The Crush House [PC] | REVIEW

I’m a sucker for reality TV shows, so everything about The Crush House screamed out to me from the moment it was first revealed. It makes for a really kooky and fun experience too, though I found myself surprised that the shady storytelling that takes place ‘behind the scenes’ of the show is what kept me the most intrigued when playing.

Check out some screenshots down below:

The Crush House puts players in the role of Jae, a producer who works on a reality TV show known as ‘The Crush House’ that brings four single folk together in one snazzy house and tries to spark some romance between them. You’re tasked with putting together the cast of housemates, filming the spicy action of the show, and keeping the audience entertained… basically, the sort of things you’d expect from a producer on a reality TV show. There’s more than meets the eye to The Crush House though, and as time passes and you do a bit of digging behind the scenes, you’ll uncover more about the darker side of the show.

Each season of the show kicks off with the player selecting four housemates from a choice of twelve, with each having different personality traits that’ll determine just how well they’ll get on in the house. It’ll be easy to see which contestants are likely to see a spark between them, but it’s also easy to determine who are likely to clash – it’s reality TV, so you’ll want to offer a nice balance of both if you really want to keep the audience happy. Fortunately, you’ll go through a bunch of seasons of the show, so there’s plenty of room for experimentation to see how each day unfolds with the varied combinations of colourful characters. A few extra characters would have been nice though, especially when you’ve gone through a few seasons of the show and are craving a bit more unpredictability with the housemates.

Once you’ve got your cast in place, you’re then tasked with your most important role: filming all of the action. This means walking around the house with your camera whilst tracking the housemates and ensuring you’re capturing all of the juiciest moments of each day for the audience to gawk over. It all takes place from a first-person perspective with the controls easy enough to get used to, whilst you’ll also see silhouettes of the housemates around the house to ensure they’re easy to track. Oh, and whilst there are subtitles on offer to follow all of their interactions, they talk in Animal Crossing-like gibberish, which I’m ALWAYS a fan of.

“It can all get pretty unusual, but with a rice variety of audience needs to meet, it adds a puzzle-like dose of creativity to your filming role that ensures the game loop stays interesting and fun.”

So… what exactly will you be filming? You’ll constantly find the housemates interacting in a variety of ways, be it some small flirtations, some snappy arguments, or even a bit of a smooch when bonds start to form between certain characters. Your audience will want to see ALL of this (and there are clear on-screen indicators that show what type of action you’re capturing when filming so it’s easy to track), but you’ll also be given specific audience types who’ll have certain needs that you have to meet, especially if you want each season of the show to pull in the highest ratings.

This is where the real quirks of filming the action of The Crush House come into play, especially with the… uh… weird needs that some of these audiences seek. Don’t get me wrong, some will be pretty straightforward, such as the Drama Queens who want to see every argument that takes place, the Sexy Seekers who want to see some raunchy moments, or the bog-standard Crush Fans who are happy with everything on offer. Then you’ve got those with more unusual tastes, such as the Butt Guys who want you to film… well… butts, the Voyeurs who like the camera to be hidden out of view of the housemates as you capture their interactions, the Pyromaniacs who get off to the sight of fire, or the Pharologists who just want to see some lighthouses. Yep, it can all get pretty unusual, but with a rich variety of audience needs to meet, it adds a puzzle-like dose of creativity to your filming role that ensures the game loop stays interesting and fun.

It does add a difficulty curve to the experience though, especially since it’s challenging to meet all of these needs at once. You’ll often have to make sacrifices to meet a specific audience’s needs, but if you don’t keep a steady balance across each set of fans, they’ll lose interest and tune out of the show. It’ll certainly keep you tested, and with the risk of the show being cancelled if your audience aren’t happy, there’s a lot more to the experience than simply filming everything you see and having a good time. It helps keep The Crush House interesting, but those who want an easier time can switch to an easier difficulty where the risk of cancellation is alleviated.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Outside of keeping the audience happy whilst filming, players can also run adverts to earn some cash to invest in the house and unlock new items for the housemates to interact with. Whilst this does open up more filming opportunities, you do run the risk of losing your audience’s attention if you run too many adverts. It’s all about finding a balance, but with the items you unlock also playing into the audience’s needs, it is beneficial to keep a good flow of income coming in. It adds another layer of complexity to the gameplay loop that ensures players have to be efficient in their production of the show.

Everything about The Crush House feels like it makes for your standard sim-style of game, but there is also a dark underlying narrative that kept my intrigue piqued when playing. However… I won’t go into the details of it here, because I don’t want to spoil the secrets of what happens behind the scenes. It helped make the whole experience more exciting and unpredictable, and whilst the core gameplay loop of producing the show is at the forefront of The Crush House, it was its storytelling that kept me the most invested.

It all makes for a really enjoyable experience unlike anything I’ve played before, whilst The Crush House’s colourful and playful presentation fits in perfectly with its reality TV show vibe. That being said, not everything is perfect, with a few technical issues suffered on my end when playing. There were one or two crashes that took me out of the game, whilst I even found myself stuck in the environment on one occasion. The core gameplay loop could get a little bit repetitive after a few hours too, especially with the lack of varied locales to go through – it would have been cool to see a few different houses with each season (in a similar vein to Big Brother), but having things stay the same could get a little bit predictable. Fortunately, none of these issues stopped me from having a good time playing, but they’re an indicator of what the game could have done better.

Developer: Nerial
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed)
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2337820/The_Crush_House/