VN - Ren'Py - Halfway House [Ep.11 - Bonus 7-8] [Az]

Just sad, it would have such good potential.

Yet AZ is not really into it anymore. Bringing out Bonus episodes wich have nothing to do with the game itself.

The girls look good, and the writing is also pretty good.

I would love to give this game a higher rating, I really would! There are a bunch of positives. The girls are all really cute and unique. The renders are usually really nice, although I'm not such a huge fan of trying to blend CG models with real life backdrops, which does occur in some outdoor scenes. The writing is very competent, with proper English.

Just based on the girls alone I would give this game 4.5 out of 5, but... there are 2 major things that drag this game down for me. First, and the less egregious of the issues, is the pacing of the story. There doesn't seem to be much plot, its more of a slice of life, character driven story, which is totally fine, if done well. Here it is not done well, as some scenes just drag on and on and on with useless extra dialog. Some newer updates have "stuff" happen during the day, which technically advances time, but it all feels mostly like filler. So the feeling of nothing really happening kinda hurts my desire to keep playing and seeing new updates.

My 2nd issue with the game however is what ultimately made me stop playing, and that was the MC. I get that people will say it's unrealistic that all these girls will like him and such cause he ugly and whatnot, and I understand that, but at the same time, it's a game, it's not so hard to take that. What I can't take is just how annoyingly insufferable the MC is. He drones on endlessly about everything and anything over and over and over. I get that this is connected to my first issue with the fact that there's a lot of filler, but the MC is just so dumb and naive. I get he was in juvy, but I can't read all the bullshit he just keeps saying, and I end up skipping most of it. If I'm skipping most of what the MC is saying, it's not worth playing.

Early in this games development I supported the dev for a few updates. I liked the girls, I liked the renders and I was hopeful that as the MC was exposed to life events outside juvy he would get a little more bearable, more reasonable. Unfortunately that didn't happen. There are good reasons to play this game, it has qualities that many people will like. For me though, I sadly have to stop trying to play this.

You'd think a game with such a lack of lewd scene would be carried by it's gripping narrative instead but nah that's not the case. So far there is only 2 scene where MC actually gets to have sex and even one of them is with an irrelevant character who appears for only a brief moment before in the game and that is after however many years of development. The story on the other hand doesn't make sense at all and neither does it have anything to do with MCs life.
How do you expect us players to get immersed in the game when the most gripping issues don't even have any consequences for MC, instead they are about a character that MC isn't even that attached to. Infact she is kind of a bitch towards MC for no reason at all.

Also the fact that all we got is 30 more minutes of gameplay after more than a year of development is leading me to beleive that this is another one of those money sucking patreon schemes.

The only good thing I can say about this game is that the renders, animations and models are extremely good looking. The female models are some of the best I've seen in the game , the male models on the other hand barely look human. MC himself looks like a 35 year old man despite being 18, a fact which is brought up multiple times in the game.

Models are cute with reasonable sized bodies. Good use of lighting and poses. Solid animations. Story is well written and not full of ludicrous stuff. Characters are interesting and their personalities and reactions match well with their backstories. Not very many of the choices are super meaningful in terms of branching, mostly you just miss some hot scenes if you choose wrong answers - but that's okay, I prefer not having to play a game several times just to see all the content.

Well well well did I just found the perfect mix between story and eroticism or what?

Jesus christ I can simply live in the universe knomsayin?You young ones are keeping it eroticas alive on this site and this thing proves it!
NOW, objectively speaking the update speed is on a snail pace, not just because I can't enough of it but also cuz each update's taking almost half a year or more to come out, my only gripe.

Good lord this made me come out of lurking to here- typing this review, great goddamn job, developer!

Gameplay:
VN, multiple paths.
Classic choice-driven story. Stats at the end of each episodes, so you can adjust depending on which girl you are after. Straightforward.

Story:
There is an actual story with various characters, and the pitch and the development ideas are interesting. The english is ok. But it's waaaay too much boring dialogues. IOW, it's not really well written. And the story develop very slowly... Also, it's not hardcore sex everywhere (actually, there isn't much in 9 episodes). The story is more focused on relations.

Graphics/Animation:
Pretty good.

Overall impression:
One of the first renpy game I've played with. So, I was really curious and I took the time to read the story. Even if I'll probably won't follow this game (too slow), I think It worth a try as it is quite well made. Especially if you prefer soft-porn.

Really well written VN.
Thought through characters with nice quirks and treats - and way "deeper" than one would have thought.
And those beautiful renders are a sight to behold - so all in all this is real fun to read and play!

This game really surprised me in a positive way!

I'm not usually that into games that aren't to some level fetish focused, but this one has such a interesting story and fun characters that I really got hooked. Also, found the renders and animation to be pretty good (especially with the facial expressions).

One of "the good ones", really recommend it!

renders are pretty decent and unique as no one else has copied the one yet and the story and not so bad either . and the pacing is not as bad either it is just a shame it is still in its early going and not very far along other than that great AVN

Gave this one 3 stars primarily because the developer has a COMPLETELY unreasonable time frame for updates, EP10 came a year or more out after EP9.

That being said, even after a year and comparing this game to what is currently out there, it still rates high on my list in terms of quality and story. Models are realistic and not everyone model or character is a overly inflated boob bimbo.

This game does make me want to see what happens next which I feel is critical to enjoy the lewd scenes when they happen.

I highly recommend this game for your bucket list of adult novels and can only hope the developer will be more active and produce timely, quality and (hopefully) quantity updates.

