Ren'Py - Abandoned - Afterglow [Ch. 3] [GaussianFracture]

The art is extremely beautiful, there's nothing like it. That alone (and the MILF of course) kept me wanting more. I don't really care about story writings in porn games except it being believable, but im not really into the incest vanilla lovey dovey stuff, just wish there is more than one option (and not being sandbox)

Art is good. Would be better if it was animated. Way too much fuff and Mini games and not really enough Fapping stuffs in-between the fluff. I feel like you had to read a whole Novel just to see a kissing section with the friend. But then the build up with the teacher was like a hug, then sex. So its hit or miss. A lot of the more popular games on here have less fluff in-between the fapping stuffs.

Pros:
- awesome female character models
- amazing art style
- LOTS of renders

Cons:
- Buggy/bare game engine
- tedious quests/minigames
- protag looks 12 years old
- CRINGE writing
- very very slow development

I gotta say, this was one of the games I was looking forward to playing for a very long time. Teasers for cast and art style seemed almost too good to be true. I'm happy to say that the art absolutely delivers. Meg, Josie, and Vera are stacked, and have a very sexy stylized look that accentuates their thick, fit bodies. Their faces have very similar features (sharp cheekbones, long thin noses, pointed chins, similar eyes), and it would be nice to have a little more variety there, but the overall package is so fantastic that it isn't a big distraction.

I also appreciate the sheer number of renders for things as simple as a one on one conversation over a meal. It gives the game a very cinematic feel (even if the conversations are horribly dull; more on that later).

The Unity engine the game is made in is not very optimized. The game chugs quite a bit at different spots, and doesn't consistently pull up one render after the next. The engine also lacks most features expected in a Renpy game (forward/back in text, fast forward, auto, save and load, text speed settings, etc). This engine was presumably used to run the minigames in the forensics lab, but its a tedious minigame that slows down the progression of the story too much.

The protag also looks very immature. The "landlady", as well as the rest of the female cast, tower over him. If that is your thing, feel free to add a star to my review score.

All of this is forgivable, if not for the writing. The game goes for the "slow burn" romance route, but instead of building sexual tension and excitement, the protag is constantly talking about work or some other banal topic with the smoking hot girls. He falls directly into the "nice guy" stereotype where he is overly kind and respectful to the point that it is cringe. It feels like his character was written by an incel who has never asked a girl out.

The game also takes the bizarre approach of having an inner monologue for almost every character. Knowing exactly what every character thinks/wants makes the story very monotonous. We know character X likes character Y, we know Y likes X, then we spend the rest of the time watching them beat around the bush for 5 questlines before any action happens.

There are also lots of little writing inaccuracies: "I have time to drive you to school" followed immediately by "cmon im in a hurry", being away for a week and saying "ive been gone for so long", overexplaining every characters backstory instead of bringing it up in normal conversation, characters being described one way but acting in a completely different way, a college student taking several hours of classes per day (lol), and all of that is in the first five minutes of the game! It really feels like it's made up as it goes along.

Normally I wouldn't criticize writing in a lewd game like this, but currently, that's all there is to this game. A dozen or so segments with one sex scene with one character, some sexy but ultimately not lewd outfits for the "landlady" Meg, and thats about it. The rest is the writing, and it's inconsistent, rife with exposition and cringe, and ultimately ruins the experience. I might try this game in a couple years when it has some more scenes (and you can bet your ass i'll skip the dialogue), but for now, it's just a poorly written romance novel.

(reviewed Nov 2021, v0.2.4 but the review should be applicable for a while)

Graphics: 5 / 5 (sexy, unique)

Story: 5 / 5 (slow but good! characters seem like real people! Devs are responsing to feedback to fix pacing a bit)

Dialogue: 3.5 / 5 (MC can't dirty talk even in his fantasies)

This is a good VN and well worth following and paying for at some point. The devs are clearly talented and committed.

Cons:

- Progress is slower than I'd like, but that is true of any game we like, right?

