Others - Abandoned - Areas of GRAY [v1.1 BETA] [NOTvil]

Simply amazing game, design, animations, story, sounds, gameplay, and the engine is great too, game engine, really everything is good

Beautiful game, sometimes the graphics is so impressive that you start to look at the pores on the face, and small dots on the skin. This is amazing.
I didn't quite understand the transition between the first scene on the train and then the apartment. But in general, the plot for the visual novel is okay.
I would like it to be more interactive - perhaps inventory, relations with the characters, the branching of the story branches depending on the actions taken ... but then, probably, it will no longer be a visual novel.
In general, the game is definitely worth the time spent, highly recomended!

This game is simply amazing. It looks fantastic, the story is great and one of the few where I really read everything and dont press Skip until the next Sex scene. From technical perspective, this game is easily the best in this genre.

Okay so I haven't bothered writing a review before (damn you minimum character limit) but since this game seems to be getting some traction, maybe due to it appearing on the homepage now, I will.


In my opinion this game is honestly incredibly underrated, it is definitely one of the best ones out there and largely stands out from anything I've previously encountered before.

Art is honestly gorgeous: models are detailed and really well made, proportionate, beautiful faces and no stock models that get used in almost all half-assed games. Dev is also heavy on post-processing which I would usually dislike but in this game find very fitting considering the theme/setting.

Speaking of theme, it's also a stand-out. It's mysterious, intriguing and mixes sex with a genuinely gripping plot. It may not be a literary masterpiece and has some, at times, ridiculous tropes but once again, it's leagues above most other games out there.

And lastly the dev: I usually wouldn't make it a factor in a review, you know separate the art from the artist and all that, but in a world of half abandoned projects and year long delays his consistency is commendable. Updates are regular and fairly frequent, he's friendly and helpful and generally seems to be a hard working and chill dude.

All in all, I hope this game really gains traction and blows up because damn does it deserve it.

*UPDATE 0.9*
This game is still fucking amazing and the story is only getting hotter and more devious! No change in score, its still 5/5 but i sure do with those updates would come sooner (only cause its so good, cant rush art though hehe).
*ORIGINAL REVIEW*
Wow amazing game! Maybe its just the fact that this game actually contains GOOD STORY but this game really impressed me! This review is for the game all the way up to the 0.7 release. Here's some likes and maybe dislikes.

***GOOD***
- Amazing Writing: right from the beginning you can tell that a competent person wrote this. The characters are all well written and not OVER written which can happen sometimes. The story is on another level than everything else I've played from F95 zone, and I've played a lot! It is deep while not confusing, sexual while not being over the top, mysterious and scary while not being too overt with a spooky atmosphere. speaking of atmosphere...its wonderful!

- Interesting Game play: The way you control the characters and events in this game are really unique (at least for a porn game) like hitting chat bubbles to reply to a text message, its not ground breaking but it reminds you that your playing a game and it lasts just long enough. Also in the second section I loved finding the little hidden pictures (I have seen this in other games but its better in this one because the hidden moments subtly flash and multiple characters have different moments to find!). hell this game lets you scribble a picture and it saves it in your replay!

- The Atmosphere: Holy shit guys, between the setting, visuals and the set up this game has some of the best atmosphere out there. so futuristic and spooky at the same time. like something out of "West World" or "iRobot" (but you can fuck them lol). Also let me say that I usually hate "dream sequences" because they are so fucking overused and usually serve to be confusing but this game actually does them pretty well. Its worth noting that I played this game initially for the sex but kept playing because the atmosphere.

- Models and Animations: the models look great and the animations, while not the best Ive ever seen, are very nice and sexy. The developer adds these wild after effects or filters to most scenes, whether it be a picture or an animation, pop with life and you actually want to look at it because its beautiful.
- Sexy content: I don't think its a spoiler to say this game deals with incest and possibly corruption and that's right down my alley.

***BAD?***
- Maybe the long update cycle (or what seems long). Not a big deal I just lust for more.

This is definitely one of the best designed games on here. It's very good.

However, despite my rating I actually gave it, I personally feel it's a 3.5/5. The reason I put a 5/5, is that compared to the rest of the games here, it's definitely top 3%. It's well designed. NOTvil clearly adores what he's making, and really wants to do a great job. And he has, so far. The models are incredible and the environment looks great. The pacing is pretty perfect. Despite being a story driven VN, the sexual content is spaced well so you don't get too bored.

