VN - HTML - Abandoned - Confidence Man [Ch. 3.2] [Whale_Shark]

  1. 5.00 star(s)

    microchipdisposable

    Magical quality for a HTML adventure. There's branching. Numerous amount of possible (sex) scenarios with women you'll met and clues you'd get. I like the general amount of text and dialogue structure, in bounds of a porn game, of course. I love the fact that dev put casting names in the menu, and the game generally feels like it's something from someone who gives a shit. It's fappable, to some extent replayable, great amount of content already. Found myself leaning more towards the empathy, even though it's usually not the case for me in such systems. 5/5, and the dev deserves some respect (as women) as well.
  2. 5.00 star(s)

    saucepan35

    Unexpectedly great. Such a shame it's no longer being worked on.

    The game itself is a pretty standard VN with a Good and Corruption route. What sets it apart from the rest is truly superb writing. Not just talking about grammar and spelling: The characters are interesting and believable, background stories (and the profiles) are excellently done., and I genuinely wanted to learn more about almost everyone.
    The story itself is great too. Not entirely free of porn contrivances, but hey, how else could you fulfill the harem fantasy for people? WhaleShark is obviously an excellent writer.

    I estimate 4-5 hours for a playthrough as of v3.2 (if you actually read stuff) and what's there is well worth playing even if we'll never see and ending. I'm so used to these games never being finished that I'm not bothered at all about not seeing getting the ending anymore. YMMV in that regard.
  3. 5.00 star(s)

    broken_dreamer

    Came to find a different way to nut and be attracted to the game.
    The stories, the characters, especially the discussions, so good that I forgot the urge to nut.
    I love the class and all 8 girls, you really did a good job WS.
    Thank you and hope to see the next chapter soon.
    P/s: Can you add Leah Gotti or Melody Marks or maybe a Japanese actress? Really hope so :))
  4. 4.00 star(s)

    devilishmind

    Has been long since I found a game that was written well enough for me to be interested in reading all the conversations, well done.
    What could be improved however is the alignment of the pictures to the text that refers to them, currently you already see what is going to happen before you get to that part and sometimes when you get to the text part the corresponding picture is already out of view.
    Now to the sad part of waiting for the next chapter, I really hope it's not gonna take too long
  5. 4.00 star(s)

    primeumaton

    At first I skimmed and skipped most of the dialogue as while it was written with proper english and grammar, I just wasn't interested.

    Chapter 2 I started reading about half of it, which is a lot for me. I can guess most of what is going on pretty quickly and often skim most things I read, save for novels. And even those sometimes.

    I enjoyed the kinks here and just wish there was more, so. Someday I will look at it again.


    Plot: 3/5
    Not entirely unique but not overplayed either.
    Characters: 4/5
    They are mostly believable, if the situations they get into aren't really.
    Sex: 3/5
    I think the setting of each sex scene is important, especially in this story.
    There was only1 scene I came across that felt like it got the setting involved enough to spice it up a notch. otherwise though, pretty good.
    Writing:4/5
    The writing style was pretty good. Not the best I've seen but above average, especially for this kind of game.

    Enjoyment: 4/5
    I think it would need 2 more chapters for me to thoroughly enjoy it.
    Or just more activities/sex or something.
  6. 5.00 star(s)

    Metowl

    First, sorry for my bad english.
    Usually i am always disapointed by real porn games, but this one is dope. Really cool choice of model, specially if you are into teen. The writing is really well done, the girls have very different personnality. The gameplay is great because it encourage you to read and be interested in every story of each girl. It really is one of the most promising game right now, im looking forward to see the rest. Great replay value because you have two very different routes, i think its worth trying both sides.
  7. 5.00 star(s)

    LANC3L0T

    The writing in this game is wonderful. The developer definitely deserves more attention for this gem!! He gives each girl a distinctive personality that really makes it easy for everybody to have a few favorites.
    Make sure you check this one out!!!
    To the developer, Whale_Shark, thanks for taking the time to create and update this game. You have a LOT of talent.
  8. 4.00 star(s)

    TrapmanCrothers

    As I write this, I do it on what appears to be the first chapter to a game that will be much larger. It almost feels unfair to rate it at this point because, while there's enough content to sink your teeth into as a start, one chapter might not be enough to judge where this game is going.

    Trying to be clear, what I mean is that a game like this will be judged on how well the relationships develop and what impact our choices make, and a first taste isn't enough to see that far into the distance. For a VN type game most of what interests me is precisely the relevance of my choices in character development. We haven't had a chance to see that yet even though the first chapter has a lot going on.

