Review: Abyss- Homicide Club

'Sasayama Akira was born into a family of assassins and trained as a child to become one of them. However, due to psychological issues, his father decided to send Akira to a relative's house, to live a normal life.

Several years later, Akira gets asked by the student council president to investigate a rumor of a group called Abyss, a shadowy group of students responsible for abducting and killing students in a grotesque game.'

Summary borrowed from VNDB.com

Story 9/10: This is one of the better written VNs I've played, and it reminded me very strongly that Type-moon started out as a doujin eroge-maker as well. The writing and concept for the plot were truly excellent, the plot twists were well-designed, with tragedy and horror mixed in with bright moments that are often shattered in classic utsuge fashion. The humor is the story's only weak point, but that can't really be helped since the game's focus is on the serious part of the story. The characters in this story are compelling and the reason for the enforced playing order is evident from the start, as each playthrough adds more pieces of the puzzle, leading up to the final route which solves both the mysteries surrounding the protagonist and a good part of the ones surrounding the greater Abyss organization. There is enough brutality in this VN for the average blood-addicted fan, though probably not quite enough for those who revel in games like Gore Screaming Show. The protagonist is an interesting influence as well, with his actions being very characteristic of what you'd expect from his personal profile. Akira is not the strongest protagonist I've ever run into, but he definitely makes it onto my list of favorites. Overall, I felt myself to be satisfied with the last ending, which pretty much tied up all the loose ends from the other routes.

Visual 7/10: The style and level of the art is at about the same level as Tsukihime, very good for a doujin VN. I really fell in love with certain CG's, such as the one above. Other than that... the backgrounds were again similar to Tsukihime's (I almost thought that it was a tribute to the game) with faded out real-life scenes being the main.

Audio 9/10: Why am I giving this game such a high score in audio despite the somewhat low-budget music and the lack of voice actors? Perfect usage. The way they use the soundtrack in this eroge is truly magnificent, in a way that I haven't seen very often since the end of the psx era. Even though the soundtrack itself isn't always impressive, the way that it is used is a reminder of what is quickly becoming a lost art in the video game industry.

Overall 8/10: Overall, I can easily say that this game is one of the best eroge's I've played in a while and I'd recommend it to anyone who can stand the somewhat tragic tendencies of a horror-type utsuge.