Ren'Py - A Town Uncovered [v1.1 Hotfix] [GeeSeki]

To start, this is a tough game to review since I did absolutely love it the first time I played it but due to slow and lackluster updates I began to sour on it. That being said I'm reviewing the "finished" game not an in-dev game, even if its doesn't completely feel finished. I replayed from the beginning to try and have the new player experience.

The elephant in the room
Lets start with the elephant. This game development was a mess. The game was in dev for 8 years, in that time countless bugs breaking new and existing content, releases using very rough concept art as placeholder, older saves either incompatible or you load pass the update so you wouldn't be able to use it anyways, things set up with without using (there's half of the town that wasn't used and affection stats for several characters with no purpose), the list of issues goes on.
The thing is the dev acknowledged this (public post on patreon), doesn't change my review but its something. It seems like there was a massive issue with planning, scope and scale; It sucks but happens, I've never made a game but I know its not an easy task. Either way I wont being supporting the next project financially, then again not like I supported this one.
A lot of people on this forum say the dev is a scammer, milked the project, etc. and maybe they are right but I don't know the dev so I'm not going to accuse them of anything like that. It does seem like they are learning their lessons from for their next game not to mention the new game is own a separate patreon so no carry over users but if you are still subbed to A Town Uncovered its time to move on and if you didn't realize that you are still subbed or not reading the patreon post that's on you.

Narrative
The Concept of the story is really good, starts very basic but the twist is amazing. The twist is a freeuse alternate reality of the town, personally one of my favorite fetishes but it all ends up very dull. You only go to the town once, is short (good while it last) and its ends on a negative note. If this was a horror game that negative note would be fine but this is a porn game, with a well done freeuse fetish this could have been really good, especially with this dev writing; there are so few freeuse games. I'm not saying there couldn't be a twist like the one used but maybe do more with the town, maybe MC visits when he is bored. Also, im aware that its a fetish that many players are against but if its what the dev wants then im all for it, its the dev's game to make (just happens i enjoy the fetish when done right).

The ending is probably the worst part. The sequence to get to the end is so dull there aren't even any sex scenes. The problem is its just rushed so the dev finished it opposed to abandon it. There is a very noticeable dip in overall quality towards the end.

Side quest and side content are great, the Characters are fun and well written and so horny, I love horny characters, let characters fuck because they want to. That being said some stories are just a bit bland. Similarly to the main quest some of the side quest do feel like they are rushed to the end and not stratifying. Alternatively, the Dev does has fun with group content, and writes it well. The characters aren't just extensions of the MC they have their own personalities and desires resulting in more natural feeling story telling. There are some really fun scenes: like the ara akria scene is great, hitomi club scene, or the hitomi beach scene, this is what I would have loved to see from the freeuse town but it does work well they way it implemented the problem is there simply are not may scenes like this.

gameplay
So its a sandbox, I actually like sandboxes when they are done will but they rarely are, this game straddles the line. A good sandbox lets the player explore and find stuff, random stuff, like the glory holes scenes beach, bathroom scenes, random people without sidequest willing to fuck or (again) the hitomi beach scene. There just isnt enough of this (reoccuring criticism that comes from scope and scale issues). The lack of random exploration rewards results in me constantly opening the guide to tell me where to go rather then organically discovering stuff (but a scene tracker would be nice to scratch that completionist itch). There is also affection stats and player stats to manage, I cheated so I don't have much to say about them but the game would probably feel better without them.

Art
Not much to say about the art. I really enjoy it but it did actually have to grow on me, when I first saw it I didn't care for it but I'm grateful I stuck with it. I not sure why I like it so much maybe because it stands out so much.

Closing notes
I'm giving this 4 stars but its closer to 3.5 stars but that's not an option. Like I said earlier I'm reviewing the final project not the dev process, most of criticisms that I see on the forums (what I outlined in the elephant section) are irrelevant as a result. At the end of the day I did enjoy my replay, I wish there are more games like this. Unfortunately, many people including myself are a bit disappointed because of the development of the game, which review wise, is something that is completely pointless to anyone that did go through it.

After more than half a decade of development, during which a horde of people - myself included for a time - paid the developer's bills, the dud decided he'd rather just work on other stuff. Instead of finishing it, he just trimmed out whatever parts he wasn't done with it, declared it "done" and put up for sale on Steam and GOG.

Such a disappointment. I honestly give up on supporting these projects financially during development. I will happily pay a retail-sized price for games that are completed, but I'm just so fed up with throwing money at projects that get abandoned.

What floors me is that this guy is going to pull something like this...and then ask people to support his NEXT projects. You'd have to be mad.

Fantastic game !

I love the art and the narration equally ! Even if the gameplay can be a little too grindy for my taste. But the fact is, that the qualities of this game outshine its shortcomings by far, at least in my book.

I can't wait for the next update !

