Ren'Py - A House in the Rift [v0.8.02r1] [Zanith]

You may be surprised at my low rating, but please, I ask you to take a look at my critique and really consider if all those flaws can justify any higher rating.

TLDR: Totally overrated, very disappointing. Bad models, frustrating gameplay, obnoxious girls. Low quality and mostly uninteresting porn.

Positives:

• One anal scene. But just one. Not worth counting the one-off (and Patreon-exclusive) dream scenes.
• Deepthroating and swallowing. Scenes added later in the game do this well.
• Typical anime story, some might like that I suppose. Although as is typical of "anime" devs they get far too much into their own shit and forget about the porn. At that point it gets insufferable.
• Some interactivity in sex scenes. E.g. speed of thrusting and choice of where to cum. But it's essentially one sequence you have to follow anyway.
• The MC isn't always a total idiot, just sometimes (which is an improvement over many other adult games).
• Training a girl from innocent into a one who asks for cum for breakfast.
• Another girl enjoys masochism, throat fucking, etc. Hot actions despite the girl being a green monster girl.

Negatives:

• The porn is totally unsatisfying and uninteresting. The most vanilla acts, presented in a boring and simplistic manner, with poor art.
• Outdated and simplistic character models and animations. Poor renders in general, e.g. in terms of textures, light, shadow, liquids and more.
• The writing is terribly frustrating and repetitive. Again and again the girls will screw you over with lies, magic, drugs, manipulation. The only way forward is to accept it, apologize to them (when they fuck things up), and smile while doing it.
• The MC is just a passenger being pulled into whatever the girls interest of the week is. There's no agency.
• At some point you'll end up hating all the girls (perhaps except Cait) because of the constant obnoxious behavior, lies, manipulation, domineering, etc. They're like caricatures.
• Lots of bugs. E.g. suddenly a character appears which hasn't been introduced yet. Or taking a girls virginity after already having sex with her 10 times. Quests referring to girls not yet revealed. etc.
• Some characters are strangely proportioned. E.g. one girl looks like the aspect ratio of an image has been stretched incorrectly. Two other girls look enormous and muscled. A big turn-off.
• Grind. Repetitive daily activities. Progression is slow.
• Constantly the game poses you what appears to be a choice but actually, not matter your response (yes, no, maybe), only the devs intended action occurs. Regardless of your choice and it's blatant.
• When given quest "choices" (options A, B or C), if you don't choose A you will not be able to progress or, even worse, you'll get a penalty every day until you "choose" A.
• Convoluted and annoying game progression. And RNG-based elements which require repetition.
• Quests in the journal have dependencies for progression that are not listed. Task descriptions are misleading.
• It's a "sandbox" in a small house with the same type of activities repeating every day.
• Difficult to avoid femdom if you want to progress with a certain character. For example, the girl tries to manhandle you and I was strong enough to break her grip, but then you either have to skip the sex act entirely or submit to the girl. Choice effects are unknown. The MC is literally telling her clearly he doesn't like what she's doing and she just says she doesn't care and keeps going.
• MC's face is never shown. That's a stupid and outdated trope.
• Naomi. Both her personality and body is a turn off. She keeps trying to take my girls, she bosses everyone around and has no character development.
• It's the only Renpy game I've seen where the performance is actually bad. There's lag during some scenes.
• Events are out of order. E.g. Cait has had sex with and often given MC handjobs but later it's an event that's supposed to be the introduction of handjob type events as a first "step" of getting intimate with her.
• Lyriel's behavior. An obnoxious Tsundere with too few redeeming qualities. Naomi was right about her. The game wants me to apologize to Lyriel and that's annoying.
• Monster girl. It's a turn off.
• MC taking Cait's virginity but the MC already has fucked her 10 times! So many bugs.
• Railroading. Main quests: your choices don't matter. Side quests: Do it exactly one way or not at all.
• You're punished for expressing your opinion or for refusing sex.
• Blair is very unattractive. She's fat, looks weird.
• Far too long between lewdness limit increases. So you're stuck doing the same boring activities.
• Recycled animations. Devs pretend to create new scenes for a girl but it's the same with just some different clothes on.
• Every day you lose 1 or 2 intimacy points with Lyriel because 1) I don't want to go back to the people that drugged me unconscious, and 2) I say no thanks to sex when Lyriel asks. So yeah, great game guys. A lot of fun...
• Why just one anal scene?
• MCs personality and communication changes drastically from one scene to the next. One scene he's confident, clear and a charismatic leader. The next he's a bumbling fool unable to say anything other than "ehm, err, uh? I.. uh.. but?".
• Devs waste time on unattractive girls almost nobody wants to interact with (the fat Blair and the monster girl Yona).
• Side girls (e.g. Sagari) that you can't sleep with are hotter than any of the LIs.
• Unskippable cutscenes. In the second half of the game this starts and keeps on happening.
• Unskippable minigames. Very annoying and unnecessary to include puzzles in a porn game. Several scenes are hidden behind doing well in the minigames.

