Ren'Py - Abandoned - Heavy Five [Ch.2RS] [Nottravis]

Review based on: "HeavyFive-1.1-pc compressed.zip" (SHA1: 8c297df71c40cceb4c41b657de290c01bee48417) - the latest version available for Tier 1 Patrons as of Nov 5, 2019

## Graphics
3/5
Graphics is not bad, but it isn't impressive either. For me, it is at least acceptable, but if you are looking for high quality renders, you may be disappointed a little bit. The developer is kind of newbie when it comes to gamedev and doesn't know how to use light properly. It isn't extremely bad, but some scenes don't look to good. For example, sometimes you can get the impression that one of the character (Annie) is 10-20 years older than she really is. I believe that this is because of improper use of light.
But it is not only about lighting. Nottravis tends to combines good quality models with low quality models. For example, the Earth model is completely mistake. It looks super unnatural. Actually, poor lighting may save it, but when you add more realistic ones, it looks just horrible.
Similar thing applies to some textures. For example, a brake door in the ship is not only extremely pixelated, but it also lacks of tonal transitions. In the other words, it looks like graphics of the DOS era.


Example of extremely low quality textures

The worst part is the Bored Pilot magazine. It looks just awful. The dev really isn't good at DTP, and has no idea how to properly use colors, shapes and fonts. I would say that even an inexperienced user can produce something better using iWorks or similar software, so maybe this isn't only about her skills, but also about the software she uses.



Examples of unreadable (or barely readable) text

We have a similar problem with shapes in the tutorial - she doesn't even use antialiasing to make curves smoother, and light blue doesn't really fit there.


Graphic glitches on the left, low-res textures on the bottom, and really bad looking shapes without antialiasing in the middle

There is also no no visual effects, except to UI elements. This means that clickable objects (magazine, cup of coffee) are not highlighted when you hover the mouse over them.
Oh, actually there is one more thing! Animations. In chapter 1, they don't exist at all. She puts some in chapter 2, but literally no one was satisfied with their quality, so she abandoned them in the further chapters.

Let's talk about assets. It is common in this kind of games that DAZ models will be widely used. It shouldn't surprise you that some things may be used non-exclusively among various games. Sometimes it is a school building (School's Out by The AntFarm), sometimes it is a café (e.g. Cafe Luca by KindredArts, i13 Trendy Coffee Shop Environment by ironman13), park (e.g. The Forgotten Park by Oskarsson or Haven Park by Predatron), shop (Corner Store and Poses for Genesis 3 Male and Female by Fugazi1968), restroom (Public Restrooms Ubiquitous Interiors by FirstBastion), mall (Suburban Shopping Mall by FirstBastion), office (Private Practice Office by PolyPusher, i13 Loan Agent's Office Interior by ironman13), etc. However, any serious productions try to make its world as unique as possible. So, each city is in fact unique. This applies also to the main place of game (home, ship, space station, etc.).
Unfortunately, Heavy Five is different. I can't say too much about others chapters (although from what I've seen, the Ophion base is mainly based on Sci-Fi assets made by petipet), but the first one is mainly based on just two common assets. It is Spaceship Antares ($16.95) by petipet (Daz Originals) and Vanguard ($19.95) by Kibarreto. Almost the whole action is placed on just these two ships. And it is not just about the outer look. Nottravis used the default cockpit without any significant changes. She doesn't even change the ship name. So as you can see, she didn't work too hard on it. I mention about it not because I think that using common assets is bad, but because in this particular case, it has a huge impact on the game quality. First of all, Vanguard isn't a bad model, but it isn't suitable for everything. It looks pretty nice from a distance, but in some close-ups it looks just awful, mainly because of low-res textures. Secondly, it's a small ship. It may be good enough for Earth's orbit or expedition to the moon, but not suitable for interplanetary travel. It's not only too small, but it also lacks of proper equipment for a such task. That's why I think it doesn't fit the story very well. I will provide more details later in this review.
Of course, we can't say that Nottravis used just two models. There is Earth in the background as well as smaller things inside the skip, like cup of coffee or magazine. I am not sure about sofa and metal locker cabinets, but probably the whole electronics comes from Vanguard (or its add-ons).
On the plus side, character models are pretty much unique. I mean, it is obvious that she uses DAZ models, but at least they are not so common. I am not completely sure, but it seems to me that she uses Genesis 3, so as you can guess, the model quality is just average. Anyway, they lack some details that you can found in Genesis 8. As I said, it isn't extremely bad, but it isn't impressive either.

