VN - Ren'Py - SnowStorm [v0.9 DR] [GleenX Studio]

This is a game with really high potential, good looking Li's and with variety in looks and personality.
Altough some subpar dialogues ruin immersion in all paths i've tried.
The story is where this game shines, it's intruiging but also suffers from the dialogues, could have a much greater impact on the reader.
The sexual scenes are probably the worst i've ever experienced in a game with such good renders however, this combined with the dislogues makes me unable to score it higher then an average game so 3/5, with potential to be a strong 4 atleast.

I played the dev's previous game which was OK if not memorable, so it took me a while to try this one. It's better. Story thus far (v0.9) is fairly coherent. English is OK, although I'm not sure whether the writer is a native speaker or not - some of the grammar is not idiomatic. Character models are good and varied, with not too many characters from DAZ central casting. Scenes and lighting are fair to good. The Norse theme is reasonably consistent, if you are prepared to accept female characters wandering about in the snow in skimpy clothing and high heels! The key judgement is that at the end of each chapter, you do actually want to know what is going to happen next, so definitely worth a look.

This one suprised me it's a lot better than the Dev's previous game tho some of the bigger problems still remain.The mc at the start behaves like a creep who has never seen a hot woman lol and this sometimes happen randomly too and he seems incompetent but somehow some chapters later becomes a master lol.It would be better if he didn't behave incompetently earlier,that way it would make sense for him to do so good.Also please give the guy some muscles he has been with the Vikings for a while and he is still puny even with all the work he does.
Now why is this still 4 stars?
The branching it's great it really suprised me with how much branching there is.It was great most of it and my favourite girls are Astrja,Nox and Sonja .It sucks that Sonja is a side girl but she gets almost as much care as the main girls so it's still great.Tho there is one thing that isn't good about the branching Mc barely changes the outcomes the only Major thing he changes is on the dark Ravens path with Nox but other than that on bear path and fighting for Sonja doesn't make a difference, things happen the same way regardless, similarly we do get a lot of lore in WW path but we don't change much especially the Archery girl part imo Mc just leaving her felt wrong even if she was working for Candrid.Candrid didn't have much of a hold on her compared to Mc.Lastly my biggest worry is the WW path being Same even with Mc.It would zero sense for Mc to let Astrja, Sonja go fight for the king when he knows the outcome and played the WW on the Candrid Route Mc here should stop Astrja and WW from fighting for the king a Mc who has enough affection should be affecting her and most importantly she knows he is from the future she would believe him and on paths where Mc joins the WW with Sonja high enough affection Check with Astrja should happen.So imo Mc being with WW should 100 percent change the outcome for WW because unlike other things this is all on Mc.
Still this is a great game with lovely characters and plot the only weakness being the MC.

For writing this mediocre, there is way too much story going on. From what I remeber the writing was much better in Sandstorm, so this was confusing.
Also the routes are so different that it it's not really recognizable in a single playthrough, in a sense that it still feels you don't have a lot of choices except a very major one at the start. This just seems like a lot of wasted effort.
The scenes are also not really good.

A really good surprise.

I was not convinced by its prequel, "Sandstorm", but this new installment caught me by surprise. The Dev(s) obviously improved a lot, from the renders looking sharper to the style more defined and grounded (fantasy elements mixed with modern clothing always bothered me on 3D models).

The writing, while sometimes a bit too blunt, is quite serviceable. I wish the MC "thoughts" would try less humor, especially since they often revolve around breaking the fourth wall, undermining the immersion. Which is to say something, because the strongest selling point of this game is its narrative. I was stunned by how quickly I was drawn into its story, which I must confess, I often skip on Renpy games.
The characters feel very different and diverse, and a few of them may take actions that would surprise the player. They also cater to different tastes when it comes to "Love interests", from their looks to their personalities and relationship dynamics.

