Notes to dev, ArchonStudio...
First impressions... aka the good, the bad and the ugly (with some exceptional exceptions)
Music starts on title screen at full blast and is deafening! I had to pull my ear buds and it was still too loud with my ear buds on my chest. Then I accessed the settings to adjust the music volume and none of the volume sliders had any effect on the music, not even the music slider! Then I noticed the pause button on the little player icon in the corner. I clicked it and went from deafening to silence with no music at all... The idea of having musical choices that the player can change is a great idea however the volume of the music MUST be readily and easily adjustable! Fix this, please. There needs to be a screen opacity slider for the dialogue boxes too and a way to hide the controls menu. Not all Ren'Py titles have those but if you are going to have that for the music player, you might as well do that for the other menu and dialogue too. Hell, I use all kb/mouse shortcuts to control my Ren'Py titles. Not a fan of on screen menus. I did finally find how to adjust the music volume. It was NOT in the main settings menu like every other one of the hundreds of Ren'Py titles I have played but hidden in the music player menu with an option to assign the music volume slider to the player itself or to the playlist. It was defaulted to the playlist. TBH, that shouldn't even be a choice. One music volume control should work for both. That should be switched to the player or be made to control both with one slider and the starting volume lowered by at least half. As a retired professional musician I have to give props for an awesome selection of tunes but a huge "FUCK THAT" for busting my tired old ear drums with hidden music volume that was pegged at eleven like Spinal Tap on crystal meth! The highest default volume level should be half. Let the player adjust it higher or lower from there. Once I finally found the actual volume control, I set this one to about 20% as I prefer music in the background while trying to read dialogue panels, not making every effort it can to rupture my ear drums!
Finally, after 10 minutes of fiddling , I finally got into the actual game...
All that said, once I got past the unruly controls and heard the music in game... 10 of 10 stars for the musical selection. It was exactly what I would expect for a story about bikers, a great mix of rock, blues, country and southern rock. With this initial choice of musical selections, I am hopeful that it will only grow from here as the prologue gives way to more content yet to come. High marks for exceptional taste in tunes, my friend!
Exceptional rendering with excellent lighting and shadow shading. Some of the best I have seen in any AVN title. Well played, my friend. 9 of 10 stars for character and background rendering.
For the most part the English grammar is in good shape with the exception of a few typos like "with a smile like that, we might own you change, you know?" That should read a bit differently, "with a smile like that we might owe you change, you know?" One too many commas and you owe change in that context, not own it. Also, some of the character dialogue comes off a bit stiff and overly educated instead of the blue collar banter that it should be for biker characters. For example, in Texas, one is much more likely to say "Y'all" (short for you all) rather than you guys. Texans still say you guys too but a complete absence of y'all is unlikely in a Texas draw. Overall, I'd give you high marks for grammar save for those few little hits for typos and stiff grammar that should be more of a common folk way of speaking.
One other thing that broke immersion for me was having detailed conversations between riders on the highway. Biker's motocycles are extremely LOUD!!! Combine that with the wind whipping in your ears at highway speeds and it's difficult to even shout a short message like "I need gas!" or "Let's stop to eat!" to your buddy riding a few feet away. Per a close biker friend, they actually use hand signals on the open road, not trying to shout over the din of roaring engines and wind noise. You have them carrying on lengthy conversations like there isn't any other sound at all. That is unrealistic. Any conversation between riders at highway speed would be short and shouted, not all casual like they are sitting at home drinking a beer... The longer conversations shouldn't be happening on the open road but instead when they stop.
Oh... another positive note is having a particularly well suited main character who is like a cross between Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) so I have to say very well played there. I like that he's not an old man or some young punk kid just grown enough to be a man without being too old. His age isn't mentioned but I'd estimate middle 30's. Seems well suited to this story.
Another immersion breaker... They mentioned getting beer but not food and the line reads "the bikers drank, ate and talked" when they were around their campfire. Not one of them has a pack, saddle bags or anywhere they could've stashed beer and food, not even a bed roll. So, where did it come from? Let me guess... Boner shoved it all up his ass. Hahaha
Little things like that matter.
Overall, this title is off to a great start. It's too soon to give a review because the best I could do today is four stars out of the five possible total overall on the F95 rating scale, with the absence of sex in an AVN, maybe only three stars... however, I get that it's just the prologue.
I do see five star potential here so we'll hold off for now, wait and see. Ready to see more once it's ready to be seen, my friend. No hurries, no worries though as I am aware this shit takes a lot of time to create. I hope my mace blunt honesty doesn't deter you as I did enjoy this introduction to the world you are creating. It looks promising and I do want to see more as soon as possible. You have my attention, my friend. Can you hold my interest?
Adventure ever on, Phat