Ren'Py - Desert Stalker [v0.19.4] [Zetan]

I dont need to say a lot since hell it is fucking desert stalker there are a lot of essays explaining how amazing is this game

The only thing im saying: it is my fav game after eternum but it will be my first top game when it gets sounds in sex scenes

God i replayed this game 4 times already imagine when it gets sound effects in sex scenes?

My favorite game on this site by far.

The characters, the gameplay and variety of kinks this game fulfills for me is unmatched. The story is also a plus.

The only possible complaint I could have about this game is that all the female characters have a similar body type. I would have liked some with petite bodies as well.

But even then, this game deserves 5 stars.

Phenomenal Art, CGs, and character designs and Background.
Really good story for no reason. Bro cooked..............................................................................................................................................

Open world done right, for once. Instead of making you guess where anything is, the open part just directs you to various stories. Being a DIK does it completely wrong and makes multiple playthroughs a pain in the ass in every way possible. This never forgets what it is supposed to be; a linear novel.

Great story, great characters, A second protagonist that I don't roll my eyes at everytime she's playable. One of the better games on the site.

Very overhyped for what content I've played so far. Several hours in and this has been an extremely linear VN where I click through the story, then click option 1 or 2, then watch a very mediocre sex scene play out because 90% of the H-scenes aren't animated fully and rely on a slideshow instead. The women range from drop-dead gorgeous to the usual weird 3D CG models, so that's up in the air, and the men all look wonky as fuck.

I just don't know what's here that has most people voting 4s and 5s. It's very mediocre. I kept wondering when the tutorial would end and I would stop following the motions of clicking on the exclamation marks to read middling story before watching a middling sex scene that has barely any animation, no voice acting, few SFX, and often no music.

Really good stuff, has a really dark story that i find quite enjoyable, a fun post-apocalypse setting with hot eyptian style themes with slaves, gladiator arenas, and stuff. the balance between story and sex scenes is really good in this title. tons of content so far, really looking forward for the upcoming updates.

It's fine. Many great aspects, but the characters and plot aren't very good. The dev is VERY creative and comes up with some interesting ideas, but the execution is disjointed and not terribly interesting.

This isn't a great VN. It's a dozen great VNs fighting with each other. If it was more cohesive and the characters had better writing, it would be a 5/5.

Great game that has a really unique setting and storyline that actually works well. Character design is excellent as well, there really isn't anything you can specifically point to in this game that's negative. Highly recommend.

Usually male main character isn't my thing as much (there is the girl too, but more limited time), hard to identify oneself for me. But this is a more unique setting. More mature. Scenes are hot and lots of effort put all around. Love all the girls too.

5 stars, without a doubt. One of the top games on the site, IMO.

The characters are all engaging, the girls are all hot, the world's well-defined details are quite creative, and the various scenarios and threats are gripping.

The character interactions are impressively well-written.

The need for MC to protect his own is fairly key in the game's tone.

MC is so alpha, this game should skip from alpha to finished, and never get labeled with a beta release, simply calling the end product a "Finished Alpha".

The girls in the house all have you rooting for them, even if Ain causes a lot of trouble w/her cluelessness and carelessness. Shani is both massively hot and awesome, and often teeters tantalizingly on the edge of non-consensual situations, tho usually hacks and slashes her way out. Zhara is the perfect wife, hands down; she and MC are a proper pair, respecting each other's roles. The slaves and concubine are well worth their room and board requirements.

The city and desert gals are worth the time, even if the queen is a literal royal pain, at times.

The antagonistic gate guard subplot can result in one of the best humiliation and taming arcs in any game.

And how can anyone not like Asha? Kyra is nice too, but Asha is just a special girl..

My only gripe is that guns should be around, and even fairly abundant, but are MIA. If the "civilizations" in place can maintain cars, they can maintain guns: no question on that. My guess is the dev just finds it easier to keep the MC alive w/o them, and guns would ruin the Zetan low-tech theme.

Despite that one issue, DS is an absolute gem: a desert jewel.

PS.. One thing this game gets insufficient credit for is its ROCKIN' soundtrack, which is presently accessible via Chili's Playlist (upper left corner of main menu screen).

Version 0.19.4

Desert Stalker... another legend that doesn't need further elaboration. Naturally the usual aspects like graphics, story, sound and sex scenes are top notch, but what really sets it apart is the superb world building.

At times, DS plays much like an enacted documentary and it is easy to forget one is actually playing an adult game. The deep dive into various cultures, customs, politics, economy, characters and daily living conditions of different communities within a post-apocalyptic Egypt is the most granular and intricate one I have ever seen.

Story
A striking aspect of DS is it doesn't feature a strong central story. The plot summary on the game page describing MC finding a pre-apocalypse artifact is sort of the main story, but doesn't take up too much space in the grand scheme of things.

Instead the experience is largely driven by a limited free roam whereby players get to experience multiple self-contained events ranging from high adrenaline exploration of ruins and surreal "zones", joining wild raiders on a hunt to even mundane stuff like dinner or shopping in a city bazar.

I dislike games doing free roam without a strong central story as most of the time it descends into a series of disconnected boring slice of life events or sex scenes. Not DS though, the events no matter how minor all contribute to unveiling a piece of a unique world that is breathtakingly alive and keeps things interesting.

Essentially, the "world" is the central plot that glues everything in place. You play to know more about the "world" rather than follow a particular narrative.

Game Mechanic
A highly flexible sandbox that allows players to explore the world through triggering events. There are naturally some limitations in event chronology and availability, but not to the point where it feels like just wrapping a sandbox around a visual novel.

There's a nice system where you can track events you are interested in so that their trigger locations are marked out. This allows players to directly go to only quests they are interested in without constantly clicking on the quest log.

