3.80 star(s) 63 Votes

SortaLewd

Member
Feb 26, 2019
345
482
Ya so what's the real deal with this game, anyway? I just wishlisted it not long ago as it showed up in my discovery queue on Steam, but seems there's a lot of negativity around it and some discussion on the devs being potential scammers - would you all say it's not worth following this game?
In my opinion this game isn't worth following. The issue with this game is that it had potential, you can see that in the previous Fallen Doll game and in the quality this game has, but the developers decided to go in the direction that's most profitable for them regardless of supporter feedback. The developers wanting to make extra money wouldn't be an issue if the game was still good and had no real negative impact on those that had supported them, but that isn't the case. This game is online only multiplayer with gacha mechanics to unlock the porn stuff, which a lot of supporters disliked in the past and you can still see on their Discord and Steam forums(when moderators aren't silencing/banning people). You can not play single player, you can not play offline, and since all your progress is server side you can't just give yourself all the postitions and clothing items if you choose you don't want to deal with the gacha mechanics or have to interact with other players to make any progress. There's also the issue that with this game being online only, there will eventually be a point where you can no longer access the game. It will literally be unplayable. That's one of the huge negative downsides of online only games. You're essentially renting the game and once servers are gone so is your ability to play. I think one of the biggest reasons for some much negativity this game has other than the online/gacha stuff is that originally Fallen Doll was just supposed to be a simple porn game with some other game mode inspired by Xcom with the twist of having sex incorporated, but instead of focusing on making a simple porn game and the Xcom game mode, they spent the entire previous year(2022) reworking the game to fully be online only and using supporter money to implement Denuvo. Why does a porn game need Denuvo? No other reason than to feed back into greed and the developers focusing on what's most profitable. The Xcom game mode was also changed to a real time strategy, but still no actual gameplay demonstrations shown. Helius also goes back and forth with a campaign that's supposedly SFW one minute then NSFW the next.

TLDR This game is a mess. Grab the cracked version/demo and be on your way, unless multiplayer porn and gacha mechanics are up your alley.
 
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SortaLewd

Member
Feb 26, 2019
345
482
Theres a reason why the haters of the project keep giving it attention. If you believe losing $36 USD for a tech demo/potential future game is worth it, not much to lose.

If $36 will bankrupt you, yea its a scam, keep your money.
A lot of us are previous supporters before the game shifted to an online only focus. $36 isn't a lot of money, but having a developer say you're getting one thing for your money and then decide they're going to do something else despite so much negative reception would leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth, so it's not surprising some of us keep tabs on the game, even if only to see it crash and burn. Or to wait for a cracked version that actually allows what we initially supported the game for.

Would expect developers to be more professional when they're charging half the price of a AAA game for essentially a tech demo.
 
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monckey4

New Member
Apr 9, 2018
1
3
A lot of us are previous supporters before the game shifted to an online only focus. $36 isn't a lot of money, but having a developer say you're getting one thing for your money and then decide they're going to do something else despite so much negative reception would leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth, so it's not surprising some of us keep tabs on the game, even if only to see it crash and burn. Or to wait for a cracked version that actually allows what we initially supported the game for.

Would expect developers to be more professional when they're charging half the price of a AAA game for essentially a tech demo.
yeah this is precisely my issue. remember when it had vr support? they're so desperate for the gacha money they're letting the game turn to shit. it's a shame cause they're definitely gonna get enough idiots to make it sustainable, while all the early supporters who basically just wanted gallery mode aren't gonna get shit. it's so fucking lame. and yeah I'm still bitter they never dropped a version with galatea. if not for the fact that they need to monetize the hell out of it, we might've gotten an "unofficial" patch or something, but if they can't sell her, we're not getting her
 

coolgy

Newbie
Apr 19, 2018
67
123
A lot of us are previous supporters before the game shifted to an online only focus. $36 isn't a lot of money, but having a developer say you're getting one thing for your money and then decide they're going to do something else despite so much negative reception would leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth, so it's not surprising some of us keep tabs on the game, even if only to see it crash and burn. Or to wait for a cracked version that actually allows what we initially supported the game for.

