VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Playing with Fire [v1.0.4] [HighbornTiger]

I thought a lot how to rate this. It's more in line with 3 star reviews form my perspective. Everything is quite OK about it. Story is fine, characters are fine, girls are ok as well, it's not outstanding in anything.
Still it seems like the dev's first production and don't want to drag it down. I actually enjoyed it.
I think it's a strong point that this dev's girls seem to be less barbie girl and more closer to realistic (well still quite perfect in some ways as for every AVN), anyway, they feel less pretty but more realistic and hence still attractive. For example skin texture is something most AVNs seem to basically skip and he makes the effort, it's highly appreciated.
The story was pretty short so characters not very deep, but they still had their distinct personalities and interesting, unique interactions with the MC so I actually enjoyed pretty much all interactions. A pity for the simplicity of the story, would have liked to score with Izzy's mom
My favourite was Jenny but I liked all the LIs. Maybe Izzy's mom was more interesting than her but the other 3 were all pretty good with some own backstories. Again not too deep but suitable for the length of the AVN.
I'm upset with the recent wave of censorships and mass surveillance / destroying anonymity and privacy attempts by governments, for example no way to buy the games I like on Steam in my country, Patreon's pretty bad, but ss is also bad in different ways, I wish this kind of legal content wouldn't be censored and wouldn't need to be self-censored so we would have more consistency and easier ways to provide monetary compensation. It's awkward with patches and whatnot and it wasn't perfect in this case either.
Wishing good luck to the dev, and I am following the current game as well, was surprised now to see they are from the same dev but there's things that feel consistent actually and I'm glad he tries to keep some identity; so many VMs and quite a few don't have any identity.

Not sure what went worng with this game, my guess is it was supposed to have multiple protagonist, since Chloe is Daniels love intrest?
i thought she was one of the best looking LIs in the game which i was looking forward to play around with but apprently not going to happen at all.

I was pretty damn supprised when i found out Chloe was going to be with Daniel which just dident feel right at all, why would Daniel have love intrest with a total of 4 girls if there wasent supposed to be a second MC? i mean theres 0 scenes where you controle Daniel as an MC it just feels like its been cut out of the game for some reason, proberly due to people not likeing the idea of a second MC, but i still think it would be better to have him in the game as it was ment to be? or you miss out on alot of scenes, including Chloe.

Story is also average, it has a nice walkthrough build-in to the game.
The graphics arent bad i would call them average.
It has music which is nice, makes game alot better.
Animations is also around average.

So all in all, its an average game so 3 stars worth.

Early review: 3 Stars. Props for the okay (but not great) things and the in-game walkthrough design. Stars removed for the lifeless expressions and the obscenely loud music.

Who went and sucked the joy out of this VN?

The facial expressions are the most flat I've ever seen. Doesn't matter the circumstance, everyone feels lifeless. Happy with something that happened? No expression. Angry with MC? No expression. Wild, passionate sex? No expression. MC and Jenny laying in MC's bed at the end of a session is the most bizarre sight: MC's propped up against his pillow looking in one direction, Jenny is propped against MC's left side look in a slightly different direction. It looks like some risqué album cover. A similar post-coital scene with Marie looks slightly better; MC has fallen asleep, but Marie has a wistful look in her eyes. Probably would've been better if she had fallen asleep embracing him rather than on the other side of the bed.

Other than the lifelessness, the characters look good. Story is okay. In-game walkthrough selection (because this VN doesn't have a harem ending) is great for guiding you to the multiple endings. There is a "cheat walkthrough" that lets you see all of the endings (the right flags will be triggered to ensure each ending pops up for you), but it will miss some of the lesser-necessary content of each origin walkthrough because some events occur simultaneously (the cheat walkthrough will guide you down the paths more important to seeing all of the endings though). It's an interesting concept to save making multiple playthroughs.

Last, the music is way too loud. I know, I usually say "at least it has music", but it's loud enough in this VN that it's almost easier to simply turn the music off and be done with it. Normally the music in Ren'Py games is normalized poorly and the VN has to have its volume pulled back to somewhere between 50-75%, and the less normalized that music is the more variation you'll get between tracks. I usually turn the music level back enough so that the loudest audio doesn't bother me and just deal with lacking audio on other tracks. This is the first time I've ever had to tweak a volume to around 25%, and it's still pretty excessive on the loudest tracks. At least the music (so far) isn't so loud that there were obvious clipping issues at the top end, definitely surprised by that.

This game has graphics a bit bellow average. Ther renders are also around average. Not any great details. The characters are a bit attractive but nothing special. The story is also around average. Overall: not great not terrible.

I had initially wanted to skip this game because the love interests in the previews looked a bit weird and unattractive in my eyes, but I'm glad I didn't.

This is a short, but well-paced, feel-good kind of game and normally I wouldn't play these of games because of the lack of suspense and drama but as time went on, I found myself drawn into the love interests' personalities and quirks and their wholesome interactions with the main character. As a result, their girl-next-door looks started growing on me and after my ending, I was left just saying "aww" about how cute the whole thing felt. Try it for the gushy feelings it'll invoke in you.

