I was extremely excited for this game but now that I've played it...haah. I'm not sure if I'd actually reccomend it or not, so I'll leave that open for discussion and instead just give my two cents on it in general.
Likely not entirely spoiler free!
Love and Country is one of the very, very few visual novels with a premade-heroine that I played. It's not usually my cup of tea, since not having my own character kind of zaps a decent amount of fun out of any game for me because character creation is right up my alley. But Lillian seemed neat enough, so I was willing to give it a shot.
Thus far, I haven't regretted it. Lillian is a fun, layered character that is nice to follow around. She has her strengths and weaknesses alike, which means she made for a lovely protagonist. So yes, I do like Lillian (and actually most characters in this game - especially Émile. I'll hands down betray my country for him, no questions asked. Government Secrets? Have 'em. Idgaf. Just give me this guy.).
I liked waltzing through this story with her AND I like that having a set heroine means we can get some really neat CG's where we can actually see the characters interact.
Which leads me to the next thing I really, really liked - the art. At first I wasn't super sure about it, but I really did like it. The messy, scribbly style is lovely and I've always been a sucker for huge blue eyes. The sprites were expressive but not in overly dramatic ways, which is always welcome. The backgrounds were also really lovely - I'm especially fond of the German street with the restaurant signs. I'm not sure why, but that one totally did it for me.
The music is also really well done and did a very nice job of carrying the mood, so I really appreciated that part a lot!
As for the plot and the writing - I liked 'em...for the most part. There's a few things that bothered me, but on a general level I do believe 'Love and Country' is nicely written and well plotted.
But this is sadly where the positives end and I'll have to talk about a few things that I didn't like (0r absolutely hated, in some cases).
My first big no - Anton. This is entirely personal, so don't take it too seriously, but I would've just downright scrapped him as a love interest. That dude made my skin crawl and not in a good way. Huge, ginormous red flag. He's got great villain potential though and I did like him as such in Émile's routes.
Now a more serious issue: This "game" has so. few. choices.
Even Bustafellows had more - which shocked me because I really did not think it possible.
This is a huge downgrade for what could essentially be a great game.
Visual novels are, first and foremost, novels with illustrations. Nailed that.
But they are supposed to have a gaming aspect to them and with a whopping two choices, 'Love and Country' misses the mark by kilometres on kilometres on that one.
I actually found myself thinking that it might have been better of as an illustrated novel rather than a video game, because then I could at least lie down comfortably while I read it and I'd, quite frankly, be less bored. And I wasn't bored because the story was boring - it wasn't. No, I was bored because I expected to play a game but found myself reading a pretty picture book instead.
There is basically zero player agency which is simply too lackluster for a visual novel- especially one that we paid money for.
Now, I'm not saying the game isn't worth it's money - it definitely is and I absolutely didn't mind spending money on it. Just looks wise, I'd probably have paid more. But for this amount of money, I would've expected a little more agency and the ability to influence the story at least a tiny bit more. But we were given absolutely nothing in that regard, which is a shame.
My biggest issue with this game actually builds off of it's lack of player agency - the god damn endings. (The next part is filled with spoilers, duh!)
There wasn't a singular ending that felt fullfilling. Not one. It was always a let down, one way or the other and I'm not lying when I say that after Émile's "good" ending, I was so mad that I had to quit the game for a few days.
Genuinely, I was seething.
First: The Herbert thing was so insane. Even if something happens and Lillian is unable to follow immediately, all Émile had to do was shove the dude over to switzerland and hang back for a hot minute. No one was on their tail and no one was trying to get them right then. There was no reason for Herbert to wait at all, especially since it was already established that the boys could just leave on their own if they had to.
And, more importantly: I hated that we didn't have a single choice in whether or not Lillian and Èmile end up together and that she always chooses her job over him. I despised it, because it's a stupid issue to begin with - you're scared you won't be able to pick success over your partner? Don't go on missions with your partner. There, fixed.
No company would ever force this on a couple, because they would be sabotaging themselves and risk the success of their operations. This entire thing just felt blown out of proportion and could've been solved by a single conversation with both Margie and Èmile. There was absolutely no reason for her to just push him away like that - with little to no explanation, at that.
And I'm saying this as someone who usually doesn't mind a sombre ending. I even prefer them sometimes, but this one just felt unnecessary.
In a way, the endings really ruined the game for me just a tiny bit. It's such a shame because there were so many things that I actually really liked about it, but the lack of player agency and the resulting awful endings were just a huge let down.