## Audio
2/5
For most time there is no sound except to meaningless background music. In my opinion, it completely doesn't match what is actually happening on the screen. The only exception is when the ship is experiencing some malfunction.
There are also a few sounds like starting the engines, but that's it. There are no sound effects e.g. for unlocking a new event or gaining some points. Items also have no assigned sounds.

## Mechanics
3/5
Mechanics in pretty much typical for Visual Novels. You don't have too much of sandbox here, although there is a small -pixel-hunting- small-object-hunting in chapter 1 (cup of coffee, magazine, etc.). Anyway, Nottravis decided to mostly drop this idea in the further chapters. However, she wants to introduce some mini-games instead. The one game that should be available in PDA is still missing. However, there should be one mini-game in chapter 2/3. I can't say too much about it because I haven't play it, but some other people have already criticized it because you can easily cheat in it using just a mouse scroll, so it is not a challenge at all.

Although I prefer mixed VN-sandbox gameplay, pure VN is not so bad. However, I am afraid of one thing. I chapter 1, Nottravis introduced 3 characters with whom we can establish various relationships. There are at least two paths for each of them (Sarah Sub path, Annie Romance path, etc.). According to the news feed, she introduces new people with each chapter. I am afraid that she will be unable to handle all these paths. Each subsequent chapter is getting bigger and bigger (she claims that chapter 3 is bigger that chapters 1 and 2 together), introducing new possibilities. She already spent three months on each chapter instead of just one as she originally planned, and yet she must move some events to the next chapters, because she doesn't have enough time to finish them on time. To be honest, it doesn't looks too good from my perspective.

You have to go through dialogues in the right order, because otherwise you will miss some content. For example, according to the walkthrough, you need to pick "Make smalltalk" before exploring the "Ask about the mission" branch if you are interested in the affection, lust and dom stats for Chris. Another example: "The weapons station" should be your last choice when it comes to the dialogue with Annie.
Many times your have to choose between gaining affection points or some respect. The same applies to the lust. What's more, you will have to choose between the respect of one girl and affection of another one.
It is really hard to get max score without walkthrough (and even with walkthrough it is not so easy) and what's worse, all points are hidden, so you actually don't know if your gameplay was successful or not.
The worst thing is that the game has several bugs that affect dialogue and scoring, so relying on your intuition is unreliable. Moreover, relationship status visible in PDA is very shaddy. It is hard to say if the girl really likes you or not.

Except to chapter 1, Bored Pilot magazine is reserved for Tier 3 Patrons ($10/month). As I said, I'm not satisfied with BP quality, at least when it comes to its form, so I could skip this add-on completely. Unfortunately, according to the one of existing walkthroughs (available on another site), you have to read it (in game) to unlock a special dialogue. This option provides not only unique conversation, but also will give you some points that you can't get otherwise (according to the mentioned walkthrough: annieevent29 = True, annielust += 2, annieaffect -= 1 or annierespect += 1, annieaffect += 1). Of course, you can play the game several times with different choices to get almost all scenes, but if you are interested in the best scenario, there is no other way to get it. Anyway, this is bad because you can try to reach the best path for several hours and then you realize that just use the wrong edition of the game that won't let you to succeed not matter how hard you try. So it is not bad because some kind of paywall, but because there is no information about it in the game, so you will probably lost a lot of time trying to figure out what is wrong.

There is one more thing that should be mentioned - the PDA. It combines character descriptions, mission info/notes, messages, hints, etc. with in-game menu (Save/Load, Preferences, etc.). However, it doesn't affect game mechanics in any way. You can't use it for controlling ship, unlocking doors, hacking, access cameras, communication or anything like this.
There is no inventory at all. You can use only what you see on the screen, and it's a rare situation.

## Characters
3/5
This is the most controversial part of this game. The characters try to be unique. However, I am not delighted with all of them.

### MC
To be honest, we don't know too much about the main character. There is some background story behind him, but too be honest, his personality is mainly defined by our choices. Or at least it was meant to be, because it doesn't completely work that way. Just like in Mass Effect, you can play as a good guy or bad guy. But to be honest, some path are unfinished or unavailable because of some bugs, and some will lead you to dead end. You can still play as a though guy, but maybe not exactly in the way you want to. And to be honest, these paths are pretty boring.

Your crew members look like a bunch of losers and outsiders. It doesn't have to be a bad thing (see: The Dirty Dozen), but in this case it seems to be just an excuse to lack of depth of character.

