VN - Ren'Py - Alice: A Hard Life [Ep1 v1.5] [Caylake]

I really wanted to like this game. The art is very nice and I really like the mc's look. The relationship between her and her neighbor is my favorite route in this game.

Everything else about this game is poor unfortunately. The conversations between the characters don't come off as real. I don't know if it's because English isn't the dev's native language but I'd like to suggest hiring an editor. The premise of the mc working as an undercover agent is interesting but the actual story is full of completely illogical pitfalls. Like a government agency doesn't pay for their agent's housing in order to force her into situations where she has to beg people she's just met in order to pay rent. This is just to set up possible blackmail scenarios between either the principal or landlord. This is made even worse because if you refuse to get blackmailed the game's script will still act as if she let them exploit her. This just makes it seem the our choices don't really matter at times. Forced sex scenes between other characters are also extremely annoying since it's Content I have absolutely no interest in.

Ep1 v1.5

Pros:

• Above average renders
• Beautiful female models

Cons:

• Ridiculous blackmail scenarios for porn-logic
• Man-faced child models
• Technical issues due to poor development decisions
• Story jumps all over the place so quickly that it feels a bit overwhelming

I'll touch on some of the cons.

Ridiculous blackmail scenarios:

Here we have a woman who is working undercover as a teacher, yet for some reason her employer doesn't have her lodging and other business expenses covered. She's somehow expected to pay for everything on her own. Why? You know why. To setup a ridiculous blackmail scenario with her landlord.

So she then has to find ways to make money to pay for rent. Which she is then immediately propositioned by her fake boss (school principal) to borrow money from him in exchange for seeing her nude if she doesn't pay back by a certain time frame. Unrealistic, tired, porn-logic tropes.

Man-faced child models:

She's undercover as a teacher of teens. But the males, as someone else mentioned in their review, have adult male heads on small bodies. Creepy af.

Technical issues:

The dev has removed standard Ren'Py features, particularly related to skipping dialogue. The dev also has 105 instances of using Ren'Py hard pauses renpy.pause(1.5, hard=True), which is a huge no-no. You should never take control away from the player. And they are used so frequently, ruining the game play when you hit a bunch of black transition screens and have to wait to proceed.

Overall, it could be a very enjoyable game, but due to the issues above, it was more of a chore to play, which is a shame because the render quality is definitely above average, IMO.

((v1.5))
1. The visual component.
The main character looks great, red-haired, tall, sophisticated figure, taste in clothes, face not like a typical Instagram escort model (a normal beautiful female face!). I like everything I see about the main character, as well as the fact that she has a lot of images in her clothes and everyone looks great. Renderings, directing and staging of scenes both in the erotic plane and outside it look nice. The storyboard of the scenes in the narrative is plentiful.(at least that's the impression one gets, including from camerawork) Secondary characters, of course, are recognizable from other works, but this does not greatly affect my perception of the story. The environment and content of the locations are at the proper level and it does not seem that the surrounding world is empty and lifeless. I like how the author shows erotic scenes in the technical understanding of the question, the animated parts of the scenes could look better, but they are there and this is already good.
2. Plot.
It is there and it is real, there is no impression that it is written on the knee by a child who has eaten phenazepam. Quite a good narrative with certain scenario assumptions for a work about *secret agents*. The events of the plot are interesting to watch, the events of the plot are interesting to reveal. Unless the connection with this *mission* was not entirely clear, I lacked context at the beginning of the game, I think if more attention had been paid to the disclosure and elaboration of this aspect, it would have been wonderful. And why should the main character have to pay for her office accommodation out of her own pocket?(although it gave us a line of plot development with the landlord and I really like it, so everything is ok)
3. Immersiveness.
The choices in the game really affect the events, my God, but this can only mean that we have a high-rank game in front of us. So also the choices of event variants affect the subsequent options-this is an aspect that is beyond the teeth of so many developers that for me this is an insane advantage of the game. In total, there are 13+ situations with a choice of action options, and many of them lead to various branches of narrative development, disclosure or closure of the development of stories with characters.
4. The main character is not a potato.
Damn it, we have a heroine with balls here, she can stand up for herself and can even shoot at gopnik. I fucking love that the main character has fangs and claws and is not afraid to show them. (Well, she's a spy. lol) Strong girls not only in words but also in deeds in a game of this genre look fresh and perky.
5. Sounds.
Primitive, without frills, but they perform a minimal function in the scenes, create an atmosphere, but there is room to grow.
6. Partners for sexual activities.
In general, their abundance is quite large and versatile, but in view of the current build, their depth of relationship development is either not disclosed or minimally disclosed. The plot lines with the landlord and with Joseph are particularly interesting to me.
Separately, I would like to highlight the option with the display of the indicator of the depravity of the heroine, it seems to be a trifle, but when you see an indicator that changes from choice to choice, then there is a sense of their significance. However, I still did not fully understand the difference between a heart and a flame. And if I'm not mistaken and remember correctly, then in at least one event their value influenced whether the H event would be or not.
P S The developer is well done. I'm waiting for updates. I wish him creative success.

