Ren'Py - Abandoned - High-Rise Climb [v0.95.1.2] [Smokeydots]

Reviewing at .91.

There is a character in this that I felt connected to in a way I don't think I ever have in a similar game. Multiple characters are hot, the setting is fun. The gameplay loop is enjoyable, the story is solid. Some parts are simplistic. Some options are limited. But overall this game probably would earn a solid 4 stars from me.

That said, there is a character that as the game progressed I started to feel connected with in a way I previously hadn't. I actually had to step away from the game for several days because I felt guilty about the ways that the story had progressed, and I ended up starting over. I think this is one of the first times I've wanted to go down a particular path for the sake of that character, rather than just trying to see all the content that was available. If a game can cause that intense of a feeling in me (whether or not it might in any other players) that has to deserve 5 stars.

Version Reviewed: v0.91a

Overview: Become the king of business and bitches.

Story: You start work for a small but scrappy investment firm and use your talents to rise to the top. In the process of doing so you will raise the various stat bars on all of your female (and male, although never for sex stuff) associates, friends, family, girlfriend, and even the local mallrats.

Gameplay: Grind with an extra helping of grind. One of the core principals of the game is the money grind, where you start with a small savings and a steady job and every week increase your investment income until you're earning millions per week in a runaway feedback loop, just as capitalism intended. Beyond the money grind there are also two different relationship meters to grind with every character, one of which is basically love and the other is fear. In addition there is an actual love meter, as well as a lust meter for every girl. Your own character has a skill tree that he fills out by grinding research. He also has a fitness meter you grind at the gym, and a promotion meter you grind at work. You also have hunger, mood, and cleanliness to maintain. You also need to show up to the office every day and put in 4 hours of regular work or your boss gets mad and might fire you. Are you having fun yet?

Beyond all of the grind to actually get content you need not only to have the meters beyond (or below!) a certain point and figure out the right action to take with the character at the right time of day. There is a help system but it is significantly incomplete and also often uselessly vague. Sometimes it gives you a useful hint, but you can't count on it. There is also a girl database to help you keep track of the various stats of all of the girls, but it has less than a third of the girls in it. I think maybe the dev has forgotten it even exists?

As the game is incomplete I won't grade it harshly on missing pieces, but there is one thing that I really don't get. So you live in a small apartment with your girlfriend and her friend for most of the game. Eventually you earn enough money to buy an extremely expensive condo with cash. Seriously, our genius Wall street guy pulls his money out of investments to buy a $15 million dollar condo that will supposedly be his primary residence with cash--his boss should have fired him on the spot. But that's not even the worst part. He buys this beachfront mansion that is closer to his work than his apartment and...doesn't use it at all. Sure you can visit and swim in the pool or even sleep in the bed, but then your girlfriend will be angry and think you are sleeping around if you don't go back home and sleep in your tiny apartment. Why didn't everybody immediately move into this fully furnished condo? Who knows? Literally the only thing you can do of note in the condo is call your hot realtor (who apparently does come with the house) for a quick fuck.

Graphics: Nicely done DAZ with a good variety of assets. There are even animations, sometimes with alternate angles. Most of the time it is still images however. The models are well proportioned, but a bit samey. The sex content leans vanilla but there is enough there to fap to, if you can manage the grind.

Conclusion: The nice graphics and decent enough story is weighed down by gameplay issues. The grind is excessive and the quest tracker is too poorly implemented.

I am getting stuck a lot and the menu clues don't offer much help and it does not seems update to the current version. User experience=0. lot of debug screens that force me to rollback.
hopefully this will be fixed in the future.

Good Game though couple of suggestions.
1. The Investment work barely increases weekly income ( whole day of effort makes 70k into 71k), Not worth it at all, Should make it 10x atleast. Plus there is no mention that the investment income depends on the available cash.
2. There is no Intro, Intro of girlfriend and Neighbor is also lacking, only when I was halfway the game did a dialog mention that she is girlfriend and Alice is neighbor.
3. The Fear thing doesn't have any incentive, you can have whatever it gives through relationship, there is no reason to go that route, and if you increase relationship it decreases fear and vice versa, it doesn't have to be that way, For example Grace's plot could be unlocked through fear first then Player can decide his/her route instead of grinding her relationship point to talk about that first opportunity, Although I would prefer Submission instead of Fear.
4. Game size is too large, Maybe use webp or other codec.
5. Psychology Bonus is Glitchy doesn't work on some character like Olivia, and the 200% bonus doesn't work at all i think.

I've been putting off playin this game because the first 10 minutes or so is pretty slow with no reward.

