Ren'Py - Altered Destiny [v0.14.1b] [ICCreations]

This will be a temporary review and will update it as times goes by and game gets updated.

// 3rd edit
So using an old save will break the game at some point so I needed to start again, but I also noticed some of the changes made since my review.

The good thing is that the dev toned down Kim, yeah she is present, but her character is improving, though I still don't like her character, they should be childhood friends but not best friends but considering MC has no other friend... that is ok.

So far after saving Olivia the game abandoned the time travel (so far), that is ok but I kin of wonder what happened to the guy that set the fire... maybe we will learn about it later.

Like the new twists and turns, but it feels strange that nobody even mentions MC similarity to the guy 20 years back, especially Olivia is quite silent on this matter.

// 2nd edit
3/5
Looks like the developer retconned a few things, but considering I haven't touched this game since my review, it is understandable.

It looks like Kim got a few changes, if she stated disgust to even considering anything intimate with MC and being really an ass about it, with direct insults... looks like Kim personality suffered a drastic change and I am talking about the beach episode where you save Olivia, considering Kim personality, that was the total opposite, I also see the dev toned down her aggressive lesbianism.


// first and main review

3/5

What I like about this game: Time Travel

What I don't like about this game: Kim (and not for the v0.2a ending)

First of all I want to address a few things:

- there is no lesbian tag although it should be most of the female characters are either lesbian, bisexual or unknown as of yet. - There should be an NTR flag, if Kim was a guy what happened in v0.2a this topic would be on fire, 0.2b fixed it a bit but still the damage was done.

Another rant is about the narrative about Julia in the past and related to ages and time travel. The rest is a spoiler as by my calculation with the data provided by the dev Kim could have wiped MC out of existence. And this is my reasoning:


Why I dislike Kim: Not because of 0.2a or 0.2b ending, to be honest that was not that bad, as up to that point I already disliked Kim and I for one could not be friends with someone so toxic, and here is why:
- You can't take a shit without Kim's consent she is in all screens.
- She expresses the disgust she has for MC being a man multiple times, even when MC mom entered her room and Kim was there she was disgusted by MC mom insinuation, she was so disgusted by the MC and would not even consider a relationship like that, in the most obnoxious way and not for the first time either.
- The fact that she promised you she would print your homework and not give any kind of shit about you failing the class the very next day, after she literally dragged you into the forest to supposedly help you pass the photography class.
- The obsession with your sister and the double standard when you talk about her mom.
- The conversation you had at the skate park about borrowing the skateboard, really I wanted to slap her just for that.
- The borrowing money from her to pay the lesbian harpie in the library to break the lock... I was doing that to help her with her stupid obsession, yet she was obnoxious about that too, MC is poor but still asked his mom for 5$ and stole from his sister nightstand another $5... that is just sad, now I am stealing to please Kim... best friends my ars.
- The way Kim was designed as a character is utterly annoying, thinks too much of herself, the MC is just a prop for her to use, she thinks she deserve your friendship even if she shits on you multiple times in front of other people.

To be honest the 0.2a ending was better because I felt nothing, I was not angry it did not even bother me, and what I was thinking about Kim being toxic since the first few minutes of gameplay, and overall a bad friend, was confirmed. I just hoped the MC would realize that too... will see if we get future updates as for me Kim up to that point never showed to be "Best Friend" material, we the players know they are best friends but Kim never earned that title from actions and conversations so far.

If the MC just makes up with her and are back to BFF mode, after that half assed apology...., I find it totally ok to talk to her, but no more best friends, Kim needs to earn that title she does not deserve it, heck young Penny was acting more like a friend than Kim did in the whole game.

Kim manages to pull out the worse parts of the MC, because of that the MC feels soulless and purposeless. MC needs some space to grow, having Kim around 24/7 will never allow that, heck for me the MC started to shine when Kim was out of the picture.

If the dev want to redeem Kim, cut the best friends narrative, too forced and too toxic, MC needs to grow out of this so called friendship.


My 2 cents about gameplay and mechanics:
- Linear game, don't remember making any decisions, you can't reject anything, but you can actually skip content as of 0.2b
- The whole open world and times of day it is just plain useless and adds grind to the game, as it ads to nothing, heck I have seen a game around here where you choose between VN style or Sandbox style.
- renpy is terrible for quick time events.
- renders are decent
- animations are good

Really good, man, wow!

