VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Now & Then [v1.00.0] [ILSProductions]

Definitely one of the best novels I've had the pleasure of playing. The pace is really great, it gets immersive and investing. Rating this 5 stars as of chapter 20. Keep up the awesome work Dev, can't wait to see this project to the end.

Im mad at he beggining cause it throws at you like 10 minutes of exposition, and a big part of that is absolutely pointless like, the people who left the neighbourhood, and how you use their houses as storage. Everything could be like 3 sentences:
There was a virus outbreak (no need fr you to tell me how you are a genious and bough provisions way beore anybody, or to tell me how internet died, you are vaguely explaing why anyway, and its so boring adn tiring that most likely iam gonna disconnect and aunderstand even less.)

My "wife" died and a friend asked me to adopt a girl. Those 2 sentences are more or less the first 10 minutes of exposition that could be told little by little, maybe in conversations or something. Thre is not internet, what will you do besides talking, there is plenty of time to fit all that info in a more tolerable way.

Well better actual character development and sex scenes make up for this.

The game goes pretty smoth after that ton of exposition and buils up well, proving that all that was unnecessary, he is talking about it all the time.
MAybe there is a bit of a sudden change and the girl turns into a horny demon kind of fast.
Everythig gos quite well until thye star having sex. before that the game is using custom renders and poses i guess, and makeout scenes are quite realistic and hot. Once they start having sex it turns into a fuckfest and sex scenes become mostly animations. Those are already done by the engine, but they reaaaally suck, they are predictable and boring and repetitive. The stuff before was quite good actually.
When they star getting sex it also gets interrupted and another character comes, and this puts and end to it. LAter the "scenery" changes, the moment they leave, the game turns into a mindless fuckfest, character development gets locked inside a vault and never used again. The mc just takes turns to fuck everyone constantly, with the same default animations.
Some people is aknowledging the fact that you are fucking others, but there is never a " change of approach" (forget about threesomes).
Lesbian scenes are default boring as hell.

I will have to give it 3 stars, because of that first part in the first house, the game there its a 4 stars, and after that, its just monotony with nothing really exciting in the horizon.

The christmas and halloween, i really dont know why this dev loses time making those, they are not even erotic, there is nothing there.

One of the few games worthy of a real donation. I would have bought a game this good for the same price as many other games out there easily. Made my "buy" today and it was well worth it!

I love the characters and the dialogue is wonderful. The art is a bit different, but interestingly attractive - I like it very much. The story is amazing, and the mood and pacing established by the art and writing are phenomenal! At least to me.

I highly recommend this title. The appearance of updates is quite regular and timely, which shows a dedication by its developers sorely lacking in other VN titles.

Keep up the good work, and thank you to the crew who built this gem.

ABSOLUTELY top class story and character arcs.

Yes it's fairly slow build up but trust me so worth the time. The characters are what really set this game apart and ahead of so many other games.
Then there is the way the story is build but mostly how the sentences are structured.

I love the HS sex animations in most HS games and in this its exactly same type of thing , yet its erotic, sexy yet never sleazy. I'm sure if it had DAZ graphics there would be more support? I am however surprised at how little support this dev is getting.

Honestly I think with the devs next game he's going to up the level of VN making and it scares me as a dev myself as it means we all will have to up our game.

Now and then is perfectly made, perfectly balanced and once it grabs you by the nut sack it doesn't let go. Definitely worth the play time and support time.

Excellent work Dev!

Although I unfortunately started this VN very late, I was immediately drawn into the story and the world and could hardly stop. (Stupid job in real life)

In a nutshell, so far (Chaper19) it´s a very exciting, engaging story that I really can't wait to see continue!

The story is built around believable and interesting characters, the MC is absolutely likeable and fortunately not an instant superhero. But rather a normal person who grows from the situation and his experiences and changes accordingly. Just like the main characters go through a development. Through the clever and never boring flashbacks, you learn practically everything about the development of the world that is necessary to understand, the reactions and behavior of the characters. Thanks to the inner dialogues, you also realize that the characters are just people doing their best. Yes, they too make mistakes or simply make less than optimal decisions, which I guess each of us should know...

Of course, I could criticize the graphics superficially and some animations for their messy transitions or angles.
But in the overall package this is really complaining on an unnecessarily high level!
The experience of the story, the believable environment just compensate for all these little things!
It's not a polished AAA product, but a damn good book with an emotional content. That's why I was much more excited by the emotional values when experiencing the story, rather than drooling or ranting about technical things or incredibly detailed renderings.
Whereby I have to say that both the pictures and the animated sex scenes absolutely fit the respective mood and were very, very stimulating for me Thanks at this point also to the "dubbing" of these scenes, or the background music / sound effects in general.


(And a special thank you for the pubic hair and "moisture details" -> That makes my personal naughty quirks very happy).