Would expect developers to be more professional when they're charging half the price of a AAA game for essentially a tech demo.
I mean i kinda get it, but then i also kinda dont? VR/Singleplayer hasn't been dropped, its been postponed as he focuses on Harem.

I know its just promises, but nothing has changed since you originally pledged tbh. No more money has been asked of. We're still going off a dream of the game. No one really wants the online play but Helius wants to make it a thing. The old demos still work and hes still actively developing, despite the scam accusations.
 

SortaLewd

Member
Feb 26, 2019
345
482
I mean i kinda get it, but then i also kinda dont? VR/Singleplayer hasn't been dropped, its been postponed as he focuses on Harem.

I know its just promises, but nothing has changed since you originally pledged tbh. No more money has been asked of. We're still going off a dream of the game. No one really wants the online play but Helius wants to make it a thing. The old demos still work and hes still actively developing, despite the scam accusations.
The game has definitely changed since 2019-2021, the game wasn't going to be online only, the online portion was going to be optional. Gallery was actually being worked on at the time and there was going to be a singleplayer version of Harem that Helius called Dormitory mode. Last I've seen Dormitory mentioned in the Discord server Helius himself said it was cancelled though it might be picked up again in the future. If you're in the Discord you can search for his messages or filter for mine here, I think I screenshotted a quote of his saying it. The issue with the demo is that it's demonstrating Gallery, which Helius again also said won't be getting any further updates. So it's attracting people based on an abandoned game mode, and then people subscribe to their Patreon because their Patreon page doesn't mention any of this or accurately describes the current state of the game, and then they come to find out what they pledged for isn't actually what they're getting. The Scam accusations likely come from the fact the Project Helius team just comes off as shady. They censor negativity and mute or ban folks that talk out of turn on the forums and discord, and they've made some big changes compared to what they originally pitched to earlier supporters. The fact they added Denuvo to a tech demo to ward off piracy also probably contributes. It's also not surprising people are starting to question VR being dropped. A reoccuring theme with Helius seems to be going quiet on a mechanic and either dropping it entirely or completely changing it(combat drills going from Xcom to Real time, Campaign going from NSFW to SFW back to NSFW and on and on, Dormitory being cut, Gallery being cut, etc)

As far as not asking for any more money, they changed the patreon tiers and lessened the rewards or benefits someone would get for pledging. You could view this as encourgement to pledge within a certain time I guess, but Fallen Doll is nowhere near being completed so altering the pledges to give less rewards to me just comes off as Helius trying to squeeze people for money later by buying DLCs versus offering most of them in the Patreon tiers like they used to. I could see if they were nearing a full release, but Helius still hasn't shown even a screenshot of combat drills gameplay, there's only 2 maps for Harem, the game is still fairly buggy, and performance still needs some work. He also plans to upgrade to UE5 and VR support still needs to be implemented if that hasn't been cancelled as well.
 
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Nihil5320

Member
Jul 2, 2022
333
879
I mean i kinda get it, but then i also kinda dont? VR/Singleplayer hasn't been dropped, its been postponed as he focuses on Harem.

I know its just promises, but nothing has changed since you originally pledged tbh. No more money has been asked of. We're still going off a dream of the game. No one really wants the online play but Helius wants to make it a thing. The old demos still work and hes still actively developing, despite the scam accusations.
I'd say the thing that has changed is that now they aren't even pretending to work on single player and/or an actual game, and coupled with the complete lack of any showing of any of the single player elements it really calls into question whether they were ever working on it.

So it's now pretty questionable as to whether they were working on it in the first place, if they were it's questionable as to whether they're actually capable of delivering given the lack of progress and we've got the fact that even if Helius isn't full of shit (an unlikely proposition) it won't be worked on again for a few years at least.

I personally wouldn't describe that as nothing changing. Unless you mean it in the sense that no progress has been made since 2016, in which case yeah. That's kinda the point.
 

benisfug

Member
Aug 18, 2018
284
844
I'd say the thing that has changed is that now they aren't even pretending to work on single player and/or an actual game, and coupled with the complete lack of any showing of any of the single player elements it really calls into question whether they were ever working on it.

