VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Lab Rats [v1.0] [Vren]

I love this game. This was the first game of it's kind I played, and my gateway into f95zone. I love the characters, the gameplay, the overall goal, the renders. More detail below.

• It's only a small cast of characters, but the developer uses each very well. They each have their own distinctive personalities. I haven't played the game in months and I can look at the banner and know who each character is. Not their name, I know the characters; they are just well written.
• The gameplay is focused and logical. No magic here, the game sets up a drug as the catalyst for the corruption of the characters, and even delves a little into the chemistry behind it. The use of the drug in specific events allows for natural and easy-to-follow progression through the game, unlocking more scenes the more you play.
• There isn't a clear defined goal to the game. I don't recall the game ever saying "This is what you need to do before the end of the game". Rather, the game provides you with the tools to progress, and allows you to set your own goal. You could ignore half the characters if you wanted, and would be rewarded with a different ending.
• Following on from my last point, the presence of multiple endings allows each player to experience things their own way. (Though I admit, to this day I have only received the Harem endings, and have yet to try and focus on the other endings)
• Sure, there are other games with better renders. But I don't want to play other games, I like this one. The renders are good, and lend themselves to a specific style. I would love a remaster of this game, but I wouldn't care if one never got made.

There are a few nitpicky negatives, so I should probably mention them.

• If I had to choose (maybe for a potential remaster), I wouldn't want the phantom dick render, and would rather see the main character on screen interacting with the characters. This might be personal preference, but it might be a little more immersive.
• Others have mentioned the grind, and I probably found it annoying at first as well. But I edited the game files to give me more money and remove the negative effects of dosing characters (-500 resistance at the end of the day), so I can't actually say more than that.
• When I heard Lab Rats was getting a sequel, I was overjoyed. But nearly everything great about this game is just lacking in the sequel. It's a review for another time, but the negative is that this game is so good that the sequel just doesn't live up to it.

Overall, a true 5 star experience I've had playing a game from f95. I'll live in hope of a remaster, but it's not required for me to love this game as much as I do.

-> Too much grind
-> History is not captivating.
-> Some stats seem to change randomly.
-> The plot gets stuck frequently. It's hard to say for what reason (too low statistics, choosing wrong actions)
-> Very static scenes

A truly terrible game. Just an incredibly repetitive grind with bad renders, barely any actual scenes, girls that are utterly devoid of personality, and some seriously uninspired writing. Would recommend it to no one.

great writing you can play this without ever getting the other serums and get then all endings but you will need to work on finding the things to do that are different. There are plenty of things to do that multi playthroughs are a sure thing


odd placement of girls but you can get over it

So I'd definitely recommend playing with the mod that's listed in the original post as I have no idea how grindy it might be without it ... with it you still have to grind up influence with girls by drugging them and completing the same actions repeatedly, but thankfully there's no resistance to it so it's a fairly easy process. Weirdly once you get their stats high enough to fuck them then consensual sex won't raise your influence but drugged sex will.

But sadly not enough comes from it all ... you can train the girls to be cumsluts and free use and things, but that doesn't add enough once accomplished... it's mainly text based and there's not that many scenes once you've gotten them maxed out so can do what you like.

So I liked the theme, I liked you can train them, I liked that you can tell them to stop birth control and things ... but, what's actually there isn't ultimately that alluring and not really worth the effort.

Great game. Lots of content, lots of teasing, solid non-ridiculous sounding writing. Well-proofed. Highly recommend for people who like games with interesting gameplay, without needing two hands. Way less ridiculously convoluted and complicated than the sequel.

This bored me to tears and never got very far. Maybe it gets better at some point but I couldn't bring myself to play it anymore.

- Dull/grindy/repetitive gameplay, even with Dog Mod.
- I just wanted to skip all the dialog basically. Snore.
- Art not the best. Usually care less about this than some but when the game has little else going for it, then...
- Same 4-5 static backgrounds reused everywhere. Example: Going to the movies? House background. Going to a party? Lab background. Cafeteria? Campus background.

One of the best games out there.
Fantastic art, immersive story telling and lovable characters really make this game shine.
I can't recommend this game enough.
I can't wait for the second game to be completed.
If it is half as good as the first game it will still be one of the best in genre.

this game was the one that made me drown in over saturation of honey select models. only a few games I now play have these models. the story/script is the frontrunner here and what made me play the game till the end. my only angst was that it lack animation (which should be the standard in any game---at least during those delicious juicy sex scenes)

best harem incestous journey ever!

I did not enjoy the game, especially the visuals. The concept of the game is alright, but the story is not the best. It feels too grindy to enjoy and it gets repetitive quickly. I don't prefer the game, but it might just not be my cup of tea

Gameplay = amazingly well balanced game. + have the option to save and load as many times as you want. This makes it incredibly engaging. I just had to finish it.

Characters have a bit unnatural shapes, but in general, the graphics quality is sufficient.

There is no voice acting.

Take home message: I loved the game, and did not mind the limited graphics and absence of voice acting.

Story: 3/5
B-Movie tier cheesy. The plot is kinda silly and the epilogue you get is pretty much "I got money AND bitches, fuck yeah!" It's kinda straightforward with little surprises and no subplots, as far as I can remember. The ending is a bit unsatisfactory. It's very abrupt and feels like much less attention and effort was given to it compared to the rest of the story.

