Kudos to you, I forgot that I was playing a porn game. It has entered my list of games in this site that I really like the story e characters, I actually wanted to read the dialogues, instead of skipping it until I see boobs, like I do with so many other games.
VN - Ren'Py - Hillside [v0.15 First Half] [DarkBlue]
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KhamulTG81
Excellent, mature story. Playing a professional bodyguard who earns trust overtime is realy refreshing. The Renders are beautiful and playing the main character in first person is exactly what this game needs. -
Mister Boombastic
I'm usually a big advocate of games with a steady build-up and slowly developing character relationships, but this game takes the term 'slow burn' to a whole new level...
The game itself is actually pretty nice. The characters look beautiful and the story is good. You can see that the dev has really put a lot of effort into this one.
However, nothing happens. And that's not a problem at the start of the game, because I too believe that you should first get to know the characters and get into the story before the naughty stuff unfolds. But six updates and several hours of gameplay later still litterally nothing has happened!
And again, I'm definitely not saying that all the female characters should just jump the MC like some sex-craving nymphos, but there's not even any sexual tension. It's just a bunch of drama at this point.
This reminded me of two of my favourite games, 'Light of my Life' and 'Single Again'; two slightly similar games with a slow build-up and quite a few updates without anything really happening as well. And yet I loved those games! - Why? - I think that's because of the underlying sexual tension. These stories are written so that you're constantly in suspense: will she...? might they...? The player is being teased, the characters are slowly being corrupted, and bit by bit things are progressing...
But I missed all those things in Hillside. Which just made me lose interest in the story and after a while I started skipping the conversations to see if anything was actually gonna happen. And it was not.
Still 4 stars for the nice renders and the good story. But games like these need at least some sexual tension to keep the story interesting and that's really what this game is lacking right now. Might check again when it's finished. -
rob7278
I am updating my review, because as the VN is advancing I am enjoying and understanding it much better.
Initially I gave this a 3 star rating and I am upping my rating to 4 stars.
The reason for this - as the story is unfolding I am appreciating the plot a lot more. It is still very much a slow burn. But things are starting to fall into place a lot more. Charlotte is developing a great relationship with the MC. I love the relationship that has formed between the younger daughter and the MC. Even the older daughter has mellowed and has come to a truce with the MC (granted he had to solve her biggest problem for her to even treat the MC any civility, but it's progress).
Pros:
The plot is compelling and original.
The LI's are hot.
The renders are clear
Your choices do effect the story and how other characters interact with you.
Cons:
I feel like most of the male characters are too unrealistically evil and they operate in a world where they are essentially untouchable. It's like the Dev used the Me Too issues as reference material - but dialed up the level of debauchery to the extreme. Actors, Producers, the rich and powerful can rape, drug, assault anyone they want, with no subtlety and have no fear of any consequences. It's just a little too over the top in my opinion.
The crazy plan that Zak has of eventually fucking Charlotte, by first seducing Emma (and not to mention his convoluted and unrealistic plan to get Emma to fall in love with him) is more like the plot of a super villain in a superheroes movie. -
roadie1960
one of the best these days, i really like the slow burn, the knight in shiny armour type of story. models are beautifull and the story is very well written. it keeps you wanting for more. its not one of those : i know we don`t know each other but please whip your dick out and fuck me in the ass story.
those can be very entertaining for sure but games/vn`s like these are by far my favorite. so...... this one..... a five star for sure. i love it. -
Truvelo
Probably no one on this forum thought that an adult game could have such a good and realistic storyline.
For the first time they play such games, I started to read the text so thoroughly, of course I also read in other games, but here this game drew me like a book. Great dialogues, very well-made character models, very good lighting and game environment, and a really interesting plot and interesting characters.
Very good game! I never did it, but now i just need to support this creator Good job! -
Lj625
[As of v0.6]
1- Girls are nice
2- Interesting approach, Playing as a bodyguard, quite unique.
