Ren'Py - Completed - Helping the Hotties [v1.0.4.10.5] [xRed Games]

Helping the Hotties (v 0.8.2) is definitely a great game. First of, the story and characters are very distinct and interesting, far from the usual cliches and stories about gods, magic, universities and so on. This is about psychology and treatment, and characters do feel quite alive even though they are a bit plain. There are a lot of choices but I do feel like they are not very impactful beyond unlocking different conversations and scenes (but, since I've only played it once, I may be wrong and narrative may be more branching than I think). Only real criticism on this is the light magical tone it's reaching at the end of the currently available content, which I hope is downplayed going forward.

Render quality and animations are incredible, one of the highest quality in this genre. Sound is pretty decent as well and in the latest parts includes not only music but some moans and such. And, as far as I've played I haven't come up to any bugs, but there were a few minor inconsistencies between what happened and references to previous choices.

So, all in all, a game definitely worth your time.

Edit: now that the game is finished I have taken two stars out my opinion. The reason for this is pretty simple: the story lost itself, especially in the last updates and more precisely in the hurried ending. It just destroyed everything it had built up to there by being so hastened in order to close the project. A real pity.

Much like Being A DIK and Summer With Mia, I have pretty much fallen in love with this game! I have been thoroughly enjoying this game and I cannot wait for the next update! I love most of the girls with Eve being the only one I don't really care for, with my most favorites being Belle, Stacy, and Emily. I've noticed a fair few typos or grammatical errors, but not enough to deter me from playing. Excellent job to the developer!

V8.2 Looks pretty enough. The Story is ok. The renders are ok. The grind is bad to very bad at times and also has some really gimicky bits that just make you go "Eeeew......." and thats not sexual content.

The navigation is awful. Might be a personal thing but I just get very irrated after about 15 minutes playing this. The hint book is also badly done.

Wouldn't take much to make this a much more pleasurable playing experience but doubt it will happen.

Update 04/28/2023:

Played through up to the latest 0.90 and was rather disappointed. Despite several months going by the update is very small and incomplete. The two added adult scenes aren't even animated nor do they contain many stills. It all feels rushed, similar to what happened with the author's previous project. I hope I'm wrong, but time will tell. Removing a star for this unfortunate direction the game is taking.


Original review from 06/22/2022:

I've read many of the recent reviews, most of which were quite negative, but decided to give the game a shot anyway. After all, of the 60+ games I have bookmarked none of them were updated this week, so I figured it's time to grab something new, or perhaps something old that I missed.

I believe a lot of the negative feelings about the game stem from its origin as RedFalls. A game that was heavily edited and rewritten much to the chagrin of some of its fans. For myself, I've only played the most recent update, 0.82, and have not been a part of the original fanbase or even knew the game existed until a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if this gives me an unbiased perspective or merely a naive one, but I have to say that the game is quite fun as a kinetic novel with a handful of choices that don't so much invite you to completely replay the game but rather invite you to "save scum" a bit to see what the outcome would have been on a slightly different path.

I'm a bit older than some being in my 40s, so a game needs to have some combination of good writing, good visuals, and preferably good animation in order for it to "work" for me, though I prefer still frames and good dialogue over good animation with no dialogue. So does this game work for me? Yes. Absolutely yes. It's a slow burn at the start, but once you reach the 3rd day things start heating up, and while I've yet to finish the game I have taken a look at the gallery to see what's coming, and I suspect the game will continue to work for me in the future.

The renders are excellent. All of the girls are beautiful with enough variation in their features for them to feel unique. The game is very much a harem game where everyone can't help but fawn over your uniquely huge penis, but this is not only to be expected, but a welcome expectation. A hero in a porn game is the guy who gets all the girls, right? Sure, there are fetish exceptions, but for the most part that's the goal. Our avatar gets the girls and we get off. To that end, the game is well-written though occasionally a little too verbose, the renders are attractive, and the animations are unique and top notch. It's great when an author doesn't usually merely pre-existing animations but makes their own.

