My usual disclaimers when writing reviews on here are that A. I am here for the "plot" not the plot and B. I generally dislike visual novels. So take both of those into consideration for my review when thinking about this game.
House in the Rift is another one of those rare surprises on here that manages to (almost) tick just about every box of mine. I’m actually going to be comparing it to a personal favourite as well (
Harem Hotel), because I see a lot of similarities between the two.
One thing I will say right off the bat, I am writing this review having played v0.4 and so this review will more be focusing on the promise of
House in the Rift as it feels like it’s still far from completion.
For starters, the game is really, genuinely well written. As always there is a certain level of suspension of disbelief that is required for any porn/harem game but
HitR manages to tread the line between being believable and still actually allowing you to have fun perfectly. The dialogue actually flows and makes sense and the characters all are interesting and fun. Again, as I say at the start of these things, I am here for the fucking and fapping, but having well-written girls generally makes the experience more enjoyable. Plus, as this is a “dating sim” style of game rather than a VN, there’s a lot of choice in terms of dialogue and what you can do, which is another box ticked for me.
Unfortunate there isn’t a GREAT deal to say in terms of the overall plot: you are trapped in a magic house and have no way to escape until you develop your own latent magic abilities. At the time of writing the game still very much feels like it’s in the opening chapters and so other than the basic premise and getting introduced to a few of the girls, not a great deal has actually happened yet.
The setting is actually pretty unique as well and fresh, plus it has the benefit that it has the promise of allowing a lot of expansion. You are plonked into a large and perfectly comfortable house, a bunch of gorgeous babes are thrown into the mix and given that the game is operating in some form of multiverse there is the possibility of including just about any other kind of girl the creator (ZanithOne)/fans want.
The sex itself is also pretty top-notch, the animations are genuinely some of the best I’ve seen on the site and the writing is pretty damn hot. As a harem game it also allows for catering to a lot of different tastes, and so the girls are all also gorgeous but distinct at the same time. Put simply it’s hot as fuck, would fap again.
As others have said as well, the game actually looks class in general. All the renders are top tier, the girls look natural and well-designed (and hot) and they behave naturally as well. You can really see a lot of care went into it. As well as this, the UI is super crisp and is one of the better ones I’ve experienced.
I compare it to
Harem Hotel at the start because honestly it feels like the game is hitting a lot of the same beats. You, the protagonist, aren’t really too important, because you’re amazing and exactly what you need to be when you need to be it, but also are understated and not an overwhelming presence on screen. You are primarily in a single building with a bunch of girls and as you interact with them you unlock more and more sexy scenes. This allows you to build surprisingly genuine relationships with them and also build up to banging away to your heart’s content.
For me, the biggest difference between
Harem Hotel and
Hotel in the Rift is in terms of quality, and my analysis here may surprise some of you. Frankly, I prefer the former’s approach to this. It goes without saying at this point that
Hotel in the Rift looks amazing but this has the trade-off that it must take much more time to make the content for it. At this point it’s been in development for just under a year and so far you can only actually have penetrative sex with one of the girls. The story still feels like it’s only just getting warmed up and while the relationships with a few of the girls is certainly interesting in the early stages, it is just that: early stages (for example, I couldn’t definitively say which of the girls is best girl yet, because honestly you barely know them yet). Of course, if you are one of those people who really value high-quality visuals then obviously you likely will prefer this to
Harem Hotel’s more basic design.
This is why I talk about the game in terms of potential, it’s still really early days for it and while it feels like it has so much room and so many interesting and sexy directions it could go, it’s still a good ways off being the 5/5 it could be.
I do also have one other criticism which is a good deal more personal and almost certainly doesn’t translate to a lot of people. I actually feel like the game, in its current form is quite simply not kinky enough for my personal tastes. Most of the content (aside from some basic level of roughness and an anal scene) is largely very vanilla or even leans towards the femdom side of things (such as having an amazon forcefully sit on your face). This will unquestionably appeal to some people, but for me I would hope that future updates would allow for a greater focus on more male domination and rougher scenes, but who knows if that will happen.