3- Story is intriguing
No actual lewd scene so far, I guess MC need to slow build up the trust, which is fine. So far so good and look forward to the next update. 4/5. -
xxerikxx
This quickly became my favorite game. When I play a game like this, I need a story and characters that I can believe in and this game delivers at a very high level. The developer has put so much thoughts into creating the story that this game would have been enjoyable even without sex-scenes. There is a variety of believable characters and they a presented in a good way.
The plot is very good! A single mother (Charlotte) contacts MC and hires him to protect her daughter from a stalker. This puts the MC in a place where he can slowly build a relationship with the girl that eventually will be his love interest (I assume). He lives with Charlotte and Emma (The daughter) and build a non-sexual relationship with them.
The MC’s intentions are good. He is trying to protect Emma and help Charlotte who struggle with anxiety, mistrust in men, alcoholism and being an overprotective single mom. It is nice to play one of these games where the MC is not immediately trying to seduce or corrupt the women or trying to build a relationship with the main female character and cheating on her at the same time. The MC is a good person trying to help this family and find out who the stalker is. In the prosses he needs to win Charlottes trust and build a friendship with Emma.
Emma and Charlotte are two characters that you as a player early start to care about. They have for different reasons had difficulties in their lives and they need someone like the MC.
Charlotte is a supermodel, but she has been through an abusive relationship, been raped and perhaps even been beaten up by a stalker. Her mistrust in men are there for very justifiable and it is easy to understand why she is not comfortable having the MC living with them or being around her 18-year old daughter. Because of the stalker situation that she keeps secret from her daughter it is still understandable that she hires MC to protect Emma. Winning Charlottes trust and help her with her other issues is therefor a big part of the game.
Emma is the cute and shy daughter that the MC is hired to protect. She is a very sweet girl but growing up with an overprotective mother who mistrust men have made her very insecure, especially when it comes to boys. She has a crush on a boy at her school, but she doesn’t know how to talk with him or get his attention. She is getting some advice from her older sister Suzi and Aunt Lucy, but it is clear that she needs some help and guidance from MC to understand boys better.
Emma is sweet, naive, and vulnerable. As the MC you just want to protect her. She doesn’t have many friends and someone is anonymously sending her hurtful messages calling her fat and ugly. This leads to insecurity and body-issues. Living with a mother who is a supermodel does not make things easier.
The MC is building a friendship with Emma and Charlotte and tries to help them with their issues and at the same time is doing an investigation trying to find Emma’s stalker. Sex-scenes with these characters seems far away at this point, but there are other characters in the story as well…
The manipulative Aunt Lucy has taken an interest in the MC and will probably be someone MC could have a sexual relationship with while he is slowly building a relationship with Emma and Charlotte. Emma’s older sister Suzi and her girlfriend seems also like a possible candidates even if Suzi does not really like the MC at this point. However since Suzi also is a victim of her overprotective mother their relationship might soon change if she get’s MC’s support in her conflict with her mother …
The story is exceptionally good! The characters are believable, and the drawings are marvelous. I really like that all the women have natural looking bodies. Beautiful women with normal size breasts. It is easy to allow myself to believe in the characters and in the story.
Some people will perhaps be frustrated because choices they make have very little impact on the story. The choices have some impact in the relationship with the other characters so at some point I guess it will impact the story or which characters you can have sex with. I personally prefer one great told story over 10 decent alternative stories and so far, this story is fantastic!
The best game I have played in here and I am looking forward to the rest of the story! -
botc76
This one is really good, so far.
The renders are fine, the women are really good looking and this one is also written really well.
Yes, there are a few instances where Emma seems just too unbelievable innocent for anybody her age, growing up outside an Amish community.
But the trope of "extremely innocent girl" is widely spread through the VN world, so you either accept it or ignore it.
