(Review from my Steam account)

I felt ambivalent toward this game's predecessor, Always Sometimes Monsters. Despite its weaknesses, I still thought the series had a lot of potential and wanted to give the sequel, Sometimes Always Monsters, a try.

I'm glad I made this decision because I really enjoyed this game.

The passion for this game is clear.

You can tell that the developers put a lot of love and attention into this game. You could see it with ASM, but it seems even more apparent in this one. There are so many different mini arcs to explore throughout the game that I was eager with each in-game day to see what new stories to bring. And you get rewarded simply with interacting with the world around you. One very simple and minor thing that impressed me, for instance, were movie theatres, I didn't expect each movie to have their own full-fledged cutscenes for you to view! I thought the game would simply flash forward to my character finishing the movie after I entered the theatre, but the devs went the extra mile and actually incorporated scenes from the movie, which I thought was pretty cool.

SAM improves on a lot of ASM's weaknesses while bolstering its strengths. Among its most notable key features is a lot more potential for non-linearity. While, like its predecessor, it follows a central plot line (unless you decide not to go on tour), there are much more stories and arcs to explore. The game, for instance offers a plethora of writers you work with, each with their own personality. I ended up going with Ruth, Pablo, Alexa, and Sheena in my first playthrough. Each of them were very distinct, memorable characters and I loved watching not just my interactions with them, but even their interactions with each other during the tour. And the endings in this game felt much more dynamic too. Spoilers ahead, but WOW were they tense, I was on the edge of my seat and my hands were sweating during that warehouse scene, I don't remember the last time I felt that way about a game's writing.

In addition to writing, the game just looks better as well. I liked the cute, chibi sprites of ASM, but the character portraits in this game look amazing! I was blown away seeing the new portraits of my character and spouse in this game for the first time, I really like how much better their portraits look in this game as they have so much more character.

I will say that I found the game to be buggier than ASM for me. I'm not sure if it was due to me playing on a Steam Deck, but there were times when it would crash and sometimes mess up the timing of events in a city, and there were times when the game would freeze after certain scenes for me, such as using the chest press machine at the gym. These weren't too much of an issue since the game does have an autosave feature and multiple save files available, but just something to keep in mind. I will also note that the developers are active on the Vagabond Dog Discord and are very responsive to any bug you may face in the game. I'll also add that aside from these bugs, the game ran very well on my Steam Deck and I highly recommend playing it there if you have one.

One more (minor) story spoiler ahead, I was hoping the spouse would play a bigger role in the story. I was excited to see their role in this game after spending my entire time in ASM to win them back, but they play a mostly a supporting role in this game. There is one event during the game where you go on a dinner date with them. I'd love to have more events like that, or potentially the ability to control them more during certain parts of the game.

Overall though, I had a phenomenal time! Again, it builds on a lot of ASM's stengths while improving on its weaknesses. I'm excited to play this again as there are so many opportunities to explore. I look forward to meeting the other writers, but I'm gonna miss Pablo, Sheena, Alexa, and Ruth. I'm excited to play the game multiple times in the future but I'll always remember them as my first, core group of writers and friends. ✌🏼