Little XXX content so far but the quality overall is top notch, leagues above the typical VN around here.

Just look at how expressive the characters are posed and how grounded the story is, well you know, aside form the sci fi stuff...

Very very disappointing after 0.2 version

The devs make Kim betrays the mc and fuck Julia (it was changed to a kiss only after 0.2b but is still a betrayal considering they are "best friends") and make her absolutely a hateful and bitch character, I never liked forced things in games but this game probably is the worst because you don't get a say or choice on that and is what makes me rate it this low and with no wish to ever touch it again even if I had been a fan of most all games by ICC, I dont recommend this game after 0.2 update.
The game is mostly linear no choices that matter.
The thing I liked most was the renders and animation like in any of this dev games it has always been a nice quality but the characters and personality let out much to be desired and certainly the forced things with no choices like that one situation in 0.2 update with most girls going lesb for no reason and the mc being a wimp that will forgive anything Kim does is what makes me don't recommend the game and give it 2 stars, it did have lots of potential but it seems like is wasted after that. Maybe give it a try and judge for yourself but if you don't like something story-wise like the one I explained I don't think you will enjoy it either.

Just another run out of the mill sandbox that bites way more that it can chew.

- A bunch of useless map that maybe will be significant in the future, if it doesn't get dropped.

-Having animations for the sake of animations not for quality purposes.

- Unoriginal initial premise with a "twist" that will obviously just create plotholes down on the line.

- Average dialogues, monologues, with a typical doormat main character and some really unlikeable characters next to it.

The only thing that could be called a positive thing is the render quality, but that's nearly not enough to save this. I wouldn't say it's the worst game I ever played, hence the one star, but if I'm really honest, I just can't give a higher rating, it would be unfair to games that are actually good.

Solid start to a potentially excellent game, but not without room for improvement.

What I liked so far: the female characters are pretty well done. The story is interesting and well executed. The gameplay is linear and simple, but it suits the game fine - there's no grind of any kind. The world, and the people within it are generally well thought out and believable.

What I didn't like so far: the MC, visually and in the story. This is a big one, because he's got a lot of screen time. Visually, he almost always has the same pose - one or two arms up in the air with the most uncomfortable expression on his face, which got distracting fast. I also don't like his face, but that is the least of his problems. In my mind these problems are easily remedied by simply leaving him out of frame most of the time. The less I see his seemingly inebriated face, the better.

A bigger problem though is his lack of empathy, to the point that I personally got angry at the MC for not caring about the people around him, especially his best friend, Kim. He comes across as a tactless, oblivious, whinging dipshit, and not in a comical way. As games like this one tend to present the MC as a player self insert, it is really important that he's relatable, and I was having a very hard time with that.

It's interesting that (young) Penelopy even comments on this, on at least two occasions. So perhaps it is part of the plan to make his character change over the duration of the game, but for now, he's an unlikable sociopath who's uncomfortable in nearly every situation he's shown in. To fix this, the MC really needs, at the very least, rationalize his actions or lack of empathy in a way that's relatable to the player. And also show some awareness of other people's feelings. Jeez.

Anyway, I think that if these issues are fixed, this is the beginning of a great game.

(v0.02a)

This game had the potential to be very interesting, but the story is brought down by your incredibly annoying sidekick. Although, it's probably more accurate to say that you are her sidekick considering how she basically drives the plot forward by bossing you around. I didn't like Kim to begin with, and hated her by the end of the second update.

The gameplay isn't fun. Linear stories combined with free roaming segments produce tedious busywork. None of the minigames were enjoyable either. Having to hunt for the item in the forest was annoying, but at least we knew what we were supposed to find. I didn't know that I was supposed to be looking for a note in order to advance later on, so I didn't see the white note on the white table and ended up running all over town trying to find a way to progress the game.

There's not much in the way of sexual content yet, but it's only the second update so that's not unusual. The story and the gameplay are the problems so far, not the lack of sex scenes. If anything, we could've done with one less sex scene in this past update.

This ICC's best game yet (so far).

Really fun to play to.

Beautiful renders.

Nice, unique models (there's a surge of games with new models lately)

I love how much fun it is, and i get lots of people will not enjoy the lack of sex content so far in the 0.002a version but the story makes up for it.