(Version played: 0.8.01r2. I finished everything available in this version.)

I have been following this story for years now, so you know I like it. Each of the LIs are distinct and engaging whether it's the sultry and playful Rae, shy and curious Cait or the boisterous Naomi it's just as much fun hanging out with them as it is fucking them. The magical house combined with dream scenes offers a variety of sexual situations.
The stories of both the house and the girls are also entertaining as you unravel the mysteries of your sanctuary. It goes without saying that the animations are also smooth with the developers improving some of them over time.
With all of these positives, you may be wondering why it only gets four stars? The sex scenes have no SFX which knocks it down a point. If they decide to add them, then this would be an easy 5 out of 5.

the game had a lot of potential. it has one of the best settings that could lead to endless possibilities. just like the title of the game- youre stranded in a cozy house that is in between dimensions.

the main problems are the cast and writing. the cast of girls are mostly unlikeable and boring. the dev makes use of the setting in being able to use girls of different races and does pick some interesting races. but somehow the girls feel so bland in writing and in scenes. they just dont feel as attractive as you'd expect. im not even a picky person in H-Games but this is one of the few H-Games ive played where there wasnt a single character i wanted to focus on progressing.

the writing for the scenes and characters were all pretty mid. its filled with long drawn out dates and backstories that didnt change my opinions of the characters. im not even going to get into the writing for the MC since it seems everyone else has already mentioned it

at least you'd think the scenes could save the game? no theyre mostly pretty vanilla and again have boring writing

this is now one of my favorite games in this site

I will begin by saying that I have completed the game 100%, that means all the scenes, characters, dreams, missions, secret images and even interactions.
The game has a ton of content and I didnt want it to end, now that I have finished everything I have a unique feeling of emptiness, that same feeling that you have once you finished a really good series or a game and you know all of those characters and stories that you love have come to an end and there is nothing else left to do, yeah that same feeling
at least that feeling is diminished by the fact that the game is not yet finished and is still inactive development with the developer releasing monthly updates so that takes some weight away, but yeah getting to the end of the current content felt that way (as of this review that would be v0.7.21r1)

mind you only one other game in this site has made me feel that way, mist which is one of the best stories in this site in my opinion

but enough introductions, lets talk about each point

Visuals: 4/5
A house in the rift uses honey select models but the quality is pretty high, among the games that use honey select models this one is definetly one of the best, it includes custom animations which look fantastic but there is a clear lack of diversity, most are blowjobs and vaginal, a handful of anal, like 2 fotjobs and thats about it

despite that all scenes look good and dont look copy pasted at least not that much, there is also a lot of foreplay so in that regard the game is solid, 4/5 just because of the quality of the animations and look of the models

