Ren'Py - Desert Stalker [v0.16c] [Zetan]

TLDR:
It's a must-play, even if some of the tags aren't to your taste.
I'll explain why, below.

Context:
What does one look for in a review of an adult VN?
A list of "pros and cons" and bullet points on "likes & dislikes" or "quality of animations and renders"?
Typically yes, but that would not do this game justice. This is more than that.

If I were the king of my imaginary world, I would mandate up-and-coming developers to play, analyze and model this game and implement the principles followed here in their own games.

I'm not talking about the content here; rather the structure, and the deliberate and careful decisions made by the developer.
From 'how to begin a game' to 'how much text you are allowed in a screen' to the illusive 'pacing & scene frequency' ... there is a lot to study and learn here.

I can talk about this for hours, but I'll cut this short. Play it with open eyes and you'll see for yourself what I mean.

(Also, as a totally subjective side point; I think this dev should hold a course on "how to create beautiful female faces" for other devs. It's refreshing and extremely rare to see attractive faces that somehow don't like caricature simians and other primates )

Was hesitant because of the shared tag, but it literally gives you the option to turn it off. There were maybe two scenes that I understood there was going to be sharing in but the options just weren't there. It didn't subtract from gameplay at all. This game is amazing and I can't wait for the next update!

MC is great, love having agency in the story and the choice to be an asshole or a decent/good person base on circumstance instead of being force down a route, the render looks amazing IMO, gameplay is minimal but that's great when you are playing with one hand, story and setting is fresh (for an adult game) and fun, love the stalker/mad max vibe, would definitely recommend and I will happily support this project when I have the means to do so. Today was a lovely day indeed!

It's a rare game in F95 in that it's one of the few that has balls. You can play your character like a complete asshole, own actual slaves and such. It's pretty exciting. For that, and that alone, it deserves praise.

The characters and the writing are both average. Nothing out of the ordinary, but good enough to keep you reading. A somewhat interesting world and okayish writing keeps it trudging along without issues.

The animations range from good enough to mediocre. The quality of the models of some of the characters is what sells it mainly.

In F95, the rating system is pretty abused. People either rate 5 stars or 1 star only, which skews ratings. A 4.7 star actually means average due to the ridiculously low standards of the people here.

Thus I rate this 5/5, not because it is that perfect, but because it deserves to be higher up compared to much of the horseshit games out here. It does something unique and interesting.

For what it's worth, this game did release 2 years ago, and it seem to be moving pretty slowly when you take the current amount of content within the game into context.

If you are looking for a good story, good renders, good music, good lascivious scenes and above all a lot of violence and humiliation of others, this is your game.

Let's start with the story: currently version 0.10b has more than a dozen hours of enjoyment, in that time you can perform both main and secondary missions and even tertiary (events at home), all this in a post-apocalyptic world set in Egypt where our Character already created and with his own story, he makes new friends and enemies wherever he goes. These characters that you get to know are very numerous and each one has their own personality, but what should be highlighted here is that everyone can be humiliated and put at your feet, although with some it is easier than with others. With some characters you will have clashes and you will face them in very bloody fights. You obviously have choices to make about how to proceed in each case.

To all this that I have commented, we must add an impeccable quality of renders, being one of the best (if not the best) of all those that I have tried, they are very realistic, as well as the lighting that is typical of any game of the latest console generation; To the graphic quality we must add the total fluidity of these and the accompaniment of an incredible soundtrack and cinematics, which make you get fully into the story.

In short: it is a violent game with sensitive scenes, aimed at a specific audience looking for a more mature story beyond teenagers in love.

Open world games with VN elements are doomed to fail. For them to work you need a lot of content and using DAZ/3D models demands a lot of time/money. That´s why HTML dominate open world games and they are the current FAP kings.
Desert Stalker is special. It´s keeping it simple. Opening up few options so that we dont feel like missing out and the content it delivers... it really delivers.
It´s set in an interesting post-apocalyptic world with humans, monsters, queens and slaves. You can fuck anyone even your daughters and your wife encourages it.
This game makes you feel empowered, like the stalker they talk about and some of the scenes are absolutely excelent and the very best you´ll find in any AVN.

I dont know if this game will continue like this i´ll i can do is savour these moments of absolute depravity and power.