### Chris
So far she is the most interesting person. However, she is most controversial as well. On the one hand, she seems to be self confident, maybe a little bit too bossy, but she cares about her subordinates. On the other hand, she is impulsive and can't control her emotions. She acts faster than she thinks. Someone may even say that she prefers to do things the hard way. Personally, I think that she isn't really so confident, but she tries to look like that. Her offended pride (her husband cheated on her) makes her try to compete with everyone, just to fix her broken ego.
What kind of person she is, is a one thing, and what relationship can we establish with her, is an another thing. It's hard to say where this will lead us. This can lead to constant competition, which I think is quite interesting. However, it can also lead to some kind of strong femdom ("don't expect to be using that thing between your legs until I say you can" - WTF is this?! Even as a joke, it isn't funny at all!), which isn't really my thing.

### Annie
She seems to be an outsider. Insubordination, ignoring orders, disrespect for superiors - these are common things you can expect from her. She seems to be pretty smart, but maybe too confident and a bit egocentric. Personally, I don't think it is bad. It may be really good for a game like this. However, there is nothing behind it. Just some background story and that's it. No crazy but brilliant ideas. No bravery bordering on madness. Literally, nothing.
What is more, at first you may think that she a nice person, maybe a little bit introverted, but soon you will figure out that she has serious mental issues. If you want to play a tough guy, she will literally kill you without any doubts.

### Sarah
She is a stereotypical blonde with significant makeup. If you are looking for a partner for intellectual conversation, she isn't for you. If you are nice to her, she will flirt with you at any moment. In each of her sentences you will find some undertones. Anyway, for most time she will acts as a typical bimbo. Maybe it will change in the future. At the moment, I am not interested in her at all.

### Others
Can't say too much about other characters, because they appear only for a moment. However, natives on Ophion don't look too realistic to me. In the first chapter you don't meet them, but you can read about them in the PDA. Photo is included as well. Personally, I don't like such things. They look like cartoon characters and don't match the story very well. Although it is based on a Sci-Fi theme, strange races of aliens is not my kind of thing.

## Story
4/5
This is the strongest part of this game for now. I have to admit that the whole story is quite promising. You are the captain of the ship. Your mission is to investigate cause of power and communication failures on Ophion station. Sounds like pretty simple task, but soon you'll encounter strange coincidences. There is some kind of mystery behind it. In the meantime, you will gain some information about your crew members, cruiser, vessel, mission details, Ophion and other planets, natives, etc. So you have an interesting story with solid background. But this is only a prologue. Nothing more, nothing less.

Do you remember the original trailer of Driv3r (2004)? It was really impressive. Unfortunately, we can't say the same about the game itself. It was one of the most disappointing title ever made (we had several similar cases, like No Man's Sky or Fallout 76). I don't say that Heavy Five will end in this end. I am just saying that at the moment, we have only this kind of trailer. So, actual game may be pretty good, but it can also be a total disaster.

## Quality
3/5
We can say that this game is playable, for sure. Moreover, it doesn't contains serious bugs. You don't have to be afraid that half of text will be in Russian or Portuguese, or saves won't work. It won't happen. However, this game isn't perfect either. It contains a lot of unfinished concepts and several bugs.

First of all, at the beginning you will be informed that you can choose your gender and skin color... in the future, because this feature isn't available yet ("At first, In the final version of this game, at this point, you will also be able to choose your gender and skin colour, but for know I would like to know what your characters first and last names are please."). Color skin shouldn't have a big impact on the game. In the first chapter we don't see the main character at all. However, our gender should determine our relationships with others. For example, Chris want to challenge each man because her husband cheated on her and wants to improve her self-esteem, so she won't acts the same with women as she acts with men. This applies as well for others.

On the introduction screen you should be able to test mechanism that allow you interact with characters and things, e.g. by throwing water on cigarette. However, even this tutorial isn't completed.

Bonus games on PDA are not available as well.

When you finally get aboard, Sarah will inform you that we have showers and toilets on the ship. However, toilet door is jammed stuck so you can't actually use it. To be honest, I treat it as a poor excuse. Vanguard doesn't have any toilet at all. It is relative small ship not suitable for long distances. Nottravis chose this model probably because it was complete (it contains internal rooms with equipment - full interiors and exteriors) and didn't cost too much, but it doesn't fit the story very well. It's like using Space Shuttle for expedition to Mars - it doesn't make any sense.

Personally I didn't like mixing imperial units with metric units. I don't know if 3-4 feet of tall is a lot or a little. On the other hand, U.S. players may be confused when they see Celsius degrees. I think that in such a game two values should be always given. For example: 7.0 C (44.6 F).

Some paths are actually unavailable. According to the walkthrough, you can play as a tough guy, install some orders to Annie and express your disappointment with the condition of the ship to unlock a new event with her. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. You can't reach this path in the current game.

