The App Army Assemble: Bar Oasis 2 After Taste - The Grape Depression

Each week, we ask members of our App Army for their impressions of the latest releases on mobile.

This week we're looking at Bar Oasis 2: After Taste - a drink-mixing, narrative driven interactive novel now available on iOS and Android.

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Kainen - Ummm. Ok.

GGod Hand - Sounds like the warning I give my brothers before they start drinking. They tend to get stupid and easily agitated. Chandler - What the heck is this about? Kainen - I didn’t play the original, but this is interesting, if not a little perverse. My theory is that you're playing as just one person, but that person has a split personality. Rahul - Bar Oasis 2 seems to have many issues. The textures are dated and look about ten years old. To be honest, that's unacceptable. The English grammar is all over the place, the dialogue is uninteresting. Even the characters are just okay'ish. The game just lacks polish and seems quite dull. Here's an example of the grammar issues I’m talking about. Chandler - So it seems you're in charge of a virtual tavern. This is me sliding a virtual coaster over to the scantily clad young lady who has just appeared at my bar. Honestly, this is just one weird and strange game. I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable playing it, and am not really not sure about it at the moment. Rahul - Another issue is that it isn't full-screen and if you suspend the game then it restarts. That's incredibly frustrating. This isn't good. Kainen - It's not that bad. So long as you don't mind reading. I think I'm quite liking it. Though I'm still deciding, really. Chandler - Let's break this down. You’re a pervy bartender. Kainen - That's playing a side-scrolling diner dash game. Chandler - Only it's from the side and you're fulfilling drinks orders. Aaron - Like you guys. I've put a lot of time into this and I still don't know what to make of it. As others have said, the transitions are a bit iffy, but I don’t mind that too much.

The 'making drinks' mechanic is actually quite cool. Refreshing, in a way as it uses the mobile platform to its full potential. You have to tilt your phone to pour, shake to stir, and pinch gesture to squeeze a lime.

The story is ok - a bit laboured so far - but I'm vaguely interested to see what's going to happen next - mostly because I have absolutely no idea what is going on at all.

Kainen - I'm telling you, you have more than one personality. I think you're playing as one person. Aaron - It's just all a bit crazy. Kainen - I love it. This is my kind of weird, strange, and out there type game! Nic - This is horrendous. Horrible translation work, and clunky controls. The first drink I made was described as 'sewage'. Seems a fair reflection.

Not to mention the awful graphics. I have to look at every bottle individually to find the one I'm looking for.

No matter how many pictures of scantily-clad women they put in here, it doesn't distract from how bad the experience is as a whole.

Aaron - Oh, Nic. If you click the menu button when you go to make a drink then all the ingredients you need get automatically highlighted. There's even an arrow pointing in the direction you need to scroll to get to the next ingredient. No squinting required!

Also, your drink rating gets better if you get closer to the amount required when pouring. Hold your finger on the screen to stop the pour.

All that said, I'm actually getting bored now. I was expecting to be able to find some way to interact and influence the story a little bit, but all you do is read along and there's not much happening so far.

Kainen - Have to agree. I've found myself skipping past some dialogue just to move things along a bit, but nothing. I'm losing interest, which is sad as there's so much that could have been done with this. Alyce - I've tried to get into this game - I really have - but I just can't. I thought I could get away without playing the original, or there'd be enough gameplay here to keep me hooked, but right from the start this hasn’t felt great.

I know you just read and interact with a visual novel, and I'll keep on playing until I get to the end hoping things will improve. I'm just not sure they will based on how it started.

Chandler - I'm the same, Alyce. I think I see what they are trying to achieve here, but it's so convoluted and full of filler. If the story was at least half-way interesting, or the characters endearing, then it could have a chance. Right now though, it all feels a bit pointless.

I get that you're a bartender making drinks for people, but having to endure the endless, inane jibber jabber of these characters is pretty grim. I would say ditch the sad attempt at conversation, and just turn this into a drink-making game. Concentrate on that and not creepy, pervy chats. Then it could be worth playing.

Aaron - Agreed. So much filler. John - I've got nothing new to add that hasn't already been said before. I struggle to get past poor grammar, but in a story driven game, I really struggle with it. On top of that, I've been wondering what on Earth is going on half the time.

I wish I had some good things to say, but I think the optimisation for English drastically needs to be worked on. This should never have been released in this state. It's an experience breaker for me.

Aaron - I suspect people who are fans of this kind of game will enjoy it though. Chandler - Basically, you tap the screen a hundred times to get past all the dull jargon, then take drink requests and make them. Rinse and repeat. This is a very strange game, and I'm having a very difficult time trying to figure out who it's being aimed at.

The endless conversations sound like school-yard transcripts. Scantily clad women turn everything into innuendo. You get visits from weird gentleman callers who are clearly on the run from someone. All blended together to make a fully stocked 'drink making game'.

If any of that sounds half-way interesting or appealing, maybe give this a try.

The App Army have spoken! If you'd like to sign up, please have a gander at our App Army application article. Have you played Bar Oasis 2? Did you play the original? What do you think of these games? Talk to us in the comments.