One of the best games I've ever played honestly, I can't wait to see more! I love the decisions all around, the fetishes in here are perfect, the models are great, there isn't much in this game that I would want more.

this game is really good the one of the best games here graphics are insane and really nice story women are very hot and sex scenes are fire the world in which this game is set on is great for a porn game keep it up hope to see more content

Very Nice game. I'm loving it. Very nice models, super sexy and all high quality. The enviroments look aweseome. The story is also nice, while a few choices actually made a difference in the story. Keep it up!!

Note: I don't believe a complex opinion can be properly represented by a number but I do understand some people are impatient so I don't use the star system normally, my ratings are as follows. 1 don't recommend, 3 unsure please read review, 5 recommend.

Desert stalker is a game I normally wouldn't review, for no other reason than it's very early in development and there isn't much content as of now, there's enough IMHO but it's still clearly got a long way to go, I'm making an exception because I think it's going in a good direction.

what it be though? It's a game set in the post apocalyptic middle east centered around the titular desert stalker, basically just mad max if mad max was competent. This game pokes a lot of buttons for me, it's got incest, it's got fallout themes, spooky shit and mutations, the lot.

Gameplay, it's my favorite kind, minimal. You make choices and decisions and these effect what scenes you see, the future events so on and so fourth, it's nothing ground breaking but at least it has a competent UI which is the very least one should need to expect from a point and click adventure game but still manages to be a challenge for some.

Story is interesting enough, the themes revolve almost exclusively around sex which is what you want in a porn game, well more accurately it revolves around power struggles and deals with these though fucking. Wear's it's influences on it's sleeve this game. I'd say it works for the story being told, it won't win an award but I bet it will win you over dear masturbater.

The art is really good, at least when it comes to what matters, highly detailed and well animated, it's definitely up in the rankings there for quality 3D art, even if that list is short and tops out quickly. . . .

"WOW" you think "It doesn't seem like there are any issues with this game, that's phenomenal!!" Well There is one thing that needs to be mentioned, I mean I know my audience well enough to realize this won't be a problem for most, and I personally am able to just accept it as a fantasy and nothing more but. . . . The incest is a little weird in this, In most games you seduce your family into the sex games and what not, usually using your trademarked magic penis, or the world isn't meant to be realistic in anyway and the fam is already down to clown they just need more convincing, OR you slowly and methodically seduce your family members in creepy ways. In this you don't have to do any of that because you and your wife have already, and I do not use this word lightly, Groomed your children into wanting to fuck you. If you've played the game you might be quick to point out the older sister was not she was kept pure in order to be a fighter, to which I would point out you commit sex acts in front of her with her sister multiple times in the game, this ain't a new thing you clearly fuck whoever in front of people all the time, you literally can just fuck in the living room at any time despite who's in it. It may not have been direct but obviously it happened, it also doesn't absolve the other kids groomed nature, I mean her job is literally to be her dads cock sleeve, like c'mon.

Point is you can't really deny the grooming, it's weird but not actually part of the game, you don't groom anyone in the game. . . exactly and it's easy to ignore if you like incest like me. It's also presented as like a cultural difference that I don't feel like exists call me crazy but feel like most people in the middle east aren't THIS into incest.

In conclusion , it's a solid game, so far, that I recommend good scenes and content for now, one weird thing but mostly a good time.

Easily a 5 star game right there!

-The models are gorgeous and original. Quite a refreshing change from the usual ones

-The setting works perfectly. Nice to get out of the usual American suburb…

-The worldbuilding is intriguing, and so is the story

-The kinks are familiar enough, but to displace them to an oriental post apocalyptic world makes them feel hot again

Congrats to the dev for what promises to be one of the very best games in F95

Review of the 0.10b.

The mix between horror, post apocalyptic and porn works like a charm and the writing is good enough to keep my attention, no need to press the control key to pass boring dialogues.

Some renders are ok, many are very good with a lot of details in the background, i found the female models sexy and the animations are on par with them.
The coding is solid, games runs smoothly on my PC.

If u like the game do not hesitate to patreon the devs, they deserve it.
Five stars!

This is really how game-like adult VNs should be done.

There is almost everything here to your heart's content - a solid storyline, great renders, lots of quality content so far (of different kind and liking), good sound/music choice, great variety of girls to interact and have quality fun with...

