Misha owes the state everything. Literally. His life, his labor, his very breath belongs to the Party, and this game doesn't let you forget it for one second. The opening scenes where you're branded a parasite and assigned to a cramped apartment with your mother, who definitely hasn't seen a man since the last five year plan, set up this thick tension that's half political thriller and half pent up housewife fantasy. The 3DCG models have that slightly stiff quality where hands clip through hips sometimes but honestly it adds to the whole soviet aesthetic, everything is a little broken and nobody talks about it.

The mother. God. She wears these grey shapeless dresses that somehow make her massive tits more obscene, and the way the camera lingers when she bends over to pick up propaganda leaflets. You know exactly what's coming but the game makes you work for it through this tedious minigame where you have to balance your obedience meter with your corruption stat. I kept failing the factory work segments because I was too busy trying to angle the camera up her skirt during the morning briefing. The ahegao face she makes when you finally corrupt her enough, tongue lolling out while she's supposed to be reciting Party doctrine, is worth every frustrating dialogue tree where you accidentally picked the wrong revolutionary slogan and lost progress.

There's this one scene where you're supposed to be studying communist theory and she comes to check on you, and the game gives you this dialogue option that's just "..." and if you pick it she sits on your bed and starts talking about how lonely she's been since father was re educated. The voice acting is nonexistent, it's all text, but something about the way her character model fidgets with her collar. I wish the school segments had more content with the female commissar but the game seems to forget about her after chapter two. The virgin protagonist angle is played for laughs but also genuine awkwardness, like when he doesn't know where to put his hands and the game gives you this ridiculous multiple choice of anatomical positions that are all wrong. Dare to play it alone, or invite company?