The first multi-stage animation was well done but was more of a tutorial at the very beginning of the game, and so it didn't work very well since I didn't really feel a connection to the girl yet. The second one came around day 3 or 4 and "worked" exceptionally well. Fun dialogue and great animations with multiple stages and positions. I couldn't ask for more, but it seems the author has another 5 or 6 days more for me to play through. Assuming the quality holds at the current level, I highly recommend the game to anyone interested in a "You get to fuck all the pretty girls in a semi-believable way" kinetic novel. I may add some further notes once I finished 0.82, but for now I'm not only enjoying the naughty parts but am looking forward to seeing how things play out. How WILL the MC get the other girls without being an ass? I look forward to finding out.

The game has options for free roam and for minigames both of which I immediately turned off because they seemed designed to slow down a game that is already pretty verbose. It works far better as purely kinetic.

Edit: A couple of small criticisms I hope the author will consider. I find myself clicking through a lot of very short sentences during monologues, internal and otherwise. It would be a kindness to lump some of them together. There have been a handful of scenes mentioning Hector who I'm led to believe was removed from the game. Would be nice to see those removed in later versions for consistency.

Ok, first off I will say the primary reason for this rating is that they took an established story, go people invested in the story, and then threw out that story and removed pretty much the entire interesting plot of the story.

It is the writer's story, so I am sure they had their reasons. For me, it sucked. I enjoyed where it was leading and it made this game more than just another fap game.

Don't get me wrong, the renders, the graphics, etc. are all really good. On any other game I would rate this a 3 star even with a shitty story for that alone. However, when you take something that people have invested time in and throw that away, well you get a 1 star and it would be zero if I could.

The renders are good, the characters except for the nasty shaved head one are all amusing too, I'm not sure some of the other critique here was fair in terms of depth of character, which I don't think is too bad and is about on par with the majority of games

The MC though is an absolute coward which makes things feel unnatural and is why the 'eric' had to be removed (I don't remember his name, am not sad he's gone). He also has a stupidly sized penis which just ruins all the scenes and animations with screams of insecurity

The worst choice though, that made me deduct two stars was the addition of bullshit minigames aimed at children like 'keep your mouse within the lines of this bs maze'

What saves this game from getting a 'terrible' review? Some renders and animations. And even those aren't top notch, as some less known developers have far better visual style. Where to start?

The story: blatantly boring, no story arc, no character development. Started as an incest game with a antagonist, ended up a washed up harem story with no sense of narrative direction. Every girl in the story is set up to want you, occasionally protesting your choices, which changes nothing. The writer brilliantly made MC a wimp, obeying everyone's orders. Even the patients mock him. I have no idea who would want to play as this MC. I don't see this story having potential, ever.

Gameplay: Free roam is finally optional, as it was done horribly. Collecting so many panties throughout the game becomes burdensome and takes the focus away from the story. Maybe it was done precisely cuz of that? Xray is unimaginative. 20 naked pictures of a character in a row. Seen it. Move on. At least put some sexy lingerie on them. Interactive dialogues? Clicking 10 times in a row to choose an answer that won't affect anything? Skip. Every update in the last few months has had a bug, crashing the game, etc. Hard to take someone seriously with so many bugs each release.

The rest. Not much to add. The dev apparently has no vision for this project. Removing an entire character mid season? Brilliant. Renaming it Helping The Hotties? Even better. Falsely marketing it as a completely new game (when it really isn't) just to attract new players? Outstanding.

Conclusion: If you want a game strictly for 'fun', hop on (spoiler: the actual action starts in Episode 5). If, however, you want a deep, impactful story, move on and invest your money in something better.

they completed changed the game. it was way better "red falls" this is a new game now and they should have ended Red Falls as end of season one but instead they completed remove the father. it was a father and mother's lodge helping these girls out because of their special problems. since being helping the hotties the story is now a mess and does not make sense for even being here to help out. lot of old sex scenes with the dad and mom were removed just so you can now have sex with the mom. to change a game randomly, with no warning 1 year later is baffling.

Well I played red falls before this one and for me it seems the game has not improved for the better.

Girls / renders are good I have to say that.

However , the story seems a bit off and also the bugs in game if you go into another menu for example and it crashes at that time you need a reload or else it you won't see you screen anymore.

