Ren'Py - A Town Uncovered [v0.53a Alpha] [GeeSeki]

Reviewing v0.39a 22/04/2022

Short Version: This game is a never-ending dump on fire. It had a good premise but it basically shot itself in the back with a machine-gun.

The Good (AKA "Things that you shouldn't change")

- The Art is simple and enjoyable, a bit odd but in a good way it gives a touch of originality
- Some dialogues are just soooo good (like MC and Jane talking naked under the stars, or Alloway and MC after doing a job for Jack the criminal-kid)

The Annoying (AKA "Why this stuff is still here?!")

- The bugs are mostly game breaking, and they have the bad habit to reappear over and over
- Some characters like MC's mom are complete bipolar-sociopaths. Like when She was so happy that MC took her to dinner and to the cinema and be super sweet and wholesome...only to go back fucking MC's dad the second he comes back and when MC tries to understand by questioning her CALMLY, she goes on a tantrum where she mocks MC for not being a real man like his father (the same man who abused and still abuse her and MC's sister and MC himself, both physically and verbally), only to get mad again when she learns that MC is having several sexual relationships, and her reason for being mad is...MC not spending time with her "is the proof that he isn't a real man". In this mass of bipolar syndrome(or maybe it's just lame writing) characters, i can throw in also Jane and another couple of characters but i'm stopping here because i would be repeating myself but just using different the names of other characters.

The Bad (AKA "Reasons why the potential killed itself and left you to deal with its own corpse")

- Placeholders...Oh My God...placeholders even from past updates! Seriously, if you're forced to use placeholders or incomplete sketches, it means that the release isn't ready, meaning that you should work on it a bit more before releasing it.
- The necessity of replaying the whole game over and over because of old save-files...sorry i would do it IF the game was worth it...but this is not the case and considering how many disappointing releases we got...it's clear that it never will be.
- The plot...is just wasted...left to rot for so many updates and releases and only recently is coming back...a little...but the updates are so short and the content is so forgettable that i barely noticed its return.

Conclusion: Guys...pulling the plug on this game would be an act of mercy. Just...let's end it here, please.

It's everything summertime saga is , but worse.
Main issue being the art. it's so simplistic and undetailed that many characters would look the same if it was not for their hairstyles.
Story is fine , but starts to drag .
Sex scenes are boring , most probably because of the art .

Out of all the games I have played, the story with this game is dragged out to the point it kills any excitement. Once you get into a good groove and you think it's actually picking up you hit a wall of mundane text.

0.37a

Good:
- art is ok, it is a bitch to have to hand draw everything so credit when due
- music is ok
- repeatable sex scenes
- lots of side stories
- writing is UNDERSTANDABLE and not completely broken english!!!
- hint system (sometimes is completely useless though)
- stat system
- map to fast travel

Bad:
- to progress main story you have to meet every character (certain place at certain time), which the hint system does not tell you specifically, so you spend an hour trying to figure out where to go and clicking everything.
- MAIN STORY, the premise of the game. is extremely short compared to the entirety of the game, probably like 5-10% of play time
- you have to wait a week for about every event, half of which dont lead to sex
- sex scenes are looped for way too long before you can progress
- music stops during sex scenes and there is no sound
- have to grind cash and skills with a chance to fail grinding skills so you spend twice as much time grinding skills
- multiple areas are accessible, but have no purpose
- can view parts of gallery only if you grind cash and buy an item

As of update 0.36a, released four years after the game started development; you only visit the sex world, the thing that's suppose to be the selling point of the game, one time and it's an incredibly railroaded experience that lasts about 5 minutes.

Should be made aware of.

Version Played: 0.36a

While the art never really appealed to me, the high rating and the fact that the art is original did. I like what's here overall, and as others have pointed out, the two (w)incest relationhips are the highlights. That said, there is a lot of stuff here that doesn't seem to (currently) matter in the slightest, including locations and characters.

Positives
+ Original art and the vaguely Asian look of the mom and sister are really hot
+ Writing is solid in terms of how the characters relate to one another (the setting itself is pretty bog-standard)

Negatives
- The amount of seemingly visitable locations and interactable characters belies the fact that there isn't really a lot of content as you cannot either go there, in the case of the former, or have meaningful interaction with, in the case of the latter
- While the uniqueness of the art is cool, it's just one level of detail away from being super hot.