This is clearly a corruption game and has some of the same tropes we have seen before, but surprisingly, despite the laughable dialogue, I found myself interested and engaged.... until the little man children started to appear. What in the heck are these creatures? They have the body of a teen with the head of a man. I mean... wth.

As a healthy young boy in High School, I had my share of fantasies with some of my teachers. I remember one red head in particular... oy... I still think about her after all of these years. If I had nailed that in HS, I would have thought it was cool and I am sure all my guys friends would have agreed. However, now, when I look at it as an adult, it's just creepy. And that was the feeling I got when I played this VN. Just creepy... and the models for the teens just added more creep factor to it.

For me, it walks too fine a line and I can't shake the feeling of not wanting to look. It's too bad too... as corruption games go, this one had some potential.

I like the concept and models look good (pls dont make a large breasts for female, they are big already)
I would like to see smoother transitiont between scenes without a black screen, because it looks like VN is loading something
I like multiple choices
Waiting for more content to see progression futher

Its a start, its the best way I can put it. But there are some clear quality of life settings turned off for no apparent reason and some decisions that could've used player input.

For example I didn't want to jerk off the old man so maybe give the player the choice of not doing that and have consequences later or something. I can't describe just how quickly that ruined my whole mood.

Then there is the fact that you can't skip, scroll back or at the least pull up the history of what was said. If you miss click you better have a save before that or start over, though I'm not sure how far the choices really matter yet.

The English is readable but it could use someone looking over it. It felt very bland and rather basic. I don't need the next George R.R. Martin or Tolkien to write a porn story, but a bit more than what is currently presented.

So the art is nice enough. The concept is pretty sexy (not new, but nothing wrong with it). The writing though is a bit.. stilted at the moment. It feels like it could really use some volunteer editors to go through it. Which is a problem 'cause for some reason (and this looks to be a RenPy game so I guess it must be intentional?) the roll-back button is off... so if you start fast-clicking through the dialog you land on 'do it / don't do it' choices and you're left wondering what its asking about. Overall at this time.. ep1.v1.0 its.. I don't know, I want to like it and I'll try it again, but for the moment gonna pause on it until it gets further along so I don't spoil the experience.

This game is great so far. Excellent renders with good lighting effects, good pacing, and pretty engaging dialogue. The paths that have been hinted at are all very hot. I'm very excited to see more of each of them. The MC is especially good. Also the plot has just enough to keep things interesting without going too far and destroying any believably.

[Ep1 - v1.0]
So I tried it out since I love 100% Female Protagonist.
The story at ther start seam promising with some lot of choise to play with. It remind me to mix of AWAM and Mila Shaw: Black Mail Obsession and J. H. O. N. some how.

