Thank you Ratalaika Games for sending us a review code!

Roommates was originally released on PC in 2014 and received “Very Positive” reviews on Steam. Surprisingly, the recently released Switch version is $5 cheaper. The Steam version has soundtrack DLC and an adult patch available. Thankfully, the Switch version does not have nudity, but some characters do show a lot of skin, cleavage, or butt cracks.

This dating simulation game begins at the beginning of the college freshman year for either Anne or Max. Anne is a shy girl who wants to make some friends and come out of her shell a bit while still keeping her grades up. Max is a guitarist and singer for an up and coming band called Back Alley Flash.

Along with dealing with the chaos of living in a college house, you must schedule your week to raise up stats while keeping your energy up and wallet cushioned. There are many stats to take into consideration including: grades, money, energy, organization, reflective, creative, spontaneous, active, and rational. Each prospective partner requires two of these traits to be raised throughout the game. After spring break, the requirements change so make sure that you’re on the right track to unlock the best possible ending. There are three difficulty levels that you can play at which impact how quickly you can raise those stats.

Balancing your school, work, and love life is a bit challenging. Working/money is necessary to participate in fun outings. Unfortunately, outings, working, and studying all consume precious energy. Throughout the week, there are events that happen in the college housing that you can either skip or take part in. If you skip the event, you’ll recoup some energy but will lose out on an opportunity to build relationships with your roommates. As you re-play different routes, you can fast forward through the text you’ve already read to save you time.

Here’s a breakdown of the datable roommates:
Dominic – He’s the RA (Resident Assistant) and tries to maintain the rules of the house. Many of the roommates walk all over him and drink on the premises anyway.
Isabella – She’s quite flirty with men and women and is pansexual. Though she’s promiscuous, she’s monogamous.
Rakesh - A bisexual male who can be romanced by Anne or Max. His parents want him to be a doctor, but he enjoys art too much.
Sally – She’s such an animal lover that she’s vegan. She’s also into meditation, auras and harmony.

Roomates plays to many college stereotypes with the characters partaking in underage drinking, drunkenness, and exploring their sexuality. There are many parties to attend and alcohol is usually served at them. One party is Halloween themed and Max is dressed as a zombie with some blood on his costume. Anne is dressed as a provocative witch which is surprising as she tends to dress more conservatively in school and at the beach with a one piece swim suit. Other female characters wear skimpy outfits on a regular basis. One of the male characters wears a scuba swimsuit that shows off his butt crack. There’s also some language (*ss, b*stard, d*mn) and blaspheming throughout the game.

There’s no voice acting, but the sound effects and background music are good. I like the theme song and am bummed that I can’t buy it on Steam without owning the game on their platform.

The game’s art is really well done and the characters have various facial expressions that change throughout their conversations. The various backgrounds are colorful and nicely detailed. As you unlock character routes, CG art will be viewable in the gallery menu option.

While this game is enjoyable, there’s a lot of moral issues to take into consideration. If you’re okay with drinking, same sex attraction, and sex outside of marriage, Roommates will keep you entertained for a bit. I did run into some crashes on the Switch version which is unfortunate. Hopefully the PC version is more stable.