I think if the art style and themes appeal to you, there are worse ways to spend an evening.

Note to Dev: As others have mentioned, it would be worth considering only adding locations and characters as they have direct plot relevance and/or scenes. Also, and I mean no disrespect, but if you added a bit more detail to your art, it would make it so much hotter.

I feel obligated to give five stars by the simple fact that this is the only game I’ve been consistently interested in and fascinated by.

That said, a decent chunk of my interest has been in the same way people watch a car wreck. Every update, I immediately wonder whether Geeseki has managed to find a new way to mess up the game. They have not yet disappointed.

So as a fair warning: Expect bugs. Expect missing or incomplete art. Expect entire features missing or at least not triggering. Expect a misleading hint system. Expect misspellings. Geeseki apparently does not play-test the game before release, and in v0.36a, for example, long-completed art is still missing, dialogue does not display, and the very last scene of the Lashley route plain does not trigger.

That said, there are quite a few positive (or at least unusual) elements in the game:


1) The Characters

Way too often, games have one-note, generic characters, whose only defining traits are being "beautiful", being a specific fetish-fuel, and inexplicably lusting after the MC and him exclusively.

In ATU, every character feels like an independent and unique actor within the world. The MC often has a special place in their world, but they work without him.

NPCs, both waifu and non-waifu alike, respond to each other in dialogue to each other, mention each other when talking to you, and generally feel like they have some depth beyond being just another vehicle for a fetish.

As a downside, these characters often have what I consider huge negative traits. Many have deep insecurities, and tend to lash out to the point of abusiveness. Consequences can often seem "realistic" but un-intuitive. Offering help may be responded to with a rude "Don’t put pressure on me!". In several situations, there are only dialogue options which worsen your relationship with the person.


All in all, the characters make the world seem alive, but it is often not a nice world. There’s a frequent debate on what counts as NTR for a reason, despite the mods explicitly stating that there is no NTR as they count it. Many characters shit on him. Especially some women often dismiss him overtly or subtly.

In a way, the fullness of the world makes the MC, and as such the player, smaller. Often, you just witness others interacting with each other. At some places, it feels less like playing a character and more like a voyeuristic game where you have to visit each attraction without participating.

The dialogue is often cited as one of the high-lights of the game. In my opinion. While I agree, it is also a mixed bag. At times, it can seem overly "quirky", so your mileage may vary.


2) The Gameplay

For most part, it is a simple and generic Renpy visual novel. Move to location X, then read the dialogue and click some dialogue options. There is only a single minigame and the routes are for the most part linear. (Technically 2 minigames: Ask 20 questions and rock paper scissors. However, the second doesn’t do anything yet.)

The world is further enriched by a handful of little optional scenes. They are rare and non-obvious enough that you could easily miss them. For example, you might randomly encounter a character jogging in the park. Some characters’ dialogue options which appear only on specific days, like a character you can catch smoking pot once a week. They may appear as a welcome surprise and help make the world seem a bit more alive even though there are very few.

For several scenes, there are alternative reactions, outcomes or options depending on your various stats and dialogue choices. However, these outcomes rarely affect anything beyond the scene itself and maybe a mention in a later dialogue option somewhere if Geeseki bothers to implement it.

Speaking of logic: The implementation and interaction between various routes is very mixed.

As a positive, playing one route to a certain point may affect another, or elements of the main story can be revealed within some side-stories. However, some elements of this don’t mesh with each other at all and consequently make no sense.

As the biggest example, the progress in the main story is completely independent to how the side stories play out and vice versa. You may just come from a double-blowjob from two characters in a side-story and then the MC seems surprised that they are acting sexual towards him in the main story. You may learn that a character might be replaced by an evil doppelganger in the main story, but the MC will have no idea in a side story.

I’m attributing this very messy and mixed implementation to how Geeseki does the whole game: Haphazardly and randomly. One scene may make sense when it is implemented, but then it does not account for progress made later in another route. Some scenes have straight-up been half-done for years before the story they should be logically appear in was even written.