I thought this was actually going to be a big ass update considering it took 15 months but guess what its not. I played this like very long ago considering it was one of the most trending and the reviews were also nice. But its just bad when you go further into the VN.
The graphics were really good and the characters looked alright but in some renders they looked odd.
The story doesn't make sense at all. The character development of the girls is just terrible. They just keep going back and forth all the time if they are in love or not with the MC especially Emily. And guess what still nothing much with Emily in this update.
The sex scenes were all in MCs dream so far but in this update you get to fk the nurse that i dont give a fk about. Atlast we are getting somewhere with the sex scenes i guess. But there's nothing much of a progress in the characters still. Animations are mediocre to me. This game is just terrible. The dev is milking the patrons and giving just bullshit updates.
I just don't see myself coming back for this garbage again. This might be the last time. Because the content here is laughable with the time it took.
Maybe if it gets a tag showing complete then I might check but I will be a fuckin gramps by then.

shit dev, poor game overall
3/10

Very Big Minus:
For forcing me to watch the protagonist beat his horse and how he pees, you literally watch his penis more often than the girls' tits/pussy.

Graphically it's fine.
Girls - Overall nothing to complain about except for one, I can't believe anyone would want anything to do with that whore in purple hair, she's so annoying I just started skipping interactions with her.
The music is
Sounds occur at times, but are completely unnecessary in my opinion.
Story - Basically there is none, we go from girl to girl and either get annoyed at the girl or at that douchebag MC, well sometimes there is interaction with the guy who lives with us, but it basically boils down to us watching porn with him or listening to what a cunt he is.

And then it's time for the protagonist himself
If it wasn't for Emily, who is super interesting I would have stopped playing the game very quickly, the MC here is a complete retard, several times I had to turn off the game and go for a walk to cool off, he acts like a total loser, I would insult the beta-male by calling him a beta-male, the girls treat him like the victim of fate that he is, a character that there is no chance of liking.
I would give the game 3 stars, for the graphics and one Li, but that would be unfair to the other rated games, simply don't deserve this game a better rating in my opinion.



Minus for his thoughts on how the girls are beautiful and gorgeous despite the fact that I only scored any points with one.
Dozens of single choices "go inside", "take shower" for what?

Conclusion:
I have very mixed feelings about this production, there are more minuses than pluses in it, in my opinion on this forum you will find dozens of more interesting productions where you will not have to play a complete loser MC.

For an adult game, this has surprisingly sparse amount of actual adult content. The story is rather boring, and the development time-to-content is way too high to keep my interest. I would not recommend this game based on all of this.

Writing is subpar. It is not engaging. I don't think the dev knows how middle aged people speak. When the woman of the house constantly "hehe"s every few sentences - You know the game is cringe.

Renders have got a lot better since the first couple of episodes - Still a lot to be desired.

When I first played I couldn't even get through the second episode it was so bad. Decided to, eventually, soldier on. Played ep 10 - 15 month wait for not a lot of content.

Not much to say what is good about it. Really does feel like the bare minimum has been put into it and it shows.

The only word that comes to mind about rating this game is "Poor".

Pretty solid game. The story is pretty decent with some nice spin on the usually landlady story. Models are hot and even though they are low in numbers they have unique look to them. I especially enjoy the milf, balance body proportions slutty face just perfect! Fetishes wise the game is also arousing at least for me. Visually the game is also in the upper end of what at least I have played, good example is the night scene with the milf the lighting was just perfect.

This game is really brilliant and what is really bad about it is nothing. Everything makes sense here.
You have to play it all the way through to get the best out of it. If you don't you lose everything.
The writing is excellent. Every single character has a clearly defined role in the story and plays it to the full.
Every relationship lasts. As mc, if you have a relationship with someone they never forget all that you did both for and to them.
There isn't one girl in this story who isn't smoking hot.
The graphics are fantastic. They seem ageless.
The animations are well thought out, supremely well executed and truly add a lot to the story.
There isn't an excessive amount of sex scenes, because the relationships are designed to burn slowly. When the sex finally arrives it really is always worth the wait.
The underlying strength of this story is its characters and their depth of character. Whether you love them or hate them they are all richly drawn and, playing the mc, as the story progresses, you really feel as though you get to know them almost like real people.

The game is really bad, but what is good about this game is really nothing. Nothing makes sense here.
You play EP1 and when you get to EP10 You haven't lost anything
Bad writing, none of the characters make sense!
If you have a relationship with someone, suddenly a scene later she forgets everything.
There is no hot character
Bad graphics from 3 years ago
No meaningful animations
There are no sex scenes, and if there is one, it's because it's not imaginative.
The characters aren't real, they're shallow to the extreme.

great story, with great character and graphic. too bad it is highly likely abandoned though i always looks back on the thread for the update. until right now 17 April 2023 it stuck in ep 9. I hope it will gets an update soon.

It amazes me how thoughtful some stories can be, with a grand purpose and aim to reach higher standards. Depiction of characters with traits like honesty and speaking of mind without fear and storylines that appreciating that instead of being servile, these are prominent points for story and is delightful to see that characters could have it.

Storyline is pristine, characters are very genuine and charming, artwork is beautiful and twists are adeptly implemented, there is plenty of determining choices given to MC, that is more than you need in to cling .
You can learn so much from this game, the way PO decided to dedicate his life to make a difference in other's is really praiseworthy.
Halfway House is an amazing experience ,I wish to see more stories like this.

Among the visual novel games I have played, Emily from this game is my favorite character of all time. I always look forward to interacting with her during gameplay, and she is truly adorable. I love everything about her, from her personality and clothing to her jealousy over others.

The story development in the game is also excellent, but the only downside is that there are relatively few erotic scenes. I hope that future updates will address this.

In conclusion, if you like girls like Emily, then this game is perfect for you. However, if you have no interest in Emily or want to see more erotic scenes, then this game may not be suitable for you.