And last but not least - some of dialogues are buggy. You can repeat the same conversation with Sarah many times (small talk on the sofa). Of course, it doesn't make any sense. We have very similar situation with Annie. You can make the same conversation with her at least twice (when you say that you are interested with her), to gain more points that you should. To be honest, I think that score system is broken somehow, because you can gain more points when you make a girl sad and then apologize than if you were a nice guy from the very beginning. Anyway, similar situation occurs when you ask Annie about the mission - you can do this twice. One time can make fun of her conspiracy theories and another time say that she has a point. This is ridiculous.

These problems are widely known, but still remain unfixed for many months.

Some users reported some bugs in the further chapters as well (especially chapter 3 if I good remember). According to what they said, it leads to a dead end or RenPy error. I don't know if these issues were fixed or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are still present.

I am afraid of one thing - if the dev starts to fix bugs in current chapters, it can lead to the broken saves. And because the choices in this game are extremely important so you need to carefully analyze which option pays off the most (e.g. it may be worth to sacrifice some points with Annie for a good relationship with Chris even if you are not interested in her in a romantic way, or maybe it is worth to take advance of Sarah because in this way you can actually convince Annie that you are more interested in her than blonde - by making her a little bit jealous), you really don't want to go through this game over and over again.

## Summary
Overall score: 2/5
It would be 3/5 if the most important issues were finally fixed. It is hard to rate the game if you have only a short prologue. It was quite promising, but we still don't know too much about characters and story. It can develop in the right direction, but it can also turn out to be a complete mistake. Anyway, I am sure that I wouldn't give it more than 4/5, because it definitely isn't a spectacular superproduction. Average graphics based on mediocre assets, inconsistent quality, various bugs and shortcomings, overcomplicated dialogue tree, and characters without real depth don't affect this game very well.

Pros:
+ Story is some kind of promising (Sci-Fi theme with mysterious in the background)
+ PDA (character descriptions, mission info/notes, messages, hints, etc.)
+ No visible typos or grammar mistakes

Neutral:
* Mediocre graphics based on common assets
* Genesis 3 models that lack some details compared to Genesis 8
* Natives on Ophion doesn't look too realistic for me
* Typical VN mechanics without too much sandbox
* Mixed quality characters
* No visual effects (e.g. highlighting clickable objects)
* No animations
* For most time there is no sound except to meaningless background music
* No inventory
* No sexual content at the moment
* All points are hidden
* Relationship status visible in PDA is very shaddy

Cons:
- Quite a lot of unfinished concepts (unimplemented features)
- Several bugs in dialogue system (it affects points as well)
- Broken scripts (some paths/events are unavailable due to bugs in the code)
- You have to go through dialogues in the right order, because otherwise you will miss some content
- Dialog tree is overcomplicated, so it is hard to reach to the best path, get maximum score (all points are hidden) and unlock all events
- Some content is unavailable in the standard edition, but there is no information about it in the game, so you will probably spent a lot of time until you finally figure out why you can't succeed
- Mediocre assets that don't fit story very well
- Inconsistent style
- Some models and textures are extremely low quality
- Horrible DTP work, barely readable text
- For most time music completely doesn't match what is actually happening on the screen
- Mixing imperial units with metric units is confusing for players
- Distasteful jokes
- Lack of content at the moment
- Major issues remain unresolved from the very beginning

TL;DR
Story is some kind of promising, but after over a dozen months of development I would expect something more than just an unfinished and buggy prologue based on mediocre assets. What's worse, major issues remain unresolved from the very beginning.

Far more interesting plot elements than your average game. The charcters are also good and replaying to try different outcomes is fun. I haven't a clue about how to get to the princess though. It'd be cool see see a flow chart of what triggers what and how to get to certain circumstances or at least show another route is there, like in Detroit: Become Human

There's not much to add to the Reviews already written. I'll make it short and want to support this project. This game shows great potential and i love it so far.

Positive:
The writing, the story, the characters, the immersion are absolutly unique and super interesting. im hyped for future chapters.

The unknown:
Not much to say about romance scenes because there arent yet that many. But that's not bad, because it fits with the story and the characters. Im sure that at least 2-3 parts will have their time in the next chapter tho.

All in all a great game you should try and maybe even throw money on, when you are not a broke mf like me.

Edit: removed a bug report and posted it into the discussion forum.

There are already some really good and really detailed reviews here, so i will keep this rather short (and yeah, my english sucks and that's not an excuse for just being lazy, geez! ).

If you're up to for reading a really good and intriguing story, excellently written, with elaborated and interesting characters, this is for you.

Don't worry, you'll get your lewd stuff just as well (hell, yes!) and it looks good

cherry on the cake: most charming and dedicated dev ever!