And I mean "half-done". Instead of choosing the next scene in a route and then completing it, Geeseki sometimes does a handful of not-even connected scenes partially, and then just wanders off to another place for the next year. Even later scenes in the same route might be completed before Geeseki goes back a year or two later and finally completes it.

For example, there is still missing dialogue in the sexworld despite it having been written into the code over a year ago, as far as I know. It is just not implemented. The sex world scene itself has existed for 3+ years.

3) The Art

The art is very mixed. Often, it is whimsical and quirky, with various small details in the background. However, some CGs feel very awkward and ugly. Animations are extremely slow.

Geeseki stated a plan to re-do many of the animations, but who knows how many years that might take?

4) The Story

Despite 5 years of development, much of the story has only been hinted at so far. Additionally, the MC has shown no recognition of even some of the more blatant hints. Progress has been positively glacial with a 10 month gap between the most recent main story update and the one before that.

That said, the implementation displays some of the strengths mentioned above. Hints as to what is going on with the mysterious sex-world are scattered throughout. For several characters, their backstory relates to it in some way or another.

At this point it is all very mysterious with very little payoff. One of the oldest complaints about the game is that the Sex World, despite being the big special thing Geeseki tells you in the description, cannot be interacted or visited again at all. For roughly 4 years now, people complain that it is basically a big tease and nothing more.

That said, elements of the sex world creep throughout the game, but usually not in a good way and often not in a sexy way either.


All in all, it is a fascinating game hampered by slow and often poor development.

Review [v.0.35b]
First of all let me say that I enjoyed my time with this game.
But I can’t overlook all the problems that this game has.
Let’s start with the characters and story:
There is a story, but it is deep buried in some boring and exhausting dialogues that sound like filler.
The writing has ups and downs, sometimes it has amazing lines, but most of the phrases dance between Ok and mediocrity, and here I go with the characters.
The first girl you’ll meet it’s awful, it’s such a stereotypical character that almost made me drop the game, “I am not a whore but let’s have sex on the first day we have met and let’s skip all character development” that is how I can synthesize her.
And it’s baffling, some characters are just mediocre, you have seen it a thousand times, like the teacher, the bully and the pervert friend and all the others side characters you’ll forget.
But in all of this, there also original and interesting characters that keep you interested, like the sister, mother or the principal of the school, these character and even some male ones don’t feel mediocre, they feel refreshing.
But here is the sad part, all of this is still buried by:
Awful grinding (Clicking over and over is not fun) some choices that even the MC will forget and a stats system that is too complicated.
And also there too many places planned, locations that are empty, it’s worthless stuff, if you took out a part of the game, it would be just better.
Sex scenes are ok, sometimes good but they don’t feel spectacular, maybe it’s because on how they are drawn in that moment,
And that’s it, my hot take on this game, I enjoyed it, but also got frustrated, I don’t know if I should recommend it, there is good stuff in it, but it’s just hidden in some annoying parts

The first game I ever saw featuring lewd content but what attracted me the most, was playing th role of a young teenager, and romancing the land lady, or the principal a the schol.

The plot is very interesting and I especially love teh art style.

I do wish there was more lewd content, featuring mostly in the older woman love young boy category.

Despite this project is still ongoing, I hope to see it finished and to solve the mystery behind the town, so that i can save and marry my milf/older woman waifu.

The only gripe is that production on this game seems to be rather slow. Even after purchasing it on steam.

Pretty great game. The art's quite nice, not quite as good as the top tier stuff but everyone's attractive and the MC doesn't look like a goofball like in some of these games.

The main draw is the story. While this isn't a long drawn out game where you have to spend hours on each route before you get some, some of these routes are some of the best in the entire business. Particularly the sister and the twin sister route if playing with the original intended incest patch: this is a really personal game, the writer clearly is as sick as the players but it's extremely sweet and interesting. Both of them are a bit sick and more chase the MC as he's spending time with them than the typical game where MC either hypnotizes/blackmails or just helps them. Think similar to Debbie's route in Summertime Saga but better.

The teacher route's great too. She's one of my favorite characters, pretty much the ideal gamer girl + teacher combo you probably fantasized about in middle and high school yourself somewhere.

Other than those three routes it's not the very best porn game. Generally just "good" besides those three, but at least everyone's attractive.