    That said, if I were going solely on my enjoyment of the content in this first chapter then it would likely be a pure 5* review. It's a bit of an odd setup but the writing makes it work by use of a healthy dose of self-aware humour. Being nice charms people as you'd expect, and being mean only makes them want you more.

    There's a little bit of actual gameplay where the player has to answer questions at the end of classes, and the answers go into your notes on a character which may be relevant (or not, if you make a mistake...) when deciding future actions. I found this a welcoming twist. It spices up the game a little by making you pay attention while adding to the immersion of feeling like you're really preparing to manipulate the people you meet.

    The scenes mix between the humorous and the hot, and I can't really fault the porn content so far. The writing is decent, if a little far-fetched, and I struggle for much I disliked about it. Which raises the question...why am I dropping a star?

    Well, because if I compare it a game I did give five stars to, and also the game that inspired the making of Confidence Man, a little game called College Daze, then this simply doesn't stack up. Again, it's unfair, because College Daze has more than enough for us to see the many paths of the game, but College Daze also has many branching paths, and Confidence man so far leaves us with binary choices that don't appear to matter all that much yet. But that's likely a consequence of this being simply the first chapter. The possibilities for Confidence Man are wide open right now.

    Will our choices matter? That's up to the writer. It's a fantastic start and a thoroughly enjoyable introduction. If we're looking at this as "proof of concept" then my rating feels altogether too harsh. If we're looking at this as a game so far then there simply isn't enough influence from the player, and that influence is the difference between a game and a story.

    If the developer reads feedback, then I'd like to end by saying if you keep to the promise of this first playthrough the Confidence Man won't simply be inspired by another game, it will be the inspiration for other games.
  9. 5.00 star(s)

    altnation

    Possibly one of the best real porn VN on this site. Here are some pros and cons. As of early December, it offers maybe 2-3 hours of playtime more if you read slow and perhaps a bit more if you go down the different routes, but it is hard to tell how much content there is. Some other real porn games offer more options for each relationship's outcomes and have more hardcore kinks, but they tend to be much more poorly written.

    Pros
    • The writing is solid and provides defined characters for each model shown.
    • Choices impact the narrative in a fun way without making you feel like you made the wrong one.
    • The kinks on offer are pretty decent, nothing too extreme but some hardcore content on offer.
    • Models chosen are sexy and offer a decent variety of faces to look at.
    Cons.
    • The two pathways and points earned by going down them don't seem to offer a lot. It would be great to see a map of the possible choices to see which one you can go down and which ones you haven't seen.
    • Remember what each girl in class said and didn't say is exciting but doesn't seem to connect with what happens later as of V 1. 8. Which makes it feel like a bit of homework I didn't get credit for.
    • It would be nice to see why I am being shown a specific piece of content based on what I did earlier.
  10. 5.00 star(s)

    bcrr

    So I'm very much a lurker on this site, rarely post in threads, and don't write reviews, but I'm extremely impressed by this game so far and want to see it succeed, and thus: review time. (reviewing on v1.8)

    So I generally keep an eye out for promising real-porn games, although there's a lot of garbage twine games, and very few real porn games I'd honestly call good. There have been a few that have managed to stand out, but in general the genre average is mediocre at best, and most get dropped early in development. It's a bit too early to say for sure, but this one has the makings of being one of the best and is already better than the vast majority.

    So, the game does have one pretty noticeable flaw, let me get this out the way up front, this game has very binary choices. There's only really two routes (although the non-student characters have slightly more choice variety along those two routes, the interactions with the students are mostly either/or), and if you know going in that that kind of structure is going to bother you, you probably won't have the best time.

    One thing that isn't strictly a flaw, but probably calls for a disclaimer for someone deciding whether to play or not: this game looks like it'll be bit of a slow burn for some of the characters. There are plenty of girls who have hot and well written sex scenes within the first few days of content, but there are a lot who don't, and if there's a particular character or pornstar you're interested in you may have to wait. And with the survival rate in-general for real porn html games, that can be a big ask. Now, this dev is active on their discord and patreon, updates have been consistent and moderately frequent, and I've seen no signs they're likely to jump ship, but if they do it will particularly suck.

    Now, out of criticism and on to what's great about this game: the writing.

    The characters are nuanced and interesting, and thanks to the pretty involved class discussion scenes the students in particular really stand out. There's only one or two characters I'm really not interested in, and even then the writing is solid enough I probably won't have trouble staying engaged the next time they get content. And some of the slow burns mentioned before have the potential to really pay off with enough time.

