Ren'Py - Completed - Forbidden Basketball [Final] [Effx Games]

Edit 2:
Sorry the one I wrote before was pretty mean. My bad. Bad day. I still have to give it a low rating because there's too much wrong with it.
- A lot of scenes don't make sense. Instead of any sense of comedic timing it just feels random and confusing. I don't remember much from BMS but I remember the general flow of events in an episode. I can see what you were going for but it just doesn't pan out.
- Renders don't look that great but that's probably an issue with equipment
- Awkward dialogue. Feels like people trying to imitate how people talk not actually talking to each other
- Broken English really drives the final nail in the coffin. A lot of "WTF" and "OMG" when a normal person would never actually say that in real life. Not to mention instances of British-English when this is supposedly an American university which is just weird to see. A lot of conversations didn't really make complete sense either. As if someone was trying to word-for-word translate a phrase or saying in their language into English but can't completely convey the meaning.
- Only things I liked about the game were the models for Lizi and some others. Also liked the jab at Ocean's 8 (though it was more "soap box-y" than clever which loses points in my book)
A lot of other gripes I had with it that made me just give up after ep 2 but those were the major ones for me that just made me think this would game would need a complete overhaul if it was going to work out.

So, based on the current version (Episode 2)

Story and Originality:
The story is based on the BMS TV Show, but with sex scenes!
And let me tell you right away, if you watched this series and you like it, feel free to play this game.

The plot doesn't completely replicate the series, it complements it.
Here you have a choice of a slut who's ready for you to fuck her right away, or regular girls that you have to fight for at least to establish a relationship with them.

The school setting is already trivial. But as a fan of it, I don't mind.
The game can hardly be called a sandbox in general meaning.
I would call it some kind of hybrid. There is practically no grind.

The basketball theme isn't really revealed yet, but I suspect that's only because the game is just developing. Hopefully in the future we'll get a bigger basketball experience, since the prerequisites for the game itself have already appeared in the second episode.

Renders:
The picture quality is pleasing to the eye. Everything looks juicy. The author knows how to find the right angle. However, there is still space for growth.

Music and Sounds:
The game has sounds that are well chosen for certain moments.
The music nicely captures the atmosphere and highlights the current situation in the story.

Playability:
As many have already noticed the game has a sufficient number of mini-games. I am personally not a fan of such, but in the game you can skip them without losing anything worthwhile.
I dont understand why everyone hates them so much.

Bad Things:
- At some points, the quality of the pictures gets worse. It feels like they were not 100% rendered. There aren't many of them, but they are.
- The sex scenes are a little short for me. I hope they will be longer in the future.
- Not enough hints during the free roam and some kind of statistics.
I'd like to see what you've achieved and what you've missed, so I know exactly if I've seen all the content. Since, for example, in episode two, one answer can completely shut down the path to a certain scene

I give the game 5 in advance. In the hope that the author will improve the game.

Ep 2 review -
Okay for now with playing till the end of episode 2 it is a terrible game with overused cliche school setting and a messy sandbox , didn't find a story probably there won't be one . Game overview says it is about playing as one of the fresherman and in the game you take decisions for two others don't know if there will be more down the road and if you don't like it you can skip it ( why not an option to avoid others or follow one character preferably MC ) . And it doesn't help that Sandbox here is one of the worst among the games that I played , wherein the mini games you have to choose skip , which is like nearly half of the game ( why not a toggle or option in the preference to skip mini games ) . And it is annoying that to access free roam / Map you have to access phone which doesn't tell who is in that location and we just have to randomly click around those and even worse thing is in order to romance / seduce a girl there is sort of a hint for that you have to access phone and click ladies icon and solve a puzzle or you can skip puzzle by giving up to proceed to next part of the game which is a total waste of time on a whole . Only decent thing about this game is some of the girls look beautiful but they are not worth in the end .