This game I believe, also delivers the most when it comes to player choices I've seen on this site. You'll want to grind stats to get more options, but there will eventually be choices to make for every playthrough, and those will branch out the main plot drastically. Suffice to say, who you choose to bed will matter beyond your expectations.

I shall spoil no more, but I encourage anyone who enjoyed games such as Desert Stalker to try this one out, it is in my mind its closest competitor now.

Fun premise, a whole lot of historical potential, gorgeous art, hot and varied LI's... I'd say 5 star -- if only there wasn't an MC in this one! Or a different one. Or just -- ANYONE but this totally selfish, ignorant, puerile little know-it-all of a narrator/guide. It makes the otherwise very capable and lovely women look quite stupid. *sigh* oh well, nothing to be done, I guess. Unless maybe he got killed (as he should have been by the 2d day!) and someone bearable takes his place? Dreams...
SO too bad.

SnowStorm in a nutshell:
-Animation (it varies from 5-8 stars)
it pretty much as it was in Sandstorm, hit or miss.

-Photography 7-8
It got better from the last , but it´s still missing lighting and camera work storywise.

-Sound 7
Sufficient, but... is it? it has more than many, but...more later.

-Music 10
it overcome its predecessor, nothing to add here

-Story 9
Mysteries entanged with history and new takes one vikings folcklore, and keeps you wanting to know more and see what is going to happen next.

-Characters 8-9
they are Interesting, engaging, caring, lastly alive.

One point I left behing in the comment before:
REPLAYABILITY:
EXCELLENT. 5/5

-POV 6-7
Another hit or miss, sometimes it is interesting, but... sometimes is "WTF"?

-UI 7
Still needs some polish, as Sandstorm. UI is always left behind, and is the face of the game, it should be consider more... Sandstorm has also this problem, in later versions it has received some love... but I don´t believe it conveys the full potencial and the quality of the game. Sound here should help.
-Dialogues 7
Some are intriguing and enganging but others are written by a teenager.

-Clothing & Character designs 8
Special care here and it shows. Always appreciated.

-Action sequences 8
Some are Excellent, but the ok ones, I think that, with some love and animation + camera angles they could be improve a lot.

Overall, a big step foward from Sandstorm and a very pleasant, funny and interesting game to play.
Actually, it´s one of the "few" I really play and don´t skip.

I love the game so far, but the animations in the sex scenes need a lot more improvement, more animations and many more cameras.
Renders 98%
History 95%
Script 95%
Sound 95% (with moans it would be perfect )
Clothing and setting 99%
Animations 75%
Sexual animations 20%

V0.9 dr

why no religion tag? this VN is filled with it. the gods talk is pretty bloody constant. it is more prevalent than sex.

having read much english history, especially surrounding the dane invasions popularised in bernard cornwell's last kingdom book series, i will skip by the whole viking fiction.
they make have a wiki but so do elves, is all i'm saying.

the rest of the fiction is not bad. pretty engaging stuff when coupled with the pretty decent art and visuals. a little disappointed that love interests are limited and path dependant, as it forces all paths to be played. only tried two so far and events seem to be little in variation of each other. either a rinse and repeat read or a skip button leaner seems an odd design choice.

speaking of odd, at the start i am asked who was my love interest in the previous game, if i tried it. what if i didn't try it? not accounted for. why?

minor things like that to cause the odd frown but nothing bad enough to drop the rating. i cannot give it top marks though. i am just not drawn in as i have already paused play to rate. when will i return? tomorrow or the day after...maybe even next week. it just doesn't grip me.
yes it is enjoyable, just missing that something for me.

No. No. No. I waited on this one to get far enough along so there would be a lot of content. I could not make it through the 1st chapter. The animations are clunky, the dialogue is proper English but a real snooze fest. The story might get better but I got all the way to being incarcerated and it was putting me to sleep. Let me knock someone around or something. Every thing was being done to me and I had no station in this game. Insta delete.

First, shout out to the dev for consistent updates!
The game has a good story, and the nice part is that it's connected to the previous one. There's good branching in the story, and I really like the choices available.