Characters: 4/5
The character dialogues are pretty good to be honest. The characters don't speak down to you like a lot of harem genre games and act appropriate to their relationship to you for the most part. Very believable.

Art: 2/5
The renders are made in Honey Select, which isn't necessarily bad, but means that most of the heavy lifting had been averted. I'm not too keen on the looks of 2/5 of the girls. They got that butterface going on, and I'm not talking about the weird glossy shine.

Gameplay: 3/5
Kinda grindy, relies on a bit of RNG to get the desired scenes. The way you introduce the drugs into their food and drinks are fun, but very frustrating when you go days without a single opportunity. Normally, this wouldn't be so bad, but it takes some effort just to prepare the drug itself and the game ends after X amount of days and the difficulty limits the endings you can achieve. When you get bored and run out of things to do, you can skip to the ending.

3/5 stars. It's a fun read for the most part, but the RNG and ending really kills pacing.

let's be quick

the story
_________
decent enough but not attractive (i see it boring some how)

the render
__________
what ?? these characters are taken from illusion game (no effort)

the animation
_____________
no animation (wtf why should i play it)

the choice system
_________________
just bad

after all of this negative points why should i give it more than 2 stars

should you play it ??
hell no

I really liked this game, balance wise quite good as i had enough time to do what i wanted in the 120 days given. Furthermore, I like the models used and the sex situations were quite nice. For me a 4 star game because despite all the good it just doesnt flow as well as some of my other favorites but still a nice game.

Good game, interesting story, sexy characters, decent renders, lots of choices.

You can focus on whichever girl/girls you want or go for all of them, you choose if you want to play the incest pregnancy etc content and you have different ways to increase your relationship with each girl (and different ways to fuck them too!)

The amount of options you have is great for a game that is quite short. Theres enough content to keep you interested, with random and player triggered events happening everywhere. Another great thing is you can clearly understand and keep track of your progress with each girl, which shows not only as a stat but is also shown in their interactions with the MC.

The negatives of the game are that it can be difficult to progress far enough with some of the girls especially on your first playthrough where you dont know the events at all. Also the sex scenes are rendered 'on air' with only the models visible and no mc (or mc genitals) which might be upsetting to some. Also you might get unlucky and miss some random events which can slow your grind down but thankfully no event is 'miss it and its gone forever' as they revolve around the place you are and what time you visit the place/interact with girl.

Overall pretty enjoyable

A good overall harem trainer, with enough distinction in the available girls to satisfy a need for variety. There are a good deal of events to see in the game, but unfortunately, a good deal of progression relies on triggering the right events, and there's no system in place for the player to influence which events they'll get.

It's a lot of fun and the 3D renders make for solid visuals, but the lack of player agency in events even in the late game keep it from getting a full 5 stars.

Storyline - 7/10 - Interesting idea poorly executed. The idea of using chemicals to manipulate the bodies and inhibitions of people is pretty cool. The idea of getting as many women pregnant as you possibly can is also cool.

Pacing - 8 / 10 - This is actually a really short game so i suppose the pacing makes sense and trying to fuck every woman in sight within the time limit is part of the challenge.

Renders - 6/ 10 - Characters composited over static backgrounds. The renders are ok, there just arent many of them. Shaders make things look too plastic

Character design - 6 / 10. This score is based entirely on the fact that one of the main women does not have comically large breasts, for that i say bravo.

Overall - Neat idea, dissapointed when i managed to impregnate all the characters only to find out that the dev had only created renders for mom and sis being pregnant which was a bit of a let down. The game is on a timer so you have to think about what you are doing which is a pleasant change.

I give 2/5 rating I will tell you why in a second.
- Story it's good more good then other games.
-Visual it's not good this game no have interaction scene with character, on sex scene it's a joke (the invisible cock makes the air sex scenes funny.) I think the dev finish this game in rush, you can't make good game without any real sex scene animation.

I do not know what it was in his dev head, but it seems he did not want to get involved with the images. Maybe that's why it's end it in version 1,0.
Advice for dev next version 2.0 don't be lazy and render more images rooms and action with characters (we want to see, not to read what do they do there), and make a damn sex scene animation. Don't make the same mistake.
Edit: I play this game with MOD without NTR on sister. I hate NTR.

The concept of this game (using X to make girls sex slaves) isn't new, but doesn't have to.

The dialogue in this game is probably in my personal top 3 in adult-games and definitely one of the strengths in this title. Together with multiple choices instead of straight-forward sex scenes to click through this makes for a very entertaining game.

Though the sister is the one that has the most fleshed-out sex scenes multiple-choice wise (v1.0) the constant updates of the developer will make me check back for newer versions in the future.

Is this game perfect? No. But it does what it does very well. Besides the very good dialogue this was one of the very few games where I really didn't mind the grinding parts because there was always enough stimuli to get you through it.
And since the game only goes up to day 120 ressource management makes sense compared to similar games where you have infinite time anyways.

Now I'm always careful with the term "realistic" in an incest game, but this game really nails the personalities of the different girls and makes them feel like actual people instead of male fantasies: They all have a different feel to themselves and aren't just different fuck toy models.

5/5 would drug again.

Very well written, somewhat smaller game, with lots of variation in encounters with its cast. That way it avoids the 'grind' most stat-based dating simulators get stuck into.
Also lots of choice in where you want to cum in almost every encounter I do recommend using the 'Dogmod' to play it though and even then it has a lot of 'randomness' its encounters with the girls in game.