Tender Loving Care

A great film wrapped in a game.

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So I went in with the expectations of another FMV adventure similar to Gabriel Knight 2. While the actual interfaces differs quite a bit what you do come away with is quite an enjoyable and well acted film.

First and foremost, Tender Loving Care is a heavily adulterated game; expect nudity and plenty of stories based on sexuality. The story revolves around a couple of live out in Boston and had recently faced the tragic loss of their only daughter. The wife has become heavily traumatized by this and has never been the same since. The husband (Michael Overton) decides it is time to seek external help and through Dr. Turner – a psychiatric doctor – decide to hire a nurse to help around the house. This is where the story begins and as you will later find out things become a lot more interesting once Mrs. Randolph moves in.

The entire store will be played out in live action FMV sequences and will have fmv sequences by Dr. Turner play after each important scene. Dr. Turner will require you to answer a series of questions and answer based on the dialogue choices available. Once a scene is over and questions have been answered you will be placed inside the house and be able to navigate in first person in a Myst-game like fashion.

As you explore the house be sure to read notebooks and computers in bedrooms as they will give you further insight as to what is currently going through the heads of the characters. To close each navigation sequence you will have to find a certain item to click on in order to do a TAT test. This will be narrated by Dr. Turner once more and you will have to choose which answer is best to you. There is no right or wrong answer as these tests will give you a personality profile which you can check via the main menu of this title.

You will be able to learn quite a lot of psychology through reading snippets of magazines as you browse and explore the house. If you you are a fan of old-school European art there is quite a bit of insight you will learn here and there as well.

In terms of entertainment this title will provide hours of it. The story is quite engrossing as you go through the day to day lives of The Overton family and their newly hired nurse. Expect a story full of love and twisted mentality as you progress; you will be quite either to continue to find out more. Your locations will mostly consist of the family home and Dr. Turner’s office. Each new day will bring forth new diarys to read and tv shows to watch.

The acting is very well done as you will experience the main actor is played by popular British actor Jon Hurst and the rest of the cast does quite of fantastic job of making this film believable.

The sound department is quite well done as the game opens with a soprano to give it a real hollywood feel. Other than that expect quality acting and background music as it plays throughout the scenes of this game.

To save you story you will simply have to go to the main menu and select the appropriate option which will provide you with a long password. Simply write this password down and you may resume where you left off at a later time.

This title is for PC and was re-released for IOS as well. Purists will want to stick with the PC version as the later IOS release omitted the nude scenes from this adventure. With hours and hours of quality entertainment unless point and click adventures are not quite your cup of tea I would highly advice everyone to give this one a try. As with any good film you may see yourself wanting to play through this again.