VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Bare Witness [Steam Build] [AlterWorlds]

  1. 4.00 star(s)

    destroyerofassholes

    It's okay. Decent renders, mediocre animations, better than average writing, but that's not much to say since most porn games' writing is shit. This is merely a tiny bit less shit.

    Suffers from writer-inserting though. As in every character is basically a mouthpiece for the author. The awkward references, the rants the characters go on about society and concepts, all of the make-believe dialogue between the characters, it's all the author using the characters as a thin veneer. Kinda like a guy forcing two dolls to kiss, there is a single hand behind all of the different talking heads and they feel less like separate characters. Becomes pretty obvious and kinda takes you out of the story, however minimal the story is.

    Also, good god there is too much "i love you"-ing. And I say that as a guy who says that shit 24/7 when in a relationship. Author can't seem to find a way to show affection between characters lol.

    Furthermore the main story is plain not good, not that I was expecting much from it but yeah.
  2. 5.00 star(s)

    jly

    The cons first:
    • Main story is pretty contrived. Not especially bad for a porn game, but falls into a weird space between slice-of-life and fantasy / sci-fi / drama. Game kind of feels like it wants to do both and can't balance the two.
    • Some strange time-skips, rather early in the game. Feels like the developers may have realised their original plan was too ambitious: can't do every day slice-of-life detail when the larger drama plot may take months to unfold, so we jump ahead to try and keep up with the main plot, which hurts the individual romance plots and overall character development.
    • No real drama with the main plot. Despite all the time and effort put into it, it just doesn't pay off. Like a standalone In Plain Sight episode, but the timings are off. It consumes too much time whenever it just kind of gets brought up every once in a while, but no real stakes are ever established. It could probably just have been dropped entirely, as there's no payoff for the plot itself nor is it critical to any of the romance plots.
    So why 5 stars? The girls. The girls in the game are unique, and not in a quirky, each-girl-is-a-trope way many games do. Each girl has a complex personality and different relationships with the MC / each other, especially between the harem four. The developer clearly has these characters fleshed out and cares about writing them well.

    This especially comes through in the sex scenes. (Good writing? In a sex scene?!) Each girl's personality comes through in the sex scenes as well! You can tell they have different sexual preferences and proclivities, and again, these aren't just trope-y (i.e. one girl is into BDSM, one girl likes it rough, one likes it gentle, etc.). For example, one girl has difficulty orgasming and can only orgasm at most twice before being overwhelmed. These details come through in scenes that in many games would just be a generic rotation of positions for each characters. Another reviewer mentions disappointment that only one LI in the harem does anal. I actually found this a positive, that the LIs are sexually different and they're not all just the same slutty cliche or two. (Also a non-harem path has one of the harem LIs do anal.)

    The sex scenes also have breaks and conversations, in a realistic way. There's even a scene in the HS path where one girl stops it because she's uncomfortable with the dirty talk, which prompts the characters to resolve the issue in their relationship. This then changes their dynamics in future scenes. The sex scenes are themselves part of the story, and not just inserted into the game by the developer to "sell" it as a porn game. The scenes are still quite hot too, despite these concessions for a little bit of realism in our porn game.

    The endings are also mostly excellent. I can't say they're all perfect (Zinda's is a little bizarre) and the main-story resolution is rather poor - though props for it being resolved in different ways in each of the endings. What's really good though is the sheer number of renders: much of each ending plays out as a slideshow, covering years of life with the chosen LI(s). It is an extremely effective way to bring closure to these relationships, in a way that isn't overly tedious with hours of dialogue. We also see parent characters show up for the first time, and it is clear the developer has thought these characters through, as they seem like complex characters though they only show up very briefly.

    The developer's care for their characters and for consistent, quality character writing makes this game stand out amongst others on this site. Putting aside the structural issues with the main story, this game is well worth trying just for the romances and I hope more developers take note of this excellent writing for inspiration in their own games.
  3. 5.00 star(s)

    lordnova

    BW has quickly become one of my favorite AVNs.