Gameplay wise it's your typical fare, build stats, work some shifts at a job to get some money, advance individual routes and unlock new routes occasionally while doing them. It's not *too* grindy, dare I say it's fun building stats in this one, though it's still probably worth enabling cheat mode eventually when the only thing to do is 20 more shifts at the ice cream shop to start affording everything you need.

I guess in terms of drawbacks, this game likes putting in incomplete scenes. Personally I prefer the Summertime Saga model where they hold off on putting it in till it's all there (for routes anyway ... not like how they did their main story patches), you feel like you make headway then the route kind of stops or doesn't have scenes anymore. Also the art is nice but the sex scenes could be a little less like watching South Park animations in porn form.

Overall come for the incest story if that's your thing. Good shit.

I really want to love this game. The writing made me care for characters I never expected to and the incest doesn't make me want to bash in my skull. Most of the characters, specifically the family, are given a great personal story to go through, which makes the main story that much more disappointing. Dad is terrible, life sucks, and the other town exists. It's not very complicated but it takes forever to get through and the tone and pacing smashes right through any plans you have going on with the carefree stories of the other characters. Can't smash now Effie, I'm being haunted. The H scenes feel well earned but are wholly underwhelming when the simple artstyle crossed with powerpoint animations make every scene a chore to get to, and then through. The artstyle isn't too bad an issue, and could be fixed with the animations being smoothed out a lot, but unfortunately You'll likely run into the game's hundreds of bugs before getting laid anyways.

This game is 95% reading text and going around town doing stupid tasks. I had to eventually turn on the cheats so I could skip the grind. The stories are unnecessarily complicated and long. There just isn't enough porn content to make this game worth playing.

The story, the art and the jokes in this game are ... one of those things that motivates me to give this game a PERFECT rating!

im still at half way of the game and im getting that immersive vibes of deja-vu and a good feeling while playing this game, i do seek for the development of this game and i wish i could find this game more quickly since its one of those wincest/incest genres that many doesn't approve so thats another motivator to play this game.

Pros
- Writing is okay
- Sexual situations are okay
- Objective tracker, always knew what to do next
Cons
- Bad art, and I don't mean the art style. The art itself is just low detail, for example hands during sex scenes look like they're drawn in 5 sec.
- Grindy

Played this and found it on the Itch.io engaging as hell love it so far cant wait for the next updates. It felt simple and has a good story so far. The characters are hella fine too LUL. All in all 10/10 I would play this even if I finished the game and take hours.

So after playing through the "whole" thing (this review was made at version 0.30c), I can safely say that this game is pretty solid overall. Obviously, not everything is implemented yet, but I like how the game takes its time before introducing us to a world where sex in public and being open about it is the norm. That said, with how brief the "visit" was, I do hope we either get more of that world in the future or that we just have the ability to freely swap between them and have one world where we can just move around freely and have sex with whoever we want.

My only actual gripe would be to make some of the things that you can click on either stand out more or just have a back button.

-SPOILER HERE-

When I eventually got the VR goggles and went into the chest in my room to use it but decided I didn't want to, I didn't realize I had to click the outer area of the chest to go back and just used the mouse scrollback to get out of the chest.

-SPOILER ENDS HERE-

Otherwise, 7/10 so far. Clearly needs some more polish, but it's at 0.30c. I'll let it slide for now.

Amazing game with good storytelling. Updates are quite slow but I can't complain since it's free. I appreciate what the author is doing and what I am receiving. Keep up the amazing work on the game and keep us happy!

This game is okay, for a little while. But I can't help feeling quite disappointed by it. Everything from the artwork to the character design, it feels underwhelming to me. To me this game is either a 2 star or a 3 star, some people may like it a lot higher than that, but It feels flat to me, unrewarding, and I think the artwork and h scenes need to be better before anything else

Had potential at first, love the x-ray, but plot went downhill and so many bugs that I couldn't care to count. If only the developer spends more time perfecting the game mechanics instead of sketching ridiculous, unrealistic and boring plot, it could have been one of the best games on F95zone.

This game has become such a disappointment and has been for so long. There was so much potential. So many bugs that it's impossible to count them, it's absurd that it hasn't been fixed for ALL this time. sorry for my poor English