I don't think that anyone who has interacted with me on here has any doubt that this is my current favourite game; This game is so far, one of a kind, I haven't come (not that type of cum, perverts!) across anything else like it. The writing and attention to detail are second to none, not to mention the many many many easter eggs scattered about throughout the game.

It wasn't always like this though. When I first started CH1, I thought it was just a run of the mill space adventure; sure, it had good writing and humour, but it just didn't grab me. When I picked it up again after CH2 was released, that's when I realised that I had been missing out, I went back and played it again from scratch; how did I miss all that subtle innuendo? How did I miss the myriad of choices that would take me down some very different routes, even as far back as CH1? As I've already said, the writing here is phenomenal, it has everything that I love about a good game; It has an excellently paced story, it has great characters that don't have the usual porn tropes and are all individuals that actually act like real people in the game. If you piss off one character, you can be sure that another one will hear about it.

With CH3, the choices and consequences have just increased in scope, I'm fully looking forward to CH4; this is one game that NEEDS to be played as each chapter is released and then again once it'completed, all in one sitting. There are so many facets to this game that all depend on the route you take, I won't say too much because I don't want to spoil it for you. I like that Notty (we're her friends and she lets us call her that) has the whole game planned out well in advance, she has told us from the start that the game will have ten chapters and she knows where it's going to lead; so much so, that she's already working on her second game! I could go into a lot more detail but I think you've suffered enough, and I don't want Notty to feel embarrassed about her little game. (her words)

EDIT: Patreon extras: The extras you get by pledging at the different levels are awesome. There is an in-game magazine called Bored Pilot available at one level and a virtual game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with the narrator at another level. Both of these are fun extras that are worth backing on Patreon by themselves!

TL;DR If you like a good story, great characters and some sexy women, try this game, you won't regret it.

A promising Sci-Fi game

An interesting and promising game, definitly, although I'm not yet convinced to give a full 5 stars without hesitation. I will wait some further updates to make my mind.

=== Chara design & personality :
The characters are pretty unique and kinda different to what you usually find. It makes me think about Eve Online character creation.
I will not say they are top notch and to my liking but the realism and the originilaty is there.
Their personalities are not stereotypical, and they are fun enough to want to discover more about them. The MC is pretty well done and quite charismatic.

=== Story/Background :
The story is captivating, the dialogues are quite well written most of the time ( some strange sentences at times, now i'm not native english speaker, so it might be me who didn't get it, but i'm feeling the author mother tongue is not english neither)
The background is well done, and the music matches the ambiant even if sometimes it can get to your nerves. In my opinion, it should run once, then fade away, and not in loop for 30 minutes, which will destroy the good effect that the music had at the start

=== Sex/Animations :
I haven't seen much, I did the game twice, I don't know if I missed something (was not interested by trisha), but so far nothing more than nudity and some flirts. Slow unlocking is not a problem, but the little I see makes me believe it won't be the strong point of the game. Still needs to be confirmed in later updates, I might be wrong

=== Gameplay/Contents :
Well, I think that point can be improved, and probably will. It is a bit irregular and unclear at times, and you can miss a lot of things because of chosing wrong answers you though irrelevant 2 chapters before, or doing things at a wrong order. In fact it is pretty hard to manage and control your story. You are more like a lost lamb that is going where you can, and not where you want. However, it might be what the author wants, and in a sense, it can be refreshing to not really control so well your story. There are some mini games, well it is more like an excuse for some nudity but they are still funny, so why not.
Regarding the contents, 1st chapter was long, 2nd chapter was short, 3rd chapter was average...so I don't know, it seems to depends on author's mood, or maybe I did a lot of wrong choices in chapter 2 ^^'.
Lastly, you will have to redo or roll back a lot of time, cause in 1 try, you will miss so many things. Not necessarly a criticism but it can bother some people.

=
This game has the potential to be a 5 stars game, and maybe a masterpiece in the future, but IMO, there are improvements to do on animations and on the clarity of gameplay.
Anyway, worth trying and supporting !

TLDR before the somewhat longer post: A way to well hidden gem of an adult game, in all the various meanings of the word adult.

The game first piqued my interest when episode 1 came out, but surpassed my already reasonably high expectations with part 2 and 3. Basically what is not to like about this game? It has a great story, Sci-Fi, world-building and background, lots of witty humor and adorable women.