    It has plenty of funny moments, plenty of sexy moments, and even a few tear jerker moments.

    Each of the six LI's is compelling in her own right, and the poly paths, besides having plenty of sexy times, shows a great dynamic between the different girls involved.

    The writing and artwork are great, obviously the more recent artwork is an improvement over the first chapters, but improvement over time is to be expected.

    The different endings have been amazing so far. I've done HAM,MASH, and HA, paths so far. Each ending is unique. Sure they have elements in common, but its not the same epilogue with different LI's subbed in each time. Am looking forward to seeing all the solo endings now.
  4. 5.00 star(s)

    DLer4321

    I had a very enjoyable time with this game with no major complaints.

    Renders and animations are great, the characters are interesting and feel different to each other and it's well paced.

    The fact that this has now finished is another HUGE bonus with how few high quality finished games are put out every year. The endings are well done also with a plethora of options for who you end up with catering to most people.

    As for complaints I have very few and they take little from the overall game. The story at 2 or 3 points suddenly jumped to a new scene when one ended without explanation for why it was happening which was jarring. The big plot regarding the MCs history could have also been talked about in more depth as I didn't really know why things happened in the past or who was involved.

    This game is a must play overall and I'm happy to give any completed game with this quality 5 stars.
  5. 5.00 star(s)

    TonyMurray

    Loved this game. The models are great, and the writing really good too. I always appreciate it when the LI I should like the least based on my preferences is one of the ones who stands ahead of the rest, as it shows great character work to achieve that.

    One of the things I really liked about this game is that there seems to be a real focus on love-making rather than just sex. There's always so much love in any pairing or grouping, and it just makes the whole thing feel really wholesome.

    Every path gets a satisfying ending, my only slight negative on that is that there are a couple of combinations that I would have loved to see but didn't (e.g., Athena/Sadie). But that's not an issue, only an unfulfilled dream.
  6. 4.00 star(s)

    Vill3m

    Pretty good overall. It's mostly a dating simulator where you meet many interesting women, help them, have sexy fun and enjoy wholesome romances. The main story arc about the MC being in the WITSEC mostly sits in the background while he messes around with women.
    Some constructive criticism as well.
    1. The writing often focused too much on describing mundane everyday tasks in excessive detail that could have easily been skipped.
    2. I think those time skips of 7 or so weeks were a bad choice. The getting to know and falling in love periods are the best thing to focus in romance stories and I think the skips were way too long and either left out significant parts of relationship developments or just made it seem like the relationships were on hold during that time.
    3. The "final battle" was a very anticlimactic under 5-minute scene. The villain was practically some random dude with uncompelling and one-dimensional personality. There really wasn't any tension and everything went so conveniently well for the good guys.
    Likes: 512
  7. 5.00 star(s)

    somguy

    Great game.
    Beautiful models each with unique personalities, good writing and many satisfying endings worth multiple playthroughs.
    You can choose your favorite girl or go for a harem ending(more than 1), so there's something for everyone :)
  8. 4.00 star(s)

    Deleted member 7370613

    I actually enjoyed most of this VN. While most Harem games revolve around the MC being the center of it this one at least tries to make it more of a situation where everyone loves each other. Aside from that one of the best parts of the models was that the skin on the models as too often the same blemishes and/or skin is used for multiple characters. The models also have more variation in the shape and sizes as when placed next to each other. This and the personalities does make them stand out more. The biggest problem is the story and not because of the premise or setting. Rather the biggest problem is that it has gaps as an example when one of the characters is about to move in we don't see acknowledgement of the move happening until she has already been in the house for a while. This happens several times and feels like it could have connected some of the time skips better.
  9. 5.00 star(s)

    Lordie

    What a great game!!!
    I started this game, because of the perfect looking girls, but later I played this game with growing enthusiasm. Sure, it is not really realistic that every girl is falling for the MC, but the story is a wonderful daydream and that's what I think games like this should give the player. A wonderful break from the gray real life. No bitching girls, no money problems, all characters are healthy and lovely.