So it's now pretty questionable as to whether they were working on it in the first place, if they were it's questionable as to whether they're actually capable of delivering given the lack of progress and we've got the fact that even if Helius isn't full of shit (an unlikely proposition) it won't be worked on again for a few years at least.

I personally wouldn't describe that as nothing changing. Unless you mean it in the sense that no progress has been made since 2016, in which case yeah. That's kinda the point.
Helius actually mentioned single player in a Patreon reply recently but only so he could use it as an excuse for another feature not being done. And he ignored the questions about things that would make him look bad like calling reused scenes new, abandoning the gallery, and missing backer content. Then he just bailed when the guy started pressing for more specific answers.
 

Mhiggey

Member
Jun 5, 2018
150
490
I mean i kinda get it, but then i also kinda dont? VR/Singleplayer hasn't been dropped, its been postponed as he focuses on Harem.
Not to pile on you with others already addressing these 'promises', but there's a bigger factor for me in this game going always online:

If Helius decides that it's no longer profitable to keep his AWS servers up for the game and just bails, you lose access to the game completely. This wasn't a concern with the original product that many people backed.
 

coolgy

Newbie
Apr 19, 2018
67
123
Not to pile on you with others already addressing these 'promises', but there's a bigger factor for me in this game going always online:

If Helius decides that it's no longer profitable to keep his AWS servers up for the game and just bails, you lose access to the game completely. This wasn't a concern with the original product that many people backed.
No one is piling on me, we're having a discussion.

Even if he leaves, we still have the old demos.

But this is the risk with pledging on Patreon, you're not really owed anything 100%. You're hoping the creator is reliable and delivers on their promise.

In Helius' case i dont think it makes sense for him to vapourware this milk machine, and maybe I'd feel this game was legitimately being milked a couple of months ago. But the latest build has made the rebuild worthwhile because people who were getting slideshow framerate are now getting 40-60 fps. I was getting 70 FPS on a 7800x3d and a 4090 at 1440p and now im getting a 165 flat and my gpu fans dont even turn on.

If this really was a scam Helius didnt have to release any update and keep milking.

That's just my personal view, like i said i see where people are coming from and the fact that the development changed after their initial pledge made them bitter. But thats Patreon in a nutshell.

Im sure if Helius went full furry/gay id be upset too.
 

benisfug

Member
Aug 18, 2018
284
844
No one is piling on me, we're having a discussion.

Even if he leaves, we still have the old demos.

But this is the risk with pledging on Patreon, you're not really owed anything 100%. You're hoping the creator is reliable and delivers on their promise.

In Helius' case i dont think it makes sense for him to vapourware this milk machine, and maybe I'd feel this game was legitimately being milked a couple of months ago. But the latest build has made the rebuild worthwhile because people who were getting slideshow framerate are now getting 40-60 fps. I was getting 70 FPS on a 7800x3d and a 4090 at 1440p and now im getting a 165 flat and my gpu fans dont even turn on.

If this really was a scam Helius didnt have to release any update and keep milking.

That's just my personal view, like i said i see where people are coming from and the fact that the development changed after their initial pledge made them bitter. But thats Patreon in a nutshell.

Im sure if Helius went full furry/gay id be upset too.
He only resumed regular updates after Patreon tanked due to the year long hiatus leading to the "big" Denuvo update and semi-large youtubers making extremely critical reviews of the game. He wants to milk it but current circumstances are forcing him to actually work on the game again to maintain profit.
 

Nihil5320

Member
Jul 2, 2022
333
879
He only resumed regular updates after Patreon tanked due to the year long hiatus leading to the "big" Denuvo update and semi-large youtubers making extremely critical reviews of the game. He wants to milk it but current circumstances are forcing him to actually work on the game again to maintain profit.
This is my interpretation as well. The idea that they spent 14 months primarily on optimization work, including supposedly hiring a third party firm to assist, and still have the kind of low hanging fruit to deliver a 100% improvement with no visible loss in visual fidelity a few weeks after release... is insane.

