Indecent

Indecent is exactly the kind of game that ended up on unofficial lists in the nineties and only found its way into fan archives later on. The title promises scandal, but the reality is far more tedious. This is a debut from 1995, released by a small studio for PC under DOS, and that already tells you what's coming.

At its core is a point-and-click adventure with erotic themes. You navigate a plot drowning in fake passion and barely-there humor, where your easy way through the game is paved with banal dialogue and item collection from scenes. The game tries to be cheeky, but instead feels like a showcase of the most tired jokes from the back of a video rental case. It fails at the one thing it needed to do — be fun.

The mechanics are classic — you click on things, read text, sometimes pick something up and move on. The game stubbornly operates on the principle that the presence of naked bodies and sex jokes automatically creates entertainment. The controls are slow, the animation is sparse, the voice acting (if there is any at all) would sound terrible. Each level is routine key-hunting and item-combining with no intelligent design behind it. You're bored, systematically.

In the context of the nineties, Indecent isn't shocking — more software like this was made than you'd think today. Erotic content without substance, humor without wit, a story without interest. The game isn't bad because it dares to tackle sexual themes, but because it's boring, clunky, and lazily made. A waste of time and hard drive space.

You can play it in an online emulator if you're curious about a relic from the bottom shelf of retro gaming. But I'll warn you — expecting an adventure or an art experience is pointless. Indecent is exactly what you see on the cover: hollow underneath, with throwaway sex-exploitation in place of real entertainment. You'll run it for five minutes, wince, and move on to something actually worth playing.