- the cash-making minigame needs to go away or be skippable after playing once. I get that the devs spent effort on it, but playing a boring/easy/annoying minigame multiple times in order to proceed is not adding to my experience. Make it skippable or auto-passable after playing once, I think.

- the MC's dirty talk in the few lewd scenes is boring. I hope it gets better and dirtier / cruder over time


Overall, GOOD stuff! The number of in-depth reviews should be a clue that this one really affects lots of people in a powerful way.

I discovered this game after looking for some good m/s games, I saw that very good looking woman in the pic so I gave it a try, that was around the very first build of the game and now I can say that I'm obsessed with it!
So! I decided to write a review after I started to support with the highest tier on Patreon and joining the Discord, because this game deserves all the attention and support! (very little spoilers ahead)

1. Story

As the developers says is a Slow-burn story, the focus is on the character development so most of them will have many LONG scenes of pure dialogue, is this bad? NO! I really apreciate that we don't have "plain" characters, we can see that in flashback scenes and some dialogues, they have a story to tell and we can see some of the consecuences those events left.

It makes it really enjoyable to have some drama, combines perfectly with the slow rythm , making it more tense.


2) Characters:

Max: The MC and US in some sort of way, the normal guy with a normal life until the events start to happen, nothing to say about him, he's just fine as he is!

Meg: Oh yesss the main atraction and probably the main reason of why you're playing the game!
Her desing is perfect! yeah is has the typical milf characteristics, but well done!
She's Max's mom, or stepmom, landlady! whatever you call it! The perfect woman, responsible, hard working, beautiful and Se- well you know!

Vera: Max's teacher and romantic interest! at least in some parts!
Her development with Max is well done, the conflict of dating a student gives it a dangeous feeling but in the good sense!

Josie: Max's best friend, the one who supports the characters in every way possible!

There are other characters but those 3 makes the perfect love triangle, the conflicts between them adds a very serious feeling to the story, specially after That part were everything goes to waste (at least for now)

3) Art

This is the reason why I started to play the game (well the 2nd one, the first is Meg/Max content)

Really good looking art, good use of colors, lighting and of course, the character desings!

Animation: Nope, we're not on that point yet! But I'm not losing hope!

Spicy content: The story has a slow rythm, so the amount of spicy content is not that much (for now), the story is very close to the point of getting the Heavy content!
BUT! you can enjoy of some really sexy scenes in some parts! good enough to pause the game and just look at the screen with one hand in the mouse and the other- well you know!

What it needs:

- More interactions:
The amount of interactions in the scenarios are very little, it limits to simple coments from the MC
- Money: Yes the game already has a money system, but we need more objects! The only things that you can buy are for story progression.
- Gallery: I think that is a work in progress, but we need it! There are really good scenes the are impossible to see again except if you start a new game
(For example: the scene were max helps meg with the dress and sees her in underwear, that scene is a +10!)
- Spicy interactions:
It's a bad habit of me but everytime I play a game like this, I tend to click the bathroom door so I can see a spicy scene! I mean, there a bathroom in Meg's bedroom...

Anyway!

Go ahead and play this game! Support the developers so we can enjoy more stuff!
Don't worry, the community is very active and the developers too!
I hope this game doesn't get abandoned, you can really feel the there love for this project!

For me, this game is amazing. I love the art, it is beautiful. The characters and their storys are very good. I love the slow burn. The progress of the story/relations is on point. Really, there is nothing in this game that i didn't like. I am already looking forward for the next uptades.

I came for the unique gfx style and now I'm leaving because almost everything else about it is unimpressive.

The writing is technically ok. The story is... adequate if 'slow burn' is your fetish, an annoying series of clicks if it's not. Don't expect entertaining and/or enlightening literature; that's not what 'story driven' means round these parts. (It basically means edging for 19 hours then blowing a massive prostate-cancer-inducing load.)

The unique gfx is pretty much the only reason I'm even writing this review. It's cartoony 3d, which is underutilised in porno games. However, the lighting/postprocessing is mediocre and on the flat side. The only exception I found was a dream sex scene with the 'landlady', where she looked eye-poppingly gorgeous.

