Emily is Away <3

I was trying to pick a background for the profile picture and found out that I have to buy the game and play it, and I decided to fuck it and buy the game, turns out it was my best decision, I still thinking about this game of which option where I could get a good ending

Evelyn just uses the typical evil woman gaslighting tactics at the end.

!WARNING!
This game has the potential to frustrate you on a higher cosmic dimension!
Are you ready to experience teenage angst yet another time in your life? Are you ready to relive your earliest relationship traumas through a 2008 Facenook Simulator? Are you ready to get sucked into old memories surrounding highschool drama. 
Do you not mind being gaslit, girlbossed and gatekept?

Then this is totally the game for you!

Spoilers ahead:


This game is the epitome of: 


- Bros before hoes (of course I’m talking about the garden tool) 

- DO NOT LET YOUR PARTNER HAVE A BESTIE WHO CRUSHES ON THEM


I played through two different endings:



1. I let my precious GF be besties with her butthole friend (who likes her) to “show my trust” and lo and behold, he influences her a chapter later to break up with me :D 


2. I’ve had it up to here, I demand she stop talking to him and she abides my wishes--for now… only to discuss our relationship with another old-new “bestie” (thanks for that I guess lol) to then get the idea of me of being “manipulative” in the next chapter.
Top it off, my own best friend (who pointed out the mess with this butthole friend in the first place) then goes on to imply I may be “manipulative” too. 



YOU CANT WIN!
At least not with Emily, I haven’t tried that punk beach yet… (idk if I ever will)

Overall: S tier VN

This game was amazing. There are not many games that get me so engaged that I complete the entire game in so few sittings, but this game is so strangely immersive that I couldn't help myself then to play it through.

The gameplay is not much different than the first games, where you pick a response by typing in a chat and get to choose how the story plays out. The entire story happens on the front of Facenook, which felt suprisingly immersive since I got to see photos of every character participating in events that the story revolved around. It made me feel like I was really part of the story. The typing and waiting, however, can be repetitive at times--and especially slow when you are on a second playthrough. But where this game really shines is in it's characters.

The characters are all extremely believable. They go through relatable scenarios, and I couldn't help but feel what every single one of them felt as I progressed through the story--sometimes even audibly yelling when something happens to them that I don't expect.

For those of you you are OK with mild spoilers, the rest of the review will talk about the end of the game.

There are times that the main character does not get the speaking options that I want--particularly at the end of the game--which results in multiple unhappy endings that the player really cannot do anything about. At first, it kind of pissed me off, because I wanted a happy ending. But that's not the story that's trying to be told by the author of the game.

I can't help but recommend this game to anyone who wants to experience a moving story, especially those of you who love visual novels. This game shook me to my core and left me feeling like I needed to cry. I cannot recommend it enough, and I hope I feel better tomorrow morning.

I love the aesthetic and the general vibes took me all the way back to my highschool years. But the ending is super railroady. Not to spoil too much but gating choices behind multiple playthroughs is asinine. The fact that you can do everything right and it doesn't matter really hurts my enjoyment of the game. Might be true to life but it's still frustrating.

That being said the atmosphere this game created is fantastic, i just wish my choices were more important.

got a virtual girlfriend,




never mind we broke up... 10/10 game

Not a fan of the fact that your first playthrough is Doomed to fail . Overall, Emily is Away <3 was a notable improvement over the first two games, and very charming throughout its duration. Would get emotionally damaged again.

GG, 11/10, thanks emily

I thought I became the best version of myself only to be F💀ed by the game's code that left me depressed and getting cheated on, honestly if only I knew it sooner I would beat the 🤡 out of the Jeff Fischer

There is no good ending only sadness... AND GETTING COKED BY SOME DUDE SHE CALLS FRIEND SOUNDS FAMILIAR

oh my, things it's never work out at the end. but atleast we still have mat until end

so let me say this... the game teaches you something... that your bro will never at all lie to you or leave you alone... a girl nahhh the opposite she just lies wants the best for her -self- dosn't give a F#@k to U ....... way did i like this game it teaches you something, that trust your bro... no mater what.
U say no to every one juts for her sake .... and then what...what will you do?....
bro will be there for you

If you like feeling like shit this makes EIA2 look like weenie hut jr.

i don't really play visual novels, but the concept had me intrigued.

boy is this game a throwback. the UI, the sounds, the language, the playlists, the topics, everything is so on point. it really does feel like 2008-2010 facebook, in a good way.

also it's obviously really chill to play, you can literally spend evenings like back then, hanging around on yt and chatting with (non existant virtual) friiends. guess you can still do that with real people anyway, but why not feel like you're in school again.

the vibe of those times is perfectly captured, the attention to detail is great and external websites are awesome time capsules as well.

only negatives are that after a while, you would hope that there'd be more to do on the facenook beyond chatting (e.g. more profiles to explore) and that the statistics in the end suggest that certain choices/narrative routes are very difficult to arrive at.

all in all great fun for two evenings, 8/10

The game was really emotionally immersive. I hope there's more to come because I absolutely loved playing.