Story: 4/5
The story is interesting enough, the game starts with the MC enjoying a nice day in the park after a warning that some unknown experiment is going to start soon, the MC doesnt really pay much attenton until suddenly something happens, an explosion is heard and a bunch of portals open up and you are sucked by one of them

next thing you remember you wake up in your childhood's house, but things are weird, most doors cant be opened, the fridge has random food appear and disapear, the front door leads to a vast void, only two doors can be opened at first your childhood bedroom and the bathroom (how convenient), you go to sleep and the next morning you hear some noises in the house, you go to investigate them and find an unknown girl hiding from you

and that is how the game starts, from there on more girls start arriving at the house, each from a different world. I have to say the main story of the game is nothing really spectacular, its not boring but it has the simple purpose of introducing the elements of worldbuilding and the characters

The central conflict of the story is that once you enter the house you cannot really escape, at least not for long, everyone in the house is trapped inside it and while the house itself has everything they need to survive and live decently comfortable lives of course everyone wants to return to their original worlds

later on some mysteries start to get introduces, such as the string that create the house start unraveling someone is trying to get in contact with the MC promising unlimited power and the park where the accident happened becomes a void of ether this mysteries serve to add some meat to the story which up until that point had very little

the story again is not bad but I think it could use something more to add to it, we will see how those mysteries unravel and that could probably increase or decrease the score, right now I would say its above average

Gameplay: 3/5
this is definetly the weakest aspect of the game, its not that its bad its just painfully average

the game is your usual renpy sanbox, you walk through the house interacting with the girls to gain stats to progress their stories and some limited elements of the environment

the biggest issue is that there are a lot of mechanics that are either underutilized, ignored or straight up forgotten, for example you can collect money, but the money doesnt really have any use, there is 1 mission where you are asked if you have any money and thats about it, same with some of the objects, there are certain items that have no use like the ice cream with you use once and then never again

and its confusing because there are some objects that do have a pretty substancial use, such as the food ingredients and the whiskey

another aspect that is kind of forgotten is the combat system, because yes this game has combat... kind off, early on in the game one of the girls teaches you how to fight but there are like 3 fights in the game including the tutorial fight, its not like the combat system is anythig spectacular but its there and its just kind of ignored

there is also later on a sort of dungeon with some unique mechanics and its really fun, the game has some cool gameplay moments but usually they are one and done, for that reason I think its the weakest aspect of the whole game

Characters: 6/5
Now this, this is where the game shines

there are 6 main girls, Azraeshe (better known as Rae) Naomi, Caitlin, Lyriel, Yona and Blair, each of the girls has a unique personality but they do start a little cliche, like Rae is you usual succubus who enjoys sex, Naomi is the badass pirate and muscle mommy of the group, Caitlin is the innocent wall flower, Lyriel is the usual racist elf, Yona is... actually kind of unique from the get go, she is an orc but unlike most orcs in fiction she is pretty chill and even phylosophical at moments and Blair is your usualy headstrong dwarf

in that regards each of the girls could appear like a simple stereotype but they dont stay that way for long, they develop and we learn more about them, their troubles and other aspects of their personalities, as the game goes on, the characters are definetly the strong point of the game

each character has a substantial amount of details and backstory as do their respective worlds

you interact with the characters through dialogue, the game has a ton of dialogue options most of them dont really do anything its there for you to roleplay most often that not, you can choose to be an asshole, more neutral or try to be more amicable either way the story will progress the same way but the interactions with the girls will change to reflect your attitude

one aspect of the characters that a lot of people will dislike is that the characters in this game are imperfect, they make mistakes, get angry, will scream at you, sometimes can get violent, will ignore your advice, some can be headstrong, or ignorant, or petulant
they are not your archetipical harem characters that just agrees with everything you say like in most other games, there will be clashes but I like it, it makes them feel human, as I say most of the time it doesnt really matter what you say the story will continue either way but there are mission that you can ignore and you can shape the relationship how you want

also the characters are not static, they will change and grow, I think the biggest example is Naomi who after a certain point becomes kind of toxic and her attitude will anger a lot of people but if you complete her story she eventually does realize that she fucked up and manages to improve character development

their individual stories are definetly the meat of the game, each girl has their own personal questline that allows you to learn more about them, their world, their own story and some problems that they are facing and those are extremely interesting

like for example Rae, spoilers for a big reveal later on in the story how she is not just a spy but forms part of a secret organization that is trying to effectively destroy or at least dominate humanity and that sees demons as inherently superior to the other races such as humans, dwarfs and elves

or Lyriel and how it is revealed that her aunt and the rest of her family are in reality a guild of assassins who were doing all kinds of dirty works on the sidelines while keeping her on the dark

all of the characters stories are interesting, of course some more than others but I want to see more from all of them, even from some of the characters that the comunity seems to have a lower interest in such as Yona or Blair, im specially interested in seeing more about Blair's story

