7 Sins aka 7 Deadly Sins – Review

Warning: Review Contains ADULT Content, this is a rated 18 Title – 7 Sins from Digital Jesters is one of those titles that I specifically wanted to review because I like the Sims genre and I thought this might be an interesting title to compare to some of the other ‘try and have sex with hot chicks’ games out there (Leisure Suit Larry, Playboy The Mansion). 7 Sins is available on PC and PS2 and in this PS2 version I have to say even I was pretty shocked and disturbed by the content.

Lets start off with a brief PR blurb about the game. ‘Live Life On The Edge, Think you can roll with the high life? Reckon you’re a true player?’ Thus exclaims the back of the box and to be fair that does make the game sound interesting, however, what they claim is your opportunity to become involved in outrageous mini-games and hilarious social interactions, is quite frankly, a big lie. Perhaps my definition of what constitutes outrageous and hilarious is completely different from the teenage boys who made this game. Well, I assume it was teenage boys since all the humor and gameplay appears to be aimed squarely at their hands, or… somewhere slightly lower on their body.

You start off playing a character who has the aim of making it big in Apple City (very similar to New York), and you have to go through the seven sins at various times in order to complete tasks and objectives. You start off easily with a girlfriend in your apartment to show you the way forward in interactions. Now, it’s a little more complicated, after all, even a sinner has a conscience apparently so you will need to redeem yourself at certain points by also doing good acts. Note, washing up the dishes in the apartment is considered a good act because lets face it, we all know how hard it is for guys to clean up. Sigh.

Anyway, onwards into the scenarios that are varied in their look but not overly different in their approach. You’re taught to earn money through various occupations and during these you need to build relationships with women that seem to be around. For example, your relationship scale goes up from First Contact, Relationship, Flirt, Love, Sex and Passion. Now, these can go up or down depending on the woman you interact with and the apparent skill here is that you get to know what is good for them, no pun intended. Each woman has her own likes and dislikes and you being the lothario you supposedly are, will work this out until you have them wrapped around your little…. finger. You can then get them to buy things from you, loan you money, have sex with you, put in good words with the boss and so much more ‘hilarious social interactions’. At this point, you might be thinking this isn’t too bad, but let me explain a little more about the intricacies of this game. You have there separate meters on the top left of the screen, arousal level, stressed out level and frustration level. Now, at times someone will turn you on which is fair enough however, the most likely level to rise quickly seemed to be the frustration level and to relieve frustration you need to do various things such as swear at passers by, pee in plant pots and hurt any nearby animals. Yes, you did read that correctly, this game is suggesting you piss in public places and become some kind of psycho animal killer. I just don’t get it and to be honest I really don’t believe many mature gaming guys are going to get this either. The humour seems to be completely schoolboy in nature and even then I think some would squirm or be rather shocked at the ‘mini games’. Oh onto those mini-games.

When you trigger one of the seven deadly sins, you’re provided with a mini-game. Some examples of these from the early sections of the games are putting a shoe on a woman and being able to ogle and perv up her skirt. Yes, you’re awarded points for how long you manage to get a look. This tone carries on into further areas of the game such as when you’re having sex with a woman, the game is then find the g-spot where your aim is to find the g-spot as many times as possible before the time runs out. To be honest, I pretty much sat there with my mouth open at this game just thinking, how the hell did this get made. Now, I’ve played Leisure Suit Larry and I’ve played Playboy The Mansion but even these titles with their toilet humor and naked women are not even close to the way that the women in this title are objectified. The entire concept of women and sex in this game is stripped down (no pun intended again) to it’s most base puerile sense and surely only adolescent or pre-adolescent boys will even find this in the slightest bit entertaining. Of course, the fact that the game has an 18 certificate means that it’s aimed at the older gamer, but really, only saddos and those who have never had any real interactions with women are going to get this title.

The graphics aren’t really that bad and at times they’re actually fairly detailed and well done. They’re colorful enough and they do what they’re meant to but they can’t save this game I’m afraid. If you’re looking to see lots of pornographic sex in this title you’ll be disappointed also. There’s the carry on version of sex in it and there are some shots that show what’s going on but there’s nothing overly explicit, more suggestive than anything else.

The sound is actually what adds to the sex in this game and the sounds that come from some of the women are quite uncomfortable to listen to. One of the most irritating aspects of the sound was the ‘elevator’ music in the background and for once the deaf gamer is at an advantage here, not having to listen to this music or the poor attempt at ‘simmish’ that the characters speak. The commands that are used to interact with characters are written on the screen so should the deaf gamer want to play this title they’re able to without any problems.

I could write this entire review on the female gaming perspective in this game. If you’re a female gamer who gets a kick out of watching male characters objectify you, use you, dump you and generally treat you like an expendable commodity then this is the title for you. If however you have even one tiny ounce of self-respect you’re going to hate this game and everything it stands for. For all the times you’ve felt violated when strange guys have yelled out sexual comments to you, touched you when you don’t want them too, stared at your breasts instead of your face when you’re talking to them and so much more, this game will make you want to scream and make you realize that it’s sad it was ever made in the first place.

Overall, I really want to rip this title to shreds even more than I have because I just think in this day and age there is no excuse for anything so utterly sexist and pathetic. The only thing saving this game from a truly abysmal score is that the actual mechanics of the game and the overall graphics weren’t that bad. Any mature male gamer is most likely going to be embarrassed at this title also, because it is at the end of the day a very poor representation of the male form also. Digital Jesters are usually a great company for female gaming, but this title has missed the mark completely. It did indeed make me feel one of the seven sins, Anger. Please, someone out there, know that it’s just not cool anymore to release games that live in some pre-feminist time where it was fine to treat women like meat and to think it was funny doing so. Lets start moving forward already. If the young boys want porn and childish sexual antics they’ll get it from Men and Motors on Sky.

Review by Tracy