Play as a bland idiot MC who has never heard about not sticking his dick in crazy. Surrounded by "exciting" mysteries such as what is your relationship with the other staff (jk.. it's obviously incest or stepcest as the MC is willing to drop his entire summer plans at the drop of a hat after a phone call which is basically "come now.. I'm not going to both explaining why but you're needed') or how risky are the actual patients at the camp (so you can enjoy the cliche of figuring it out on your own of course).

Enjoy your summer at a camp ran by someone so incompetent they can't even take 10 min to let the 'staff' know this year everything is going to be completely opposite of every other year. Really at the end of the day they're just their for the $$... kind of like this game is?

Also forget making any actual impactful decisions for yourself.. smoking? sure why not.. showing the pyro how to start a fire after you specifically choose to take away her "fire starting kit"? what could go wrong there? Not interested in a LI? Too bad.. enjoy this scene with them in it anyway!

Only reason I'm giving this 2 stars instead of 1 is the dev actually has some good technical skills.. just wish they had partnered up with a half decent writer.

Render: 10
Ladies: 10
Story: 7
Animation sequence: 3

Dev should focus on improving his animation skills rather than making tons of multi camera bland physics defying animation. Its been so long yet none of the animations here is worth remembering.

I have a rule of thumb about developers that rarely leads me astray: If they are making a game they care about, and are excited about making...and they have any skill...it will usually be a good game. This is true whether the game has tags I love, or tags I hate.

If the developer cares about their game mostly as a way to make a dollar, but has no passion or investment in the product, well, I don't blame 'em...but usually I prepare myself for a let down.

So it is with 'Helping the Hotties' the retitle of 'Red Falls' after the developer remade their game based on fan feedback. The result is, unsurprisingly, bland and trite.

Now, I wouldn't blame anybody lured towards the game by the renders. If nothing else it does look pretty. Although, once in game the characters tend to all have a somewhat vapid and same-y look...just with different hair and eye colors. But still, renders are a relative strength here.

Not much else is. The plot is completely incoherent, which shouldn't be shocking in a game that was remade after five or so updates. The MC exists so women will perform sexual acts on him, and this is the depth of character you get.

The girls initially seem like they may have some interesting stories, but devolve into archetype fairly quickly. It's also obvious this game was originally set up with incest tags, as the MC's introduction makes very little sense without them.

Ultimately this is just another 'one male + attractive harem of girls who has no particular reason to like him, but he's the only guy available' type fantasy so beloved of some...and it's not even a particularly great version of that.

If you really like the girls, find a picture gallery of them, you won't be missing out on much.

Amazing game with incredible renders.

The girls are hot as the title says and the story can suck you in. You have all kinds of different girls with different and sometimes even crazy personalities that all fancy you and either want to date you or fuck you. MC is both kind hearthed and asshole (to his gf).

There is a few sex scenes but mostly a lot of teasing and nakedness. The story with girls builds up slowly but in my experience it kept me in. I ended up not playing it just for the sex scnes (which are btw top tier animations and sometimes really interesting) but I ended up playing it for the story. It's nothing too big or too complicated but the simplicity is enough for me to keep reading every line anticipating what comes in the next scene with the next girl.

There is a choice to either play sandbox, where you have to go somewhere to continue the story or for people like me who just want VN with choices there is a choice to turn it off which I really like. It helped me get immersed in the story.

I am excited for more episodes bcs this game caught my attention

Good quality art and dialogue. makes it easy to get lost in the game.

Free roam toggle is nice as well so you can sit back and play through increasing immersion as well.

Excited to see what the future holds for this game. It's quite high quality and better than many I see on here.

The girls and animations are top tier for this game. The setting is good enough to keep it rolling. Think this could turn out to be a really amazing game if they keep with the quality. I think fleshing out the game a little more could be better if its supposed to be a VN or sandbox I dont know. When more content is added and the story becomes clear it will be easier to judge. So far so really good though.

Excellent game and good story. Many good options. Highly recommend the game. The game updates come regularly. I hope that no sudden cancellation. Just a new game is a bit on the nose. Other than that, good game to follow.

