Chaotic's new game, The Photographer II, is now available: http://www.vdg-offsite.com/phot2.html

I re-uped yesterday and downloaded both it and the 3rd-party game "Tara the Hitchhiker" (which is surprisingly good for the guy's first attempt).

So far, so good. I think it's actually a bit shorter than other games from Chaotic, but I like the fact that the photo shoots are requirements to advance in the game, whereas in the past a photo shoot might be something you have to find like a needle in a haystack for a girl's path. It's interesting to have to figure out what poses work best for each girl. Thankfully, since the first half of the game is all photo shoots, it's easy to restart when you mess up.

One other small criticism is that it seems like some endings are virtually guaranteed. Take for example Rachel and Cassandra. It seems like for their individual endings and their joint ending that it's virtually impossible to *not* get their ending once you first talk to them in the second half of the game. I can't figure out any choices that actually *hurt* you or cause you to not get the ending (except the obvious ones like, "Sorry, I'll talk to you later" or something else that obviously breaks the chain). The other girls you actually have to work towards getting in the second half, and some are quite hard to figure out. At least, the shortness of the game helps here, in a bit, because the cost to restart isn't terribly high.

I've never done this before, but I am developing a bare-bones walkthrough/list of choices that affect the heart levels of each girl since there are so many different girls and so many different choices. I have figured out how to get a nude photo for each girl, but I am not sure I have figured out the set of choices to get the maximum amount of hearts for each girl after the first half of the game. There is an ending with Daisy, Lisette, and Tammy together, and Daisy seems to be the weak link. She doesn't have enough hearts to go along with the other girls; my assumption is that I need to figure out a way to get even more hearts from her in the photo shoot portion of the game.

One thing I'd like to see is maybe an option to restart from the beginning of the second half, even if the overall game is short, because it is turning into a pain, actually, to figure out Nikki's best second-half options or whether I am missing something with Daisy in the second half that makes her more amenable to the ending sequence with Lisette and Tammy.

I haven't pursued Jennifer or Katie yet, so I don't have any idea what to do with them. I tried Lisette's solo ending once but failed, so I have work to do there.

thanks for the nice review of this game.
I don't have tried it yet but it seems a nice game and an innovative one.

Good that you're making a small walkthrough to help us finishing the game.

No problemo.

I spent a bit of time this afternoon redoing the photo shoots. I *think* I have finally found the paths to max out each girl's heart level in the photo shoot half of the game. Not 100% sure, but I did discover some mistakes I had made initially and got slightly more hearts with a couple girls.

I also figured out the Lisette solo ending (was totally missing two options on one screen), but the Lisette/Tammy/Daisy ending is a mystery. Jennifer is a really tough nut to crack. I have got to be doing some really wrong with her because I've got nearly maxed hearts and still can't advance.

Thanks for the review, but you left out one key note:

Does it justify the sign up cost? (which aint exactly small...)

Ehh........... I am not sure about that. Allegedly, it'll be in the PayPal store within a couple weeks, which I believe will make it substantially less to acquire. I think it is good, but maybe not $20 good if you're cash-strapped. The photo-shoots can get really repetitive if you're trying to get all 13 endings. But, that may be valuable to some. I think if you want a "survey" game with a lot of girls and can handle not going in-depth on any of them, this is a really good game. There are 13 endings and 8 girls with which you can hook up (technically 9, but the interaction is so short I don't count her). If you want to go in-depth on any girl... not going to happen. So, basically, if you expect a "Rachel" like game where you have a multitude of ways to get with a girl and go through a lot of different activities, this is not that game. I think that may make people think it's not worth the membership fee, simply because each girl's individual path is so short and lacking in branches.

One thing: If you like Tara the Hitchhiker, Part II is supposed to be released in March, so a two-month membership (which, I think, is all you can buy) should net you that, as well, when the time comes.

It is the biggest game to date by Chaotic. 3.6gb download in a ZIP file. The images are huge; I have been using my laptop recently and I need to zoom out 3 times (Ctrl + Minus) to get everything on the screen at once. It is definitely a pretty game.