Conclusion
A solid game, what it lacks in gameplay and story makes up for it in characters, I enjoyed my time with the game a lot, that being said those two weakpoints are still flaws and stop the game from getting a perfect score, that and the lack of diversity in the sex scenes

all in all a really good fun game, the game is just chill there arent any huge stakes, no end of the world shenanigans, no impending doom, just a man and a bunch of girls trapped in a typical suburban home while exploring a bunch of fantasy worlds

It was interesting at first. But alas, the developers decided to turn this to soy vn. Now there are the most boring vanilla dialogues/plot. No interesting actions or stories, just standing in one place and idle chatter. It looks good visually, but even the scenes have become more vanilla and boring.

While not yet finished this is one of the games on this site that just captures you with an interesting story and characters. The archetypes of the female characters, their journeys and interactions with both the player and other girls keep the sandbox aspects of the game lively.

Version 0.720r1

So far this game is very good, but IMO it's not a masterpiece.

About Story, The main plot is intriguing, but unfortunately it seems to move very slowly. As for other quests, I have mixed feelings, some were interesting, others were just fine, others were mehh, and some others were boring (especially Naomi's). And, by the way, why the hell every importat event has to be in the evening, that was pretty annoying

The writing can get too dense at times, with a lot of walls of text.

Characters: From Interesting to boring (considering quests and personalities): Lyriel/Azraesha/Caitlin/Blair/Yona/Naomi. I'd say there is tie between Lyriel and Azraesha I liked them both.

Renders and animations: Both were more than fine, considering this is HS.

Music: It could use a few more tracks, There are many silent moments from time to time.

Overall I think this game is a 7.5/10, My concern is that we might never see the end of this story, since it's progressing very slowly. It's worth checking out anyway.

played version V0-7-20r1
took me about 5 days to get through all the content available
would rate this maybe 7/10
favorite character is rae

Animations
very basic if im being honest and there arent that many for how much other story there is, nor is there much variety in them. some of the animations are quite stiff (ie no boob jiggle as they move which always feels off to me)

Characters
models are nothing special about what you would typically see in a honey select game. Characters personalities are pretty good though in regard to the story, i wish they displayed their growth more in the sandbox element.

Story
story seems interesting enough though its pretty slow. Game follows typical 3 timeslot sandbox style, it unfortunately also follows one of the most common problems sandboxes that use this format seem to end up with. That is a very uneven weighting of events on a specific timeslot. for this game it was evening, there was almost always too much stuff to do in the evening while i would end up skipping the morning and sometimes afternoon because there is nothing to do in those timeslots. This also is made worse by the events that occur when you sleep or wake up causing weird sequence breaks in whatever event you were doing.
(ex, went to sleep with El to visit her family, after that but before i "woke up" i triggered another story event that auto triggers on sleep, which after led me to waking up in my own bed, being unable to continue on with Els event until the next day where i sleep again and then finally "wake up" in her bed to conclude the event.)
I had this happen so much to the point where i ended up lagging 3 days behind because every evening there was a dream event that put me to sleep and i would wake up with one of the previous events beds. Its just really jarring.
The sandbox doesnt seem super sandboxy when it comes to choices either, youre often given a choice between being an ass or being nice in dialogue which results in the same outcomes in the story for the most part that i saw. the only difference being whether you gain some affection or lose some.