Next update can't come soon enough! Give it a try, you won't regret!

Is a 0.0x version (written as of 0.02a) so everything should be taken with a grain of salt, especially storywise as future things might change the context of scenes (as well timey whimey games are like that).

As for the story, I quite enjoy it, I get happy, I get annoyed, i get furious, etc. which you are supposed to, it isn't le classic fapfest, it has buildup. And having been hasty with my comments and realising I was using false information (memories aren't always reliable people), I can say that faith is likely to be rewarded.

Gameplay wise... if you hate sandbox... well sorry not sorry. If you don't mind sandbox, this one is pleasing to use, is similar to their one from their other current game but improved, some might dislike the animations I myself like it.

Content..... it's a 0.0x version... you get about as much, and this ain't a fapfest simulator, so it won't be getting a lot of full on sex for a while, maybe with a character or two if it suits their personality.

Overall though i am hopeful, I give it a 4.5/5, rounded up to 5 cause well I have to. on my personal rating scale it is 7/10, (10s don't exist, and I rarely give a 8, and 9 is for things that I think about for years to come, like inception). but I can't go using personal ratings on ones where 4/5 is good, and not 4/10 is good XP

If you are worried about this being abandoned, don't while their updates may seem slow in comparison to others, they do deliver. Also again bear in mind, it is a very very early version, so if you really dislike something, wait a bit, you might be wrong, or might have seen something that wasn't there.. (I did both)

Average renders. Don't know where he is going with the story either. Game development is "in the past" like the story of this game. The amount of content is nowhere near what it should be considering the size of the game. I can't say for sure if the game has any potential or not, probably the latter.

Just played the v0.01 it has potential, characters are really well done, the story seems great so far, and has good animations, on that regards is well above other games out there, give a roll so you can see what I mean.

Still as a game it seems to have potential, as a fap material, we have to wait a little, it seems I think however that the little story telling makes it more satisfying in the end.

I have been playing your games since the "the artifact part one".
This first update is almost perfect. You have done a remarkable job and it is for this reason that I post this notice now.

Indeed, you hold a real treasure in your hands:
- The story is of quality and already seems more constructed than "the artifact";
- The female people are very well written (for the moment) and are rather pretty.

The challenge now is not to fall into the easy with the fantasy part. Take the time to build a long and relevant build for the MILF characters.

Ps : put in your game a walkthrough

Thanks you for this game

As usual, another great release by ICC. The background art and characters are amazing. They aren't the same models you've seen a million times over and there is diversity in locations/character body types. Idle animations have been added to the game to add that feeling of an alive world and there are some well animated cutscenes throughout. Story continues the general arc from the whole Artifact series, although as to how it will exactly fit in, will be seen. There is also quite a bit of content, especially given that this is v0.1, although not a lot of naughty scenes.

Overall, outstanding release, one of the top games on the site already. A few more releases/content with this quality and it will definitely be my favorite.

One last note, play the whole Artifact series if you like this game at all. There are returning characters from those games. They are RPGM, which I generally detest but this series changed my opinion. It's not that I don't like RPGM games, it's just that most of them are terrible.

Can't wait for more! Looks great tho, would like to know my current task were. I journal or a text in the ui will be fine. But over all can't wait for more gameplay. Highly recommend it to other players. Interesting story btw. keep up the great work.

Pretty impressive so far not gonna lie, even the map is fun to interact with, cool VFX on it, the moving cars, the smoke etc.

Animations are good (Thumbs Up), characters are also alright even though i dont give a shit about the story in porn/hentai games, they seemed nice which is good. I like that the characters also have animations before we even talk to them.

I mean overall super solid start here, nothing to bitch about.

So far, I love everything about this first release. Great chemistry between MC and Kimberly. They are super cute. Hot sister living at home, with sexual tension between Kimberly and she? Very nice. Renders? Fantastic. The idle animations add a lot of life. Overall, very good first release. Can't wait to see where this goes.

Version: v0.04a

Pros -
Great animations.
Cool story and characters.
A world that's not 110% about having sex with everything with a skirt but still will end up that way.

Meh -
Hope for a bit more "action" *wink* *wink* but it's a first release with very good quality from a great dev, so it's fine.

Cons -
N/A

TLDR - It's good, can't wait to see more.