For me, I decided I hadn't contributed to Chaotic in a while, so it was worth it to chip in $20, get Photographer II and Tara the Hitchhiker while likely also getting Tara Part II next month in the same membership period.

So, I'm new to 3d and things (maybe this isn't the right kind of question, if so, sorry!).

The renders look good of the three that are there...but, am wondering about (Daz3d right? the figure looks like Victoria 6 with one of the three "Belle," skin mattes). How many renders? Scenes?

After reading an update from the LOP team, they did mention something about those stats. I've produced three (so far) of my own interactive novel style games, but, I'm too shy to upload them anywhere.

Last thing, but wanted to share since I think I know what the artist did for the scene. Used the Open GL render, not Carrara (looks awesome) or Daz3d with the 3delight rendering setting. The 3delight is renderman compatible, afaik, but it looks like this is all Open GL style.

*thank you!*

jilliangates77 wrote:So, I'm new to 3d and things (maybe this isn't the right kind of question, if so, sorry!).

I am not experience enough with the software to try to answer your questions myself, but chaotic has a blog where he has talked a bit about his tools and how he makes the games. A series of those blog articles included tutorials on how to do make the images and program a game; those are linked from here.

Ach, I was really hoping this would be free (or a trial account was donated to Shark's' members *hint* *hint*) as it looks great, but I can't really justify the membership for one game. I guess I'm waiting for another couple to be released so it's worth my while. I hope it's as good as it looks guys, keep up the good work

I think I'm in a similar situation to DroopyLoving (class name man :P )

I might get a subscription in the future, but I got one a few years ago and felt it didn't have enough. Maybe after 2-3 more games

I've only played the demo and it looks suspiciously like one of those games where you have to be in a certain place at a certain time or you miss the chance of a number of possible endings.. I hate that type of game so I hope I'm wrong.. Can anyone who has played the full version shed some light please?

Has anyone got the lsst three sequences of photo with nikki

kessie8yl wrote:I've only played the demo and it looks suspiciously like one of those games where you have to be in a certain place at a certain time or you miss the chance of a number of possible endings.. I hate that type of game so I hope I'm wrong.. Can anyone who has played the full version shed some light please?

What do you mean by "certain time"?

As far as I can tell, the usual "clock" that is in Chaotic's game is irrelevant in Photographer II.

Admittedly, since I bought the game when it was released I did not play the demo, so I don't know if the demo incorporates some timing tricks.

Micky20 wrote:Has anyone got the lsst three sequences of photo with nikki

Try:


I apologize if those aren't clear. I was constantly flipping between the game and the text file, so I usually just short-handed the description.

Also, it's possible those won't work if you didn't do the right selections before then, but... if you got that far it shouldn't matter.

EscapeEvade wrote:

kessie8yl wrote:I've only played the demo and it looks suspiciously like one of those games where you have to be in a certain place at a certain time or you miss the chance of a number of possible endings.. I hate that type of game so I hope I'm wrong.. Can anyone who has played the full version shed some light please?

What do you mean by "certain time"?

As far as I can tell, the usual "clock" that is in Chaotic's game is irrelevant in Photographer II.

Admittedly, since I bought the game when it was released I did not play the demo, so I don't know if the demo incorporates some timing tricks.

Thanks. The demo is very short and the time element doesn't come into it, but the presence of the clock made me wonder if it was in the full game. I'm happy you can confirm that it isn't. Finding the right action can take long enough, without having to worry about the possibility of it not working because you're doing it at the wrong time.

If it does come into play, I have not come across it. I can see where maybe if you fail with the girls during the photoshoots over and over and over and over again you run out of time or you strike out with 3-4 girls in the second half of the game maybe the "clock strikes midnight," but that all requires you to REALLY fail at things.

I've been hoping Chaotic would take his games closer to the direction of the ones Tlaero and Phreaky create, but sadly that never seems to happen. I'd prefer more realistic looking & acting women, better plotlines, more varied and hotter sex scenes, being able to save your progress etc, but no.

With super short Tara & incredibly simplistic Photographer 2 I just don't think there are enough reasons for me to spend money on these games. Sorry to be so negative.