other gripes
the fact that you need money in this game for some events. The game never tells you how to get money. You get money from searching the wardrobe in your room for clothes, now the game has you use the wardrobe twice in the story and each time you get clothes from it. i did try early on using the wardrobe outside of when i needed clothes just to see what would happen but all it did was mention that there were extra clothes in there which led me to believe for the longest time that it was useless outside of events needing clothes.
Very unintuitive design, not to mention how painful actually getting money from it is.
it takes up a time slot, chance of gaining money is random, the amount you gain is (from my experience) $2~10, and the earliest date you can go on using it cost $50. it took me a week and a half ingame time using all 3 timeslots just to get the 50$ to go on the date. This wasnt a fun aspect, i dont know why you dont just get more money.

This game has been in development for a while. And I still like it. I like the story, and I like most of the girls, with Lyriel being favorite(i wish they made her tsun become dere more obvious as your relationship becomes better). I like most of the scenes the dev makes, I do hope he would make more kinky stuff than overly obvious vanilla stuff too. Vanilla stuff can be kinky as well.

However, I feel like it is dragging itself right now. Many updates, little progress. I do not feel like the story has gone further too much further over the last 2 years. I think the fact there is so many girls and that it a sandbox at the same time has bit the dev in the ass a little. There is seems to be a slight lack of focus. It has been in development for 6 years, but I don't see the end still.

Still giving it 4 starts over giving me good content for many years now. There is a danger that it will drop if it the latest updates continue to drag.

If you are a new player, try it!! It still has a lot of content for a new player!

This is one of the best romance games. when it came out, it was so good because i like mystery, but i don't like when the mystery gets revealed, but i still love it even though i know why things happened. THIS GAME IS THE GOAT

I love this game and I want to share my opinion about it. Firstly, it has a wonderful plot, secondly, it has wonderful girls and much more. I would like you to add character voice acting to the game. Greetings from Russia and good luck

this game has been my #1 since release with fantastic waifus and fantastic animations. I reached the point where I need good animations and the Rift has never disappointed. I look forward to every single update

Love this Visual Novel. Intimate and emotional characters, with an MC that isn't 'over the top' as well!

One issue I've encountered is that, on rare occasions later in the game, 'non-important' conversations sometimes reveal events that haven't yet, such as unlocking certain portions of the house Though this hasn't happened for critical or 'quest' events yet!

Quite frankly, this game is terrible.

Sandbox is honestly pretty useless. This would've been better as a VN.

Women in this game is super annoying. Except maybe succubus girl, she's okay.

Cait is whiny and annoying. When you try to call out Lyriel for her bitch attitude, Cait starts a whine fest about how terrible you are, as if you had murdered her whole family in front of her or something. And the way she just talks, talks and talks makes you want to gag her, because everything she says has no substance or point.

Naomi is a bitch with anger issues. When you deny her request (more like demand) to see if her pirate crew is alive or not, she loses her shit, which is understandable, if you dont take into consideration the fact that Rae made multiple warnings about the potential risks and dangers that it would entail.

Lyriel is an even bigger bitch with a superiority complex.
Whenever you try to call her out on her bullshit all the girls rebuke you for it.

Am i forced to play in the shoes of a doormat and yes-man? because standing up for oneself in the game seem to cost you affection points and make you seem like the bad guy.

I think theres a few more chicks in this game but i didnt get far enough to see them, but if Cait, Naomi and Lyriel is any indicator then the other girls will almost certainly be equally annoying.


Also, there were a couple of instances where the other girls mentioned a girl that had yet to be introduced into the game, so thats a bit sloppy.

Then there's the etherwalks. when i do the walk to take Cait to her academy or whatever, the next morning i wake up with naomi thanking me instead of Cait.

It's actually impressive how annoying the dev managed to make the women in this game, it's like he went out of his way to make the most insufferable cast possible. Aside from the first one introduced, all the other ones are their own flavor of a pain in the butt, and see little to no development.

The sandbox is also awful, The game has day->afternnon->evening->night stages, but you can't do anything at night except go to sleep so not sure why it's even there. Most of the events happen at evening for some reason so you're pressing skip->skip->see one scene->sleep every day.