The models look like different versions of the same woman, with the same 'thicc fit' body type. That might be a plus if you're extremely fond of it to the exclusion of other looks. For me it's boring.

The two h-scenes I saw (including the visually stunning dream sex) were generic and vanilla. I was really hoping for some animations esp given the unique gfx but sadly there are none.

PS - srsly tho that no fap/edging shit literally doubles the risk of prostate cancer after 40; look it up.

Cool animation style! I'll be looking forward to seeing where this all goes. The money-minigame is kind of a chore, even if you don't have to do it all that much. Might be nice with something else to do on the weekdays, as often you'll just be sleeping the time away to get to the next story points. Neat setting and all!

Afterglow [v0.2.3a] Review/Critique
After following this game’s updates for several months, it seemed like enough time to justify the writing of this review, divided into several sections.

Art
This is one of the game’s strongest points. Like many other followers of the project, I was drawn in by renders of the very stylish Meg doing various poses in different outfits, showing off her assets. The mix of 2D elements and the high-fidelity 3D models is fun to look at and is reminiscent of some ero-manga or American comics brought into a 3D space. The faces of the female characters are their most stylized feature, which some might find unappealing, but to me is infinitely better than the uncanny-valley faces found in other games that are full-3D. Their bodies and proportions, while exaggerated, are not absurd given the context (this is, after all, a game focusing on idealized sex-goddess amazons for the player to interact with).

Where the character art stumbles a bit is in the fact that all of the female characters introduced so far have virtually identical facial structure and makeup patterns. Where they are differentiated is in the color of their makeup and hair, and hair style. It would be nice to see some more variation in their facial features, such as the shape of the eyes, nose and chin. Eye shape in particular can be suggestive of certain personality traits. Obviously one of the goals in the character design was to capture an idealized face of a mature woman, who would not be so innocent-looking and round-faced as a younger woman. However, Josie is significantly younger than the other ladies, and it would be reasonable for her appearance to reflect that.

Also worth noting is the environment and background art, which is very clean and colorful without being overly noisy. Many of the rooms in the homes and apartments have a sort of chic-modern aesthetic. It kind of feels like walking through an Ikea, but in a good way.

Story
The story is certainly better than those of many other erotic games/VNs, but it is also not consistently engaging. The scenes where Max was dealing with his dreams and exploring his dad’s past have been some of the stronger moments so far. I was wondering for a while if Max’s career aspirations in forensics will have any connection to his father, but after the quests involving his encrypted photographs it seems like that thread was dropped, though the devs may have plans to return to it as a central source of conflict and intrigue later on.

The plot points about Josie’s brother Kieth and Meg’s work and goal of promotion are also not especially interesting and take up a lot of screen time. It is understandable to create context for ways in which Max will bond with them, but as it is it feels like these ideas are a bit scattered and lack narrative focus. Some exposition on these plot points is basically repeated from one quest to the next. Perhaps it would be better if some of this was trimmed down and the story focused more on fewer plot threads.

On the romantic and lewd elements of the story, things are moving too slowly so far. While the romance has been described as a “slow burn,” it would be to the game’s benefit to increase the pacing by a few notches. What lewd scenes we have had are somewhat bunched up in only a few points throughout the game, with no actual sexual content outside of a dream sequence. If there were more lewd situations peppered throughout the conversations and plot developments to build tension, the inevitable sexual encounters would feel that much more satisfying. The quest where Max had several conversations with Meg throughout the day while she was swimming, doing yoga, etc. was great, and the game needs more of that (as well as actual sex scenes of course).

Writing/Dialogue
The character dialogue has generally been rather good throughout most of the game, with some awkward word choice here and there. This is already a league above most erotic game projects, as I also said earlier about the story. However, the more recent updates have experienced a decline in the quality of the dialogue, with conversations being overly verbose, Max saying corny and unnatural things, and the other characters sometimes coming off as mere vehicles for exposition. The player has also had fewer actual dialogue choices compared to the early game, instead being carried through linear conversations that always begin and end the same way.