Besides that it also has:

1. A competent adult male as an MC that is not afraid of women. Based upon your choices you can play him as a decent intelligent male with a natural liking for the ladies in game or as a blackmailing bastard or somewhere in between. The other males in game are also believable males, instead of one of those well known memes.
2. Females who are likable, attractive and sexy in my opinion, with believable personalities and competencies for the roles they fulfill.
3. A believable buildup of the tension between the MC and the female cast, even if it actually goes quite fast if you remember that we are at the end of episode 3 only two days into the game.
   This is still believable though considering the situation they are in, the fact that none of the ladies is a 18 yo wallflower that never kissed a boy and none of the characters except one is plagued by the old landlady/roommate dilemma.
   ( Though I can understand if some would wish for an even faster buildup, this one works well in my opinion for this story)
4. It has great humor and plenty of Easter eggs and memes to discover and laugh over
5. Choices really do matter, it has many branches and at least three variations for each of the main girls how you can approach them. Also the various branches do give you information about the whole of the game, so it has great replayabillity. Basically it is easy to spend a day into the game as of episode three if you try a few branches, if you are a completionist or Easter egg hunter add quite a bit of extra time.
6. All content is avoidable and you are warned that some choices, might lead you to content you do not wish to see or bad outcomes. Well at least if you are prepared to read the text.
7. No grinding.
8. Renders are good, sexy and quite often also contain extra's in the sense of Easter eggs or humorous texts.
9. It has a funny and sexy VR game within the game for us fantasy lovers.
10. The game has an engaging and communicative developer that has the whole game already mapped out, so you know you can trust her to deliver what she promised, even if she is underhanded and tempts you to make choices you should know will lead to trouble.
11. No story content is locked behind a paywall.
12. The game has a great walk through that you are not recommended to use, since by just playing to reach certain goals you will miss out on a lot of the content, but it is there for when you get stuck.
13. Most of all though it has a great story. Did I say this already?

Overall I would highly recommend this game to anyone who loves Sci-fi, humor and a good story in his adult game. One not to be missed game and one of the best on this site that can compete with the top ones.

Awesome game, with interesting characters (they're not just gorgeous, but also personality-wise), it has a bit of a slow start, but the story definitely draws you in quick.
There's several of easter-eggs hidden throughout the story, you actually have to read carefully and perform specific actions to unlock certain extra scenes.

Review made at the release of Chapter 3 update. Will edit it if necessary, as more content is released:

Here we have a game that truly deserves proper recognition, simply put. I might be biased on my opinion as it is a genre that I deeply appreciate, space operas, but this is a personal review based on my opinion so it is undoubtedly biased. So take it with a grain of salt, play the game for yourself and formulate your own opinion on it. Because the game is worth being played.

I’ll start with the visual aspect of the game as it is very appealing, the renders are above average quality with, so far, no problems related to clipping, awkward posing, lighting issues and other misdemeanours that tend to drag down the quality of products in development. Add to that the fact that in terms of the genre that it is going for, the atmosphere exudes sci-fi in every little detail. And the devil is in the details, pay little attention to them and you will be missing out on great content.

I was taken back a little by the forced linearity from chapters two and three after the introduction chapter where you get to explore the Vanguard a little and interact with the environment and was expecting to be allowed to do the same on the Ophion station but so far to no success, even noticing that some lines of dialogue leave open the possibility of future exploration and interaction to alter the game in accordance to said exploration. I can only hope that the freedom to interact with the environment around me makes a return for that is what initially drew me in to the game, and noticing the character interactions with the information or lack of that I was able to gather.

Incidentally I was this engaged with the story and game because the dialogue is well written. There are few or no grammar mistakes, none that I have noticed personally, the characters seem unique with personality traits, there is a good measure of humour which always draws a positive from me and it works with the setting. There are multiple choices of possible female interests, although I am curious to see if this is a game where you will be confronted with the decision to follow only one at a time. It would be a refreshing change from the build your own harem standard but I would be conflicted with having to choose between two which already have split my interest. But I suppose that if well written and executed it would always come to down to a shining moment that would tip the scale in one direction or the other. And the fact that the story is, according to the developer at least, already planned out and mostly written leaves me with confidence in the development of this game.

There is limited sexual content at the moment but being more interested in the story and how it progresses this is not a drawback for me at all, personally. One would expect in a porn game to be handed out, well porn, yet pacing is something that is very important in a game and hard to achieve, too much of it too soon and I feel like the experience would be ruined as a whole. So keep that in mind and again, play it for yourself and discover.

Pros:

- Story, there is one and it is interesting. It has me intrigued on what will happen next.

- Atmosphere and setting of the game.

- Characters, above average personality with solid interactions between not only the MC but each other as well.

- Humour, the game is actually funny at some parts, gets a positive from me there.

- Grammar, it is well written. I love being able to understand what I am reading.

- Renders, I am impressed by the female renders. They are beautiful, each in their own way.

