Ren'Py - LockDown Dom [v0.10.00.3a] [Down Bad Smut Games]

Animation: Handrawn, not the best but still original and well done.
Story: Lots of potential ways this can unfold looking forward to developments

This is still very early in it's development but what I've seen was very good so it gets a 4. I might need a wait a while before it's really worth playing. Right now it's just a elongated intro.

Reviewing 0.5:
I didn't expect much from the screenshots and the somewhat overused premise, but I am glad I downloaded because I really like it so far!
It has the perfect mix of different character and body types that I want from a game like this. And the mc is genuinely horny. And sexy 'accidental' scenes with some humor thrown in. Way to go.
Bonus points for Ruby/Auntie, I have a thing for buff girls

My only negative point and one star minus at this point is the weird dom<>sub system. I mean this actually is a cool feature, but the fact that you have to choose it beforehand in a menu sort of thing feels weirdly mechanical. I would prefer having different choices in situations to dom the npcs or not.

Game has great potential but right now there is barely anything here to do. Great art and big butts everywhere. I would wait until a couple of updates before playing. One thing im concerned about is the splitting path between dom and sub. It creates more work. i think they should focus on one path for now, until they really get things rolling. I would hate to see this game abandoned

Early days, but so far the improvements this game has gone through since its first bare-bones release are already fairly impressive.

Pros:
-Lots of choice. Fetishes are toggleable, submissive and dominant options are available for each character, and you can even turn lewd scenes off for individual characters. The last part is especially nice, while I'm not planning on turning any characters off, the amount of games out there that force you into relationships with characters you don't care about or even hate is staggering, so its nice to see this dev avoid that problem from the start.
-Character designs are simple, but well done. Lots of classic archetypes here that are all welcome additions. MILF, muscle mommy, fat assed femboy, big titty goth... lots of good stuff here.
-Addison and Ruby are both fantastic. These 2 are a majority of the reason that I'm going to be keeping up with this game's updates. Both of them are nice to the MC (always a plus in a femdom game) and the short scenes that both have gotten are very well done. Will be especially interesting to see how Addison's content will turn out in his sub route, as he seems quite submissive himself.
-Darien. Kind of surprising to include him on the list of pros, but (so far) he's been depicted as a pretty decent dude. This is surprising, as a lot of games with NTR options like to make these characters over the top assholes who go out of their way to make the MC miserable. Looks like this won't be the case here hopefully. He's just some regular dude who was dating the MC's sister when all this shit went down. Kind of refreshing to see this approach from a dev.
-The original intro had a much clunkier character customization part, and its nice to see the game improve its playability in such a short time.

Cons:
-Linda suffers from a severe case of "porn plot." In her first introduction she squeezes the MC's balls until he relents just because he kind of talked back to her. What kind of person acts like this, especially towards their own son? I get it, it's a femdom game, but the characters should feel like characters, not excuses for porn to just randomly happen when there's been more than 30 seconds without lewd content. Jessie also had a similarly aggressive introduction, but she came off as much more natural and (kind of) had a decent reason to kick the MC, since he walked in on her when she was in the shower. Linda on the other hand just comes off as an unreasonable bully, and the massage scene did little to ease up on that impression. Hopefully she gets better as her route goes on, but if she continues like this I'm pretty sure she's going to be the most commonly skipped on character in the game.
-While I mostly like Clarissa, right now she has a tendency to overuse acronyms in her dialogue (OMG, RIP, etc.) I don't have a problem with her being young and immature in general, but I do wish that this aspect of it would be toned down.

TLDR:
Promising start for this game, could easily become one of the better games in its genre if it sticks on this course. A few wrinkels in the writing, but nothing major, and a majority of the characters are enjoyable. Looking forward to more!

Fuckin fantastic work. I know the banner doesn't do a lot to sell you on it but the game is immensely charming once you get into it.