A shame this ended early. Wish more games featured girls like Jenny who are curious and willing to explore denial and submission. Also wish that Jenny got a proper date at the end for being the best girl.

I really love this game and in want of the sequel. I really hope that the sequel will be longer, as the only problem with this is the shortness. Also I want to know more about Daniel and his girls.

Just now I've only played one part of Jenny's story, but in some weeks I'll do the other one. Just now I've only been dominating and I loved that part. It was written and exercised in such a good way. I can feel the love between them in this way. Still, it will be fun to do the romantic one in some weeks.

The renders are ood, seen better but seen some much worse also. The lewd scenes are good also.

So, good luck with the sequel and hopefully the first part it arrives soon.

Version reviewed 1.0.4 (Completed)

I was struggling a bit with the rating - 4 or 5 stars. I wanted to go for the full score because while I have some quibbles with the game personally, it does what it wants to do perfectly. In the end however it is not an outstanding milestone, so I kept it "low".

To start with a tl;dr though: this isn't the perfect game and it probably isn't the one you'll remember the most or tell all your friends about. But it could actually very well be a game to lure people in. I stumbled across it by accident and have enjoyed the two evenings it took me to get through it.

The graphics are well represented in the preview pics, to me some faces are a bit stiff in their expressions, everything else is good, nothing jaw dropping though. The animations are technically well done but some also are a bit wooden.

The plot itself is well written, insofar as it is existent - we have a typical slice of life scenario with some guy running around lusting after girls and nothing major happening apart from that (or so it seems). I will disagree with the statement that the incest feels tagged on when it is clearly a friend scenario. I clearly see the incest scenario in this. If you are exclusively here for the big I however, you might find some stuff lacking (it is legal in this universe and not such a big matter at all, so no major conflict arises).

The characters are a bit stereotypical and, given the shortness of the game, not too deep, however there is a bit of a twist to everyone, so they still feel fresh despite filling archetypes.

The actual text is well written and other than a different review to me the flow of the text seems pretty natural. Apart from the odd typo, but these are few and far between, the English is good.

The presentation in general is about as flawless as it gets, the UI is sleek, the presentation of gallery and achievements is, too. There are one or two "easter eggs", funny smaller things to explore which are not game related, as well.

Gameplaywise, the game isn't long (and thus the pacing is a bit quicker than would be my preference, but I am a "slow guy"). You will have to make an amount of decisions to "get the girl" you want which is not that intense, so in parts it feels a bit railroaded. Finding the correct decisions in my opinion is easy but in case you're struggling there is a built-in walkthrough. Everything here is logical however, you won't lose love points because you order a cheeseburger instead of french fries or similar silliness we too often encounter.

And this is why I think this is a good introductory game. It isn't too long so you will get your ending and your success, it shows what a classic AVN without too much razzmatazz will do. There is a limited amount of characters so you won't lose the overview of who is who (even though Izzy and Lena do look a bit similar). Achievements, as known from other games, may entice you to try something different. In general I am not a big fan of them but here IMO they work very well and there is only one "for sake of the achievement", i. e. not helping you find aspects of the possible stories.

I also consider the game better than the sum of its parts since to me there is a certain feel that "this is right" - even though you can see that others disagree.

It should be mentioned that I can see how some people would be disappointed with this game in a different aspect: the "real story" starts when the game already has ended (it is a bit difficult to explain without spoilering). This apparently is because a sequel is planned using characters from this game. Which in the end means you'll need to play both to get the whole story, and that could end in "multiple protagonists", which I am not a fan of. It also means that some characters are introduced in this game which do not fill a major role, which can also be a setback when you're used to being able to interact with every character.

In the end, if you never play this, your life won't be meaningless. But if you do - and do not expect a 60+ hour epic with 25 LIs - you can have a fun romp. I sure did.

This game leaves me feeling conflicted. The renders are fine, the characters look good (I'm not a fan of some of their faces, but that's entirely subjective) and their personalities are... likable, but nothing special. The writing felt a little awkward—it's not written as if it's a story, but rather a string of actions and some thoughts sprinkled here and there. It's not an ISSUE, but I found the first few minutes kind of jarring, and I never really got used to it. Something always felt a little "off" with the writing when it wasn't people talking.

Now, the reason I'm conflicted is simple. The story sets itself up as if it's going to be a rather lengthy one, and first appears to be taking its time with introducing each character/interest and showing who they are or what they want. There's an intrigue that begins to build with the things happening around the school and its students.. and then it just kind of falls flat.

The relations feel rushed, there's no real development. One moment someone is blackmailing someone else, then THEY'RE being blackmailed, then suddenly they're fucking. Most of the plot is like this. You meet someone, you talk to them once or twice in a small plot point, then bam, fucking. Which is great if you're in a rush, but is incredibly boring if you're actually taking your time to read it all instead of skipping through with ctrl.

The plot points don't make a whole lot of sense, either. The things that motivate some characters don't really make sense at times, so they end up feeling forced, which robs their interactions of any potential interest when it feels like someone is constantly pulling the strings to make these people act the way they are acting around the Main Character. Things that seem important fall to the wayside so that porn can happen, and then it.. ends.