Pro:
Choise and badass Female Protagonist.
Undercover agent (Probably CIA or FBI agent since CIA can olse kill in cold blood when it necessery. See here silenced gun She could killed that criminal for good )


Bad:
1.) Forced handjob scene unavoideble.
2.) Corruption could be make better way since if we refuse The Principal request we get force handjob with oldfart of the ugly landlord (ilegaly) later. She an agent why should be triked into it without thread him to jail bait for harrassement and blackmail? She is a smart woman and know the laws since she an agent undercover as teacher. She could make him threat him with jail bait to avoid forced handjob scene. it look like the choice in this regad were disapiered to force unavodeble content upon player.
3.) Skip and rallback disapeared frmom the preference we can't even go back to see what kind of propsition someone asking to change our mind anddo another one insead. Skip wecan skip whol textas we please becou ther are important to skip usesless text (depend on player preference). We can just go and load our save to make different aproach.

Conlcusion:
The only thing is good ar choise and situation can be avodied by choise expet this fucking Landlord.
My reting would be 3,5 stars but becu of luck of star system on this rating sistem I give it 4 (3,5), can't give it half star.

English? I don't care.

Here new one updated review [Ep1 v1.0Hotfix]
We got a choice with that oldfart landlord. Good thing imporve on this matter.

The only thing the game luck is when open the setting menu to turn off or on skip botton or textx skip option still unavible. these are relly important one in menu seting if the player wnat to skippthe text with on botton withou bee forced to skip manually in like my fingere is too tired after long way or archer shot/practice. Setting option need have optionwhat player prefer to active or deactive skip and rallback option. But they still don't exist to how much text you want skip after choise and transition or active rallback right ot left with deactive as well.
This only complain about the game. in this new version

finally some new game in that kinda niche department i personally prefer more over the majority of games which are way too often male protag games with either harem or young boy/milf content.

the quality of the renders and the female remind be quite a bit of JOHN (jessica oneils hard news) but already with way more potential options and now annoying boyfriend.

i really like the idea of the sexy young teacher. even tho i hope there will be not too much focus on the young schoolboys.
really like her outfits. classy and sexy.
fmcs shape is overall quite nice but i personally would prefer a bit fuller/perkier tits with bigger more visible nipples. (and maybe slightly more hips and thighs but thats really subejctively speaking.)
i am no native english speaker but i think the english is okay, could be better but it understandable even it could be been written maybe a bit better. (but i prerfer a less perfect text and more action and render quality anyway - which seems to be the case)

Pros:
+ fmc
+ old men kink (which really look like nasty old men)
+ classy, sexy outfits
+ young teacher theme (even tho i am not too happy about schoolboy content)
+ classy looks of the fmc (even tho i still hope her tits get improved)
+ already some naughty paths building up
+ quality render images

Cons:
- fmcs tits need improvement, body is fine even tho i personally prefer a bit more curves
- at the moment a bit too much schoolboy content but maybe this will get less over the updates
- introduction of the fmc feels a bit... uninspired but it sells the deal and its okay for me

This review concerns the first version of the game and is based solely on my own tastes and interests :

- The protagonists :
In this first version, you'll find a wide range of characters.
Whether they're related to Alice's work (colleagues, students, boss), her home (landlord, neighbors) or directly linked to the scenario, each one has its own personality and is sufficiently detailed to enhance the main character.
So let's talk about this MC : Alice.
Damn I'm in love, she's just the personification of my feminine perfection made with Daz : red hair, a dream body who puts on outfits that suit her to a tee, whether at work or in everyday life.
Educated and refined, she evolves according to the player's choices.

- Playability :
And about those choices...
They have a real impact on the game, leading to real re-playability.
This is rare enough in today's VN to be worth mentioning.
I'm not talking about a choice that will have immediate repercussions, but a set of choices whose consequences won't apply until much later in the game ! And I love it.
Plus you get indicators of the impact of your choices on Alice's feelings.
Finally, you have access to a gallery of the game's most "enjoyable" scenes (with the exception of one, but I'll come back to that later).