    My warmest thanks to the developer Slockie. You did an excellent job. Thank you. I look forward to your next project. Don't make me wait too long :)
  10. 3.00 star(s)

    SerHawkes

    Back when this game all start, there was certainly some measure of promise. Story was alright enough, the visuals were good, sex scenes were hot though blandish, and the characters were good as well.

    However though, for the Chapter 5 to have taken pretty much two years to "build', the expectation would have been a true grandious ending of sorts, with all of the paths included and such, the ending of Chapter 4 to be a key build up in surprise. For what ever reason though, the story, and by proxy endings, fell flatter than a pancake.

    You had the surprise of a possible gunman with the ending of Chapter 4, and yet, turns out to be one of the marshalls. Okay, no big deal, makes sense given the situation. But as we go into hiding with our pairings, we are forced into saving the Dean, yes the Dean. Who added no shock factor in terms of storytelling whatsoever. NOW, had it been Sadie, then you have more weight to the story and making it memorable, not to mention the more build up with suspense. But overall, the story and such is a huge let down, even after the 2 years of 'work'.

    Endings wise, kinda hit and miss. Heidi, Athena, Mora, Sadie solos were good. Zenda's, while slightly better end result, was more pointless and text wall. 'Let's go to Iran, it'll be fine... Famous last words'. HaM ending was fun, however the gold certainly goes to MASH for taking it all. Val getting a one off event after you wrap things up seemed pointless.

    So in short, I can't give this a 5 star, or even 4. While there are some good, memorable moments in the game, and the art work is there, specially later on, the story, and it's conclusion failed to meet expectations. Hopefully Storm and Slockie can learn from things with this and build up on things in their next work, with the storytelling and other areas. But overall, gotta give it a 3/5.
  11. 4.00 star(s)

    XKL27

    Fun game and well done to the devs! I liked the Val solo path best; gorgeous woman, mature, and smart.

    I do wish F95 had a poly tag to help indicate that 'harem' LIs are going to sex each other up when the MC is not about (or even when he is and they they decide not to include him); it can be hard to do poly without the MC sometimes feeling like an afterthought. Is that realistic? Yeah. Sure. But realism would also have it incredibly unlikely that every hot woman you meet wants to jump on your dick almost immediately, so we've already introduced porn logic in some places.

    It didn't particularly bother me, but I also didn't go too far down the poly routes. It didn't help that I didn't care for Heidi's model at all, and as far as I could tell, she's sadly at the center of the two larger group routes (HAM/MASH).

    Still, very well written, well rendered, and (for the most part) well resolved.
  12. 5.00 star(s)

    Tomy75

    AlterWorlds didn’t disppoint, the 11 endings in chapter 5 were as good as the 4 chapters before them. It’s very rare to see a developer so dedicated to rendering ELEVEN totally different endings. One of the endings, Valeria’s, even made my eyes wet, which is a rare thing coming from an AVN.

    The drama part of the story is quite basic and ends in a very simple way (with some variants depending on the ending though), so don’t expect any plot twist or cliffhanger. What’s important here is the background story behind each of the girls and how their relationship with the MC is evolving. With some of the girls it’s rather straightforward, but for some others it requires a bit more work and understanding of their feelings. This is not a harem game per se, but the MC can still end living with up to 4 girls. One path ends with 3 girls, and another one with 2, while all the other paths are dedicated to one girl only, so be prepared to have 11 different saves so that you can explore the 11 different paths this game has to offer.

    Renders and animations are of great quality and all of the girls are unique and beautiful, from a shy redhead to a very hot MILF, or from a brunette goth chick to a former chubby blonde. You’ll find your favorite for sure!