There is some grinding, however there are ample rewards sprinkled throughout the grind. I downloaded the cheat mod but I only really use it to change between relationship/fear, otherwise it doesn't really matter.

The renders are good, and it's clear that the dev improved as time went on. Some things like unskippable animations are in game however they are thankfully quite rare.

All in all I'm excited for the future of this game, and I will likely kick the dev a 1-month sub at next release.

When I saw that this game had a score 4 in the reviews I had to try it. But no, this wasn't a game for me. It's just a grindfest. For everything you want you have to do a lot of stuff that rewards you with very little.

The MC is good and the LIs are great. So, that's not the problem. You just long for to "do" something with them. Then comes the big disappoint, the lewd scenes are good but absolutely not worth the grinding. For me that is very right handed, my left hand is just a decoration that can help with stabilizing stuff but no fine mechanics. This makes the scenes even worse, as you have to click on the mouse some (a lot of) times during scenes to get some action. So, for me, and others not ambidextrous, this makes it difficult to have some action (fap) going during the scenes. Fap, click, fap, click, fap, click and so on isn't any good at all. Especially not for the mouse!

There's A LOT of grinding required to unlock scenes with the girls in this game. And the payout is often not worth it, you mostly get some static images during the sex scenes with the occasional animation.
You also don't know that to unlock a new interaction, you have to be on a specific day at a specific hour in a specific place. WTF? Why should I always have to alt+tab to look at a walkthrough? This tanks the enjoyment and immersion.
Btw, you also have to grind a lot to improve your stats. Another fun-sucking requirement.
Overall, a poor experience and a poor VN.

TLDR: Promising game dragged down by grindy gameplay.

In principle, it's hard to accuse HRC of anything.
The characters / assets are well chosen and arranged into beautiful settings. Its renders are good to very good, same goes for animations.
The story is pretty thin, but competently realized.
What's not to like?

Well, the grind, that's what.
I never understood people complaining that "pure" VNs aren't really games. Sure, these people do have a point, but VNs also aren't MEANT to be games, their closest analogue in the non-digital world isn't something like a boardgame, it's choose your own adventure novels.
So, the appeal is making certain choices at certain branches of the story and "see" the result of those choices, possibly re-reading the same story with different choices and different results afterwards.
To facilitate that, all a VN needs is a multiple choice question every now and then.

HRC, however, tries hard not to be a pure VN. There's your typical grindfest mechanics: Chatting with people about topics that interest them increasing their relationship stat by one or two points in the process.
Clicking a couple time on the "work" button on your desk to fulfill your daily quota. Visiting the dance teacher thirty times to increase your dance skill by one point every visit. Things like that.
On top of that, there's a research tree which you can use to steer the game to a degree, again fueled by a seperate grind mechanic.

But does all that really result in gameplay preferable to a cyoa novel?
Isn't a relationship stat based mechanic that requires a value of 60+ just seperating one click on yes when asked "do you want to hang out?" into sixty seperate clicks you have to perform amidst a sea of other clicks like that for everything from taking a shower in the morning to going to bed at night?
I think the answers to these questions are no and yes, respectively, which is exactly what drags HRC down to mediocre territory.
The game has some decent content, even some pretty hot juicy scenes, but in order to get there, it makes you suffer and waste your time.
And rewatch the same scenes time and time again, just to rub it in.
Not easy to forgive.

Besides that, the game breaks its own rules and its mechanics only work some of the time. For example, at some point you get glasses meant to highlight the correct conversation options when chatting with people - depending on when you chose to research them, this can be totally worthless by that time - but the glasses only work with some people, namely a few of the girls. For others, they don't do anything at all.
There's a mechanic which requires you to ask for a girls mobile number to track her stats, but that doesn't work for all characters.
You can eventually hide cameras around the girls apartments, but after an initial scene such as the girl taking a shower, they never record anything interesting again. Seriously?

Well, I think I made my point by now, as a game, HRC is only acceptable if you have a high tolerance for grindfest mechanics. Otherwise, either don't bother or use cheats.
However, if you take away all the time-stretching, there's actually a shockingly low amount of content, be aware of that.

I don't normally give an average rating on games unless there are quite a few flaws or issues. My number one issue is with the amount of time the game has been out you still can't research all the stuff. Last time I played was over a year ago and certain things still can't be researched.

Another major issue is the lack of storyline updates with certain characters. With Angela it's still a WIP with her drinking problem. Izumi is still "researching" the glasses you give her in the office. Those were still being worked on the first time I played the game over 2 years ago. The lack of new content in the office is disappointing at the same time.

