Unreal Engine - Monolith Bay [v0.42.0] [Team Monolith]

I do not know why people are reviewing this game so badly. I never write reviews for a game but I felt the need to do so for this game because of all the unfair reviews the people are writing about this game. The gameplay in this game with a decent computer is amazing. The world and the characters are beautiful. I love the mini games here as they are very fun and add to a positive experience rather than being a nuisance. The character models and animations are beautiful unlike what some other people have to say. And anyone who is saying this game has barely any sexual content is lying. There is definitely more than enough story and sexual content in this game. It takes a lot of hard work and effort to create a game like this and I believe we should at least appreciate it and give it a good review so the developers are able to continue making this game. You should definitely give this game a try I believe you won't be disappointed

This game is really nice with atypical graphics, a rich story that holds up. The only drawback is that the female character is only playable and customizable in sandbox. It's a good game but still lacks content to enrich itself. Just wait and see for the sequel.

Monolith Bay [v0.17.0 Patreon]

Graphics are terrible. People seems to like the story, I hate It. The dialogue options are pretty much 1 out of 3 being nothing, +1 affection, +2 affection. You play as a traumatized awkward teen that somehow gets laid out of the blue sometimes. I have played for 3 or 4 hours now and cannot see any kind of mc progression.
Bugs, I did not get 15 minutes without a bug. Mostly clipping and weird physics.
Farming. A lot. 2-3 minutes of farming money are about 20-30 dollars. And is always the same minigame with the same solution. You come because you are horny and want to get build up. You get bugs and repetitive tasks.
Cheats are only for patreons. Cheats allow you to skip farming. The creator states you can enjoy the game without cheats, I am not even sure I could enjoy it anyway. Cheats also allow you to move faster and jump... Totally necesary since your bike is the worst thing even and "fast travel" put you into a 5-15 second animation
Farming relationships. Get ready to spam the "hug" animation with another 10 secs animation in order to get some not-so-good animations. Also be careful, the follow me command is bugged. I tried to see if my topless stepsister would go outside her room and everything broke.
Yeah, get ready for some camera pov bugs too.

Team Monolith, you want to keep your cheats for yourself? keep them. I lost all interest in this game by having to deal with every bug you have to offer.
I put 2 stars because this game is probably a tone of work and I really feel sorry It turned out this bad. My advice is to atleast allow a free cheat to quickly tp home without animations and also show some kind of icon on top of noninteractive characters. Some mute emoticone or something.
Good luck and good bye.

No, just no.

I first played this during some early releases around 1 year and a half ago, and I thought it had potential, but I didn't want to leave a review until it had more flesh on it's bones.

Now, I came back, gave it a run, and was bitterly disappointed. I took a gander at the comment section and found out that most of the more interesting content is locked behind a paywall. This... is a terrible idea to say the least. Don't get me wrong, I get everybody has a right to run the management of their game and releases however they like, but this is a terrible idea when there is literally nothing special about this game.

There are hardly any sex scenes, and the graphics are, as many others have pointed out, basically the Sims in 3rd person, but worse. Actually, if you wanted a game with better gameplay and much, much more porn, you might as well play Sims 4 with Wicked Whims, Devious desires and Loverslab. It is far better than this game, and it doesn't have a bloody paywall. On top of that, there are numerous other games out there that don't hide behind monetary restrictions, because they realize that popularity builds a stronger audience, and paywalls are a direct contradiction to that.

Back to this game tho, the only positive thing I can say about it is the writing, but other than that, nothing else stands out. Game is as basic as any other rpg roaming simulator, objects are buggy, there are some clipping problems with objects and terrain, the SFX is so-so, the animations are not very polished.

Was going to give 2 stars, but had to reduce it to 1, because of the paywall, which I personally feel is scummy. Nothing personal toward this game or it's creator, I always give star reductions to ANY game that hides behind a paywall. I'm consistent that way.

I just played the ghost girl scene so far, but! Me likes...so far. The graphics are different, It's way more interactive than other games I played but I liked what I've seen so far. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the ''Speaking bubble'' it's also very different. Well to be honest I'll keep playing that's for sure.

Except for Demo features everything is behind a paywall. It reminds me of playing a bad version of "The Sims". I tried to play the prologue and when I got to the part where the M/C needs to place the Porn mag his uncle gave him on his desk the game bugged. The mouse pointer disappeared and there was no way to make a choice as to what to do with the mag.

Well inspite of the fairy good animations and art , the "only for patreons is a big NO" .
The story definitely needs improvement(a lot) .
For a romance and dating sandbox game some characters have well thought plot to them building up to their H-scenes and with some there is no build and straight for ward action(making no sense).
And the sex scenes need work mainly regarding the facial expressions and effects.