In fact that they were struggling with optimization at all in what is essentially a UE4 demo with a single small map and a few models is pretty out there. Let alone when you consider the premise that Helius is meant to have been working on this with a small team for 7-8 years.

I don't think it's an outright scam in the traditional sense, Helius clearly intends on delivering something now even if it isn't what was originally promised, but I definitely think he has lied habitually about the work they've done, the size and competence of the team and the reasons for delay.

I also heavily suspect that the only reason they are now working toward releasing anything is because they couldn't milk Patreon indefinitely and a F2P game, if they could actually pull it off (no sign of that mind you), would keep generating that continuous revenue with minimal dev effort over time. It would not surprise me if Helius is the only real core dev excluding occasional contract work with artists and people like UC when he needs assets or someone to fix stuff he's fucked up (like using a fucking REST API to update player positions).
 

benisfug

Member
Aug 18, 2018
284
844
This is my interpretation as well. The idea that they spent 14 months primarily on optimization work, including supposedly hiring a third party firm to assist, and still have the kind of low hanging fruit to deliver a 100% improvement with no visible loss in visual fidelity a few weeks after release... is insane.

In fact that they were struggling with optimization at all in what is essentially a UE4 demo with a single small map and a few models is pretty out there. Let alone when you consider the premise that Helius is meant to have been working on this with a small team for 7-8 years.

I don't think it's an outright scam in the traditional sense, Helius clearly intends on delivering something now even if it isn't what was originally promised, but I definitely think he has lied habitually about the work they've done, the size and competence of the team and the reasons for delay.

I also heavily suspect that the only reason they are now working toward releasing anything is because they couldn't milk Patreon indefinitely and a F2P game, if they could actually pull it off (no sign of that mind you), would keep generating that continuous revenue with minimal dev effort over time. It would not surprise me if Helius is the only real core dev excluding occasional contract work with artists and people like UC when he needs assets or someone to fix stuff he's fucked up (like using a fucking REST API to update player positions).
I honestly do think they will get something out soon-ish if only because the Patreon grift is unsustainable and they need a new cash cow. Something along the lines of reducing the scope just to get a minimum viable early access version shipped on Steam and drip feed content from there.
 

SortaLewd

Member
Feb 26, 2019
345
482
I honestly do think they will get something out soon-ish if only because the Patreon grift is unsustainable and they need a new cash cow. Something along the lines of reducing the scope just to get a minimum viable early access version shipped on Steam and drip feed content from there.
I honestly think they aren't going into early access simply to avoid reviews being posted. I'm not just saying this because I think the Project Helius team is shady, but once reviews are open and people can state their opinions freely there will be nothing the moderators can do to stop critique from spreading and people seeing what's really going on with the game without having to become a patron first. I dunno if you guys here occasionally look at the Steam discussions on this game every now and then, but they literally delete just about every thread critiquing the game or sharing negative opinions. Once reviews are open there will be no more of that.
 

BobbyMoore2

New Member
May 23, 2023
8
37
I honestly think they aren't going into early access simply to avoid reviews being posted. I'm not just saying this because I think the Project Helius team is shady, but once reviews are open and people can state their opinions freely there will be nothing the moderators can do to stop critique from spreading and people seeing what's really going on with the game without having to become a patron first. I dunno if you guys here occasionally look at the Steam discussions on this game every now and then, but they literally delete just about every thread critiquing the game or sharing negative opinions. Once reviews are open there will be no more of that.

Just to add to the not going to early access. Launching as a early access game would also bind them to follow some rules or risk getting the boot.

Pretty sure one of them is to not make promises on features that don't get delivered and another is to not set false expectations.

I don't think they'd last 2 months, being generous there...

Considering I remember a mod posting that you cannot get NEP (in-game premium currency) for your pledges after a certain cutoff date to avoid being called a gacha. Low and behold they update the totally official source 100% legit faq discord channel when people find out they're still getting their NEP.
 
3.80 star(s) 63 Votes