On a more positive note, each character is distinct in how they are written, which is nice. Meg is matronly and encouraging, Vera is professional but gets caught off guard by Max, making her stutter (which is cute), and Josie is very much the Big Sis/Girl Next Door type. Carmen seems to be a “Tough Girl”/possibly more dom than the others, but she hasn’t had much screen time yet so I don’t have much to say about her. I also wonder if we will ever meet Meg’s friend, Nichole. The male characters are inherently not as interesting, but at least they are distinct and not just blank-slate NPCs.

Max himself is less consistent than the ladies. His self-described motivations are not always convincing, and to build on what I mentioned earlier, his dialogue can be awkward and dorky, particularly in recent updates. Is he supposed to be an inexperienced young man who still carries some of his innocence, or is he the confident man of the house who always gives the best advice and acts as the rock for all the women to secure themselves to? The former would make more sense than the latter if we saw it more (such as when facilitated through meaningful dialogue choices), and would allow for that particular type of younger man/older woman dynamic that I think many in the audience are pining for.

Mechanics
The actual game elements of this project are, unfortunately, undercooked. But I can understand why they would be, as there are other elements which probably should take priority over things like minigames, RPG stats, etc. at this stage of development. The spectrometer minigame is tedious, but at least it gives Max money with which to buy gifts for the ladies during other quests.

Hopefully the devs can go in some more interesting and interactive directions in the future, though the linearity is not a big issue for me at the moment. It is sensible to finish the story and romance framework first in an adult game of this type anyway. This game is full of potential, it just needs more content and some tweaks to the writing.


Summary
+ Sexy renders of the female characters
+ Clean, appealing style
+ Some interesting plot ideas
+ Each character is distinct
+ Game has a lot of potential
- Female characters are rather same-faced
- Plot progression is too slow
- Dialogue is sometimes awkward, unnatural
- Max’s characterization doesn’t always make sense
- Other mechanics like minigames are underdeveloped

As a game with superb art, this might also carry all of the concerns that these type of games usually have.
-Too much time between updates
-Lack of attention to the writting
-Transitions might be slow sometimes (specially in low-end hardware, luckily not my case)
-Difficulties developing animations
So far I really loved the art so I can't give anything lower than 4 stars, but i NEED to see some high quality animations later, otherwise it would feel like a huge waste of a big opportunity.
Hope this game has a better outcome than taking years to get good or getting sloppy/rushed.

The most interesting aspect of this game are those beautiful renders and character models. the art style is really astonishing. however, the writings is disappointing. i've tried to read every line but the interactions between character is so bland. its starts slow then suddenly bam they started kissing, its very cliche and moving to fast for the story to be engaging.

from gameplay perspective, based on these few questlines, its boring. there's no dialogue options, every interaction u have so far, literally doesnt do anything. it doesnt feel like its gonna be a sandbox, eventhough its kinda has that concept.quest progression is also poor, there's no indication on how to progress from one point to another. i basically has to click everything available, interact with every character on every time. plus u can only skip thru sleeps 1 hour or swmming during the day. its horrible and feel tedious.

worth to mention,items that u purchase r useless. whats the point of having inventory if most of the items u hve doesnt do anything. i know its suppost to be setup for future content but the interaction with every charcater outside of questline is literally useless so why even bother? (im kinda nitpicking here but it think its a valid point)

artstyle is gorgeous, just polish the gameplay to be more seamless, and fix the writing. i think in times, this could be one of the best game, if u fix all those issues.

This game has a lot going for it, but the thing that stands out the most is the art style. Very unique renderings and a different take on a worn narrative. Monroe has a lot of talent and this game shows it, just wish he would release things a little quicker, as it had stalled in production for a little bit of time. With more development this could be one of the greats.

The game has very little content, as the dev wants to build up a romance between a not-shota 20 something and his not-mother. The art is probably the only nice thing about this and even then, it seems like the heads do not fit with the bodies.

See you next year when this game gets a singular handholding scene, an animation of heavy petting, or handholding.

Another game that was promising art wise with original models but the devs chose the teasing way and nothing really interesting has happened for a couple of updates now. Imo it really begins to show that all that teasing is intentional and that it will stay that way for a while...

