One Night Stand

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.

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 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 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.

Overall, this is an incredibly short experience but an interesting one. I’d usually hesitate to recommend a visual novel of this length, but between the cost being next to nothing and the sheer amount of choices you can explore, I feel like it does earn the recommendation.

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.

Perhaps for some people the story concept of the game may put some off, but what you do is a good story-driven conversational based game, which incorporates other influences and styles that you see in more mainstream games.

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.

One Night Stand is a very unique, albeit short, visual novel experience. While it’s short length can be seen as a detriment, it makes it the ideal visual novel game for players who have been hesitant to dabble in this unique genre. Despite its few shortcomings, I do recommend One Night Stand: it’s fun, can be played in a single sitting and the decent quality of replay value. It also gives players a chance to experience the awkwardness of a one night stand… without any serious consequences.

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.