Characters aside, there's barely any plot, and what little it is there has seen very little development in the 6 years this has been out. Most of it in the beginning.

So annoying characters and no plot... What's left? Vanilla sex basically.

I only give 2 stars instead of 1 because the first girl (Rae) is actually playful and enjoyable, some of the sex scenes are well done and there's a little bit of maledom with one specific LI (and I really enjoy maledom).

Whelp, 4.5 stars isn't a thing so we're rounding up here. It's not perfect but I really like this game.

First off: It's not really a fap game (although a few of the animations are hot enough, if you're not so jaded that vanilla boy-and-girl-in-and-out no longer does it for you). It's much more "mood porn"; everything about it is just very chill. The theme bg music is perfect, it just has this sort of relaxed, almost lazy ambiance, like a murky day in that weird week-where-time-means-nothing between Christmas and New Year's where you have the week off but it's too cold to go out so fuck it let's just laze around the house.

Pros:
* Reasonably attractive renders for what it is (older Honey Select)
* Engaging characters. They aren't all waifu material, but a few of them are just delightful.
* MC is neither an idiot nor an asshole. (Imagine that!) He doesn't come across as an autist, or a Russian misogynist, or a weird genius, or a saint -- he's just a regular guy, basically decent.
* Not too many variables and points. You do have a couple gating metrics (the usual lust and love) but they are easy to grind up to the caps with minimal effort, so you can feel free to explore the dialogue trees without fear. And they are entertaining enough that you'll be glad you did. (On the flip side of this-- characters are fairly static, their personalities don't really evolve much.)
* Pacing is good. The burn is not so slow it's annoying, nor so quick you're rolling your eyes.
* World building is reasonable. Once you accept the basic silly premises, it all fits togethery in a satisfying manner.
* Low stakes (at least as of 7.17). No world-ending catastrophes that must be averted, just a nice placid environment with hot girls to play with.

Cons:
* This game has the feel of a novice programmer who got in over his head. What happens in the repeatable sandbox is basically independent from the story events; a girl who is disconsolately sobbing in her room every day might be cheerful and friendly at breakfast (but only breakfast), for instance. Gating events is tricky for people who don't structure programs well, and this one has the hallmarks of a project that organically grew with no real design work done at the start.
* Developer tries to cast a wide net, kink-wise. That's fine and I get why he does that, but it does mean that most people will probably find a few of the girls unattractive.
* The sex scenes are a bit too vanilla for such a long game; if seeing the "lewndess" variables makes you think this game is any sort of corruption/trainer game think again. It covers the basics (vag, BJs, and a little bit of anal) but that's about it. Look, I sure as hell don't want this to turn into one of those games that degenerates into a mass of weird shit, but I can only see the same guy reciprocate his dick into a hole so many times and still find it interesting. (Examples: Aside from one frame of a very minor repeatable event, the closest we get to girl/girl action is a side-by-side BJ where the girls politely refrain from touching each other. The long-anticipated "bondage potion" event has nothing of the sort. There is a bit of toying and masturbation but very limited. Etc.)

All in all it's a good game, worth the time. Not putting it in the rarified air of Great Games but it's better than most.

Version 0.717

A Game in the Drift is what it is. The starting concept was good, the main character designs (Rae, Caitlin and Lyriel) are gorgeous, animations are as good as they come and it has a strong fan base. Unfortunately, there is little content for a game that has been in the making for 6 years.

Excluding the time spent on a clickfest sandbox, we are talking about maybe 10 hours' worth of story content... quite underwhelming considering AHITR supposedly has monthly updates over many years.

Story
MC got teleported to a house floating in a rift which serves as a magical magnet that sucks in new inhabitants (i.e. 6 LIs) from other realms and prevents them from going back. It's a decent premise to do the multiple girls stuck in a house harem, but the main plot of finding a way to get everyone back hasn't progressed all these years.

