Fit check
Is Rent-a-Vice worth it for you?
We tell you who should skip it, too.
Play it if you…
Good fit- Players who prefer text-driven mysteries over graphics-heavy adventures
- Readers interested in cyberpunk stories about vice, power, and ethics
- Players who want relationship and identity choices within an investigative narrative
Skip it if you…
Saves you a refund- Players seeking action combat, visual exploration, or sound-driven presentation
- Readers who prefer short, linear stories rather than a 150,000-word choice-led mystery
- Players looking for a lighthearted setting instead of debt, custody disputes, corruption, and life-threatening experiences
Our take on Rent-a-Vice
Rather than presenting an adventure through graphics, combat, or exploration, this game replaces those conventions with a text-only mystery built around ethical choices. Its virtual-vice setting serves as a social and personal dilemma rather than simple futuristic scenery.
What is Rent-a-Vice?
Investigate a missing-person case as a private investigator in a near-future society where people rent others’ virtual experiences.
This 150,000-word interactive novel follows a detective facing debt, custody problems, a troubled past, and ethical questions around extreme experiences. Gather evidence, enter the virtual-experience industry, and decide how to handle corruption, vulnerable people, and competing interests. Choices can lead to protecting others, exploiting information, exposing wrongdoing, supporting an alternative ethical standard, or attacking the industry. The game is entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects. The protagonist can be male, female, or non-binary, and can be gay, straight, or bisexual. The story includes custody negotiations, an ex-partner, possible new romance, and decisions about personal vices.
How Rent-a-Vice plays
- 01Branching Case Investigation
- Choices determine how the detective gathers evidence, handles the missing-person case, and responds to corruption.
- 02Text-Only Narrative
- The story uses written prose without graphics or sound effects.
- 03Identity Options
- The protagonist can be male, female, or non-binary, with gay, straight, or bisexual orientations.
- 04Ethical Roleplaying
- Decisions range from helping people in danger to extortion, exploitation, and attacking the virtual-experience industry.
- 05Personal Relationships
- The detective can negotiate custody, reconnect with an ex-partner, or pursue a new romance.
Rent-a-Vice compared to similar games
Rent-a-Vice is a text-only interactive mystery in which choices shape a private investigator’s case and personal relationships. Back to the Dawn is a prison-escape RPG centered on fighting, investigation, and breaking out, while Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition is a story-focused RPG set in a strange city.
Rent-a-Vice: platforms & release
Is Rent-a-Vice worth it?
It is worth it if: players who prefer text-driven mysteries over graphics-heavy adventures. Skip it if: players seeking action combat, visual exploration, or sound-driven presentation.
Where can I download Rent-a-Vice?
Use the Download Now button on this page: it opens Rent-a-Vice's store page, where you can choose how to get it.
What platforms is Rent-a-Vice on?
Windows, macOS and Linux.