- Universe, atmosphere and music:
Immersive, clean and polished. A pleasant, personal style.

- Possible improvements :
One scene is not present in the gallery :
This has already been mentioned, but if the "rollback" function were active, it would be great.

-Conclusion:
I loved this experience, being that little voice in Alice's head that guides her in her life choices...
A Ren'Py/Daz VN like so many others, but with that little something extra that makes it unique.
I recommend it to everyone, and personally I'm keeping an eye on it and can't wait to find out what happens next.

-In short :
An excellent start.

Good luck Dev with this game, which I'm definitely a fan of !

If Caylake is uncomfortable with a colleague's review, I can remove it on request.

I would say the game has good enough renders, and a few attractive female characters. It's also a bonus it has a decent amount of content for a first version of the game.

The CON's for this game are quite bad as well:
- grammar, grammar, grammar. Some spelling mistakes but the worst is the confusion of pronouns. A lot of her/she for his/he and the other way around. It really takes you out of any type of story.
- it has a lot of scenes copied from at least two of the most popular female protagonist games. If it was just inspiration it wouldn't be so bad but it's so blatant that it's kind of a big downside.
- the story, outside of what is copied from other games is very meh at the moment. I'm hoping it will pick up.
- the rollback function is blocked. It's just unnecessarily bad. The dialogue is bad enough that I want to skip through most of it but if I skipped a little too much I can't go back and see what was said, or see a previous render.

I would normally have given it a 2 star rating but because it's just the first version, I felt like being generous.

If the dev is reading this, I suggest you get yourself at least one playtester, you can try to get some free ones on this forum, if you can't afford to pay any yet. At least correct the spelling mistakes if nothing else.

Wow. pretty great stuff, great renders, story is interesting and MC is not a usual soon to be slut. More mysterious and confident. I like where these stories are going and my only realy complaint is the UI needs a roll back and what not. Keep up the good work, hope to see more and always great to see another female protag game

Another female protag game with realy hot mc, yet no actual scene with her. The tags are there cause side characters gets all the action, which i find quite sneaky / deceiving in many ways. Renders are good, some spelling and grammar mistakes here and there... For now, it appears to me as average (i would go with 2 or 1 starts just cause i felt mislead cause of the tags but that would be unfair) but has a potential to become a good one. Might edit this review in the future when we see some real action with our heroine.

REVIEW FOR: Ep1 - v1.0

Renders are pretty nice, but thats all this game has. The grammar needs A LOT of work. Dialogs feel unnatural and spelling errors are all over the place since the beginning. Reading this as it is right now destroys any story telling the creator of the game wants to develop.

The game has potential, if the creator can find someone to write the scripts and dialogs properly, this could be a +4 stars game. But at the moment, I dont recommend trying the game at all.

My Ratings for this Game:

PROS
+ Hot female protagonist
+ Nice Action Story
+ Long Game Play
+ Easy Gameplay
+ Great Game
+ Hot Scenes

CONS
- Some spelling errors

STORY: 5/5
The Story is like from an Action Movies, with blackmail, bullying, and everyday People.
The Story is being told as if it was true.

Gameplay: 5/5
Very simple mechanics that don`t get you locked out of the Game play without knowing what to do next.
Lots of scenes with Long Game Play which I didn't expect for the First release.

CONCLUSION: 5/5
The Game was Great and I loved it, and I would love to see that this Game would continue but only the future will tell.

RECOMMENDATION.
Damn worth the Download.

Episode 1 review.

Pros ->
- Really great renders , love the use of DOF and clear renders when showing scenes without blinding bloom

- Somewhat interesting plot so i hope more writer is given to explore her past a little more too.

- Liked the option to avoid situations

Cons -

-A little short for a full episode

- Did not like the fact that i had to go into certain routes to actually see scenes , a modifier or some strat depending on choices would be nice ( ig that's for future tho )

- Protag is great but other characters look stock , might want to increase the resolution maps on those.


That's all , good luck!