Ren'Py - Red Room [v0.36c] [QuietLab]

This game feels a bit like a 1980's sex comedy, with a slight dash of horror/thriller mixed in. As you may be able to tell from the generous sampling of One-Star reviews, that's not a mix everyone is going to have a great time with.

Horniness and enjoyability in adult gaming is mercurial, to a certain extant. Because of that I can't just say, "everyone who hates this game is wrong, it's awesome!" However, in my opinion, there's nothing 'average' or 'mid' about the models for the female characters. With only a few exceptions, I think they're all pretty great. Oddly enough, the character model for the mother seems to have degraded through releases. She's not as pretty in 0.24b as she was at the beginning. Scarlett, the sister character, is still a standout for me, though. Really attractive character.

The set design throughout is also done very well. This is a 'sandbox'-style game (more on that in a second), which means you'll spend a great deal of time clicking through renders of homes and buildings on your way to the next story beat; and in that regard, all the locations look good, feel lived in (or at least look like snapshots from a Home& Gardens magazine) and immersed me in the world of Red Room.

I'd also like to address another thing I disagree with; the opinion that the story is bad. Completely disagree. The story in Red Room is not bad. The writing is. Let me try to illustrate that point. The main character is living with his mother and sister, working for his grandfather while his sister looks for a job. Being inattentive at work leads to an accident, and the main character finds he needs to get a new job. He begins working for a shady dude named Thomas at his photography studio, while wooing Thomas' sister on the side. This eventually leads to a tense revelation, and another, more permanent job opportunity for the MC and his best friend. Alongside that legitimate occupation, due to prior crimes the MC now also finds himself in deep with a more illegal operation.

This is not a bad story. That's more plot than a lot of AVN's have, and that's still just the set-up. Being completely honest, I haven't masturbated once playing this game. The sex scenes are short, very short, and not much is going on in them. There a quite a few of them, to be certain, they just aren't that long and there isn't much stimulating about them. But I like stories with corruption and snuff as fetishes or themes, and Red Room has those, and the story is good enough that I kept going even though it isn't terribly erotic at present. Strong hints of incest, my personal favorite fetish, doesn't hurt either, though I'd prefer if incest and snuff not mix, and thankfully that doesn't seem to be happening in Red Room.

The writing is improving, however. Noticeably. At the beginning of the game, I legitimately wasn't even sure if Scarlett and the main character were related because of the manner in which the two of them spoke to one another. But as the story goes on, they become more familial in their responses to one another, especially in the second half of this 0.24b version.

Now there is a complaint I've read that I have to agree with entirely. Red Room is a kinetic visual novel, masked as a sandbox to give it more of an adventure game feel. That's simply the truth at present. There are no genuinely impactful choices. Everything plays out in one specific way. All you're doing is clicking on rooms, doors and people to progress. I personally hate sandbox in VN's, so I was thankful that there's a suggestion box letting me know what I'm supposed to do next, but I'd much prefer just being able to go through the story using just the spacebar. As it is, that's not the Dev's interest, so if I'm going to continue with Red Room I'm just going to have to get over it. But for what it's worth, yes, Red Room is a kinetic, no genuine choice visual novel, that takes longer because you're unnecessarily trapped in the sandbox system.

I really love darker themes in adult games. Corruption, snuff, rape, necro, these can be powerfully erotic if done well. Very late into 0.24b, there's a moment with a pretty girl and a screwdriver that actually felt a bit titillating. And incest is just wonderful, again, when it's actually embraced as a fetish and not just matter-of-factly stated as a thing that's happening; that too is improving, as Scarlett and the MC are growing closer. I genuinely think there's promise in Red Room, and I will continue to look into it. If those traits and fetishes do not interest you, then by all means, steer clear of this game. But by no means do I think Red Room is a lost cause. If you are a fan of darker themes, I'd encourage you to give this a shot. I wish the Dev luck, and hope this game continues to improve.

Story is pretty bad, renders are about average, game has no animations, no music and pretty sure its missing kinetic tag.

Game is sandbox and an annoying one at that, moving around is boring no room map but constantly clicking arrows to move around...all you do is look at the question mark to see where to go next and follow the kinetic set questline..... even simple things like go to scarletts room click on her and tried to leave but nope cant do that since i have to follow an idotic kinetic story so your forced to remove covers and keep going untill she wakes up and catches you? whats the point.... i dident want to do it but if you try to skip time instend it just tells you nope you got more to do...so you cant controle fuck all in this one.

Its also a mindless fuckfest game where you controle absolutly nothing, meet a girl and start doing something sexual shit from BJ to fucking, forget all about relationships and it dosent matter if you know the girl or not or if you like or hate them its just fuck em all?

It might have NTR but when you couldent care less about the girls since you barely get to know them just makes the NTR becomes pointless.

I feel like iam being nice giving this one 2 stars really.

I am not even sure how to address this game. There's killing in a lot of games and then there's this. The way this game is setup it's less porn and more for gore lovers. Only because it's a horrible sandbox game it takes forever to get to the point. Even worse the MC is yet another wuss.

really enjoyed this last update and game in general, renders are nice, writing is good and ofc, is not a game for everybody, but if u are into these flavors, u will enjoy for sure this game. Can and is going to be improved, like dev did the last updates. Cant recomend to everyone, but the title if u have been on the internet long enough, tell you alot.

It was an ok game, albeit a little grindy... right up until they (spoiler) brutally murder and behead a female character.

I thought this was going to be a male domination/ bdsm type game. There certainly were indications, but it seems the developer has decided that instead he wants a game with mutilation and murder. I just can't get behind such a game and for that reason unless these items become optional and or are removed, I won't be playing this any longer.