- Yeoman Chambers! I mean, Ensign Kelly who is your sister and not totally Yeoman Kelly Chambers from Mass Effect 2 who I absolutely adore (personal projection here, nothing related with the actual game, ignore if necessary)

- Bugs, having played multiple times the content available so far I have not come across a single bug and the game has also NOT crashed on me yet.

Cons:

- For me personally it is only the linearity of chapters two and three after the open exploration of chapter one. If that makes a return I will remove it here.

Overall and to finish this review as not to drag on forever I would highly recommend this game to be played. I will even deviate from my standard of not rating 5 out of 5 stars because there is no such thing as the perfect game solely for the fact that I truly appreciate the space opera genre and I get to roleplay as Commander Shepard and the dialogue somehow lines up perfectly making this a unique experience.

Well done Nottravis, consider me impressed love. Looking forward to more!

Very good renders, very good story (so far) and nice character..i appreciate the VR part with Sarah, wich was very funny, and generally speaking, i appreciate the game..i would like to see more free actions, i know it's a visual novel, but i would like to have more free movement and things to do.

The game has some great renders and characters i have never seen before and that is a plus, the writing is also very good and so far well done, hopeing for aliens in the game, the only issue and it is minor is all the choices and branches but that can turn out to be a plus, gonna have to wait and see.

Art/renders 9/10
Story 9/10
sex 5/10 not much i have seen
characters 8.5/10

This is looking really promising! The storytelling is amazing and the characters feel real and alive. I love it when authors create their own world and makes it believable. The humor is great, I especially love the Sarah scenes. She is the perfect embodiment of the 'dumb blonde' and her dialogues are really funny and well written. I laughed out loud when I read her bio and there was a description of an incident she caused by confusing "left" with "right". But is it just an act? Sometimes her smarts shine through in unexpected ways. I love that there are layers to the characters and they aren't full 100 % stereotype. I'm really looking forward to what's next, moreso for the sake of the story than anything else. There is a lot of mystery and unanswered questions and I'm dying to find out more!

Now to the small imperfections: I am not a huge fan of of the game forcing me to save all over the place to experience the whole story. Branching storylines are great when done in moderation, but this game just has too many variables and branches. I especially don't like that I'm forced to choose who to spend time with at multiple points, locking the other interactions out. I see no reason why I should't be able to see both the repair scene with Sarah and Annie and the wrestling scene, for example. I really want to see all the scenes! I wish I didn't have to save-load like a motherfucker to do this. I would like to suggest the possibility of doing most of the interactions in one playthrough because arranging my saves is becoming a chore. One major branch per chapter would have been enough I think.

Another slight negative is the fourth-wall breaking at the end of each chapter. It's funny, but it detracts from the story. Here I am, invested in what's gonna happen next, then suddenly I'm "outside" of the game talking to an unknown character who is reviewing my progress and explaining game mechanics. It feels too forced and it detracts from the story and it happens way too often. Shut up lady, and let me get back into the game!

The lewds aren't super great at the moment, but that's all right with me, I don't doubt we will be getting some seriously hot stuff soon. Seeing as this is a story focused game, it wouldn't make sense to just start banging the crew left and right without even getting to know them first.

Overall, this game shows amazing promise and has amazingly good story and writing. Is it great for a fap? - Not really, but that's really too much to expect seeing as this is just 3 chapters in and we are just starting out getting to know the characters. If you like a good story and sci-fi setting then this game is for you! Warmly recommended!

This is clearly a game that has ambition . The theme and style are interesting and detailed and the Characters seem to be realistic with their own personalities . I applaud the great models whose proportion are ideal(too many games just make tiddy monsters in lieu of a personalty for the females Characters ) and the unique interface system which has a bunch of fun stuff. Eager to see where the plot and game goes.

Rated: chapter 1-2

love the game so far, unique style, multiple storylines with good build up, dialogues and plausible characters.. well worth to try it out and support the dev if you can. You won't be disappointed!

Man this game is looking good. The writing is a cut above the usual games here and the models are high quality. Not much sexual content yet but it looks very promising. I honestly cant wait for next updates.

Review based on Episode 2.

I knew I would love this game just from the preview screens. There aren't enough of these games with a sci-fi setting.

The renders are great. The character models are beautiful...and a personal thank you to the dev for using characters with realistic proportions and not going with characters whose tits are twice the size of their heads.

The story is great. It has me intrigued. The writing is good for the most part. Some slight misspellings and grammatical errors here and there, but nothing major.

My only real issues is 1) Annie smokes. Smoking is a real turn off for me so the dev is making me work for Annie. That's just a personal grip. 2) The characters are a bit too quick to flirt and ready to fuck from the beginning. I would have preferred a more professional relationship to start. I know you can play it that way, but the flirting and everything probably could have waited until at least you land at the base. Use the time on the ship to just talk. Nonetheless it hardly ruins the game for me.