In addition, there are many side stories pertaining to each LI that can be unlocked. However, the vast majority of them are around Rae, Caitlin and Lyriel. There is a bit of content developed for Naomi and almost nothing for Yona and Blair. I presume this is due to their lack of Patreon popularity, so they are more "miscellaneous" girls.

Game Mechanics
A standard room clicking across three time slots to trigger events sandbox plus inconsequential choices with minor dialogue variations.

Background / Character Renders
Backgrounds are standard assets with some customization. There aren't a lot as gamers will be spending 80% of the time inside the house with some additional scenarios in other realms when unlocking the LI's side stories.

Character designs are a mixed bunch. The three main LIs are very well designed and obviously very popular while the other three with little content are sort of there to satisfy certain kinks (muscle woman, orc and DEI hire). There are a few once-off side girls that are decently designed, but not enough to be memorable.

Character Development
Very uneven as there are a lot of side stories and slice of life moments reserved for Rae, Caitlin and Lyria which allows their character build up whereas the other three seem to have been introduced and then softly "de-emphasized" without much content due to their lack of popularity.

The relationship building between MC and the LIs though, is sorely lacking. There's hardly any difference from start to now - you don't get the sense MC is forming a closer connection with anyone beyond being housemates and FWBs.

Sex Scene
The lewd scenes are heavily concentrated on the 3 main LIs, but are very well done. A lot of variations in positions and camera angling and it's definitely not a copy and paste job repeated with different models.

A shout out to the animations, they are certainly the selling point of AHTR - good lengths (5 - 20 seconds), loop smoothly without jarring and feature many unique customizations. A few like Rae's anal and space dream, Caitlin's spooning, Lyriel's first time and Jenny's pool scene are very well-animated and memorable enough for collection.

The dialogue is passable, but the overall mood is dampened by the lack of music and sound effects. Quite wasted considering the excellent animations available.

BGM and Sound Effects
Very limited tracks which adds to the dull especially when the game requires you to spend vast amounts of time clicking around the house. Some story and lewd scenes do not come with any BGM which is an odd take considering these are the moments which are supposedly more emotional.

There are no sound effects that I recall.

Conclusion
My thoughts on AHITR are mixed - I like the character designs and the animations are simply amazing, but this is let down by a story that is drifting aimlessly and a lack of overall content considering its time in development.

Being one of the earlier batches of indie non-Jap AVN developer has given it a first mover's advantage in Patreon subscriptions and ratings. This combined with frequent fan engagement and slick marketing has allowed the developers to reap financial rewards and over time they have chosen a risk averse path favoring financial stability over creativity.

It's certainly a profitable business model, but from a game play POV and as a new player without nostalgic lenses, AHITR is perhaps 3+ stars still water but reliable with strengths and weaknesses across.

I'll start by saying I wish there was a 4.5 star option, and then explain why I've chosen to round down.

The game is more or less what it says: you find yourself in a house, trapped in a 'the rift', with not a whole lot going on. As the days wind on, a series of events introduce you to new characters. (After a while you get some control over the pacing of the new characters coming in.)

In terms of characters, the depth is a mixed bag. Some characters have some internal growth, others don't appear to grow much. Some characters have deeper background lore, and for others it's shallow, leaning on tropes and what's assumed to be common knowledge. This is fine if you know what's being drawn on, or recognise it, but it's a bit of a problem in certain contexts. I'm not penalising the star score exclusively because of this, it's just worth noting that some of the lore needs cleaning up. Since the game appears to be fairly far from done (at least where it's weakest), it's probably not a huge deal overall.

Standard humour issues: jokes land once, which means replayability is fairly low. This isn't like other story-based/story-driven games, in that those jokes punctuate moments; these jokes often pointless text selection options, which can cause a jarring impact. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be an issue for the score either, but it's contributing here.

The biggest issue is the sandbox element. Certain events overlap, and can occur out of synchronisation. There's no 'lock-in' mechanic for events you've told characters you'll do that day; there's also no penalty for a collision. Certain events aren't things you directly trigger, and instead require you to be in the right place at the right time (even though you've told people you'll do them). It leads to the sandbox becoming a fairly frustrating experience.

