One Night Stand
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for One Night Stand
If you’re curious then it would behoove you to check it out, but if you’re expecting One Night Stand to teach you something new about your sexuality, perhaps look elsewhere.
One Night Stand is a very unique experience that will likely feel quite close to home for some folks. It's a very honest, almost heartwarming glimpse into the lives of two complete strangers brought together by a heavy night of drinking. The presentation may be a bit lacking overall, and some may be put off by the short length of the game, despite its many endings, but if you're after a visual novel that's a bit different from the norm, then this is it.
One Night Stand offers up a slice of humanity, with an art style perfect for what it tries to do. Repetition sometimes gets in the way, and a couple odd control choices may mess up your playthrough. At the same time, the heart and soul of what One Night Stand is always on its sleeve, allowing you to either embrace it or crush it. This will be a sleeper hit for a long time, despite a crowded market.
One Night Stand is a good indication of what the game is about - indeed, this is a visual novel where the protagonist will have to navigate around the follow-up to an alcohol-fueled one night stand. A rather short and simple game but with plenty of different endings to keep the player interested, One Night Stand disappoints when it comes to its audiovisual environment, which is lacklustre to say the least and has almost nothing to listen to and feels like a too short experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
One Night Stand is a game with a message, that gets it across concisely without compromising on how much you'll enjoy following the story.
One Night Stand is almost as short as the real thing, but not as pleasant… or unpleasant. Despite the intriguing concept behind this nice-looking visual novel, which is to find out what the heck happened last night, this plays its cards a bit too safe, and never dares offering something more emotive, or to include interesting plot twists. It is a simple create-your-own-adventure kind of deal that's… well, fun, just not as much as it could be with a little heavier emphasis in character development and/or plot. If a fan of the genre, and don't mind super-short indies, check it out. The rest can safely pass this by.
One Night Stand is proof that Ratalaika can find talented developers and bring them to the masses. While this isn't some Triple-A juggernaut, for what it is, it's a great addition to the genre. If you like these kinds of titles, you owe it to yourself to see everything that One Night Stand has to offer. For such a short runtime, there's a lot to love here.
While for some the repeating of information in each run can get a tad stale, you may find yourself interested in seeing what else you can learn about this woman and see where that information takes you. For me, at a certain point learning what happened the previous night became a secondary goal as I gained more interest in learning about this brand new person in my life. Those who don't enjoy more narrative driven games likely won't find much enjoyment in One Night Stand, but those who do should find it to be a wonderfully awkward and sweet experience.