Story line is terrible, had promise but went down hill fast. The tag needs an NTR tag for sure in the future. The few choices you can make dont even matter and you cant make important decisions. id say just skip this game

v0.13

• Great quality renders and choice/variation in body styles, nothing too cartoonish.
• Quick and snappy menus, really clean UI. The hover over over hint function should be standard in all games.
• Fun story which is not just a wall of text.
• Personally I'd like it to be maybe 30% harder to sleep with everyone, the relationships comes a little too easy imo, but that's just my taste. I prefer a medium SB experience, this is very linear.
• Maybe add optional room navigation at the top of the screen, clicking through the house becomes a bit tedious after a while.

Red Room [v0.14] [QuietLab]

Games like these make me wonder if the Dev ever played his own game, or if he ever played a Sandbox game.
The second question would be if he really expects people to pay for this garbage.
Everything about this game is trash and i´m not joking. The Sandbox mechanics are absolutely horrible. You waste the majority of the time trying to find the right location to continue. The Story is incredibly boring and everyone wants to be with you, without any explanation.
The writing is atrocious. The content is so dull and if you really searching for dark content then you´re at the wrong adress.
Don´t waste your time and find another game.

Corridor gameplay in maze world.
You can't expect players to find what you want them to do without giving directions.
99% of the lifespan of this game is searching for "what to do" "where to do".
At least put some quest objectives to help

Renders are alright, but a couple of big issues.

1) Should be a VN. It is a totally linear game, BUT you have to check every location every day to find the one thing that will advance the plot. This 100% should simply be reformatted into a more typical VN, the sandbox portion is entirely pointless clicking.

2) Bait and switch with the darker content. The second image, which is probably what intrigued most people bothering to play this, is a complete bait and switch. This isn't a dark game, you break into the room where it is happening and rescue the girl instead. white knight 100%.

3) Every girl wants MC. For no reason that I can discern, there are several girls who you have sex with just because you exist. No real plot to explain it.

4) English is a little lacking. I won't say it is full Engrish, it mostly is grammatically correct if only using super basic verbiage, but there are times it looks like someone put their homework into google translate and just turned in the result. You can discern what they want you to do in game, but it's clearly wrong. Needs some serious polish in the writing department to meet even a neutral baseline.

Overall- it could develop into something decent if the author shifts to a VN format better suited for the story he is trying to tell. Sex scenes are decently rendered, but not especially gripping with the animation or duration, especially after clicking around losing your boner in between each of them. With SERIOUS work this might be worth it. For now though, skip it.

There's certainly potential here, but as it is, it's a no hint sandbox with english as a second language.

If the dev decides to take at look at how the game plays it might be worth more, but as is, it's more frustrating than interesting.

While the game tries to touch on some kinky fets the game can't avoid three issues. Pointless sandbox, little and poor guidance within that sandbox, and renders which, while some standouts are in it, are mostly generic.

Hopefully it improves but for now, after the initial release and .11, it's a pass for a few versions unless it can keep some of the dark mixed with being not too serious but also streamline the fun and porn payout.

Here's a precis, since there isn't one, and some people have an issue with that.

MC lives with his mother and sister, it's the start of the holidays, I guess after high school, if we're using a US measure. MC is a bit of a moronic pervert (like 90% of MC's in these games) but hides it behind his even more moronic best friend (like 90% of these games). MC is looking for work for the summer, and gets a job as a photographers assistant. Things get interesting (in more than one way) from there. Morality and social norms appear to have pretty much skipped this universe, and noone seems to spend any time worrying about them, like he pervs on his 'housemates' right from the start, never has a thought about it being wrong or inapropriate, and when he is caught doing some pretty inapropriate things, he faces no repercussions.

I'll start with the cons, because they are obvious.

I don't see the point of it being sandbox. There is only one path, and it is linear with no real options. A couple of individual scenes can be viewed in a different order, but that is it. There are a few points where the MC has to sleep during the day to pass time for the next event, but only a few, so there isn't even much space to add additional routes or choices.

There are hints to direct you to the next task, but they are all in the dialogue and they aren't always clear. So there is no log you can go to if you lose your place. If you don't play the whole thing in one sitting, which is fairly easy to do now, but will obviously get harder as content is added, then I can easily see people coming back to it and being totally lost.

These were the problems I noticed. I only played it on 1.1 and I didn't experience any of the bugs or glitches people previously reported, so I assume they have been fixed.

The eh, kinda so so choices.

The game drops you right into the middle of the story, the MC and friends already know what the 'Red Room' is and therefore it is never explained so you have to work it out for yourself. Some people like that kind of thing, some don't. In case someone wants to go in totally fresh, I've explained it under the spolier tag.


The pros

It doesn't take itself too seriously, and the story moves along at a decent pace. There are a decent number of sex scenes for this early after release, though it is all pretty vanilla so far. The girls are nice for the most part.

The characters and the story is believable enough in the context of an incest porn game, though spotting the plot coming won't exactly tax you. Not least because the preview pics give half of it away, and the rest is just pretty obvious.

It's not exactly wholly original but it has a few moments, and by the same token its not a clone of something we've seen a million times before.

I debated 3 or 4 stars, and decided on 4 because I'm hopeful and cautiously optimistic, and I felt the 1 star review that was already up when I came to write this is needlessly harsh.

Do you enjoy clicking arrows? Do you enjoy guessing what the fuck you're supposed to do in a sandbox game? If you do then you'll love this game.

Game fucking sucks, clicking 50 arrows to navigate is the most annoying shit ever. Clueless what the fuck I'm supposed to do 5 minutes into the game.

Homie can create 50 arrows to move around the house but can't spell check his game. Enternce.

An example of exactly how to not do sandbox.

Skip.