This probably the first one where I've just read it all the way through without a break. I've enjoyed this over many more zombie related content out there. Now and Then actually has characters that feel real and have a history.

It's been an excellent ride.

0.19
Summary:
The game talks about a Zed-19 virus outbreak with collapsed society by turning people into infected and breaking the working order of society as a whole. You the MC were better prepared than others and choose to outsit the pandemic in your apartment with your adopted daughter.
One thing comes to another and you getting into a relationship with her, her best friend, and other characters, as you try to survive against bandits infected and hunger.

Extraordinary aspects of the game:
The story is just fucking amazing, the mechanic of jumping flashbacks to the past is so good gives you a better connection to the characters and the world as a whole.

What is good:
The music, the realistic world, the somewhat realistic characters.

What is bad:
The animation and sex scenes, too many weird angles because of trying to hide the MC face. Vanilla sex positions. Not anatomically correct animations, such as fully opened hands with rarely happens in real life(usually happens to retards), no micro-movements in animation, some animation has little physics getting fucked but hands stay completely still. Some unbelievable choices of characters.

Simple gestures as just a hug or a kiss almost always end in a sex scene, that is how the MC had sex with the third character because of a hug, I know it’s the apocalypse and shit but still.

What can be made better:

My opinion:
The game is amazing, if you remove all the sex scenes and just leave the game as it is it still will be playable and really fucking great. It’s quite sad that some of the sex scenes aren’t that great but there are still some good ones and as the chapters go they are getting better. The game is so good to miss, just grab it I am sure you like it.

If you want more reviews/recommendation check out my list [Link]

All the advantages of the game have already been listed before
I will only note a decent and very punctual author who releases an update every month, at the same time.
This is a quality that many other developers lack.

A great take on the post-apocalypse genre. Gritty and dramatic at moments and touchingly tender in others. The characters are well written and the ero scenes are well made and about as realistic as they can be. Definitely looking forward to more.

Extremely repetitive in terms of character writing. When characters talk to each other they are constantly repeating the same thing within the same conversation, and with inner monologues they are repeating everything that happened up until that point, there is a lot of pointless text to be honest, and i just had to skip through most of them.
The basic premise is pretty ok, and the girls look great too, thing are happening pretty slow though. Overall its worth a try.

After downloading and playing the latest upgrade I thought about one thing, how easy it was to get on playing after some time and some (a lot of) other games between last playing. That say a lot about this game, it feels so natural to just go on.

I love the thoughts behind this game, how easy mankind can leave civilization if something happens. (Reminds me of the theme behind Lord of the Flies.) It's so easy to say you wouldn't do stuff like that. Just think about what happened with the starving survivors of the accident in the Andes (Alive). You can say "I would never eat a human", but I'm certain most would do after enough time without food.

So here's the dilemma is an other, but still it's a situation were you don't know how you would act. I really love that and I would probably act as the MC. It's a story well told and the animations are good. I like that the MC is a really good person by heart even if he can do the violence when so needed.

The fap is really good but still I'm here for the story. (More true than that I read Playboy* for the short stories. Even if some SF there was really great.)

So, all and all, I'm glad that I've found this gem. Keep up the good work.

*
My blood runs cold
My memory has just been sold
My angel is the centerfold

Great story with engaging characters.
There are plenty of places you could quibble with the "realism", but the characters feel well motivated. I grew to really care about what happens to these people. Be prepared to spend some time as there are 19 (so far) substantial chapters. The sex scenes are fine, and there are quite a few of them, but this is definitely not a game to click through to get to the next scene.

I avoided this game for a long time because Honey Select, zombiepocalypse, and F/D are normally negatives for me. The high reviews eventually made me give it a try anyway, and I'm very glad I did.

This is a truly excellent games. Great characters, great story and writing and awesome scenes.

I am usually not very fond of zombie stories, they tend to be pretty boring, but in this game the zombies infected are mostly there to add tension and background to the character interactions which are the highlight of the game.

Game also features great interactivity and even if the choices don't matter that much in the end, the choices are often shown in little changes in dialog throughout the story.

In conclusion: awesome game

Good game, unusual context, good graphic (expecially animations), intriguing story and quite interesting characters (I'm not a "loli" fan, I would prefer more milfs...). Little bit too weird, also for this kind of games, that they want to fuck as much as possible, even if surrounded by zombies and bandits..Best character: Alice!! ...but, if I may, the story mode is quite boring and repetitive (fuck Carol, then fuck Naomi, and so on...). Personally, I enjoyed it, but I won't play next updates.

Excellent game, REALLY well written... Hard to come by, recommended!
200 characters is far too much for this review, but take what you will as I'm willing to write that much to show how much I enjoy this game. Thanks for the read!