    5/5 because there is honestly nothing I disliked, except for the fact that it's already completed :(
  13. 4.00 star(s)

    bamachine

    Overall, great game. Love the girls, not the same models as in 90% of Daz games. They are so cute and sexy. The writing is up there in the top 10%. Very few spelling or contextual errors. Decent humor. Like the harem ending and how it kind of seemed like there was no harem "master", more like it was a true poly relationship. Not sure about the other endings, as I have not tried them. I did the MASH ending with agreeing to give Val a kid like she wanted. If I could, I would give this 4.5/5. It is not perfect, there are very few I consider worthy of 5/5. Still, I highly recommend anyone to give this a shot and if you can, support the creators in future endeavors.
  14. 4.00 star(s)

    Alfius

    I loved this game when I started playing it, but the end was a bit underwhelming for me.

    So let's start with the good.
    Girls are pretty and interesting.
    The girls are somewhat varied.
    Sex scenes are hot and often
    The story is somewhat interesting.

    So what was wrong?
    Maybe I'm starting to realize that I do not like harem games.
    It's not the idea of ending up with multiple girls that is the issue. It's the total implausibility of how it appears.

    I get that people say that it's a fantasy, but I still likes my fantasies to be grounded in reality.

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    A few years ago, I would have given this 5 stars, but the quality of stories in some VN have just raised my expectations. This one starts out interesting, but ends a bit flat.
  15. 5.00 star(s)

    xerroxi

    Story:
    Don't expect something that moves you or makes you think about later on, it's just a frame to connect and generate a flow. It's not bad or just plain stupid, so i end up with a 3/5, solid, does the job.
    Characters and paths:
    The Characters show some quirks and habits but differ at how "deep" you dive depending on the path you choose. The more you "gather" the more shallow you get. As of the replayablitiy, you are limited, you won't gather all so there is the option to follow other decisions, i'd go that far to say the variation is enough to peek into them. That leaves me with a low 4 of 5.
    Visuals and audio:
    It doesn't hit the "top" for visuals nor audio, but at least for the visuals it gets close. The character models don't feel similar (as far as they are all quite the eye candy). The "audio" (music in this case) is good, rare moments where i'd expected something else but, and that's way more important, not annoying or distracting, like the story the music keeps the flow, a good 4/5.

    It is finished! Not unnecessarily stretched to more chapters, not endings that feel rushed (like noted before, the "collection path" could've get a bit more "depth"). Rating +1

    Thanks for your work
  16. 5.00 star(s)

    Hybris

    It's extremely rare that I play a game on this site that makes me go out and pay full price for the legit version but here we are.

    The art is extremely well done, every time I had to turn down a girl it hurt because they all have a lot of appeal and every girl I say yes to I knew I was in for a treat.

    The writing is the surprising part of this game as every girl feels unqiue like they are an actual fully fleshed out character.

    I look forward to seeing more content from this dev and perhaps if they remain consistent in delivering complete products I may be driven to support them more directly.
  17. 5.00 star(s)

    Bmagada

    This was spectacular. Too many best girls in there. I like Mora but more as a solo route. This game has the best throuple even though both the Athena and Heidi solo ends were good. Mora pretending she didnt want to try anal while everyone was there was adorable. Valerie is hot. Sadie is of course just hot. All the cousin talk usually wouldn't do it for me but here I am. Also that Anal seen. Yes. just yes. Heidi gets best overall character though. She is the cuck queen lol. I'm just surprised shes the one who is 100% no buttstuff.

    All that aside the story is great. The side characters good. Also though I'll always want more of these girls. The game actually wrapped itself up neatly in 5 chapters and its good. Most games would drag on but this isnt overstaying its welcome and thats good. I've seen a couple reviews that are....exaggerating certain moments that can be a drag if you aren't invested. I mean people complaining an older woman is aggressively hitting on MC in a Adult VN is a little.....eh its a strange complaint. Oh well, I loved it and cant wait for more from this dev.
  18. 4.00 star(s)

    yagha22

    The game is definitely elevated by good renders, good sex scenes, and the fact that it has been completed, but it's brought down again by pacing and characters.