Now, my issues. Right off the bat, is the constant dutch tilt. It's infuriation how much it's used. It's god awful and annoying. There's no reason for it. I imagine NOTvil wanted to make everything look super futuristic and thought that a dutch angle would help? But no. It makes me sick. A dutch angle is primarily used only to make people feel off and woozy. But he uses it everywhere. It takes off an entire point.

The other .5 comes from the writing and dialogue. It's pretty cringey and rough at times. I imagine NOTvil is at least 30, cause he does not know how to write young people. I've never heard a dude refer to his girlfriend as sweetie, cause that's weird and lame, and no one tells their boyfriend they're aroused by literally using the word aroused. And that word is used a bit too often as well. The youth are pretty cliche as well. Actually, all the characters are cliche. But, it is nice to have the daughter be sexual for once, instead of ridiculously pure and innocent.

The characters also don't seem to have any differentiating patterns of speech or language. They all kinda just talk the same.

Other than those issues, this is well made. And probably the only game I would ever keep the music on for once. The sound design is great. Really calming, as well.

So, definitely check this one out. If you can get over my issues, you'll adore it. If you have the same issues as me, you'll still enjoy it more than most other shit here.

advantage
- Excellent storytelling.
- Good graphics.
- Easy play. (A very friendly explanation)
- Unique gameability.

Weakness
- Unfamiliar control

I am not good at English, but I have a good plot to understand the story nonetheless.
This game has a really good story.

One of the most unique games you'll find on this site.

I didn't give this game a try until v.0.3-0.4. Can't remember exactly. We're now at version v.0.7. The reason I held off was because of the art style in the screenshots. It was different to what I was used to, so I passed it by.
That being said, when I did finally try this game, I fell in love with the art style!
The renders are beautiful!

The story is captivating. You feel like you are in some future version of our world.
The ladies are all beautiful.

Even though English is not the dev's native language, the script is very well thought out, and the interactions between the characters are well written.

The navigation system was clunky at first, but the dev has listened to feedback and made strides to improve in this area. It's much better now.

Highly recommended! Props to the dev!

To say brilliant would be an understatement.
There are hundreds of games on this forum, but only a few have managed to achieve a high level of craftsmanship this game has achieved. The story is smart, dialogue and monologue are both meaningful and serve the story progression without the extra unnecessary "stuffing".

Renders are superb, so are the animations. More importantly is the fantastic and creative ambience that sets the mood in manners so consistent with the script.

Brilliant game mechanics, with nary a glitch for three episodes so far (v0.7).

woooooaaa this game is sooo good, imo this is the best made game up in this place, still to early to tell but this could be on of the best if the keep up with the same quality of everithing, not just renders or writing, everithing in this game exeeds good taste. there are times you forget this is a CG game, the charachters look so real and their expresions are so convincing that sometimes you forget you are the gamer and your reality just stops around you while you sumerge into the story and play of this awesome production.

This is one of the best adult games I have played and I have quite the lengthy collection .
This games blows every other game in the production quality and story categories.
The models are all beautiful and/or cute, as well as unique and interesting.
Even the android is freaking sexy.

The story makes you think, it's weird and often times new developpement raise more questiosn than they answer. HOWEVER it is also a smart story and the author clearly knows where he is going with it. This is in no way clumsy.

The game in itself keeps getting better, the latest chapter introduce new ways to navigate the house, it's better, faster and it lets us enjoy the game more.
Frankly the amount of work that goes in this game is outstanding. And it is clearly above the others and I am thinking of the big ones, from deep silver and the likes.
I recommend this one, it will make it rains hundreds if not thousands of loads in your house by the time it is complete.
And this is why I just decided to support it on patreon!
Don't give up Notvil!

Artwork: 5/5
Story: 4/5
Progression: 3/5

This title is excellent in terms of looks and feel, the renders are extreamly well made and the gameplay mechanics after testing are usually polished. The dev is often introducing new gameplay mechanics that I personally have not seen in games before which for me creates a more enjoyable experience.

The story is fairly well written, this is quite possibly one of the first games where I haven't got board and began skipping text just to get to the next section of the game.

The killer for me is the progression, each update usally only adds a small amount of content to the game but considering the quality of that content this is somewhat understandable.

While I rate the progression as a 3/5 this is purely just because im somewhat impatient and want to see the next bit of content now

Overall the game provides an enjoyable experience an I am very intrigued to see where the devs takes it next.

If you like intelligent sci-fi mysteries that you need to think about, but always thought they'd be that much better if they were spiced up with some sex scenes featuring really gorgeous women, be they organic or synthetic, then NOTvil has created something unique that you will really enjoy!

