2.5/5 ★ – jacklg's review of Steins;Gate.

Stein's Gate was a surreal experience for me. No game had ever made me put down the controller and rant to myself in pure bewlinderment before, but somehow it happened multiple times throughout my playthrough. This game is kind of terrible. But I also kind of loved it? I look back on my time with it fondly, but so many moments occured that can't even describe without folding over in embarrassment. Steins Gate is one of the most anime games I've ever played. It had it all - cat girls, a guy that looks like a girl that is not written with modern views on transsexuals in mind, a tone of female love interest characters that all love the protag, weird sex jokes, jarringly unnecessary fanservice, multiple instances of outright sexual assault by the main character that are treated as jokes and nothing more, an incredibly unlikeable protagonist, and of course, a shit tone of plotholes. The first 8 or so hours of this game I was transfixed to the screen in horror, laughing out loud at the insanity I was watching, seriously considering dropping the game in order to preserve some sense of dignity. But I couldn't stop. And somehow, I got attached to these characters. When you look beyond the bad, and believe me there is a lot to hate here, there's a lot of really compelling stuff. Every single character is utilised fully, nobody feels wasted, the emotional beats land really well towards the end, the multiple endings play into the theme in really interesting ways, and the last 5 chapters are incredibly addictive. But its just so flawed. The first 5 chapters are so, so, SO slow, which is the reason the end pays off so well, but if you lack patience I wouldn't blame anyone for getting bored. And that protag man. He's easily, by far, the most annoying protagonist I've ever seen, in anything. I get that his ramblings are a joke but even in his day to day interactions with people he's such a huge asshole for like 70% of the game, when he spoke to characters sometimes I'd physically cringe. Don't get me wrong, the flaws are incredibly funny and interesting, and if it didn't have its positive elements this could have easily been one of my first so-bad-its-good games. But there's a lot of promise here, some really bittersweet storytelling that compelled me. So I'm left left no idea if it's good or bad. It's an enigma. A rollercoaster. Do I recommend it? Unless you're a huge weeb, almost definitely no, except if you have a tone of patience and can laugh at anime bullshit. I love it and I hate it. I need to lay down