Good game, but have a f***ing ton of bugs, open word still too crude...
I pretty much liked what I see, but these bugs... Almist umplayable
Reviews which are not constructive may be removed so my constructive recomendation is to work into the bugfixing and improve the open world

This game has potential, it had an amazing story, decent artwork, and nice characters.
But the Dreams this game has is far too big for it's engine, it uses Renpy which is a good game engine but it's limited on how big the game is so it experiences crashes often.
here is other bad things of this game:
The music is so repetitive it makes me want to puke.
There isn't any voice acting.
The sex "animation" is basically just a slide show, with stops which makes you think it is other but it isn't.
The task hints are far to confusing, one character's hint (named Hitomi) is literally talk to her but when you talk to her nothing happens, the hint's need to be improved upon or you are just wondering around aimlessly.

I would say save your time till it fully comes out, but I have a feeling that the developer might just drop this project like most Early Access Games.

One of my top 3 most played porn games that are in my porn game folder, which is a lot, so good on ye for being top 3. Love the story and especially the incest. If you like incest this is the game for you.

This was good. I played on a previous version and it was overall enjoyable. But the only truly compelling story is the one between the main family. The fact that the MC can screw over the father entirely was exceedingly enjoyable, but I've also heard some say that if you don't play your cards right that can go dark and really fucking quick. I think I read somewhere that the sister becomes so detached she ends up becoming the father's side piece while he keeps beating his wife. So yeah, dark if that's the case.

The rest of this feels very much like a reimagining of another saga VN we all know, but at least there's some originality placed in the characters themselves which was nice. The fight club felt a bit forced and tying that in with the heist ... it all felt just kind of thrown in but it was fun so just go with it. Honestly I didn't even recall there being anything about an Alternate Universe in my run through. Either that takes a back seat very quickly or it just wasn't in the version I read through. It just seems like something that should play a bigger part overall. Having the MC go between worlds. For example, having the MC go into the fort in his basement to reminisce about his sister after she leaves the house in his world or have her just commit self deletion and he shrinks away into the fort only to come out into the alternate world where his father is an openly abusive piece of shit but his sister is alive. Have the MC going back to his world where his sister is gone and he discovers that his father there was abusive too, but in a different way. This leads him to learn the true reason for his sister leaving or death. Having similarities between worlds be the reason he learns this. You know, something like that to add a little more intrigue. Have his father in one universe destroy the fort so he can't go back. Have the MC come from a world where his Teacher got caught during the heist but in the alternate world he can fix that by being there with her. Just add some comparisons and more stakes to the overall story is what I'm getting at. But that's just me. And Dev, feel free to use this. No joke, I do not care. Anything to make the story better.

In the end, nothing here is stands out to me as bad nor exceptional. This, to me, was a solid 3-3.5/5 the only part I didn't like was the fighting RNG and the fact that there was no clear path on how to build the MC's strength. I found the only way to have fun with the story was to literally cheat. That made the VN far more enjoyable. In fact, I'm pretty sure if I hadn't I'd probably have a very different outlook on this VN entirely, and not in a positive way. So if the dev were to reduce the grind, make stats actually work for the reader, and easily accessible this could be great. It would even allow for more focus to be placed on decisions and let the story cook. That already sounds like a better overall experience for most of us, yes?

If you're reading this and thinking, "man this was bad," I highly encourage you download the cheat enabler. Takes out the grind and lets you focus on the stories and characters. It's an infinitely better experience in my opinion. As always I wish this dev all of the best and hope they find the support they need to keep this VN going. If you did or didn't like this leave a review and tell the dev what you enjoyed and what you didn't. And if you do enjoy this VN find a way to support the project. Cheers.

This is a good game overall. The story and the role you play is what stands out the most for me. I played it some time ago but I remember it focusing on the relationship with the characters in kind of a deep way, especially with MC's sister. Makes you bond with most of them somehow and it feels human, which is refreshing. However, the graphics are mediocre and the game is full of bugs. Even if I don't mind it, it needs a rework.

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 school.

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.

After 7 years finally "finished" the main story. This game has always been a buggy mess, often with fanpatches to get rid of the bugs introduced and reintroduced in every update. Despite this huge flaw, the early story and art had its charm.

Art is simplistic but to the point. Animations are a few frames in length but hand drawn, it'd be a 4/5 if there weren't so many assets missing or buggy.

Story is a mess. It's at least a 1/5 due to the okay start and mini plot twist. Eventually the plot twists so much it strangles itself and the pacing is horendous.

Gameplay is awful. Really. Too many mechanics that eventually get forgotten completely to rush the stories and complete the game. The memory and clicking games re-introduced at the end just exacerbate the random "training". The non linear stories tend to repeat, crash or reset, so use the bug fixer/time fix in MC's computer to get passed them.

Sound and Music is generic and repeating at nauseam, sometimes stopping for no reason. There are attempts at a few points in the story for some tension and horror but often unsuccessfully executed.

Overall, the game is playable, if frustrating and the sex scenes are pretty okay, though mostly playing on fetishes such as incest, promiscuity and public exposure; a few times there's also funny "accidental" sex scenes, such as slipping and falling while conveniently naked. The fact that characters don't even reference such events is another downside, but I can't give the game less than a 2/5, since there's actually much worse games out there and this one simply failed in its lengthy... lengthy implementation.