The fraction of the game that I can play is fantastic, but I won't speculate on how good the rest of the game is before I can actually see it for myself... and I can't afford to unlock it right now. Here are some more characters.

If I could give this 3 and a half I would. This is going to be a good game, and will be better than a 3 but right now it's largely a demo (especially the public version). What's there is good, and improving with each update it seems.

There is, however, the issue with the monetisation of this project. It has already been discussed at length on this thread and it seems it will always be something the community here and the developer disagree on. I believe his policies and opinions should be respected, but having said that I would add my own. I think this game is being done a disservice by its monetisation and that you actually attract more supporters by showing everything up front and allowing people to grow fond of your work. This contrasts with the current strategy here which is to withhold content behind a paywall. I personally believe this game is not getting the financial support or community growth it deserves because of this strategy. I quite liked this game when I found it and would've even paid into the paywall to support it and access more of it if not for the pricing, which is another issue on top of the overall strategy. This seems to be a trend for this project.

I digress. I'll return and edit my review and score when the project develops, as you can see it's going to be good. Monetisation issues aside, this project is commendable for:
- Active developer who engages with the community.
- It's going to be an actual game, with adult content within it, which is rare
- Adult content is already pretty good (though you can't access most of it in the public version)
- Sound design is good, which is rare for a proper game this early in development
- Visually quite good, has a good style and aesthetic, I can see it being one of the best feeling games in this genre

I am reviewing v0.13 (Patreon build).

This is an extremely funny story with a nice, simple lore behind it. There are lots of NPCs to interact with (not much more than talking at the moment though).
The game is made in a way so that it is expandable, which is nice because it won't limit the developers in building story arcs and possibly even DLCs later on.

You have the ability to create your own NPCs or modify the existing story characters, except the MC.

The graphics style is not unique, but fitting the humour in the game with it's Fortnite style simplicity.

Game wise, the sexual content is limited to a few scenes, but the story is so funny and captivating that it doesn't matter a lot. Also, the sandbox mode allows you to play all sex minigames as much as you want with any character model (Patreon versions only, as far as I know).

This game is worth supporting because it is updated relatively often and there is always lots of new content, either story wise or functionality wise.

I am looking forward to the future development.

PS: There are, contrary to what someone mentioned in his review, no crashes on a healthy Windows 10 with Geforce 1660ti.

Some nice themes and borrowed ideas (references? homages?), but grindy, half-baked and unexciting for now. Version 0.10.0.

The main issue for me was the glacial pace. Things started okay in the house where distances were short and navigation was clearly signposted, but the clumsy controls, bad direction and slow travel were a real pace killer in the overworld. One of the first missions requires unaided travel to the edge of the map and back, and it was all just for pissing the player about. The game even makes a "ha ha video games am I right" joke about it - it's only a joke if you don't then actually do it.

Either the scale or the speed is totally wrong for a good player experience.

The speed problem is compounded by the scattershot placement of quest objectives. Lots of running back and forth in a dull setting for no payoff and no mid-travel events felt like such a waste of time and potential.

Finally, the writing is lacklustre. Every character is painted with the same brush as a comic relief, but there is no relief or effective punchline in ceaseless disjointed, "wacky" adolescent humour. "Funny accents" is a last resort in joke-telling, not characterisation. The plot was promising, but it's buried under one-dimensional characters and attempted humour at every turn. The sexy content I got to see was tame to say the least.

Together with the sloppy movement, the uninteresting world just forced me out of the game.

That said, I liked the ambition with Unreal Engine and 3D (basic as it was), I appreciated the references, and I was looking forward to the main plot and themes (paranormal especially), but so many basics need improving first.

PS I'm not going to jump to conclusions about the paywalling, but seeing faster walking speeds as a paid option seemed pretty blunt.

It's a 2-star period. His demo build is luring you into buying his 40 bucks just to see the full content. His purpose is to get more exposure, from what I see.

I gave it two stars because of the effort in the environment, but clearly, there is no baked high poly. The majority of them are almost all low poly with just UE4 lighting that makes up the bad models. You can't trick me, my guy. I've been in the 3D industry for some time.

The game overall is cool, the gameplay movement is simple. The animations are very amateur-level. Which he will eventually replace with a "professional animator".

There are bugs in the game, and I'm talking a lot. Some settings of the gameplay are pretty uncomfortable in weird ways.

The models to me are not that great, should also probably hire a "professional ZBrush modeller" with the money you are earning. The hand size is off, doesn't match the proportion of the rest properly. The hair was like just one clay, and drag around to make a basic shape. Not even used correctly like Fortnite stylized character. The clothes sometimes go thro these character bodies. I felt like you rushed the sculpting process of these characters, but people won't notice . Only people like me who do sculpting & 3D environment will know.