"Almost" in that statement just implies that we need much more of this, like, much more. It does not mean there is any lack of content so far, especially with those repeatable actions. But you just cannot really get enough of this, always seek for seconds. ^_^

Also, it's not an uncommon practice to put choices in this kind of games, but DS is a rare one when you feel like your choices/action do matter, and I believe there will be much more of not that simple choices in the future. But, at the same time, in most cases you can feel how to make a right choice, and if you do, you will never run out of nice happy endings wherever you might be roaming on the game map. )

So it was 5* from the first scene and if there were any higher I'd rate 6* for keeping, and sometimes even rising the quality of the game experience.

It's not uncommon for me to rate top *, but really, this one stands out for more credit than most of the best VN-like adult games.

If you are looking for a really exciting (in many ways) experience, this one is must-play.

Hands-down the best visual novel I've ever played. Fantastic. Pacing is excellent, visuals are incredible, story keeps you hooked. 10/10 would recommend to anyone.

I tend to prefer 3D and open-world type games but this game/story kept me captivated from one decision to another. It is well worth the time to get into the story and even for users like myself who aren't typically a VN enthusiast. IT IS A PHENOMENAL STORY. Give it a shot!

I personally enjoyed this game.

+Positives
+Writing is above average for this site.
+Fetishes appeal to me, I enjoyed the Dom/Sub and Sharing elements.
+Dev tries his best to provide players with an immersive experience. He tries his best with music and sound effects.

-Negatives
-However, some sound effects scare the living daylights out of me, which I failed to turn down before because of how disproportionate the sound effect levels are.
+- There are some characters that appear to be walking talking tropes. However, there are some characters that the dev is fleshing out as you go. Primarily your younger daughter (default Ain), elder daughter (Shani)

~I can understand that some players find some aspects of the game unrealistic, such as how everyone kinda falls for the protag. While that itself is unrealistic, I don't really mind it as it is first and foremost an adult novel.

~Neutral Points
~Secondly, the world itself is believable to me, as it is a post-apocalyptic society that has devolved to medieval standards where strength makes right, plus resource scarcity logically forces people to live the way they currently do. The breeding temple/religion made a lot of sense to me. More population would be highly valued, though I'd like to see how exactly they grow their own food in this god-forsaken desert since they can't only subsist off of trading.

Game is a perfect match for my desires. Raw post apocalyptic tale, decisions that change the way the game plays out and plenty of gritty sex scenes suited to the games atmosphere. As there are eventually several concurrent quest lines there were times when I felt as thought I went too far down one path which made it feel as though the story paused until I was able to progress with the other questlines (each questline can stand on its own in terms of content). I was able to unlock everything with two play throughs without using any guides or mods which meant I was able to enjoy the story instead of spoil it.

This game deserves your attention and my recommendation is to turn all optional settings on to enjoy the full post-apocalyptic tale the way it was meant to be played.

good vn
I finished the current content in a few hours

girls are really cute and written well
renders are good
story is ok
seems bug free

only real complaint is that the mc looks younger than his described age (around 50)
I also had some trouble getting the gallery to uncensor names in the menu, but you can use the gallery/walkthrough mod to unlock them

there is some minor gore but it can be avoided if you dislike it. there is also some sharing content (no ntr) but it can also be toggled if you dislike it. content is mostly incest and s/m.

v0.10

IMO there isn't a better AVN out there. That is saying a lot when it is a sandbox.

The sandbox part is done perfectly and anyone who is currently doing one or thinking about doing one needs to learn to do it like this. I get to see repeating scenes that I want and ignore the ones I don't. I don't have to "earn" the right to see scenes either.

Also there are some out there that have prettier renders, but these are pretty damn good too. Animations just started and I think it is done well.

The two thing that set it apart from other AVN's is of course the story and the consistency of updates. Looking at the AVN as a whole instead of pieces, parts puts it well above its competition.

very different in a good way. many stories here feel sameish. This game feels different. I like the rendering and story too. The characters don't seem hollow or the same. i going to keep an eye on this game

One of the very best porn game in this site. High quality modeling, interesting plot, cliche but nice apocalypse concept and not quite uncomfortable incest. Love this game and hope won't be abandoned cause of funding shortage or smt like that. Actually my true wish is watching dev makes a team for this game and upcomming project related to this game but I know it's too ideal for single porngame dev run by patreon and donation. Anyway, keep it up and enjoy.