I got one of the endings that broke my heart and brought real tears to my eyes. This game is evil and I love it really made me feel like I was a teen in 2006 in drama and just trying to survive with my friends and gf.

Wish all these Emily is Away Chapters to be Connected. Is like a timeline if you ask god to restart your timeline after you broke up with Emily or Evelyn. Or wake a dream where you date that girl and that girl could be from your dreams. Or Could be like Afterlife after you died lol.

Didn't finished the game yet. Hope I get good ending on my first time.

Ended the game feeling bitter and very frustrated. Sad, sure, but more of those two former than the latter. Good game if you want to play a game that makes you feel.

Relationships are a two-way thing. You could make every single thing perfect, but if your partner still doesn't think perfect is enough, it's doomed to fail eventually, and it's going to fail hard. I finished the first playthrough with Emily, and honestly, after seeing how bad Emily treated me I just lost interest in her and not bother a second playthrough. I just couldn't bother finding a good ending when I know that I could do everything right and she'd still think it's not enough

Sometimes you really deserve so much better for yourself. That's all I'm going to say.

how dare she cheat on me. i had ZERO red flags... okay except from being obsessive i had ZERO red flags.

Excellent atmosphere and visual and sound design that captures the old FB messaging experience beautifully. I like the typing mechanic, it immerses the player nicely. It’s also fun to click around and take different actions, though it doesn’t seem like you’re punished if you don’t.

This is all about the story and the characters, all of which I feel are written well. My only point of contention is that it felt like the responses of the character you play feel male-coded… Very entertaining and humorous but not responding in ways I always agreed with. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter all that much. It’s a story of growing up, relationships, and how people change, told beautifully.

12 hours and no good ending what the flip

This game majorly pulled at my heart strings, the fact that its in a Facebook style is what really separates this game from any other dating sim Ive played. Really enjoyed it <3

This was very cute and creative. I was a little disappointed that Emily and Evelyn's routes were basically the same all the way through, but I still enjoyed playing. It was worth a replay to change some of my major decisions and see how they played out.

It was cool, and I love games with multiple endings :D

This game made me feel like shit in the best way possible.

Reminded me off my gut wrenching experience of a failing relationship during secondary school and has left me feeling like my hearts been ripped out.

10/10 will be playing again

on a serious note though, this is perhaps one of the best games I've ever played, the choices and actions you make really cause you to reflect on yourself as a person, about how a single text can determine the fate of an entire relationship, about how you need to remember not everything is as simple as it seems and the world doesn't exist just from your own perspective. There was a couple times in my first play-through that I had to remind myself that this isn't real and these aren't real people, so why are you feeling like this?

will be playing this game again in hopes of getting a happy ending with Emily :')

I found it fun to play as a game to turn your brain off. Maybe I'll finish it another time, but the replay value isn't that great.

Nostalgia overload! Loved this re-visit to the early aughts & the multiple different endings. Highly recommend to anyone with a regrettable FB profile pic & cringy status updates.

pissed me off. but hey, that's high school. lololol

I was loving this game until the last two chapters. I felt like I was gaslighted into being a horrible person and there were absolutely no dialog options that allowed me to express my character. It literally forced me into being the villain. I tried another romance option and realized that other than some minor character differences, the path was pretty much the same. I wish I could have refunded this game. No one deserves to be forced into being the villain for another person's story. We get enough of that in real life.

Absolutely genius writing, I swear.

mat a lil freaky but its oki

yep

This game is crazy

Simulate early Facebook and complete heartbreak
2 for 1!

Only play if you had toxic friends middle school/high school and want to relive your trauma. Or just, y'know, don't

Don't trust your partner simulator.

Gosh, I don't even know what to say, I just want to rant. It's hard for not only a game but a piece of media to be so compelling, so talkative to me. I have to admit I am a bit biased because I'm a sucker for old stuff, specially 00's-10's, but what a game. I've beaten this many times, and it just gets better.

These games, and specially the last one embodies youth so well through the simulation of a screen. It's all you can ask from something so simple, yet in my opinion so effective. That damn Moody Rain website? C'mon! Pure gold!