Whatever this is, it's a complete waste of the player's time. Grindy, no reward, not even a promise of a future possible reward. There is no content at present worth seeing, and no discernible vision for the project. There is no gameplay to speak of, it's just boring, pointless grind.

Pass.

the public version is a waste of time. i dont know if the paid version is better, however the way the public version is design its just run around for little content.

this game reminds me of the sims but worst graphics and of course little content. i'm sure everyone knows about the sex/nude mod for the sims and its a lot better then this.

UPDATE 0.15.1b: Well, the game came out pretty good and with the addition of the cheat you can progress fairly quickly in the game. I think I will buy it once the final version have released because I can't afford to pay montly on Patreon. Thanks dev o7

The game got potential. But currently on a free tier, the content is hidden deep behind the story so you have to do the tasks before getting to the content which is very time consuming. At the current state, if you want a quick fap this game is not recommended.

I like the bones of this game, the Scottish neighbor, and the fact that there's a ghost chic. I'd like to encourage Team Monolith to keep up the good work.

The artwork's getting there, I think the story is, too, but it's tough to tell at this point. Thanks for y'all's hard work.

i'm a big fan of 3D exploration games with a good story and add to that the sexy factor, i was sure i'd like this game. i wasn't wrong. the town is a lively place with people wondering around, they throw one liners at you, some of which were funny. humor in general is high level in this game, especially the inner thoughts of the MC. the people you interact with have their own story and character, girls are very pretty (violet and debbie are favorites for now but coira and lisa can hold their own against the best on a rainy day). mini games are fun. there isn't a whole lot of content so far but what i have gone through was most fun. looking forward to future versions.

Version: v0.7.1

Review:
There is no worth in playing this in the public version, because it is a waste of time. Do you know why? grind and no content. But let me explain it better. I was very bored at the beginning of the game, especially in the story. Particularly, I was not able to identify what would be the ambience of this plot, but anyway, the biggest problem wasn’t even that, because many times I don’t even care much about the story, but the gameplay.

Gameplay:
Limited. The only thing you do besides walking and going to one place to another is to collect purple shards that you don’t even know what it’s for (waste of time), The MC can walk, run, jump, throw himself on the ground(?) and only that. In order not to waste your time, let me explain other things to you, here you will be given tasks to do, which is to go from one place to another, at the beginning of the game, you end up getting very bored by not being able to leave the house, after 5 nights sleep, you can leave. Another problem is the text of the dialogues, which are not so slow but also not so fast, and it is very dialogic, not necessarily a book level but they are dialogues that you will say, "meh, I'm not interested in that". Anyway, at least the game has a fast travel, since the map is big. Congrats!
Graphics & Sexual Content:
The graphics of the scenarios I could say is one of the best things in the game, but the art of the models, needs to be improved. It is not bad, it just needs improvement from the waist down. The sex scenes in this game only have two, I didn’t see more than that, but the animations are good. BJ's animation is good, move the mouse left and right and make the girl give you a deepthroat it got interesting, you can see the girl breathing, that air coming out of her mouth. But the sex? having to keep clicking space this is boring.

Why I did gave 1 star?
Sincerely it is very annoying to play, because it's still a limited game, but not only that, many things in the game are so boring that you end up wasting a lot of time (I was playing for about 1 hour and 30 min). But it’s not because the game is bad or it’s not playable, it's because you won't be doing practically anything for a long time of gameplay, you're just getting to know the game, discovering its mechanics and art style. One of the things that pissed me off in the beginning is that it’s quite slow, because you have a "meh" story that’s not interesting, ok, you have some kind of boring tasks to do, you can’t enter other rooms, there’s not much interaction with the scenario, to some objects you click on, the developer makes a point of placing texts without need, for example you click on a fridge or just the microwave, which could be very useful in saying "I don't need this" or anything else. Anyway, even if it’s an open world game, where there are NPCs walking around the streets and cars going around the neighborhood, the world seems to be still empty, the interaction with other NPCs is nil, I understand, the game is still in development, but you just have to go around the city, if you go exploring to find the purple shards it’s a waste of time, so, the game seems to be interesting, if you continue to create good animations and a dating yes that doesn’t have much to grind, it will be great, but at the moment I don’t recommend it, you don’t have many things to do, just follow the tasks, see some scenes, two sex scenes and it’s over.

nice game and nice mechanics, characters and history .

a well-built Unreal Engine game, the art style is unique, far better than things we have seen that were made using Daz3D.
Decent amount of content for a game that was released 1 month ago. Hearing devs, game has a rough launch but i think it was worth it anyway