I played through the current content of Areas of Gray before learning that it is the sequel to an unusual combination of platformer & VN called Gray.
I'm now feeling like my favourite TV show has just finished its season on a cliffhanger and I can't wait for the next season.

Gray can be found here if you want to catch up on it first:
https://f95zone.to/threads/gray-notvil.3514/

Visually, this game is stunning!
Not just the models, but the sets and scenery are all beautifully rendered as well. The music fits perfectly and together with the visuals, NOTvill has created a wonderfully stylised cyber-art-deco atmosphere (my own description - don't know if it's entirely accurate).

I'm not going to go into how good I think the sex scenes are.
The way I see this VN is it isn't a porn game in a sci-fi setting, it's an erotic sci-fi. I think that's an important distinction, because NOTvil has created what is, IMO, the best "thinking person's" sci-fi story on this site. To say anything negative because there's not enough sex in it I think would be an insult to the creativity of this story.

The little mini-games that crop up here and there are... odd, at first. You'll possibly be thinking "what the?" But they're not difficult or time consuming, and they are in keeping with the context of the story.

The game doesn't have regular save and load facilities. instead it does frequent checkpoint auto-saves. This was a bit disconcerting at first, but I quickly forgot about it and just got on with the story, which checkpoint saving lets you do without interruptions.

The game is weird!
You'll be wondering why you're doing certain things.
It's abstract.
It's bloody brilliant!!

Review as of v0.6 Beta

Pros
- Amazing Renders (The android models are definitely a Pro for me, though others may not enjoy them as much)
- Good Animations (Usually a series of 2-3 short loops)
- A (thus far) interesting story
- The exploration segments don't go overboard, and the tedium of them is mitigated by semi-hidden collectibles.

Cons
- A minor thing, but a strange amount of the time the females keep their tops/bras on in the sex scenes, which is really sad in a game with animation.
- The one thing I really don't like is the inclusion of
The scene mentioned above is unnecessary and things could have been foreshadowed in a less stomach turning way. However, the fact is that while I am not okay with that scene in the slightest, the rest of the game does go a long way towards making up for it. Would easily be 5* without that scene. With the scene, 4.5*

This grey area of expertise touches on the divine as well as on the fine lines of putting faith into function, dream into belief and hope into action.

All hopes and dreams of man kind go with the machine revolution and the swap to the eternal and the divine through touch, through feels, through think touching each other and fantasizing in the narrow crisps of human nature, of affection and of memory coalesced into a grand design of this crafty game!

Hope of betterment for all human kind and kin, spear of fulfillment latched deep into the spine of such a twisty feel good roller coaster of a game mashed into the creases of human evolution, dribbling of any morality tough nut and stopping short of the machine revolution -> going into the small spaces one has to contemplate before riding this monster into the oblivion of happiness, fulfillment, joy for life and any and all experimentation into the good spirit of the woman.

Happy gaming!

The story is excellent, the graphics are great and there is well established character developement with a variety of characters. The relationships between the characters are close to reality but the sci fi element is strong enough to keep things interesting and at the same time justify some of their actions. The nature of the story also makes the audience want to explore and solve the mystery.

this game is one of the best games i've every played.. it's perfect entertaining and fun! the developer really worked on the details! amazing game
some things need to be changed like the saving system

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is v0.5 BETA...

This is a very unique and different sort of erotic VN/Game... I liked some parts and didn't like others...

The visuals overall are top of the line with lots of decent quality production value... The UI and interactions, for the most part, were well designed and unique... A few of the character models I've seen before in other VN/Games, with only minor alterations in this one... The navigation in the home felt a bit weird... Mostly because of the requirement for pressing the arrows to pan around the rooms... But overall, the navigation system for the house was much different and more creative then what I've seen in these things before... Some animations were excellent, and others were so-so... Like how the train movement through the windows was handled, during that whole section of the introduction, was top notch... But most of the sex animations were very short, albeit fluid... I liked some, and thought others might have been better handled, but they were all still high resolution...

The script is top notch, with only a tiny handful of occasions where I ran into spelling/grammar errors... The plot is rather bizarre and hard to nail down exactly, which is probably a result of how the story is told... You get many moments presented in well produced Visual Novel style... Other moments are handled like a selection based exploration game... Other moments you have to play varying mini-games, which is something I'm not a fan of... But I'll get into those in a bit... The story is split up into sections, with an Introduction that is separate fron the Day Zero content... You also have the story telling told from various perspectives, which confused me at first... Because I didn't know if the content with Abi and her friends, in her uncles apartment, was a flashback or what... But it did end up being a part of the content already shown, just at a different location...