You want a bland, generic harem game with a title that makes you feel like a thirteen year old about to enter puberty?

You want a MC that has zero personality or drive or any redeeming quality whatsoever, so you can relate to him more personally? Thankfully, he also has a magic dick (TM) to complete the fantasy for you.

You want women that have no pesky agenda or personality beyond a token trait (shy, bossy, crazy etc.) with their only function being to fawn over your alter ego and open their legs for you... err him?

Boy, do we have a game for you! If you want a shallow fuck fest (in 4k!!) that plays just like the million harem games before it, this is for you! It is exactly the incel fever dream, the title suggests. Don't wait, get them hotties now...

0.6
Bonerific. I genuinely applaud the devs on being able to get the "lone MC surrounded by hot babes" setting without the omnipresent high school/college scenario. They also concocted a way to introduce sister & mother incest via a patch (not sure if it exists though) without resorting to "roommate" and "land lady" tropes.
The MC being in a position of authority over the girls provide enough inappropriateness to satisfy the average F95 weirdo.
Girls are hot, though fairly standard Daz gallery
Art is hot
Dialogue good
Game's name change was a good choice, though I would've have gone with "Slut Camp"
As a guy looking to get his rocks off, maybe have a chuckle, maybe pause for a moment out of tenderness, but NOT expecting this to be a life changing event, it works great. Keep up the good work.
Edit: I should note I played compressed because 9 GB is too large, and always play any adult game with sound turned off so I can't comment on that.

So, this dev team it appears are responsible for a few works on this site. They have a distinctive look and feel, and if you like the look (and I do, for the most part) then you will enjoy this.
It's a VN with some choices, but most of the time you're running around from place to place in a little sandbox. There is a guide to help you along, and I appreciate that.
We're not supposed to compare with other works when we write reviews, but it is interesting to consider that this is - I believe - the latest by this dev team, and if so, it implies that they've applied what they've learned so far.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I don't think they learned the right things.

Now, this is a porn game...
So let's talk about plot.
It's... kinda broken. You got these beautiful girls who dress like they're going clubbing in one of the more liberal Eastern European capitals, and they are supposed to be at-risk youth, undergoing a kind of rehabilitation retreat. Seriously, you have to suspend disbelief so hard you're at risk of auto-asphyxiation.
And I don't get why sticking round pegs into such a square hole was necessary. Why not make then wanna-be models, doing the pre-screening for some kind of survival TV show? That explains why the camp is so glam, why they look sooo fabulous, and you still get to keep the pseudo-psychology. It's just, so weirdly forced, this way.
Btw, speaking of pseudo, there are two psychologists, and, guess what, they act kinda sus, like they might be - gasp - crazy. Wow, whatta twist.

The story is so artificial. Is this what an erotic VN generated by AI will be like? Is that what this is, a trial run of the ERO-PRN 3000? There's all sorts of forced weirdness and cliches, the totally unreasonable father-figure, the closet-kinky milf, two gorgeous daughters, and all the contrivances of the four inmates. And the MC prowls around, spying, muttering to himself like someone living at a bus station, tripping over his erection...

Plus, there's narration, which is the worst. Seriously. Don't do it. You got loads of your typical nonsense like an image of the MC looking at the door, and the narrator says, "you turn to the door." Thanks, Einstein.

Going from the ridiculous, the artwork is sublime, I think. But all the Daz-tropes are here in full force. The incredibly hot girl who wonders, "am I hot?' The perfectly proportioned model who gets called "fatty." The exquisite older woman who envies the younger women. I'm not arguing for verisimilitude - I want my VN women to be gorgeous, but still, you could at least make a gesture to differentiate them a little. There are eight beautiful women in this story, and I have a hard time telling them apart.

So after dumping all over this I give 3 stars, because the women are beautifully rendered. I guess that's my bias.

Welp, that was a letdown.\

You take a normal looking MC give him a horse dick, which he's almost never used through whole game (f vouyer) and create a family that treats him like a little bitch baby, and a narrator that doesn't know when to shut the hell up and you'll get this instant classic. The only redeeming feature about this game is its models, that's it. Writing is bland, and interisting premise was ruined instantly.