The writing, grammar and spelling still seem to be an ongoing issue. One problem is you still see the same writing when you go to the pool with Angela and Bailey. Plus the game keeps saying "opportunities updated" or "new location" even after visiting the pool multiple times.

With a major update with the coding, writing and storylines this game could be a really great game with much higher ratings. In the current state , especially with the amount of grind required to get any storyline to continue, is a hard sell for a higher rating.

This game is a lot better than quite a few I've played over the last few years. I'm sure a lot of work goes into it and the dev is doing good, but needs some improvements.

This game is excellent. There are some parts that are kinda annoying, like copying entire dialogues from Limitless, but other than that the story is solid. High-Rise Climb doesn't hold back on the more fucked up parts, like rape and blackmail, but if that's not your speed, there's more vanilla choices as well. It's very well-balanced, works for a variety of kinks. The character models look great, no one really looks out of place or wonky. The animations are all pretty good, no frame drops or anything like that. The game presents you with A LOT of options, there's a lot of branching storylines. As a result, you might get lost from time to time, but there's a guide to help you out. Overall though, I didn't have much difficulty navigating the story elements and getting the scenes I wanted. The protagonist is likeable, nothing annoying about him or anything. He's kind of a blank slate, which I like. The way the other characters react to events is fairly believable, making it easy to stay immersed. Great game, I really enjoyed it.

What an experience. Great sandbox and yet really well developed character interaction and just absolutely stunning CG with good kind of grind that makes you feel you earned it. Would love to see what comes next!

great game. models used in this game are one of the best. story is also good enough. pace is little slow for 4 year old game need to pick up story now. faster updates is the only thing this game lacks but overall this game is solid 5

Great renders with a good variety of attractive women. I enjoyed the setting and the author used a steady level of progression with each woman, leading to a decent end result. With a bit more development, some of the scenes and interactions could be expanded and become more interesting and enticing.
The game can get a bit tedious in some ways like generating money, but there is enough content to keep the player engaged and committed.

EDIT 4/11/21: Found this game in the latest updates and decided to give it another try, and I'm bumping my rating to a 4/5. While most of my previous criticisms below still apply, I was too harsh with some of them. The grind is still bad, but not 2 stars bad. Plus *most* of it can be circumvented if you consult the walkthrough, use the save that comes with the game files or use cheats. I also managed to see a few h-scenes that I didn't earlier, and enjoyed them overall. I'll even go so far as to say that the characters are (in the context of a porno) somewhat believable and human-like. Tldr, play it if you're into corporate power fantasies, rough sex etc.

Debonair financial whizkid who's just kinda awesome at everything, working hard playing harder, intimidating female underlings into having bdsm-themed sex, etc. Basically an American Psycho-esque power fantasy, which is a kink I like... in theory.

As in other sandbox titles however, myriad annoyances manifest themselves because every fricking action/interaction in this game is hidden behind hour-long iterations of clicking small buttons on a screen at the right in-game time. Including making the PC sleep, eat, shower, exercise, work and talk to people everyday. We're playing as the protagonist, not his nanny ffs.

I won't complain about grinding stats because the cheat mod nullifies that.

On to the h-scenes - the power fantasy is actually done right in a couple of instances. The rest fails to rise above shouty infantile bullying. Moreover the framing isn't believable. The amount of content and ridiculous sandbox grind squandered on the PC openly 'corrupting'/abusing his circle of female friends/coworkers (risking lawsuits, the sack, damages, prison etc.) might easily have been dedicated to a non-stop sex marathon with expensive hookers, with the office affair/relationship drama stuff as a subplot to flesh out the scenario. Also the scifi research stuff is silly and pointless.

Renders are decent to good. Animations are above average but most h-scenes do not feature them.

3.5 for the gfx and h-scenes, -2 for everything else. I'm rounding up 1.5 stars to 2 because the 'play as Patrick Bateman' premise is unique and rich in potential. You should play it if you really, really like that specific fantasy since afaik there no other titles that cater to it.

Update
Version Played: 0.91a
It's clear that I missed quite a bit of content even when I originally reviewed this, but I can thankfully say that what I missed makes an already good game even better. Add to that the more recent updates and I think this one is a near must-play if you dig the premise. My criticisms still stand, but those are mild in the overall scheme of things. Also, kudos to the dev for making the first trans scene I ever found really hot. Nice work. The only thing that still kind of bugs me is that you can't (at this stage at least) kick out your useless mooch of a GF and bring in one of the other ladies. It would also be nice to have a more loving relationship with Grace (would also love to be able to spitroast her with her hubby). One reviewer mentioned that this game's protag is Patrick Bateman "lite" and while I think that's a bridge a bit too far, it's not wholly inaccurate.