For clarification, I did end up skipping the last half of the game once I was tired of it. I stuck with it as long as possible, but once I realized how little there was to offer in terms of actual writing I skipped straight to the porn, which was okay, but nothing special.

I know this probably sounds harsh, but it's harsh with the best of intentions. There's definition potential if the Dev pursues another game and irons out these issues, but it just felt a little rushed and bare bones. Good luck with any future endeavours!

Edit; It's come to my attention that the game is basically unfinished due to not making enough money and being rejected by steam which... explains a lot of the issues I had.

I hope the second "part" to this game fairs better, but I'm a bit disappointed that it was decidedly rushed if you planned on making more games in this universe.

Pros:
- Dominant and masculine MC who is nevertheless also able to show love
- different routes for Jenny
- believable through " hard mode " (all the harem games are so unrealistic) a nice change
-different girls/routes -> high replay value
- no kinks like NTR, Sharing, Threesome, Lesbian and other shit that I dont like or meanwhile just makes me tired (I repeat: that you don't have a harem with 100 girls but have to choose instead is something GOOD for me, because it also adds to totally different games for players)
- no annoying sandbox

Con:
- the graphics could really use an upgrade
- some relationships dont seem to be fully developed or they lack the reasoning behind it (Jenny for example)

The renders are okay, but sometimes very dark (Pool scene with Lena for example). Animations quite poor and sometimes not reflecting the text and vice versa. And a lot of text without helping the storyline. What for? A story can be simple, but there should be a line to follow. But this doesn't exist. Jumping from one episode to another without a transmission. Sex scenes with an abrupt ending. A lot of space to become better. ;-)

The story and renders are okay for the most part.
Unfortunately this game fails in the naughty scenes. The sex scenes feel like those movies where you see the characters get hot and bothered and then fade to black and then they are just chilling in bed.

[v0.2.1] Not much content yet, so the rating is rather provisinal.

I found the game quite interesting and enjoyable, despite the (so far) not terribly original basic overall story. The writing, the atmosphere, the renderings, the models are all good.

I don't like this game. The script is poor and very unoriginal. Is the same game played one time and another. The render are pasable, but with nothing that stands out. The gameplay is terrible boring with a very little options. I recommend avoiding this game, you have already played hundreds of similar games and there is nothing that makes it different or remarkable.

English 5/5, script 4/5 , renders 4/5, I do not really pay much attention to animations or music so I will not grade that. Like that a cheat option for a Harem path has been included. Looking forward to future updates. Good luck on your game Highborn Tiger

So I'm only writing this review because I think a lot of you like me have played this game before and now forgotten about it. If you're wondering if there is any new content, short answer there isn't. The game ends the same as when it did in v0.1.

I don't see the point of 're-releasing' this game as v0.1.1 if there's a few scenes added mid-game and two extra images at the end.

TL;DR
If you've played v0.1, there is no reason to play this new 'update'. I don't even think HighBorn - the dev - said this was an update, someone must have found some update on his patreon page and posted it here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now if you're new to this game - should you play it? Well first thing you should know is that there is practically zero content, it's still a prologue and sets up something that looks good. Hence the 3 stars.

Male Domination scenes - 7/10 - Now again, there's only setting up stuff for the future. There isn't really any domination yet. I was disappointed that there was no non-consensual blackmail/'rape' if you must call it but if the dev doesn't want it in his game then that's understandable. What this game appears to have is consensual non-consensual male domination or whatever. Look it up it's a real thing apparently lol.

Romance - 3/10 - I didn't play this route, but the good thing is there is another route if you don't like the domination route. However, it seemed uninteresting and I'm being unbiased here. There seemed nothing special about the romance between the MC and the main girl Jenny. If you're looking for a romance game, look elsewhere.

Renders - 6/10 - Nothing spectacular, but some of the new renders were really good, I wouldn't mind bumping it to a 7. The previews are what you get pretty much, and I'd say better than acceptable.

Story - 5/10 - I really have no good way to rate any of these, there's too little content in this prologue. This game can turn it out really good and I'd be happy to change my ratings then , but right now I'm only giving it a 5.

Should you support the dev? - I hate giving a negative review as the game is early and this is the best way for devs to get support. Neverthless, this game was abandoned for 6 months and only now HighBorn is working on it again. He still hasn't said anything official himself about v0.2, until then I'd suggest keeping hold of your cash. Sorry dev, I gave my reasoning above.

If you're reading this review when v0.2 comes out, I would definitely recommend playing this because v0.1.1 sets up something good. Hopefully that doesn't take 6 more months, until then, my review remains at 3 star; Neutral.

Very promising game., waiting for next episode. Models are pretty. Blackmail fetish is one of the most kinky for me. Plot isnt some old cliche.
Hope dev isnt drop this game. Idk what to say more. Thanks for game.

Looks promising so far. Content is minimal, renders could be better. But the story is up to a good start, the models used I've never seen (or at least don't remember) which is always good. Wasn't looking for grammar and spelling, but nothing jumped to my eyes, so it's probably good, too. I personally like domination paths, and finally one that doesn't imply incest. In hope to see some substantial updates soon, i "award" 4 stars