Easy 5/5. Support this dev if you can afford it.

I don't often write reviews, but seeing how little support this dev has, I felt I wanted to help more beyond just Patreon support.

1) This dev develops new chapters frequently (monthly?). He is the only dev I know who has such rapid updates and still maintains consistent quality throughout.

2) Believable harem. Relationships evolve over time. This is one story where girls aren't throwing themselves over the guy unrealistically. But there is plenty of sex and relationship building.

3) No dumb arbitrary hurdles preventing the relationships from evolving and growing. No random waitress-in-the-bathroom scene that slows the main character dev. Most relationships and actions fit into the larger narrative arc of the story.

4) Model girls are really cute. The renders are not highest quality (how could they be when the dev outputs new chapters every month!), but they are cute. Bonus points because dev does nipples the best, they are perky, hard, 3D.

5) Story is excellent. The MC acts the way I would act, generally. The story unfolds slowly and thoughfully, drawing on inspiration from existing pandemic/zombie media.

Again, my pitch for support. Some dev's don't need support, they already make enough. I try and throw my support around to dev's who are starting, but building something special. Not only is that true of this dev, but his pace is the best I've seen.

One of my favorite games out at the moment, and one of the few I am backing financially via Patreon. The setting is unique to this site, and the story is well thought out. The porn is great too, consisting of high quality renders and animations. If you enjoy this game and have the means to, I encourage you to support the creator on Patreon. I was amazed to find that as of writing this their was so little backing of the game

Reviewed as of v0.18.0 (Chapter 18), nothing I wrote here changed for Chapter 19.

TLDR; This game is an easy 5/5. Play it if you haven't.

To list the positives without getting into spoilers:
The girls are hot, the animation is smooth (both things you can expect from HS games) and the writing is shockingly great. The characters are written well and behave like real human beings. I was surprised on multiple occasions during my playthrough at just how believable the characters were despite this being an Adult game. The plot is extremely basic and unengaging, but the story works because the plot is elevated by decent world-building and really great character writing.

This game is 100% worth your time and you should play it.

I'll talk about the negatives here and might get into minor spoilers. Nothing major, but be warned:

• The girls look hot, as I said, but their models are all pretty generic looking. Alice, in particular, looks like the default "mom" model. She looks almost identical to the mom-like character in Mythic Manor.
• The character writing is really great, but if I had to nitpick, it gets a little long-winded at times. Sometimes the characters will just repeat themselves one after the other and you find yourself skipping through redundant dialogue. On other occasions, it feels like the dev is jerking themselves off by having the MC rattle off some obscure fact semi-related to the situation because, in some way, saying "look how smart the MC is" is also the dev saying "look how smart I am".
• The main character's model needs to change. I know it would be a pain in the ass to go back and redo all the old stuff, but at least in the next update or two, you should have Naomi cut the guy's hair for the rest of the story. No one likes the mop-head and it makes the game feel silly when everyone is talking about how handsome they are when his hair looks greasy and gross.
• The plot meanders a bit too much. I feel like this game could have concluded in like 15 chapters if the pacing was just faster, but it just goes by very slowly. Furthermore, I have no idea where the plot is headed. Each little "arc" seems to go the same way. MC and girls arrive at location. Location is good. Suddenly bandits, infected, or some other external factor forces them to leave. MC and girls leave location. Then rinse and repeat forever. I'm not sure if the dev is milking this for as much as they can or if they have some conclusion they are building to, but right now, the best way I could describe this plot is Completely Aimless. Hopefully future updates prove me wrong and there is some justification for all the faffing about.

All-in-all, this game is not perfect, but it's a really incredible game nonetheless. It's great if you want a good story with good characters, and it's great if you just want some hot fapping material. Play this game if you haven't already. If the dev addresses the flaws I mentioned above, this could easily become one of the best game on this sites, hands down. If the dev does not address these flaws, I may have to reduce the rating to a 4/5 in future updates.

Highly recommend if you like a good zombie survival story. I'm surprised that this game does not have more popularity on this site. TONS of content (18 chapters so far), good immersive storytelling and character development that makes you care about the characters and what happens next. I think the post-apocalypse zombie genre works really well, though sometimes stretching your suspension of disbelief... as others have pointed out, the MC drives a charger across a zombie-infested city--WTF?

Some cons: MC's hair is atrocious. Story pacing can get a little slow at times with long walls of boring inner monologue (school arc). The dark grungy scenes and rendering is a good artistic choice, but sometimes the skin tones look... off... splotchy green or orange (Naomi in particular)

Completed game revised review.

Great story and characters.
The ending (for the harem) wasn't really to my liking, but it was good enough.

I did encounter a bug that made a couple of scenes repeat. I downloaded the game and replayed it from the start and did not encounter that bug again. So I have no idea what happened there.