I highly recommend this game to anybody who loves sci-fi with an interesting story and beautiful characters.

My only complaint is I want more content! That and, I did spot some poor word choices and grammatical mistakes, but nothing too major.
One thing I love in particular are the subtle sci-fi references to movies like "Starship Troopers". Keep up the good work! The story so far is very fun!

Interesting and very well written so far, both the mystery and the dialogue. Renders look nice and characters seem to have distinct personalities. Also, hints at very different routes (where you seem to be able to go down a pretty dark path if you so choose) is also a big plus. Good story building too. All in all, a very promising game!

EDIT: Above review was based on the first chapter. I have now played chapter 2 and gotten to the sex scenes. I guess they are ok from a rendering point of view, but there's one thing that really ruins it for me, and that's the dick-size of the MC. He's actually smaller than average. In some scenes he looks down right tiny, allthough maybe that's supposed to represent him not being completely erect (since he does look a little bit bigger further on, then again, not being hard when getting a hand job is kind of difficult to believe, as he prior to that got hard just from recieving hugs).

And I guess, if you want to make a game for people who get off on small dicks or maybe even small penis humiliation, then who am I to say anything about it (though I wouldn't play the game)? But there's nothing in the game to suggest that this is what is intended. Instead, one of the women even complements the MC on how big his cock is, despite being anything but. Another woman complains about her husband being small penis-wise, elaborating that she wants someone more masculine. So, instead of an intentionall fetish, it looks more like lazy rendering (the penis being different sizes also suggest as much), which for me lowers the quality of the game substantially.

[spoiler-free review based on chapter one and two]
Tired of the same old "oh no, my mother landlady is totally naked in front of my erect penis, what should I do!?" trope? In want of better writing than "I will take a shower but I sure hope my sister roommate is not in there"? Waiting to be whisked away in a believable universe full of fleshed out characters? Look no further, Heavy Five is the game for you.

Setting/writing:
Heavy Five is a Sci-Fi adult game that rewards the player's implication and attention to details.
The first chapter introduces you to the setting and the main characters. You are a ground engineer sent in a hurry to repair malfunctions on a planetary scientific base. En route, you will meet a lot of characters (4 females and 3 males up to chapter two, 10 females announced by the end), each of them fleshed out with a real backstory and distinct personality, and the way you treat one of them will impact how the other see you. The writing's quality is top-notch, and since the main story is already written out, each chapter is sure to provide meaningful content.

Gameplay:
The game gives you large freedom of choices. You can be flirty, professional or a downright asshole. This promises to open several "routes" with the characters, such as love interest, blackmail, sub/dom relation, sex friends, etc.
If you're curious enough while free roaming (protip: click on everythiiiiing), you will be rewarded with more lore, more plot and more funny interactions, which is a testimony of the love and dedication the dev put in the game.

Characters:
No little girl here, only women. The characters are the backbone of the game, and there is ample choice for everyone.
You like cute and flirty blond bimbo gal? Meet Sarah, the lovable goofy ensign.
You've got something for petite Asian minx? Try to get a drinking invite from Annie, the sarcastic and opinionated chief engineer (personal favorite of mine ).
You'd rather go for the short haired tomboy with lesbian/dominatrix undertone? Chris, the conceited pilot, is there for you.
The second chapter introduces the needy, horny, steamy, ebony Doctor Jones a.k.a. chocolate legs.
I don't doubt you will find at least one to go for, especially since the renders are really detailed. The dev is trying for realism, be it for their personality or render quality.

Adult content:
It may be important to note there is no sex scene in the first chapter. There is, however, some sexy teasing, but consider it an appetizer for the feast to come afterward.
Starting from the second chapter, you can encounter up to three sex scenes, but the game is still laying it out for the upcoming chapters.

Overall:
Absolutely fantastic start for a ten chapters long story. You want to get involved in a great story with engaging characters, great graphics, funny banter and consequences? "Do the dive, go Heavy Five"
You want to live smutty situations with no dish washing, shower spying, needlessly retarded grinding whatsoever? "Stay alive, play Heavy Five"

Review based on chapters one and two of the game.
This game has it all: great writing, amazing characters with depth and personality, great renders and an intriguing Sci-Fi story.
You can play the MC as a cool, friendly guy, or as a total jerk, and the story develops accordingly.
The dev's attention to detail is amazing, and everything feels real - or at least plausible (it's a sci-fi story after all).
Heartily recommend this one!
Notty also has a patreon site, and deserves support, so why not become a patron to this amazing adventure?