It's a fun game, and I like the style. The only nitpick I have is that all the women have barbie face syndrome. Same eyes, same eyebrows, same nose and mouth. All that's being done here is swapping the wigs like you would a lego person. I can't imagine that being a detractor for most people, so the creator can take what I said with a grain of salt.

(EDIT: 3/11/2021) Adding my thoughts on the latest update at this point: 0.2.0c. Probably what will change here is my thoughts on Content and all the laides!

This felt like the end of a chapter or an act or something and what an end it was! I'm interested in seeing what happens next.

Gonna leave this as a disclaimer for the devs because they don't deserve the harsh judgement they've gotten over this stupid thing. And I really hope people see this.

First and foremost, this project was not in development for three years as a lot of people have been saying. The team wasn't even put together until about a year ago and it's a very small team. So to put the "three years, 10 minutes of content" bullshit I keep repeatedly seeing in the thread to rest, it's not true.

The community here can be great but there's also a bunch of crybabies that get upset that they don't get to fap immediately and not every game is catered to their needs. God it pisses me off when I see people like that polluting threads.

Anyway, onto the project itself!

Art Style: 10/10
Good god I love the art style. It's so different compared to everything else I've seen in the adult gaming realm. GaussianFracture has clearly made this style his own because there's nothing I can find that's similar at all. The characters look so lively and each of them have their own distinct features that set them apart.

Yes, the faces are a tad samey, but it's mostly due to the art style. I adore this style, and I am dying to see how things get spicier. To me, it's no different than watching an anime where a lot of faces are samey.


Content: 7/10 (up from 6). Personal Content Rating: 9/10

What I mean by these ratings is that there really isn't a lot of content, but what is there clearly has a lot of thought, care and time put into it. I've worked with Unity Engine in the past and it's no joke to do a lot of these things that seem very simple on the surface. It's very time consuming so I can't fault the devs for accomplishing this much in the span of about four months. Each update is definitely getting bulkier and because I have knowledge of Unity engine, there's a lot of work that goes into even the simple things in terms of gameplay. The updates are also definitely getting bulkier so I'm definitely looking forward to more.

This update kicked off what seems to be Act 2 or something (based on the version number).

I can also tell that the devs are beginning to feel pressure because of the loud minority shouting for sex scenes and the like. Let them do their work. I absolutely CANNOT stand it when "fans" pressure the devs and end up ruining things in the long run because they want to fap now instead of waiting for the story to develop. The story is getting very interesting.

My rating has gone up to a 7 here because the content that's coming in... there's a glorious amount of attention to detail. The body language, the facial expressions, the camerawork, all of it adds up to make this game feel pretty dynamic, and I LOVE that about it. However, it's probably not gonna increase from here until a good chunk of content gets added (maybe 2 or 3 updates more) but what is here is confirmed quality, at least for me.

It's about an hour of gameplay and reading give or take, which I think is perfectly reasonable for where we are now. I still feel like the devs began to feel the pressure that the loud minority keeps screaming for spicy scenes, but I digress because I'll never complain about Gaussian's NSFW art

The reason I'm giving a personal rating of 9 is because I'm an absolute sucker for romance stories and I'm a fan of the writer who is on this project. I've followed him for years and read a lot of his work so since I know he's at the helm of penning this, this content is gonna get really, really good.


The pacing shot up in speed, that's for sure with this update. I honestly didn't expect anything spicy to happen for maybe another two updates but this caught me off guard. I called it that it would happen soon, but not THIS soon. Not complaining however, cause what's there is quality.

There's still not much to do right now, but after having played it at day one and then replaying the latest update, there's a hell of a lot more and I can see the sandbox slowly coming together. At first, I believed the sandbox style was going to become a weakness but now that I've seen it in action, there's a lot of fun to be had here especially when some more updates come in. I'm someone who checks every nook and cranny for everything and I didn't have an issue finding any of the quests like others are having.

If you guys are having issues, the devs are friendly people and the Discord community would be more than happy to help. I suggest you go there.