    Both routes are worth exploring, though I'd recommend sticking to whichever is most appealing to you first and deciding if you want to try the other afterward, some people will almost definitely only enjoy one or the other. I personally played empathy first, which leans more toward romance, although the class discussion scenes on that route might be a bit more involved than some players will enjoy in a porn game, I personally thought they were great. The brutality route was also very good, but it's pretty dark in places and I wasn't 100% comfortable with what the MC was doing in some of it, although that didn't keep me from enjoying it overall, and if dominating and manipulating girls is what you're here for you'll probably have a good time with it. The sex scenes are also generally unique to each route, so playing both is worth it if you're really into the game.

    The sex scenes are pretty great, on both routes, I personally enjoy reading erotica so I might be biased, but this game's approach of actually writing out several paragraphs of description and dialogue to go along with its images and porn clips is vastly preferable to other games that tend to lean too much on the porn itself to do the heavy lifting and only add small bits of dialogue to go along with it.

    Overall, the game seems interested in telling a story and developing its characters, and is using a great selection of real porn to do it. It's a bit short right now but certainly has enough content to recommend it, and with time could honestly be one of the best things on this site. If you're looking for real porn games that are trying to be a bit more than just a pornhub simulator, you'll probably enjoy this.
  11. 1.00 star(s)

    IceKream

    1.5/10... You don't do anything. You might think you do, but really you are just a side character.

    This game seemed promising... But I don't really give a fuck about estrogen related problems or girl drama. The set up was a cool con man backstory with violence and promises of sex, but now we have to take notes on girls like super feminist Olivia... who is the actual opposite of who i want to deal with when i play a porn game. If anything, this game has made me terrified of having a daughter. Too many issues and all the girls here are damaged goods.

    I also think the mc or player has no real impact beyond go left, right or center. Its a hollow illusion of agency, and the kid who points out the emperor is naked shows up every next option You don't really know what you are working for- saving points for some vague promise of story impact? The real rewards i.e. the porn, appear randomly, you don't really get to decide was it and isn't attractive. To me, certain characters are unattractive, and I don't have any reason to interact with them beyond the story says so.

    I have no real power to discourage characters I don't like. I can't ignore or avoid Elsa Jean. I like that some options require a mix of both empathy and brutality, but I've seen that option exactly once.

    Then look at the options you get: "I can't talk to her, she's too beautiful." or "Imma be a jerk and pretend not to care." WTF. Simp or dickhead. Amazing options.

    Also, i think the game skirts around the actual deeper conversations to be had- especially ones about shame and intimacy. The game is talking about same communication, empathy noise. Spare me. Also tries to add drama by talking about relationship stories to keep it interesting. Utterly fails.

    There's no dopamine from this game- you don't win or are rewarded with anything, and the story is slow and uninteresting- If you want to go through girl trauma over and over be my guest.
  12. 5.00 star(s)

    juicedmark

    I usually don't write reviews, I never feel like I have anything to really add that hasn't been mentioned a hundred times already but holy shit this game is amazing! I will admit I'm the type that doesn't need much of a story to keep at a game but this was amazingly written. I literally stayed up like all night playing cause the story had me hooked. I was so invested in each of the classes and helping those girls learn!
  13. 5.00 star(s)

    Deleted member 45664

    This game was able to get me invested in a conversation between eight women with differents background talking about their view of sexuality, how it influence interactions in society and where those views may come from. And all that five pages away from a sexy meeting with the girl next door.

    I'm not sure I can better express the quality of writing in this game...
  14. 3.00 star(s)

    iron4doves

    The only reason I'm giving this 3 stars is because of the limited content. I feel like this game is heading towards 4 star territory, but I find it hard to believe that anyone really thinks this is a 4+ star experience TODAY (aka dev disappears and is never seen again).

    I don't really like HTML games so hopefully that is saying something. Dev did a really good job with the writing as I actually want to read most of it. I'm not super fond of having tons of images and videos on the same screen (kinda makes me spoil it for myself before I get to reading it), but he did do a good job of picking good actresses that are not, for the most part, super popular (so you may not have seen many of the scenes before) and writing sensible content around them.