Also, the quality of the scenes is great!

One delusional idea: Make a third game and fully connect parts 1 and 2 in a merged world, where the MC was the reason both worlds stopped functioning (due to world travel corruption) and merged into one world.

EDIT: I also like that the changelog has the update dates, every game should make the update changelogs that way.

Exceptional game！！！
this Viking Age-themed game is a rare gem that offers three developed storylines. Each female character boasts unique traits and beauty, and the visuals are high-quality.
Three Viking tribes, each representing socialism, capitalism, and vandalism —what a creative story concept!

Completely underrated. Story is fantastic, great slow burn, dialogue is better than the vast majority of VNs. Astrid's character is lovely and the character development is great. The plot remains interesting and the ties to Sandstorm are intriguing. Looking forward to exploring the rest of the characters, particularly Nox.

TLDR: It's a great game, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. Graphics, story, and music are all on point. The rest of the review is mostly related to the different paths you can take.

I see some people complaining about the branching paths, where you're missing half the game because you don't see the content of the other branches, but I don't see that as an issue.

Honestly, in my opinion, you should just consider the three paths as three connected, but separate games. I mean, you don't actually see everything that happens off-screen in other games either, right? In any game, you follow an MC and, usually, you have no more information than he/she does. Why would you expect any different here, just because it's folded into one launcher?

Besides, all three paths are radically different:

On the raven path you play as the helper to an obsessed and manipulative dominatrix, who's actual goals and believes are shrouded in mystery (or not, if you choose to believe her rhetoric).

On the wolf path you play as the companion to a powerful do-gooder, who just wishes everyone was nice to each other and got along, while not being shy about introducing anyone who disagrees with that to her magical axe.

Finally, on the bears path, you get roped into the ambitious plans of a chaos-loving, intelligent, and unscrupulous woman who's spent her entire life pretending to be a fool, and chooses you to be the co-beneficiary to her plans.

If I had to sum it up, I'd say that raven path is for those who enjoy femdom, wolf path is the vanilla path, and bears path is for those who enjoy maledom.

Essentially, there's a lot to discover here, and I believe it has something for everyone.

I played through v0.7 in a few evenings, right after finishing the loosely-connected prequel ‘Sandstorm.’

I don’t generally care for this style of branching game, where a single play-through reveals only a fraction of the content. Usually I content myself with whatever I saw on that first play, but this game sucked me in so far that I did three complete play-throughs and explored some of the side branches.

The pros: great characters, graphics, stories, sound track.

The cons: the sex animations are poorly done.

One thing that I found disappointing is that the MC is written as a fairly weak character. As of the latest update, all three clans are headed by strong empowered women, any one of which would dominate the MC: physically or intellectually, depending on which he took up with. It feels like the devs are angling to make him some kind of Viking warlord: but he doesn’t seem suited to that role. Each of the clans does have a less-dominant LI, and I could see him settling down with one of them and getting a job as a bar-tender, wood-cutter, or some-such. Time will tell whether that route is open.

Another thing that comes across as weak is the background story that ties this game together with the prequel Sandstorm, and the planned sequel Duststorm. It feels like something brainstormed with a buddy over a few beers: Take a scattering of gods from random pantheons, throw in some star-gates and timey-wimey stuff, and profit! I hope I am wrong, and there is some deeper story planned; but I’m not seeing it so far.

Overall I recommend this as an excellent example of an AVN.