The first initial updates are gonna be linear because that's just how an introduction to any story is, but I've got faith in these guys to deliver awesome stuff in the future. It looks like we're nearing the end of the introduction phase of this story anyway, so I doubt we have long to wait. Have some faith!

Characters: 10/10
Good god it's such a breath of fresh air to see an MC that isn't a horndog or looking for ways to fuck anything with a vagina all the time. From what I've played, the MC is named by us but he's by default a kind and caring person, you know, like a normal person would be without highly exaggerated sexual drives or any of that stereotypical shit you see with a lot of adult games. Yeah he looks a bit young and he's a bit short, but that's shota for ya. He's not as bad as the MC in The Twist in my opinion though.

I'll sum up my thoughts on the rest of the characters below in a spoiler so that I don't spill the beans for anyone who is observing that hasn't played the game yet, but I'm definitely loving the cast so far long story short.


Overall: 8/10
I'm looking forward to seeing more. Definitely digging what I'm seeing here and the story is such a refreshing contrast to so many of the other games I've seen which either rush too quickly into the sex and ruins the rest of the game or goes too slowly. I have no doubt we'll get some spicy stuff soon and the devs won't keep us waiting like Dating My Daughter did or some other games who have been out for months upon months and still have no sex scenes, just blue balling. Four updates in and though it's not a lot, what is here has a lot of thought and love put into it and I really dig that.

This rating isn't meant to reflect exactly what's here, but to exemplify the potential of this thing. I think this is gonna be something great once some more updates get in. At the bare minimum, the art style is unique enough to warrant at least a look by anyone who likes visual novel games and is into shota stuff.

Good job to the devs @Wanderan @GaussianFracture @Elvishious !

I'm hooked, and I'll be watching this thread like a hawk!

TLDR, if you're looking for a quick fap, turn away and come back in about a year, maybe a few months depending on the speed of the updates.

If you're interested in a potentially great story that's different from the rest, saddle up cause this one's gonna be special!

You've definitely earned a fan in me!

Nearly every game being made right now looks like the same god damn thing, so it's great whenever something different comes around. Especially when it looks this good! Looking forward to more content

As it currently is, the game is worthless. I don't see any potential in it aside from the milfy bodies. The story, gameplay and characters are pretty uninteresting and uninspired. It's clear they wanted to go a certain direction but had to make altercations in order to appease the patreon gods, but it makes everything messy. They possibly intend to revert the game back to it's intended trajectory towards the end of development, but this isn't a review of what the game may become, and as it stands currently... it's not good.

Again, the character models are great, aside from the faces. Faces could use some work, but those curves are fantastic.

Put simply, this game feels like a mountain of wasted potential so far, which is a damn shame. The game's art style and character designs are absolutely stellar, but the writing on display so far feels meandering to the point of tedium, which is impressive for how brief the prologue is at the moment

My biggest problem is the protagonist, Max. He feels like he has no personality whatsoever other than being generically helpful to the women in his life (in ways that don't feel particularly meaningful), and with the possible exception of having a few strange dreams that might evolve into something interesting down the road, seems to exist solely to ask clumsy expository questions of the various NPCs.

I'm hoping it is just a rough introduction and that the story will gather some momentum in future updates, but as of right now, I am worried that this entire game is going to revolve around one male character who "seduces" every woman by just treading water until the writer decides to flip a switch and they all fall in love with him. Especially when the game seems terrified of using any other male characters even for completely non-sexual interactions. Two seem to exist in their own little pocket dimensions where only Max can enter, and one shows up just to be mildly antagonistic until a woman (presumably, a future love-interest) appears on screen to defend Max. At which point, he immediately runs away.

In any other case, I would've ranked the game lower than three stars, but it's such an early work-in-progress that I'm really hoping the writer just took some time to find the right rhythm and that these won't turn into a pattern.

Knowing how long the development was going, having so little content is kinda surprising to me. Yeah, i dig the art style, it's fresh enough, to stand up from other games.
I just really hope they didn't cut the game to pieces, so they can later on "update" it monthly, just adding piece by piece.