Ren'Py - Sickimtrack! [Ch.2 P1 v0.1.2] [Eccho Arts]

[Ch.2 P1 v0.1.2] review.
As for now, the game seems like basic college setting game, it doesn't add anything interesting in the genre. Exposition seems OK at best.

Visuals are good: beatiful girls (I like all the LIs available rn) are balanced by kinda weird-looking MC and usual (maybe slightly better than ususal) overall visual quality.

Story seems basic, it's not annoying, but it's not great either. The beginning of the plot tries to be mysterious, dev isn't telling you shit, other than "MC had a troublesome life and now he starts fresh", this seems kinda lazy and cheap, because as for now, dev didn't extend this narrative at all; I don't really see any scars of the past on MC nor his struggles and hyper motivation. There's really no background for MC other than a contact named "Her" in a contacts list in a phone, which is again, for now seems like a really cheap trick to make people invest in the story and MC.

Since I already mentioned this, MC is a blank list with really no background, that would affect him in any sort. It is good if the dev is giving the player dozens of ways allowing to shape the MC themselves, but I don't really see the changes. Even though two updates could be too little to judge the state of MC development, but I didn't see any lines in code that would show MC's progression (and I don't get why the game has an RPG tag). Everything seems kinetic, you can't really change your behavior if you're already engaged in a dialogue, most of the choices are quite useless and in the notable ones you're choosing between talking to the girl or not.

Characters are okay/good. They can be distinguished, some of them have a soul, but that's quite it. LIs have different personalities, one or two of them I would even call unique, so that's good.

Gameplay is kinda weak, most of the plot choices are forced, there's really no sandbox(again, i don't get why it's tagged so), only a few freeroams, which are okay, excluding the fact that they force you do things you may not really want to do.

Overall, I'd say the game has potential. I really like the vibe and appearance of the LI's. It can get 4/5 in just a few updates but no more than that. The game has some core problems, which usually require remaster.
I already can see some progress made, but there's still a lot to fix, wishing dev the bests.
As for Ch.2 P1 v0.1.2 the game deserves 3/5.

God, this is so hard to play. Honestly, I was expecting a fun romcom with funny situations and likable characters, but what happens in the end?

At the very beginning we're told that we're going to be back in the body of a guy who had something going wrong after high school and he suddenly gets a chance to fix his life. Okay, the plot seems mediocre but suddenly there will be something interesting, sometimes a corny beginning is even good. But no guys not this time, all the scenes happening to the main character are so stupid and unoriginal that you want to press Ctrl and fast forward.
But it's still nothing when the main character starts talking to someone that's when the real hell starts. Young people talk as if they have computers with artificial intelligence in their skulls or they were possessed by Martians from the movie “Mars Attacks”. No, I understand that a lot of people don't need a plot they're attracted to beautiful visuals and hot sex scenes. But no guys when you have dialog like this no amount of renders and scenes will save you. It's just painful to read. And I honestly don't know if it can even be fixed...

Well okay, forget it, after all you can make a cute main character and a couple of lovable girls and what they say to each other can be rewound occasionally after all silent movies were once popular too. That's where the game's second big problem comes in. Characters. The protagonist is a total jerk who seems to have no nice qualities except for his looks which is also questionable. As for the girls - the same story except for gothic modesty and maybe Anna all the others are divided into complete bitches and maybe slightly better. Honestly I can't imagine if the main character was not a jerk but a normal person would he be able to communicate with one of these people for a minute. I think unlikely this game could be passed in 10 minutes and only because of the sandbox elements which are needed only to look for renders.

The only thing that is not bad here is the sex scenes well it's obvious all the same renders in the game are good, the girls look beautiful and different from each other. But again, every sex scene in the game looks implausible as if the developer had to add it otherwise people won't subscribe to it and won't buy the game at all. He's probably right about something if it wasn't for a couple of those scenes there would be nothing enjoyable about the game at all.
Hopefully the game will be improved, although who are we kidding.....

Just awful.

Posing lacks life.

Dialogue is completely unnatural, and particularly contrived.

The humour is embarrassingly bad.

The "story" is utterly boring.

Characterisations are non-existant.

The music is horrific. It's so jaunty and saccharine that I can't help but think the "sick" part of the title comes from how the music makes you nauseated.

Image quality is... Middling. There's no noise from lower quality rendering, but the lighting is very basic.

