As of now (
v0.3.0) it's maybe too early to judge, but there's already enough to constructively criticize with the intend to improve the current and future content... so let's do:
1)
The post-apocalyptic story premise & world isn't believable or realistic.
How high into the sky
has an airship to fly
to avoid the toxic mist
that 's covering the gist
of all earthly ground?
In other words:
so high above the clouds that there would be not enough oxygen to breeze without air masks or proper tech behind. And yet people frequent the open deck "outside" on that airship without much indication of this kind of tech. Under these circumstances they should all be dead within seconds - but not here. Is it magic? Or just ignorance?
In any case it's a severe issue, isn't it?
2)
The writing is more or less decent but does not leave much mentionable impact on me. For me it's too much trivial and almost jovial chatter between a bunch of newly introduced characters (with really odd names like "Daust", "Narone" or "Arlae") that seem to know each other well, but are still kind of blank pages for me as the player after their first appearances. So it's hard to immerse with their group dynamics.
Sometimes the dialogues even feel somewhat stiff and seem to lack the substance that could build up some deeper immersion with those characters as well as the horrific world they are trying to survive in. To be fair, some references hint at their world, their tech, their societal structure and so on, but without any ingame codex explaining those more detailed, it's difficult for me as the player to comprehend those initially.
The almost absurd cliffhanger at the end of the intro showing what their next destination on the toxic fogged earth inhibits
... a DRAGON !!! does not really contribute to something more immersive, realistic and profound for me. Cause every post-apocalyptic plot certainly needs some serious threat out of fantasy tales, doesn't it?!
But well, maybe that's only me yearning for more plausibility here.
3) Almost the whole
introduction of this VN is purely kinetic.
Choices start later on, so a bit of patience is needed if you like some player agency. Some of those choices seem to impact the story progression, some affect the MC's skill stats or relationships with the potential LI's. But at times it's not clear enough to what they may lead - in particular those regarding the lewd scenes.
Btw, in an earlier version the first sex scene happened without a choice and was therefore forced - always a no-go for me! Thankfully the dev added that choice, so thumbs up!
4) The few
lewd scenes so far are okayish, but I've seen better. Because they come too sudden and often lack erotism and some build-up. The animations are mostly solid, except for some minor glitches or stutters. There are usually varied camera angles for each scene as well as mostly a small number of different poses. Pretty much vanilla, but that's not bad in my book.
The potential LI's introduced at the moment are few and there's only one you can get intimate with - too early to say anything else about her or the few others.
5) A minor issue, but:
You can't rename the MC right from the very start. It makes not much sense that you're given the option to name the MC (originally "Daust") much later on. So why not before the beginning?
Conclusion:
"Shroud" in this very early state of development is definitly not bad or poor - it's okay. But it lacks quite a bit to be really an interesting story with the right amount of immersion with the world and its characters so far to be more than passable, slighly above average.
After the introduction some
RPG-like gameplay elements are introduced - such as inventory management, skill & relationship stats, sandbox exploration (no grind!) and turnbased combat. The combat system seems to be a bit too random to me and may need a bit more polish, the gameplay elements could maybe need an additional short intro tutorial, but I generally like this direction into being more than a AVN.
The
visuals aren't an issue, the renders and the few animations are mostly okayish, some of them up to quite good.
Can't say that the
music or sounds were annoying or distractive in any way, some ambience & fx sounds quite well chosen - so that's no issue as well.
But the
writing and character introduction is just not interesting and immersive enough for me so far, the apocalyptic setting kind of inplausible and not well enough developed yet, world building only fragmented. I get that it's impossible and not smart to stuff all of the information in the player's head at once, but perhaps a codex could help to feel not too much thrown into an unknown world without any knowledge of it?!
After my first playthrough nothing was really outstanding or picking my interest, that's why I initially rated "Shroud" only 2.5 stars.
That has changed with my second playthrough. I think, after the unspectacular intro the story get's a twist in the right direction. The post-apocalyptic world becomes more threatening and tangible. And the addition of the gameplay elements are - even in the need of some more polish - potentially a benefit to the immersion and the plot.
Therefore I raise my rating to
3,5 stars - with a recommendation for keeping an eye on the further development and give it a chance.
- With more future updates I may revise my review -
