Review as of version 12.1.1.
This is a tough one to review. Each positive seems to have a corresponding negative. For example, the story is pretty consistent with a real-life freshman's first-year-of-college experience. That is, it feels "real," as much as a game of this type can. There is a lot of witty banter, characters looking for fun stuff to do because they're bored, and the biggest drama is interpersonal issues between individuals. The downside to this is that there is no real plot. Stuff just happens. That's not necessarily bad, but it means I'm hardly on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happens next.
Even with such a simple story, there are a handful of inconsistencies. (SPOILER AHEAD) For example, after the MC's first big fight, depending on how you've been interacting with Lindsey, she may be flirting heavily with you. In my playthrough she was essentially promising to fuck the MC after the fight, especially if he won. My MC was very excited about the idea. But after I won the fight, I suddenly appear back in my dorm room, chat with my frat bros, text with Riley, and that's it. There is no mention of Lindsey, no looking for her after the fight, nothing.
There seem to be a lot of different choices, providing good replayability. Some people don't want to have to play more than once to unlock all the lewd scenes, but I enjoy branching stories when they're compelling. To be compelling, it helps when there are characters that you really want to get to know better, not just see naked. "College Kings" offers glimpses of that. For example, I find the Nora character interesting and her being unavailable (for most of the game) makes her more desirable, in my view.
The renders and animations are pretty good. Not great, but good enough. Every lewd scene is animated, which I like. At the same time, the lewd scenes are mildly disappointing. The women have very similar body shapes, with few exceptions, so there is not as much variety as you would think, given how many women there are. Worst of all, there are no virtually no cumshots. The MC creampies most of the women he has sex with, but we almost never see semen actually shoot out of his cock. Only once or twice do we see the actual creampie, too. Most of the time, the game animation goes from showing thrust-thrust-thrust straight to cuddling or getting dressed. Maybe these developers don't like cumshots? In any event, it's an unusual omission in a porn game.
The dialogue is generally witty and enjoyable to read. Again, there is no real plot to speak of, but the MC is charming and the other characters seem likeable enough.
One thing this game has going for it is its relatively rapid development schedule. Seems I just saw this game come out and it's already this far along. Offering the game for free initially on Steam to get people hooked was a smart move...but the quality needs to be maintained for people to feel good about paying for subsequent chapters.
I would urge the devs to slow down a bit and tweak the game a bit more before each release. Try and get an outside playtester or two to offer frank feedback. Also, as a side note, when Mr. Lee told his students in the London museum that "scientists" and historians have debated for hundreds of years whether dinosaurs are real, I almost spat out my coffee. It's true that early on, when the first bones were discovered, that there was some debate about what they were, but that debate is long concluded. Anyone still claiming today that dinosaurs are fake is certainly no scientist or historian.
Final verdict: 3.5, which I will generously round up to 4, out of 5 for now. Depending on how the story and everything else continues to evolve, I could see this becoming a full 4 or even higher.