    To quickly praise the sex scenes, the girls cum A LOT, even squirting on a bunch of occasions, which imo is fucking magnificent since there's no worse game than one where the sex scenes just involve the dude pumping until he cums for the money shot with no word on how the girl enjoyed the experience.

    That being said, I think only one girl got anal in her route? The anal scene was great, it's a shame there weren't a lot more.

    As for the pacing bringing everything down: the MC shows up, and despite the creators' attempts to make the game feel more grounded he gets told by his second day in the flat that one of the girls wants his dick real bad. By the end of the first week, several characters are madly in love with him, and soon thereafter the game jumps forward in time by 7 weeks to try to retroactively pad out these lightspeed events.

    Speaking of the characters, four of the six routes just didn't do it at all for me:
    -One was a 42-year old woman who creeps on you really aggressively in a way that would have gotten her instantly kicked out of the bar if she had been of the opposite gender
    -Two girls in a relationship who 100% assume that living with them and being subjected to their complete lack of decorum and basic decency would be anything but a fucking nightmare
    -A girl with a superiority complex? Sorry, I never finished this route because her design didn't do it for me

    As for the MC, I just didn't like him. Yes, he's a well-written young man of 21 who's freaking out all the time about the bad things that could happen, but just because it's well-written doesn't mean that it's fun to read. When he's not afraid of the mob coming after him, he's a complete chick magnet who always knows the right thing to say to get in bed with the girls he hangs out with (There are no male friends in this game to change up the interactions a little). When it comes to plot decisions, he's a complete idiot.

    Speaking of the plot, it inevitably deals a lot with the Mafia, which is often the silliest and most ridiculous subplot in Western VNs - except here, it's the main plot. Its resolution is sudden and laughable.

    So yeah, very subjective points all around, but it is what it is. Definitely a 3-star game for me, but the sex scenes are just too good not to reward them with that extra star.
  19. 5.00 star(s)

    MississippiQueen

    (1.0)

    A great AVN that ends in 5 episodes. It's very rare to see a game end on a good note these days.

    Animations and renderings are great. H scenes are really good. The models are quite beautiful.

    MC is a very standard person. And that's a perfectly good thing. It's become difficult to even play with a likable MC these days.

    Each LI has a different beauty. A game that I have a hard time choosing is a good game for me. There's something for everyone.

    As for the endings, It is the first time the poly ending is the least I like. Im very much a Harem enjoyer, but in this game, Solo endings are much more though out, emotional and deep. When you are ending the game with one of the LI's, (or more) you want it to be more meaning and seriousness and less sex, because you sexed too many times already at that point, and you are at the end of the road, so you want passion and emotion to prevail.(at least thats what I want). And of course, the perfect endings is where you impregnate your love at the end. Therefore, solo endings are slightly more good for me. Especially Val's. She really shows everytime how much she loves us. And Zenda's. She could do anything for us, and she mean it. And I love both of them. I wish there is a path that involves both of them, but well...


    This is a very good game. I congratulate the devs for finishing this beautiful game and very much looking forward to their new project.
  20. 5.00 star(s)

    MixQQ

    + amazing soundtrack, music are really top notch and suits perfectly most of the scenes
    + renders & animations
    + squirting
    + amazing 5some in chapter 5
    + lewd content is well done, mc know his stuff and girls don't have to tell him what to do.. like in some fucking tutorial
    + most of endings are satisfying, some of them are rly emotional
    + likable mc, just a normal guy. He is not a typical to this genre pathetic wimp
    + avn without deep story. Game is mostly focused on girls & relationship development
    + funny moments
    + beautiful & likable girls, they genuinely love and care about MC
    + game is completed
    + a lot of choices & routes if you are fan of them
    + mini-harem route


    - 5some in chapter 4 is too chaotic
    - you need to repeat game a lot of times to see all the content, it quickly become monotonous

    I really enjoyed this avn.. unfortunately, this journey came to an end. 5 stars from me