Review for v0.10
Everyone once in a blue moon, you get an AVN that really stands out among the sea of mind-numbing incest/college games. Then, even rarer, you get games like Desert Stalker. Something that feels almost one of a kind as far as the porn game world goes.
This post-apocalyptic world is dirty, debauched, and cruel. Funnily enough, that's pretty great when you're playing as an established badass who can (optionally) not take shit from anyone.
As the overview and game name states, we're playing as a Desert Stalker. You could think of it as being, in some ways, a direct hand of the queen we serve. This means we have a lot of benefits. Status, wealth, our own land, and the skills to back all of this up. What I'm getting at is that we're playing as a somebody in this world, which I think is a fun twist on the standard "survivor in a post-apocalyptic world."
I took a jab at incest games earlier, but to top it all off we have a harem consisting of a devoted wife and two loving daughters waiting at home. Just a cultural thing though, don't make it weird.
Jokes aside, there's a ton I like about this game. It's a great example of a sandbox done right. Our own little castle acts as the home base from which we see events and can set off from to explore the world. Progression relies solely on a quest system consisting of both main and side quests. Don't worry though, there's no grind here.
The quests are great. They all feel pretty unique from each other, and this is a rare game where the choices you make in these quests can have a lot of impact and variance. I love that you can choose to take a more dominant or submissive route towards the queen as an example. For some of them, there's legitimate hard decisions as well that I had to really think about making.
These quests tie in heavily with another aspect I like: the factions. The overview mentions fallout influence and this is where it really becomes apparent imo. Actually getting involved with these factions and becoming a key member/leader is just fun. It's a bit early still, but you can tell there's a lot of plans for them. Excited to see more out of that.
The animations and renders improve more as the game goes on. I suppose the early game could do with touch ups to match the later stuff, but it's not as if it's horrible. The characters look great and the renders match. Suffice to say, the game looks good.
For me, this is one of those games where the worst thing about it is running out of content to play. I could probably go into a lot more detail with this review, but I truthfully don't have a ton to say. The game is good and speaks for itself. Want to play something a bit different? This is an easy recommend.