There's set pieces in the game meant to trigger your anxiety, to make you doubt yourself and even now as I play this game as an adult, I just can't seem to not bite the bait sometimes. A great example of this is the scene where you 'ditch' Evelyn so you can help Mat, and even though you, Mat, Evelyn and even the game itself knows this is the right thing to do, the last thing you see in that chapter is a secret message Eve made on Steve's wall.

As I teenager, I regret not just shutting my mind of off problems completely and just enjoying the moments, specially relationships that I had back then. Today, those problems are such a minor inconvenience, that only served to steer my way out of enjoyment and fun, which those years should all have been about, or should I just say 'enjoying it before it ends'. When something is just too good and you don't want it to end, wether it be a music, a moment or even a person.

And I think that's much of the confrontation part. It's okay to be insecure, and even though the game may not answer normally and comprehensive to it, it certainly has its ways of rewarding you for trusting your heart with it. Instead of going the hard way and facing Eve, simply choosing it to let it slide gives exactly what you wanted from the very beginning. Eve says that she loves you for the first time, the guy you were worried adds you and suddenly doesn't seem so bad anymore.

Fast-forward to the last chapter, Eve and you are better than ever, and even though she might seem 0,01% 'off', it just comes with it. Teenagery, I mean. College is coming up, you don't know what the future holds both for your relationship and your career, not even if you'll make it to your friends last BBQ before it all ends.

And there it is. Uncertainty, written all over it. It's hard growing up, hard to leave those things behind, but looking back and seeing that even though they ended... they happened. Well, I guess whatever happens, happens.

shush emily you slag

Evelyn + Travis = :(
Evelyn + Me = :)

This game is all kinds of nostalgic! Absolutely everyone should play this to experience how unique and authentic video games can be.

i dont know how to feel about this game. i bought it a while back and didn't like it at first but after revisiting it, it started to grow on me. dont know how to feel about the ending i got. what does going on break mean? 7/10 game

i got a heart break from a high school memory i never have :c

Idk what to say this game makes me smile really big all the time, among my favorite games ever, along with Emily Too, please I BEG you to make Emily 4, i will pay for that shit myself

Very intriguing story with a lot of different outcomes!

nostalgic and well done. loved the inclusion of music and playlists, it really added to the immersion in 2009. <3

feel like I got trapped by Emily and then SHE dumps ME what!

I wanted to like the game, but overall, I got really frustrated by it. It is basically a manipulative-partner-sim.
There were nice nostalgic moments about the old internet, but the story was not for me.

SLIGHT SPOILER It started off cute. As the game went on, I started to get invested in the story and the characters. But At some point, the game just forces you to be a prick for no reason. You suddenly can't decide the way you take anymore and all three dialogue options are you trying to forbid your partner to have other friends? From this point, your only choice is to be manipulative, even though the game was really wholesome before.
Up to this point, I liked the story, but that was just painful to watch and it went on forever. I stopped playing in the last chapter, because it just felt so frustrating and out of nowhere.

Never finished the game and idk if I will, but I heard that it's good

Learns you how to talk to women

Soo I'm probably going to uninstall this after playing for 5+ hours, it wasn't my cup of tea if I'm being honest. I didn't actually see it was a dating sim LMAO which is my bad, but I didn't mind the pick your own adventure type of thing. HOWEVER. The text options are extremely limited, and the 2 love interests just speak the same, same options, same lines and scenarios when you start dating them from what I know which gets pretty boring as it just feels more like one option. I did play through Emily's story which took surprisingly long and got more irritating the longer I played.

SPOILERS: During the chapter where Mat tells us about Jeff for Emily's story, it's frustrating as none of the options seem to fit what someone with good morals would do as people can obviously have friends but our character acts like an over jealous obsessive jerk to be honest with most of the options. I wish there was just a way to not confront about Jeff so the relationship wouldn't be strained?? Maybe accept your gf can have friends?!

Anyway I'm just nitpicking from the one storyline I played, to be honest the graphics are absolutely chef's kiss, I love the style of the game, the sounds, the external links are so funny, it's just so nostalgic for someone who wasn't even online in the late 2000's. I just wish the options were more varied, as well as the characters as they just seem copy and pasted with the boy best friend getting in the way and us getting pissy about it. But I mean can't blame a game with a bunch of high school students to be dramatic so! My opinion on this game is more in the middle as I really only gave it one chance but if you're into just premeditated stories that you really have minimal control over, then go for it! Should've looking into the game content before buying tbh but that's on me. The dev really impressed me with the looks though, it's really smooth.