It may get better as the developer improves, but with this start, it's completely DOA.

The dialogue sounds atrociously unnatural and this proves fatal.

The whole thing is also smaller-than-life, with conversations being more boring than the average real life conversation.

The character models are decent, or at least different from the ones you see used again and again in other games.

The production values overall, aside from the characters, are middling for an AVN, which is to say pretty bad.

Played the first two chapters, initial impressions are.. fine?

Overview
While i see the BADik comparisons, I don't want to judge this game compared to BADik purely because they are college based games. This VN has great potential, but substandard/confusing writing and some weird gameplay choices and short chapters (so far) really hamper it.

Graphics
Graphically, the game looks great, the girls models look great with wide variety (whereas some games like BaDik get stuck into the thin waist, big bust trap, to the point that it stands out on characters without). The environments look great and I think graphics is the strong point of the VN, to have this quality in both models and enviroments early in the development cycle is impressive, especially compared to other VNs.

Only model i'm not particularly keen on is the main character, he looks like he's wearing makeup at times. The scene where he wakes up on the couch after falling asleep on his first day, I thought he got pranked with makeup.

Story
It's harsh to judge the story two episodes in, MC feels like a blank slate for the User to shape, which would be great if the game featured some sort of morality system that would affect his personality, but looking at the code, there's no real consequences to being confident or being more reserved. There's no overarching story thus far, but again we are very early into the story, but most VNs begin to plan the story earlier.

Gameplay
Gameplay has some weird quirks that I'm not entirely sure on. I don't understand blocking Rollback in dialogue, having to Quick Save every dialogue choice to see both sets of conversations is awkward and downright annoying.

The phone behaviour is annoying, sometimes you can click it, sometimes you can't, I think the game would benefit from a hotkey like Leap of Faith or BaDik.

Overall so far, the game has potential, I'll keep my eye on it, but it's not going to be a game that I rush back to when an update comes out

Had a bit of a hard time with this one, story is very vanilla about MC start college which is nothing new, he meets some girls and so on...I dont mind a standard setup but theres quite a few issues i hated.

MC hes a shimp, so if you stand up to anyone you get your ass kicked, hes also very submissive like a girl pushes him into the bathroom and take hes dick out and start jerking him off, it feels to kinetic and to idiotic and all to make some stupid drama when a dude walks in and starts yelling.... all it does is make you feel less in controle which is not a good thing.

Same can be said for the freeroam parts, again its all kinetic so your forced to do every task even those you wouldent want to, like picking up panties on a bed....im not into panties and would never pick that shit up, unless they are on a girl i wouldent want anything to do with them.....and again its just due to the hole kinetic nature of the game, like you cant avoid taking a girl home with you even if you show 0 interrest in her, nothing happens with her but still makes it feel a bit off.

It also constantly zooms in on tits and asses...no option to look so your forced to play that perverted type that cant controle him self....

And ofc he also has the standard 12 year old mindset lusting for everyone, which feels absoultly idiotic when you dont play it like a fuckfest, like when MC goes damn good tits and what a perfect woman, to seconds later he turns her down....it just breaks the story and immersion, devs needs to learn to leave those thoughts up to the player, instend of how MC/dev feels about them.....

Ends with MC thinking of him self as a sex worker? while giving a girl a massage which ofc you as the player again has 0 controle over if you want to do it or not.

You might be able to turn down girls you dont like, but i cant really say for sure since MC apprently allow things to go so far so girls starts touching hes dick and giving him a handjob, what else it will end up forcing on you i have no clue but its a pretty bad start when it comes to choices.

The girls looks alright but it and it has a little diversity in builds but not much, most look pretty much the same with average tits, think i saw 2-3 bimbo and one small rest average and as for personalties theres anything from shy to whores types.

Game claims to be animated but i saw 0 animated sex scenes so i wouldent call it animated atleast not yet, so shouldent really put the tag up untill its in the game and kinda wierd no other reviews even mention this fact?....

And RPG tag? no clue why thats there either, maybe its something planed later but theres nothing in game yet that could counts as RPG.

Choices seems to work for now and nothing is really forced other then going to far before stopping someone, but it also has dream stuff which often is used to force sex scenes into the game as well, not that it has done it yet but it might, i just hope dev is smart enough to add a skip option atleast.

Music is pretty good.

