is also a slyly thought-provoking time, making you reflect on how you consume media and why. At the same time, it's exactly what you'd expect. It's silly, sexy, and has all the pieces to be as satisfying to watch as the best in reality TV. Sometimes the things that make it enjoyable to watch make it less enjoyable to play, and vice versa, but Nerial has a one-of-a-kind gaming experience on their hands with this reality show sim either way. All I've got to say in the end is: if you've got any footage of Chorby doing weird shit, send it to me. We've got to put that guy away.
The Crush House is a great choice for those who want different experiences outside the mainstream. I recommend it especially for those who like unconventional horror like Doki Doki Literature Club! The project works in its premise as well as its gameplay loop, even if it becomes limited with each season won. Devolver Digital once again hits the mark by choosing a game that brings something new to a market that is saturated with shooters and RPGs every year, mixing pop culture, a humorous critique of modernity and a hint of mystery that makes everything more interesting.
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The Crush House is a game that clearly manifested from a fantastic core idea, but falls short of realising its vast potential due to curious performance issues and a gameplay loop that just barely misses its opportunity to fully bloom.
The Crush House might not be the perfect production players were hoping for but what's there is a really good time and at least always fun. The nature of working and grinding to line up the perfect shot to watch the numbers tick up as you satisfy weird audiences from all walks of life is novel and never gets old. Yes, this means you're not always authentically re-creating the filming of reality TV as you instead focus on props and the environment in the interest of points, hurting the spotlight on its cast. Though when you can focus on its characters they're all irreverent, queer and delightfully heinous. I found myself always ready to drop everything for them at the drop of a hat as I tended to their ridiculous tasks, slowly working to an enticing sinister narrative that was hiding underneath. If all else, I could never accuse The Crush House's beauty of being skin-deep. It is weird, extra, juicy and unapologetic as all hell. It's exactly what it should be.