As I said before, I'm not big on Mini-Games in a story driven visual novel... The first one was just clicking on locations of Mia, as I guess she was being aroused by some entity unknown... Something else I'll get into to later in this review... That mini-game wasn't difficult, but it did not respond to clicking very well, until I just kept rapidly left clicking in the circle... The VN/Game does not clue you in, on how the mini-game works, so you have to guess... Then later on, you have to play this balloon popping game in a mock cell phone, in order to get the texting dialogue to play out... That one felt extremely annoying, as you keep having to play it over and over and over again, to get the tiniest amount of texting to occur, that had no real meaning, other then creep factor... After the 3rd or 4th time, I called it quits on the whole VN/Game, figuring I had a fairly good idea of everything I needed to know about this VN/Game... I actually wasted about 4-5 minutes, at first, just clicking every balloon, before I realized the bar below would shrink with the red balloons... Again, no text to explain the game at all...

The plot's protagonist changes hands several times in this VN/Game... Add to all of that, all throughout the story telling, the game gives off a very creepy and spooky vibe... Almost like the whole family is being haunted, or some entity unknown is behind the curtains pulling strings, or there is some ghost in the machine type scenario happening, it was all very foreboding... I don't like being constantly creeped out in an Erotic themed story... It sends mixed messages and ruins some of the more romantic/sexy bits... There is so much teased intrigue and almost horror film like vibe, that it began to kill the joy and entertainment value of the rest of this VN/Game...

This VN/Game appears to be telling a futuristic story about a partially broken Family, where a majority of them are not related by blood (probably to keep using Patreon)... Half the family is the target of forces unknown, and the other half are part of some mysterious past occurances, that adds even more, to the creepy vibe... You can tell this is going to have some in-family erotic and sexual stuff, based on what the content has going so far... Even if they are not genetically related...

Overall, this VN/Game is unique and has a high amount of production value with good visuals... There is really good story telling as well, with a lot of intrigue and a bunch of bone chilling drama being teased, all through it... I'm sure there will be folks who will love it, and I'm sure there will be people who will not like it so much... Mix in some pointless and time wasting mini-games... Then add in the adventure style navigation bits, which is unique... I sometimes wondered what this VN/Game was trying to be as a whole... To add in all those elements, all in one single VN/Game, seemed a bit too much... Trying to do too many things in one product...

During the introduction, there was a slight creep vibe, but I was chopping it up to either a dream, or other influence... When all the other creepy stuff started happening at the apartment with the teenagers, I was completely creeped out, and having such a disturbing set of images and so forth directly after some erotic stuff, kind of bothered me a bit, to be honest... And the creepy stuff just kept on a rollin' in, from the MARY android creeping on the wife while she was being messed with by an entity unknown, to the security camera stuff, all the way to creepy texting by persons unknown... And what not... If this had been anything other then an Erotic/Adult VN/Game, I might have not been so messed up about this one... But I don't like my emotions being played with... It's was kind of a turn off over all...

I do applaud the developers for their professional looking VN/Game, but it does feel slightly over produced adding so many varying mechanics, outside of the multiple-perspectives (which wasn't so bad)…. Will I revisit this one? Probably not, and that is no reflection on the developers... I just don't like the use of mini-games or having all that dark creepy stuff twisted all throughout an erotic/adult themed story... I wish them the best of luck with future development...

This game is terrific. I am very pleased with this game. The quality is fantastic and the models are beautiful. Also this is a game with a decent storyline. I am impressed and looking forward to updates. I am currently considering patreon to support the developer and you should too

My original review: When you make a game so hard to navigate that people get stuck doing stupid simple things like going to breakfast, then you created a bad game. No amount of content or story can make up for the most basic elements of a game, like simple navigation.

After the most recent release I revisited this game. First of all, it is clear that Notvil is passionate about this project from the level of work put in on the renders and building the game. So that's a plus. The story line is decent.

However, the lack of clarity about what is supposed to be done to advance the game is more problematic. I got stuck initially when it said I had to go get breakfast and couldn't figure that out. Then I got stuck with Olivia wandering around and found she had to go in the bathroom and peep on the mother of the house (twice) to advance the game.

And then there are silly minigames, which I finally figured out that hitting Escape would bring up a option to skip them. I see no rhyme or reason in the clicking the message bubbles game because repeatedly clicking them does nothing and the game never ends.

Advice: Make the game more clear. Add a hints system or provide a walkthrough so that people will know what is expected. Once one actually gets to the animations, they are lovely. And the characters are good looking too. Just make this a little bit easier and it has the potential to be a much better game.