If the game continues in this vein, with this level of quality and shows no sign of not being updated regularly or having very small updates, I see it getting five stars easily a few more updates in. -
6pak2go
If your looking for a wonderfully crafted story that can bring a lot of emotional investment and attachment in the characters, give this one a try. It's about the dark side of the fashion industry, the unwanted attention of a stalker, and the elitists that think they can use women as they please. It's a very relevant commentary to the Hollywood and fashion scene scandals of late.
Charlotte's back-story is very dark and heart wrenching. You, the MC, are hired to protect her very sweet and naïve daughter. Not much lewd content yet because we're not that far into the story and frankly not needed at this stage. I find it refreshing that the MC will really have to invest himself into the lives of those around him and earn their trust and respect. If you're looking for quick fap material, move on.
I also love that the Developer is not trying to check boxes on lewd content that would be out of place and ruin the continuity of the story to fit a wider audience. (so far)
Review for V0.5: 5/5
Excellent:
- Game setting and style
- Story drama
- Character development and writing
- Character Models
- Very realistic and unique.
- No melon titted/bubble butts here
- Emotional facial expressions
- Scene development and lighting
- Model posing and art
- Details in render textures
- Developer Patreon only content and openness/responsiveness to supporter comments/suggestions/critiques
- Game render graphics - 720p but will be 1080p next update according to Developer
- Update size and content
- Update frequency
- No background music
- One minor screen flip animation, a couple of pans
- A few minor spelling or text errors in last update
- Good musical score to enhance the experience
- Good animations to improve player immersion
- 4K graphics
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SpikeZg
This review is for version 0.5
after playing version 0.1 of Hillside i knew this will be good... and i wasn't wrong. We are at 0.5 now and i look at this game as my new favourite TV show, i just can't wait for a new episode and see what will happen next to my fav chars
When we talk about renders, they look fantastic, the attention to detail is very high and facial expressions look great. Next step, 1080p baby
But as we all know, withouth the good story you have nothing and here you bet your ass it's good
We have some dark elements pretty early on but as i see it, those scenes will only bring us closer to understanding a character and trying to help them the best way that we can.
As of now we have 4 main chars and we found out some stuff about all of them but that is just the beginning of their story.
I love it because they are all so different in personalities but regardless i have the need to help all of them to be happy in the end
We are still very early in the game but with every new version i am more and more invested in the story and i can see that i am not the only one, so if you are reading this and still didn't play the game, go right now and do so, you won't be disappointed, i promise you that
and yeah, DB please give me my daily dose of vitamin C, i need it so bad -
KoGa3
(I thought I had already rated it - so I'll do it now immediately)
What can I say - in my opinion already a masterpice!
But: this game is NOT for everyone! If you are mainly looking for a game with lewd content, you will be disappointed. Maybe this will change later on, maybe not - for me this would be a bonus of course, but not more.
The story and the characters are well done. Of course it's a bit like the game "Lexi" or the movie "Bodyguard" - well, I liked them, too. And: I think Hillside is already better then both of them.
Technically the game is fine. Great renders (but no animations). Most (all) girls are really hot (Charlotte!! - ok, Suzi and Lucy are hot, too) or super cute (Emma!!). The game has some good sound effects, but no background music
I really like the game so far, but there is of course some potential for improvement:
- The behaviour of the MC at the beginning of the game was somewhat strange sometimes ("soft hands"...), but in the later episodes it's already corrected
- The renders are amazing, but it's still "only" 720p resolution
Summary for my review (game version v0.5):
Excellent:
– Story, storytelling
– Characters
– Models and locations
Good:
– Render graphics
– Sound effects
Neutral:
– Amount of gameplay
rather bad:
- No animations (but I didn't miss them)
- No background music (I've made a Mod/addon for that)
- Sex scenes - only some nudes/masturbation from Lucy so far.
(Funny thing: I didn't miss that either...)
Finally I would like to say:
I really enjoyed playing it and I'm eagerly waiting for the next update!