The story is good and funny, of course its other game of college but if they can do something good in that setting will call more people. Renders are decent but there is room for improvement. Mini game are good but needs to be more polished because there is some bugs (atleast on the gym mini game). Girls look good but hope the dev dont forget to implement character development on them in the future episodes (like that they dont seem like sluts). Hope he removes multiple protagonist and focus only on the MC. Its a game with potential if the dev listen to the feedback.

the game isn't as bad as the other reviewers say it is.
renders are pretty decent, and while the story and writing could be better, it's the first update and it will get better. dev is already taking the criticism and making notes.
it might not be everyones cup of tea but that doesn't mean it deserves 1-2 stars.

Edit - Game is marked as "complete", but it was pretty much abandoned. Adding a rushed ending to a game that goes nowhere ain't it. Fuck technicalities.

Alright, these reviews are getting a bit wild. This game has issues, but it shows potential & ain't that bad. Dev has read, acknowledged & said he's working on resolving many of the criticisms mentioned in this thread(including mine). I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. This is the first release.

Good stuff
1) Women look great.
2) Basketball.
3) Solid writing. Characters have personalities & ain't cardboard cutouts.

Bad stuff
1) Mini games. Skippable
2) Naked dudes, dream bj & off screen pissing content. First two are now skippable. Pissing stuff was left in due to story reasons.
3) I wanna punch Simon. Thankfully we got the option to do it. Can we have the option to do it again?
4) Some technical stuff like loading being done in an inconvenient way. Fixed. There is now a back button and loading works properly.

Will likely adjust review as game is updated.

Re-reviewed on EP 2:

I have to admit the game changed A LOT since last release.

Important in front: changed my review rating up to 4 stars (previous 3 stars).

There are still parts of a sandbox inside, but it doesn't really feel like a grind. All way is guided by hints.
The most controversal scenes are 100% skippable, and there is even a hint what's following, so you can easy avoid.
The renders and the girls are still outstanding.

So why am i not giving 5 stars? Well - a review is based on personal experiences, and this game just didn't cuff me like others. Maybe it's because of the old worn out "highschool" setting, maybe it's because of the basketball-focussed storyline? maybe it's because there are too many other dudes who interfere with my personal enjoyment... i honestly don't know.

Nevertheless, the developer did DEFINITIVELY a big step into the right direction by listening carefully to the feedback after the last (first) release.

I can even agree to people rating this game 5-star, as it got all you need if you are into highschool/basketball/multi-guys - just for me i can't give the last star because of that - sorry.

Nevertheless it may be worth a try and figure out for yourself whether you like it or not. The game is absoluteley well done now (gameplay).
Each way, i wish the developer the very best, but i am nevertheless out of this game (REALLY no offence - just personal taste).

This game is terrible.
The plot of the game is almost 1 in 1 repeats the plot of the series Blue Mountain State. Dialogues, events, characters, their names, partly even their appearance.
The interface is very bad. Why was it necessary to make it impossible to load a saved game? Nonsense. Partially fixed.
Mini-games are complicated, unnecessary, strange.
The author's literacy (in Russian) leaves much to be desired.
I don't recommend playing this game in any way.

This review is based on the first episode. After scrolling through the text of the second episode, I didn't notice much improvement, so I won't torture myself and try to play it anymore.

Based on Episode 1. Episode 2.
This is bad. It improved a little but not much.
If you don't like kinetic novel with fake choices packed into annoying sandbox than stay away from this.
There are unavoidable sex scenes, so you as player don't have choice to avoid girls you don't like. It seems you'll be forced to bang whoever dev says you must. This somewhat changed, but there is still no clear reject option for chicks we don't like. I mean, you can decline to have sex with some milf, but you still go to sleep in same bed with her naked. WTF? No sane person would do that. Not interested, don't want to even see her naked, let alone to do what stated above.
There are also mini-games. Dreadfull ones. Player is given litteraly 1,3 seconds per phase of game to solve it - if you fail you must start all over again. Mini games improved, but they're still more annoying than entertaining.
Story... There is not much of it. Standard college cliche. You play as typical testosteron-overpumped schoolboy who's going around with thoughts "what a boobs" what great ass" "I'd do her this or that..." And you have friends... Which are even more creepy than you (MC).
Models are mostly good looking, which is, so far, only positive side of this game.
If you have spare time, try it, see it for yourself, you might like it, but I don't have desire to play this game again.