And thank heavens there is no senseless morning/afternoon/night time slots that require players to constantly skip time just to trigger a selected event.

Background / Character Renders
As events take place over a large number of venues, the number of unique backgrounds rendered is breathtaking. All are high quality made with Daz3D.

There's also a large number of characters all of which are uniquely designed and highly differentiated. None of them look like generic assets purchased from Daz market place.

Character Development
MC is maledom done correctly - the guy's tough, mature and does not hesitate to take action to protect his girls. He's as morally straight as circumstances allow, but not to the point of doing stupid shit causing danger to himself or those around.

The main LIs include MC's family members Zhala, Ain and Shani who all have their unique personalities. You also get to experience a major adventure from Shani's POV which was really well done. Some of the quirky LIs like the raider sisters and the mutant girls are adorable as well.

Special mention also to Queen Merneith - a well-crafted character and my personal favourite. Instead of the usual femdom or corrupted sex slave trope we usually see of queens in AVN, Merneith is a complex layered individual. Highly mature and political for her age with a sadistic streak, yet also possessing repressed empathy, passion and love for adventure like an adolescent girl.

Sex Scenes
If I have to choose the weakest link in DS, then it has to be the lewds. They aren't bad, but maybe more 4 - 4.5 stars level. There's no lack of quantity, but not all of them are consistent in length, quality or have animations.

Some scenes look a bit like rushed jobs that are over after a few uninspiring renders, but others are well done with extensive dialogue, good posing, and smooth animations. Only small peeve is the lack of sound effects.

BGM and Sound Effects
A huge collection of well curated tracks ranging from techno to folksy Egyptian ones. All complement the world well and I highly recommend you play with the music on. This is also augmented by a good number of sound effects as and when needed.

Conclusion
Desert Stalker is commonly placed in the AVN league of legends together with the likes of Eternum, BADIK and Ripples for a good reason - the expansiveness of the game universe, highly distinguishable characters and top-notch graphical renders makes it an AAA production in an industry famous for churning out poor quality slops.

Don't get me wrong, If you like real harem games with a gigachad MC in an apocalyptic setting, this is a good game with some beautiful female characters and a kinda solid story.

For the rest of you who don't...easy PASS!

You'll know within the first 5 minutes of the game if it's for you or not. Download it.
Now onto the real review. This is my absolute favorite game on the market. I think what really sets it apart is the level of domination and power. The MC is responsible for the survival of about a dozen women. People whose lives hang on his whim. It's genius.
The vibes are on another level. It reminds me of MadMax.
The characters are stupid hot. The scenarios are brilliant. Cutscenes are becoming more and more cinematic. This dev is learning very fast.

If I had one reservation it would be that the scope is out of control. Idk how the dev does it. There are many moving parts. Most games would've ended versions ago. By comparison this game continues to increases in size and scope. Crazy and we are blessed by getting to experience it.

I love the apocalypse scenario, and there are lots of exciting scenes!

Hoping to get to a stage where choices have more impact in the global stage, rather than just going into dom/sub path with a specific character.

Bought the game on Steam.

This game lives up to all the hype.

It checks all the boxes. Graphics, good. Animations, good. Story, surprisingly good. Characters, interesting and varied.

It has all the heart and creativity of a good mainstream AA game, even if it might not have the budget and/or manpower to reach it.

Desert Salker is a solid harem VN, with an exotic setting. Although I am not into them, it clearly has some kinky stuff on offer too (Mainly related to male dominance and slavery).

Although it seems to be an intentional design choice by the writer, I have to admit that I am not into the overly dominant, god-like MC. You basically can f- whoever you want, whenever you want (even your family members, even in front of other family members). Even though some people might enjoy that, there is a big price to pay for it, and its the lack of sexual tension. You never get a feeling like "wow this moment is so hot, I wonder what happened if someone else saw this".

If you are into the giga-dominant MC -type plot, you'll probably like it.

I really loved this game, it has a really good story, characters, world building, action, romance, Harem, etc.. animation and art is great you don't have to worry about it, we will get cut scenes which are gorgeous , and sex is also very good and animated , especially models all are beautiful,

You will definitely love this game , my another favourite game is the mother and wife.

Your decisions matter a lot and the visiuals are amazing! You play a scavanger, get a hold of slaves and train them, develop your relationship with all of your family, the queen and rebels. My favourite game so far.

Mature but well-integrated.
Scenes are erotic yet maintain the story’s gritty tone.
The variety of characters — from mysterious companions to local survivors — keeps things interesting. The developer avoids making it feel like pure fanservice.

If you enjoy a good story in your porn, you have to play this one.

Desert Stalker takes place in a dry dystopian future version of our world, somewhere in Egypt. It combines thematic plagues from old mummy stories with scifi technology and mutations to create a world you can't help but want to read more about. If that's not enticing enough for you, it also has steamy, rough, and endearing dialogue choices you can make to shape your relationships with a cast of dozens of women--many of whom can be invited to live in your house, with optional incest and pregnancy.

For some other specs: the music, graphics, and animations are all of excellent quality. The women are gorgeous with a wide variety of body types/ethnicity. There are (almost) no minigames or puzzles to slow down gameplay, and just a few mandatory cutscene videos across dozens of hours of playtime.

The only thing I can think of that might turn some people off is that the world's incredibly patriarchal. It's a harem game, so you should probably expect it, but many scenes in the game suggest that women rarely become more than someone's wife/concubine and, no matter how strong a woman is, they're waiting for a stronger man to dominate/claim them. If that's a dealer breaker for you, you might want to turn around.

I can't believe I took so long to try this one, it's an instant top 10 for me in terms of storytelling on this site.