Brooktown High is a insipid shell of a game that doesn't do the Japanese dating sim genre any justice. This is due mostly to the fact that the gameplay is shallow, badly paced and ultimately unrewarding to the player. The concept of the game is pretty straightforward - go to school, make friends, become popular and get dates. The problem is that many of the game's most important mechanisms are hackneyed or lacking real depth.

The game begins with character creation, where a series of multiple choice questions decides what kind of person you are. Once you decide whether or not you want to be a cool popular kid, a jock, a nerd or an outcast, it's on to the actual aesthetics and style of your character where you choose what clothes you wear, your haircut and how you look. Then it's off to you room where you'll get ready for school for the very first time.

Brooktown High has you spending a good portion of the game in your room or at school but the flow of time is so fast paced and your schedule so rigid that you'll be off to school and done with it very, very quickly. While at school you have to attend class on time as well as socialize while the clock ticks away at a breakneck pace.

Your school time is spent in class but every morning you get a few fleeting moments to interact with the handful of students that wander the halls and the courtyard. Here you can interact with all kinds of characters and target the people you want to date, be friends with, etc.

The interaction with these archetypes (nerd, rebel, jock, popular girl, etc.) is interesting the first few times you initiate it, but after awhile it feels like you are having the same conversation over and over again. It is during this face time that you go through a series multiple choice questions, trying to guess what will make each character like you. Occasionally this scores a new friend, a phone number or maybe even a date - but most of the time you'll have to work these people multiple times and get your stats up to become truly popular.

Stats are raised by doing things in the game like playing mini-games in your room, studying, getting a part time job, doing favors for people, attending classes and attending after-school activities. Oddly enough there are only four classes in the game to choose from and all of them are designed to boost some sort of stat. The problem is that these classes are mostly non-interactive - so short of entering the class room you won't be doing anything but watching your character.

Then it's back home, to your lonely room where you can log on to your computer to buy things, talk to friends or potential sweethearts on the phone, play some simple mini-games, change your outfits or study for a specific subject.