It has potential to become a good game but its way to early to say and as it sits right now its at best 3 stars, ill revisit this one it has a few more chapters and edit my review then.

Game is off to a good start. Renders are high quality, the LIs seem to be unique and I like the overall feel of the game. The english isn't the best and dialogue comes off stilted at times, but overall the dialogue feels natural despite it. Two months for first update which was fair size compared to the wait as well.

its more than average but less than Good. si 3,5 stars from 5 just for the record.
SICKIMTRACK!
Well... this was pleasant suprise.
especially for a debut title. While it has room to improve, it lays down a solid foundation for a promising VN.

What I Liked:

1. Slice-of-Life Vibes:
   I love slice-of-life VNs where the MC starts fresh – new school, parties, and meeting people. This story fits that style perfectly, and I’m excited to see where it goes.
2. Party Scene:
   The party scene in Chapter 1 was a highlight, featuring FreeRoam and great music. It was well-executed and super fun.
3. Diverse Characters:
   The girls are varied in design and personality. Some are more visually polished than others, but the cast has potential. I already have a few favorites!
4. Humor:
   The Noodle Guy moment was hilarious. The humor overall was a nice touch sometimes some characters are a little bit "cringe" but it fits their personality so i dont mind it that much.
   ---
   
   Room for Improvement:
   1. Visual Consistency:
      Some characters and scenes look better than others. Polishing this in another chapters would be nice!
   2. Story
      The story is simple so far, but it’s just the first chapter. im curious what main/side plots will be there.
   3. Minor Grammar Issues:
      A few small errors in the text, but nothing major. Fixing these would be also nice!

Final Thoughts:
For a first chapter, SickimTrack! delivers a solid start with great slice-of-life vibes, fun party scenes, and a likable cast. I’ve added it to my “Waiting for Update” list and look forward to seeing how it evolves.

If you enjoy casual slice-of-life VNs, this one is worth checking out.
i wish devs lots of luck and future patreons!

Chapter 1 - 0.1 Fix2

The very strange name of this game caught my attention so I decided to check it out and see what it's all about. It's very similar to other college/slice of life AVNs like BAD or CK etc...

But once I got over the general similarities , the game becomes it's own. I enjoyed the build up with Owen and the entire house-mate concept with him and Tyrone. There are some good bro moments there.

The girls are well written and very interesting . Art-wise, they are sexy and beautifully designed. I am particularly impressed by the quality of the renders. The vibrant colors reflect a fun college-life atmosphere, and the music is good enough to set the mood for scenes.

It is too early to give a proper verdict, but I can say this game has very good potential. So fat, the first chapter was really good. I'm impressed.

While it does not blow your mind, for a first chapter I think it's quite good. Really.

The best thing about what little we have so far about this project is that its got its own flair and vibe, which, considering how 99% of college themed AVN's are clones of the big one around, is fucking great.

Y'all should give it a shot, and leave a review aswell.

WTF does the title mean tho?!

SICKIMTRACK! [Ch 1 v0.1- Fix2]

Another college AVN which got potential to become one of the best games here. First release is surely a hit for me. If you enjoy college themed games you gonna love this. Starting was a normal but it got more interesting at the party. Girls are fun. I enjoyed i enjoyed slightly angrier scene with Chelsea than the normal scene. She sure is crazy. Sandbox part is not grindy it's simple freeroam. I don't know why this got rpg tag usually I hate cause it's more grindy. But in this version it's simple freeroam event. Hope dev won't make it complicated later. Loved the humor in this one bathroom scene with Dirk was so funnier. This one probably need a VN tag

+ College
+ Party
+ Humor
+ Pretty & fun girls
+ Simple sandbox ( simple freeroam event)

Overall i enjoyed this one. Keep up the good work dev looking forward to next updates.

This is one of the best first releases if not the best that I have played. Great renders and a lot of girl diversity. Since its the first release, it is obvios that there will be some lack of things, like the main menu that is a bit lackluster, the free roam needs improvements, but I also find several great thing, like having the balls to implement a free roam in the first release, finding collectables during it, but Im missing 2 things, a scene replay (even if there are sort of 3 right now) and that the collectables stay in your game even if its in another playthrough. I find the story a bit typical in AVNs, and too much similarities with Being a DIK, hopefully this is not another copy with different renders, but overall, really liked the game, keep it up!!