The number of parallel quests is problematically large. Not because the list is huge (it's like the in other games), but because of the overlap. In on particular circumstance, an issue breaks out between two characters, and you need to mediate it. Because there's no sequence gating, that event can play out after you've done other things, making things make very little sense. Other things can happen in parallel which treat it as unresolved or resolved (there's branching dialogue to handle it).

While it may be a subjective gripe, the lack of gating and sequencing is a huge issue for me. It makes the story part of the game extremely muddy. This is more important because there are individual character stories as well as the main arc (not uncommon in other games either, but it appears to be a driving point in the middle of this). This hits the fore when dreams appear on the wrong night (they'll happen a night or two before your character reacts), or some event between characters will trigger and be unresolved, leading to an unexplained interaction later.

In terms of 'what's wrong' here, the fix would be to gate some of the content behind proper sequencing. I know that this isn't something most people really care about, but in this particular game, particularly as it has expanded out since the first time I tried to play it a year ago, it has only gotten worse.

On the whole, the stories are interesting. The characters have enough depth to grapple with who they are, want to be, and their wants and needs. But they're not particularly deep, and the emphasis is more on the story than the character in them. Of the existing characters, there are three who are probably easy to relate to, or support, and three who could be replaced at random. I expect future story expansions will correct for some of those deficits.

To be clear, the loss of the 5th star here comes just from the gating. The sequencing problem can be a problem, not just an annoyance; I know freedom to do things is seen as important, but there's too much, and the chaos isn't controlled well enough to get the full five from me.

Tonight was my second playthrough of the game. When I first considered returning, Azraesha immediately came to mind. The next thing you know, a quote from Invincible popped into my head and then I told myself, "I think I miss my wife."

Jokes aside, I personally see A House in the Rift as the cream of the crop when it comes to AVNs. It has the perfect blend of monster girl, slice-of-life, fantasy and adventure. The story is actually very well-written for a harem plotline, and every love interest is memorable with a strong sense of individualism. Even cold and reserved characters like Lyriel have a deep emotional capacity.

This game is also home to Steven, one of the kindest and most understanding protagonists I've ever come across. It's extremely rare to come across someone like him in this male-dominated landscape, and he has his horny toad side. The player can make him a jerk, but his canon actions reveal him to be compassionate and thoughtful. For instance, Azraesha literally called herself a sex toy at the beginning of the game, but Steven continued to treat her like a normal person. Someone who deserves love. It is just so sweet to watch.

Review of v0.7.14b1

AHITR is a sandbox AVN with a relatively standard gameplay loop. You have a big house and go around different rooms, interacting with the girls to progress their stories. Thankfully the journal tells you exactly how to progress, so you don't have to fumble around in the dark. While the sandbox structure does allow for good repeatable sex scenes, but I still found it a bit unnecessary and annoying. The visuals are good and improve over time, with good sex animations. However, I found only Lyriel and Rae's model particularly attractive. Cait is carried by her cute personality, but her model is quite low-poly, and Naomi's model looks like it was made on a PS2.

There is a central story which is engaging enough to follow along with, though nothing special, but almost all of the screen time is devoted to the girls. There are extensive scenes developing your relationship with them and exploring their stories. This serves well to flesh them out, but at times it feels like filler.

My main problem with the game right now is that, for me, Rae, Cait and Lyriel are all highly lovable, but neither the mc nor the girls seem to be interested in being anything more than friends with benefits, despite the already very long runtime.

Also, Yona, the, 5th girl introduced out of 6, has had very little content so far in comparison to the others. Though I can't imagine her being anyone's best girl, considering she has next to no personality, and isn't particularly attractive.

I would also like the sound design to be extended beyond the handful of tracks which loop over almost every scene (with some scenes being suddenly, for no reason, silent). Good sound effects in the sex scenes would be much appreciated.

Despite all my criticisms, I still enjoyed the game for the most part, so I'm giving it 4 stars.