    I would personally advise folks wait for two or three solid updates before playing. This game is really leaning into the double edged sword that is having tons of sexable female characters: you get lots of variety, but that's a lot of characters you need to give content for, which makes dev slow.
  15. 5.00 star(s)

    Rex Blue

    One of the better HTML, choice-based games I've played. It's got two very different paths with whispers of some sort of hybrid, good dialogue, surprisingly deep girls, and good taste in porn. My favorite thing is that the choices are rarely just shots in the dark, but function based on what the girl you are trying to influence thinks or believes. As you get to know the girls, you can easily start to predict how they'll respond to your advances. While the game does function heavily on porn logic, the girls function consistently within the framework.

    I feel like the only weakness is how little content there is, though it's early days in its development yet. The content so far (maybe three hours at patch 1.4?) feels pretty solid, but games that run on branching paths scale quadratically or tend to make choices bottleneck back together, making you wonder why there was a choice at all. I hope Whale_Shark is able to keep up this great quality and diverse paths.
  16. 5.00 star(s)

    Kangarat

    A very, very good game so far! Easily the best HTML game I've tried on the site, by a large margin. It is also a very unique game in that I am enjoying the "good guy" storyline more than the exploitive dick/evil story (which is still great, no worries there). Great work, Dev. I am very much looking forward to more chapters, and one patron well earned.
  17. 3.00 star(s)

    jasonjj90

    I started this game and I kind of liked it. I would not call it a game, but the story had my interest. But like most good things the writer ruined it with multiple long passages of Political bs and a subjective view of the Patriarchy without any nuance and all the characters just went along. It ruined the game for me in an instant and will not give it more than 2 stars.

    Edit: I Adjusted the score a little bit after the last update. The discussion section of the game I had the most trouble with was way better this time. While I don't think this will ever be a 5 star game, it does have some fun and sexy parts in it. Maybe I concider giving it another star, when the so called feminist in the class gets more pushback when she talked about the patriarchy stuff in the earlier game. Because that part to me still kills the joy of the game in those earlier parts.
  18. 5.00 star(s)

    KurosU

    At first I thought it's just another meh HTML game or maybe great-start-gradually-turned-shit game. But after played it through the updates, dev really able to preserve that great quality he showed at start and hopefully it stays that way.
    My only grief is just that I was happy with the first half of the actress but the later half need more in the boobies area.
    So yeah 5 stars though I wanted to give it 4.9999 for the lack of boobies :cry:
  19. 5.00 star(s)

    bartleby

    I am not normally a big fan of the real-porn html genre, but... holy shit, this game is GREAT! All too often in these types of games, it is obvious that the creator just grabbed a bunch of video clips for his girls and tossed them into the game with minimal editing, formatting, or attention to detail. That is NOT the case here. Whale_Shark did an excellent job of not just picking out girls for their cast but in selecting video clips and pictures for specific in-game moments. All of the visuals are presented in a beautiful, easy to use interface in a manner that makes the game both enjoyable and immersive.

    Okay, that's enough about the "weakest" part of the game. Now let's talk about the good part... the writing. I don't know if Whale_Shark has done any professional writing in the past, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that they have. The "framework" story is good and interesting. The setting is well thought-out. The various ladies around town all feel like unique characters and not just different-picture variations of the same person. Are they horny (perhaps overly so)? Sure, but they still feel like actual people rather than haphazardly placed sexbots. The personalities of the ladies are as distinct as their appearances and kinks, and this distinction is well-presented in their dialogues. Speaking of which…

    The crown jewels of Confidence Man, in my opinion, are the classroom lessons. It isn't very often that I find myself captivated by an adult game because I am engrossed in the dialogue, but that was the case here. Whale_Shark did a simply amazing job with the students. It's obvious that they spent quite a bit of time preparing not just the subject matter for the classroom lessons, but in extensively fleshing out their character notes. As was the case with the ladies around town, each girl in the class feels distinct. Each girl has her own voice and beliefs, and each girl seems to have multiple layers of complexity to her personality.

    Halfway through the classroom debate (empathy path) during the second class, I quit caring about sexual content altogether. I was so enthralled by the debate that I would have kept reading it for two hours. THAT is good writing.

    I sincerely hope that Whale_Shark manages to stay the course and bring this project to completion. If they are able to do so while maintaining their current level of writing and "quality control," they won't just have made a good html real-porn game, they will have made one of the best adult games I have ever played.

    Whale_Shark, you have a new Patron.
  20. 5.00 star(s)

    ravenc17

    This is a well put together game, with relevant choices and an amazing risk/reward system. Honestly this one is very much worth the download, cannot recommend it enough. It gives you the freedom to make choices that actually matter, couple that with an amazing selection of actors and it really earns all five of those stars