Let's talk characters. MC does the bare minimum of not being annoying whilst managing to have some flavor. Not a lot, mind you- think undersalted eggs- but hey, it's something. You got the bratty sister and the shy klutzy sister. Both are solid, and well written, but again, not a standout. It's their bitchy, flirty sister that catches my attention. Not only is it a more unique space, the adds another layer of intrigue by having her already be spoken for. Bold choice considering most users on F95 vomit at the mere thought of another man looking at their girl but, well, I see the vision and I have high hopes. Plus, all the "NTR" (This hardly counts) babies can turn it off too, win-win. Then we get to the real winners here- the literal muscle mommy and the Amazonian goddess aunt. Fantastic character designs, 10/10. Again, the banner art style didn't sell me on this game, but the in-game assets are super charming. Ruby- the aunt- is literally perfect so I won't spend too much time talking about her. It's the Mom where I can levy some fair criticism. This game's premise already tests your suspension of belief. A random news report just announces that incest is legal, and all of the characters gawk and move on. In reality, a bill like this would be worldwide news long before anyone hears about it on TV. But fine, we can play ball here. It's when the MC is massaging his mom that the immersion breaks a bit for me. The dialog is super unnatural. It sounds like he's just learning the answer to questions that would be literally impossible for him to be unaware of the answers to like his Mom's job. Also, Linda is super mean and bitchy for no real reason. I like mean, bitchy women, so it doesn't bother me one bit but it does feel a little unnatural. It's one thing to be a hard-ass drill mom, but it's another thing entirely to be this cold to your kids for no reason. I like the scenes where she lays down the law but I wish they'd given her a little sugar to balance out the spice- just to show loves her kids. Cause right now it kind of just feels like she hates 'em. I trust that they'll iron out these details eventually though and even if they don't, who cares? It's an H-game. Narrative consistency isn't exactly one of the core pillars (though it certainly separates the greats). The characters are hot, the story works, the dialog is good. Were in business lads.

Art looks very good, the characters all seem very promising with Addison and Clarissa having the potential to have really good dynamics with the cast. Only critique is about the idea of both dominant and submissive options seems to result with only text change but its still just a demo. Overall it looks promising with this demo!

More of a 'Prevewi' than a review as the game is still very clearly in early development, ( Maybe 30 minutes of content for one play through, probably longer if you try to do everything, including stuff that might not be to your tastes ).
Current Version:
( At time of writing )3.0.1a

Initial Impressions:
The art style is what drew me in at first, it's very distinct from the sea of 3D CGI and Honey select aesthetics you see more commonly in these kinds of games. It looked a bit cartoony at first glance, but the designs of the characters do well to offset that, with body types and proportions ( And expressions that stick pretty firmly ( So far ) to the realistic end of animated exaggeration.

Of the character designs, Jessie is probably my favorite in terms of pure aesthetics, ( Curves + fishnets + gothy blue lipstick + assertive expression is a touch of death combo if you know what I mean. ) Ruby ( As she currently exists ) is probably on the other end of the spectrum. This is more tastes than anything, but she just looks sorta... like her shoulders are rectangles? It's just a bit off putting to me personally ( Though I will say 'Muscle Mommy' is a fav of mine too ) to just a bit too butch / macho for my tastes, though I can see other's feeling differently, and the character is up for a rework / overhaul ( Though I'm not sure to what extent ) so this might not be relevant at all depending on when you're reading this.

The descriptor's though, of the game's plan concept is what sold me on the idea. The premise is pretty as described, ( Incest being legalized setting off a chain reaction of incest within the family during a covid lockdown ) though I think the art style being slightly cartoony does a good job of selling that sort've hyper indulgent as being just a bit more believable in setting.

There's five potential love interests with each love interest ( Plus or minus the aunt / youngest sibling ) having a sub and dom route, that each have different kinks they'll focus on, aside from general kinks all routes will share in common. I like the selection of kinks, and that they're keeping the number of LI's to just the five... ideally this will allow them to focus on fleshing out each girl and producing a depth of content for each, and not leave any of them in particularly feeling watered down ( Something I've noticed does tend to happen in games like this ).

I will say that both of Jessie's routes require cuckoldry ( easily the most extreme about this game aside from the incest ( Optional ) ) to one extent or another is... kind've a huge bummer for me personally ( She is my favorite design as previously stated ) and the fact that it's explicitly worse on the sub route ( My preference... ) suffice to say, I was a bit disappointed, but still pretty interested.

Gameplay:
There's not a whole lot to say here, if you've seen one of these kinds of sandbox games before, it's basically just a small demon introducing the characters, and some stuff tutorial / game functionality previews.

What can be said, is the actual writing of the story so far.

And I'll say it compliments the art very nicely! There's not a lot of it yet, but it does a good job of establishing all the characters, their major personalities, and how they interact / play off each other, which is an often overlooked, but actually very important, part of porn game writing, and really gives me hope they can actually pull off the golden ratio of 'smut/humor/drama' promised in their description.

