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An allegorical journey exploring the role of 'Nice Guys' in relationships, February 3, 2016In the Friend Zone is an allegory like Gulliver's Travels or Alice in Wonderland, but centered around the plight of the Nice Guys who get stuck in the Friend Zone by women.
Although the love interest and PC can have their gender chosen, it seems to be centered around men; after all, the entire world seems to be (Spoiler - click to show)a woman, where you explore her arm, eye, mouth, anus, and vagina, getting progressively more disturbing.
Gameplay is linear at first, turning into exploration later on. The game directs towards different 'questions', which you hunt through to find. I enjoyed this part of the game, as well as parts of the openings.
The overall theme is something I don't quite identify with, and as a prudish person, there are more sexual references than I would like. The general feel seems to be that women are torturing men by placing them in the Friend Zone, but the subtext is that the men are torturing themselves. Nowhere, though, does it suggest open dialogue or communication as ways of developing relationships.
So I had mixed feelings about it. I loved the execution and writing, and I'd be very happy to see more from this author.