Version Played: 0.821a

This one intrigued me with its setting being that of an investment firm. I'm not personally too knowledgeable of that world, but that and the near-future aspect of it along with the good writing make the overall story interesting beyond just the pr0n. The girls are also good, but Izumi seems to clearly be the creator's fav to the point that the other girls almost seem sidelined.

Positives:
+ Solid story and setting
+ Smart writing
+ Interesting female characters with varied, realistic designs

Negatives:
- Slightly grindy
- Writer has a tendency to go off on long tangents
- Can sometimes be difficult to tell if certain conditions have been met for scenes

Like this? Try!: Drawing a blank. Will update if I find something.
Notes to Dev: It would be nice to see the other girls fleshed out with story and scenes.

Animations 4/5
Grind 5/5
Characters 5/5
Sandbox 4/5

Pretty good game. This game feels like a life simulator. You work, go to the gym, eat, shower, develop things for your job, get promoted, buy cars, drink at a bar, go on dates, invest, maintain (or not) your relationship with your girlfriend, and more. The game can feel mundane, but that's what I like about it. What's missing? Ambient sound effects would work great for this game.

The animations are smooth and have nice angles, and only a few have camera shakes in them.

Recommend for those looking for a simulator type of game with the addition of a story.

Yea im right.
After a year of rest, the dev is kinda like "ok, let's just finish this" and we are here.
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The ideal situation:
Every female character has a full quest chain and a complete background story waiting for discovery, including girls in the Mall and Bella.
A complete emotion system with more content/story (every female character can fall in love with or fully blackmailed).
A complete storyline/research system/shopping system.
And more other content of course.

Now:
Only Grace and Izumi's story I think is nearly finished.
So, I don't think the author can come with a completed game because the game is in developing for more than three years.
And to complete the game may cost another three years or more.
Though the modelling work is fantastic, every female character is beautiful.
We still need to prepare for the abandon day.

ill add 5th star just because most games dont have good looking gials. and i missed faces you would want to actually look at (well, cannot say that most games have ugly faces but on average only half of fem npcs is more or less good)

good
decent amount of content (comparatively)
nice renders including nice faces. (no crackhole eyes, no dolls-mannequines vibe, no weird eyes and shapes.)
ingame tips (bit vague for my skip-the-text gameplay but user-made walkths will help)
bug free i think.

subjective.
imo that game lacks gradual corruption/seduction, that is, 'ladder to paradise' approach ( in a way it does exist but mostly linked to datesim stats and not to questchains. and id opt for the latter)
personally i wish this game were a straightforward sandbox without such datesim elements as pathes .
hopefully here only 1npc was heavily affected by it. (and i missed that content. ) (pathes in sbx dont make any sense to me....it is not a vn where you can just skip text with no clicking until choices... sandboxes are not that replayable unless it is some quick secondary gig ...so alt routes in sanbox doesnt seem like a good idea. why not to focus on lengthy questchain instead?)

The game is very good. I love the fear/blackmailing aspect and execution. There is a large variety of scenarios in that path and they seem plausible making the experience much better.

The story is well written, a lot of work went into showing how the company the MC works for actually runs. Plenty of financial market lingo, current world events and references to existing businesses.

The sex scenes are hot, huge variety on the dark path. Abuse of authority, forcing subordinates to reluctant acts or accepting inappropriate behavior up to actual assault after breaking into their home.

There is plenty to do. The character can be developed in a variety of ways and the tech tree unlocks interesting options. The character cast is large and there is a ton of content already.

The bad part? The sandbox is a bit annoying. There is not much grind to it but still feels pointless at times. There is not much difference between various levels of the fear stat. Usually something happens around 50 and that's it. I wish the slow buildup would be more fine grained. It is also annoying that some content might be accidentally skipped if you progress the story too fast or in bad order.

Regardless, the game is good. Give it a try.

GREAT game. I love the way things go up (not too fast and not too slow), and the idea of blackmailing all the office is exciting. Come on, it's a game, not reality, it's supposed to be fun!! Personalities are all different, every taste is made happy. I've started some days ago, so I' don't still know hot it goes on, but I hope there are threesomes, and I'm intrigued by Grace and Azumi (and Bella, she can be the sluttiest!). And I'd love the idea to completely submit the girlfriend. I hope the game is not really abandoned.