Closing Thoughts / Hopes:
I am excited to see where this goes, I suspect if they can get some momentum behind the project, it could take off into something quite special, though they definitely need more content for the people to more fully demonstrate that they can deliver on their promises.

I've already subscribed to them on Subscribe, and if the project interests you, I'd suggest you do the same!

Really like the art style in this game. Gives the game its own unique look.

Appreciate the dev giving a few options on how to play the paths. I'm hoping this will bring more people in and success for the dev for these concessions.

As for the girls at least on the dom path with ball busting off -

Linda - Love a thick milf. Hoping on her path we'll warm her icy heart and be the man in her life.

Jessica - Always love tough goth girls. Respect the dev for making Darian required for her path. Keeps the game different from others. Hope this eventually leads to stuffing Jessica if you know what i mean.

Addison (Female version) - Love petite girls with cute butts. I assume this will lead to her trying to appease you in any way because of her lack of confidence. Maybe this will lead to some scenes trying to improve her confidence in sex scenes by urging her to take the lead in some instances. you know waking you up with a surprise bj and stuff like that.

Ruby - Though she doesn't have content yet. Shes the one i'm looking forward to the most depending on her path. I really like fit/athletic/muscular girls. Her being an amazonian is just icing on the cake. Attitude that i'm seeing is gentle giant. So maybe some rough play because of her size but overall being the shoulder to lean on or someone to confide in in this house full of estrogen. Hoping we'll get a scene where we see her wearing girly clothes like dresses and stuff like that.

Even though it's short is has the making of being an enjoyable game depending on your preferences. Looking forward to seeing more.

What there is great so far, really interested in seeing where this goes. Love these sort of games that take progress day by day.

It's got alot of options to accommodate peoples preferences and it's refreshing having a game lets you choose to be domineering or submissive

If I had to rank them it would

1.Linda- I just want to make her smile...
2.Ruby- could be number one but honestly need to see what the dynamic with her is
3. Similarly could be number one depending on how the petplay goes but competition is stiff
4. Jessica- Honestly not the biggest fan of the NTR thing but it seems devs are planning to have it handles a couple ways from winning her from the bf to become polyamourous. Also not a fan of the thick black upper lip
5. The gender is selectable which is nice, I personally keep them as a bro cause it's nice having a fellow submissive dude in the house but not really interested in them sex wise.

I don't dislike the drawing, it's a small demo that's fine, I mean it could be better but it can be promising, maybe if they add animations (even if they aren't super fluid) it could improve a lot, we'll have to see if the game advances enough to try it again

The story so far has no depth, the characters are not interesting, they have no feelings or quite weak personality. The "demo" is too short and doesn't show anything important about the game or gameplay.
Also the mismatch of real life and drawn images for rooms in the demo is annoying and shows the lack of passion for making a good game. At the moment I don't expect too much to come from this and can just hope for the developer to prove me wrong.

They say that first impressions are the most important and this really proves that saying right. I don't think it's possible to have a worst first release than this.
And to get this our of the way now this isn't a demo, it's barely a proof of concept. Everything shown in the five minutes of dialogue that exists so far really should have just made into character cards if the devs wanted to drum up attention. Everything they would've needed to do so is in the developer notes already.
The reason this feels like such a let down though is the writing. Visual Novels live and die on the strength of their story, and even looking past the little issues like missing punctuation and typos, this feels like someone didn't really stop and review their own work before sticking it in renpy, Introducing seven characters in such rapid succession doesn't give anyone, not even the protag, time to establish themselves leaving them all feeling generic as hell. I get it, having character personalities be defined by the fetish they represent is the standard for porn games but three of the five sexable characters personalities being "unreasonably abusive" makes it so that the only memorable thing about them is their art. This really needed at least one more scene showing just the protag and one other person interacting for more than a few sentances to give them more of a lasting/distinct impression.
There's literally nothing there in this build so I feel like I'm being overly pestimistic but I really want the devs to feel like they're putting more thought into thought in their future releases.

This isn't really a "game" yet, but for a demo it shows a lot of promise. Really hot girls, writing that doesn't make me want to rip my brain out of my head, it checks all the boxes I'd want a game to check at this stage of development. Here's hoping it keeps up.