The art of the game is ugly and when it looks like it's going to improve, it just doesn't (animations included), sometimes the characters look OK and then the proportions change without much sense looking quite disgusting.

Many situations build a good atmosphere but then are completely ruined by some comment or action from a character.

It's just a big NO.

Hell yeah a good incest game.

The art is... okay tho. So that's why I rate it a 3 out of 5.

The scenes with the mother at the end is pretty good, but unfortunately not all scenes are taboo and well driven like that.

The relationship evolution with the sister is quite good too but derail at some point.

The random special scenes are good but not enough happens in them.

Quite alright game, I'd play again.

I have to say, the game is as bad as the reviews say. The progression with some characters are unrealistic and their relationships are heavily plot-driven.
The build up towards the sex scenes are very poor (family exempted) which makes most scenes quite hollow. As for the art, I don't mind it, but don't take my word for it since I have very low standards for art (I enjoy Mr. Pinku games), hence the fappability is a meh (I could use if I'm really down bad).
But overall, it has huge potential, there is a plot (i guess?) and there are some characters and with loveable personalities. The dev just needs to finish the game and revise all the interactions and progression and brush up the sequence of events and the game could be a solid 4 stars.

I think, this is a game that is "suffering from success."

I have played this game since an iteration from before the "other world" was even a concrete thing. If you've never played before this is a great game, it's slow but not exclusive, it's mysterious it's determined.

9/10

I really like the style, the character design, how the quests develop and especially the scenes. But the game is full of bugs and sometimes it's not clear how to move within the scenarios. The quest where you have to collect 50 boxes is a bit boring and too long. Leaving that aside, the game is very nice, I hope in the future they will add new scenes to characters that have few.

I did a few playthroughs every year or so for last few years (since 2019 maybe?). It's a quite nice little VN, which is very replayable after you let it stew for a bit.
Good things:
- Writing is actually nice for a indie porn game. Not too pretentious, pretty simple, and, dunno, believable? Game scene feels somewhat solid. Not a lot of piano-in-the-shrubbery reveals, some DUN-DUN-DUUUN storyline turns should be expected, but overall - it feels like dev guy had a solid plan$
- Pretty much the same thing as above, but - game universe seems interesting.
Controversial things:
- Art. Personally - I like the style. Simplistic, yes, but nice. Certainly feels much better than yet another spin on Daz and same crappy models everywhere.
- Story content decisions. Okay, so NTR is a very fucking controversial stuff and everyone has their own stance - but I very much disliked when dev removed some events, which, even if they were controversial, should've been pretty much expected storywise. Next we're gonna see someone that doesn't like big-titted blondes - so what, is he going to remove Lashley from game?
Meh things:
- Code. Enough had been said about the amount of game-breaking bugs. Game systems feel like a big interwoven mess of crap, elements of which work purely by the grace of god. I've taken a look at a source code - some systems decisions spoiled the game from the start. Tying various events from different storylines to certain locations? That's a recipe to mess up continuity and event triggers. I dunno how dev is going to carry this game to the end - by a miracle?
Nonetheless, just because of art and story, I'm gonna put this one as excellent. Just hoping that dev is going to sort out his code troubles and deliver the whole story before we all die in a nuclear blast

It's a cute little game as it stands but it is definately not ready to be a playable game. Too many bugs to be playable and it seems like the game is at the same point it was 2 years ago with a couple added scenes and bugs.

Sex scenes take forever and you can't shorten them, plus the animation is not always the best. Also, some more "after-sex" scenes would be nice. Sound (breathing, moans) would also be nice, but probably that'd be asking too much.

The game has a lot of bugs, but playing on PC and using the patch for increasing stats/money solves it.

The art is pretty interesting, although sex scenes often come across as lazy drawn. The style is a good choice though.


But the best is the story - the writing is definitely good, the teacher and lanlady/mom routes are neatly written (except for one scene where the landlady doesn't make any sense) and the characters are fleshed out nicely, with relationships taking a realistic progression. The roommate/sister route takes the cake in a very good sense (and I generally hate this incest content), it really had some depth to it, there's something natural and relatable in this story that you wouldn't expect to find in a porn game whose sole purpose is to help you wank. I actually felt connected to these 2 characters after their storyline was over, which speaks wonders of the writer behind the project.

I remember playing this game ages ago. The story was interesting if not a bit convoluted and there was a lot of monotonous tasks.

Pros
-Intereresting story
-Decent sized map
-Variety of characters
-Has incest

Cons
-Art looks like it was made in clipart
-slideshow animations
-Dialogue can ramble on
-Gameplay loop can be repetitive
-Random click spam simulator in trying to figure out what to do next.

Writing is pretty good, just wish the new content wasn't so convoluted. The story pacing also gets too heavy at times without much gameplay in-between, at least it has for many updates since a couple of characters stories were completed. Overall though, this remains one of my favorite games on f95, and will remain so as long as GeeSeki focuses on pacing just a little more in the future. There's more I have to say about the game but, be honest, you don't really care, do you?