Review for SnowStorm v0.7 WW. The story revolves around vikings and the norse mythology, and while there is some inaccuracies in the history being represented, it is still fairly engaging and entertaining. The renders in the game are decent as well. The story is split into three branching routes (clans), and ensures multiple replayability. While this may not appeal to everyone, I actually really enjoyed it as each of the clans have their own ideals, beliefs, cultures, and of cos woman. Now the LIs in the game is great, each of them are beautiful and distinct, there will surely be a girl to your liking. I'd like to mention about two of them, Nox and Mathilda. Nox is just my absolute favoute, beautiful, sexy, mysterious. There's nothing to not like about her, well except the sex scene unfortunately, I hated it being a forced scene, with her in her markings and all. The build-up to that point was already so great, having a nice and normal sex scene with her would've been PERFECT. Next would be Mathilda, now while she is constantly bitchy and all, I find it really nice how MC is able to open her up, to find a softer and different side of her as the story goes on. Really enjoyed seeing her change and growth. I do however dislike how it always resolves around Mathilda being a "good girl/bad girl" plot, and would love to have a normal relationship with her as the game progress.

Moving to the cons, I feel the main drawback to the game would be the animations. Some scenes lack animations, while in others the animations feels clunky. The camera angles also needs improvements, as they are not really enjoyable at the current state. The scene with Astrja also feels really rushed, and to top it off, being caught as well. Why not make that scene into a blowjob scene instead, would have flow together nicely. MC is also pretty stupid in multiple instances, like why wouldn't he know where the milk comes from? Some choices also feels like they don't matter at all, such as when getting caught by Candrid, non of the 3 choices changes anything, comeon, I want nothing to do with Candrid, just let me enjoy Mathilda. All in all, I feel SnowStorm is a really great game worth playing, and with some improvements, it can definitely be a 5 star game. Hopefully dev takes a look at all the comments/reviews, and make some improvements on them.

Pros:
-Interesting story
-Decent renders
-Characters are unique and different
-Beautiful models, Nox & Mathilda
-Some bgms

Cons:
-Scenes feels rushed and unrewarding
-Some choices does not matter
-Unavoidable scenes
-Stupid MC
-Gallery filled with story scenes, please only put H-scenes

Snowstorm [v0.7 WW]

I've been watching the development of this vn since its early days, but I've always thought, it's too early for a fair review, yet. With the most recent 0.7 White Wolves update out completing chapter 5, there is enough content for a proper review. (Still I might edit this review at a later development stage)

This VN is part of a series by GleenX Studio (Sandstorm being the first part, Snowstorm the second). You can play Snowstorm without having played Sandstorm of course, but it is recommended to play the latter also for the background story.

The story of Snowstorm is supposed to take place in the Viking era, but it’s a pure fantasy game, which just uses the Viking era as backdrop scenery. Neither the behavior of people, nor the costumes/outfits, weapons or the three clans divided into hair colors and professions are in any way historically accurate. So this is a mere fantasy VN with only very vague resemblance to the Early Middle Age.

Nevertheless the story is pretty much entertaining so far and the writing of dialogues in general is well done.

Personally I do prefer more linear VNs, so that I can experience almost all of the content in only one time efficient playthrough.

But Snowstorm, just like its predecessor Sandstorm, offers several main routes with different content for certain characters. Snowstorm offers 3 main routes depending on the clan the player joins during his playthrough, which then will determine to which characters the main character might be able to get closer or not. So if you really want to see all of the content, the game has got to offer, you will need several playthroughs.

There are a few hard game overs in the game for the time being. F.e. Vikings like all kind of raiders & pirates in history did plunder and rape, but if the player also decides to rape a npc the dev punishes this behavior with a game over, although other npcs in the game do rape, which isn’t sanctioned in any way. So only when the player does it, the dev is going to punish you with a game over screen, which is inconsistent. This is probably due to the fear of the dev to get excluded from Patreon, if he allowed non-consensual sex scenes of virtual daz3d models.

Concerning graphics the daz3d models are great and have enough variety. The outfits & costumes are fantasy not historic.
Some renders are breathtaking, while others are just basic or even look odd sometimes. The renders are very much a mix of quality, but in general enjoyable. There are also some animations, but mainly focusing on scenery, not on characters or sex scenes.

Having mentioned the latter, there is lewd content in the game with different characters for the time being, but most often it doesn’t feel that much rewarding. Some scenes seem to be rushed and they also could be a lot hotter in my opinion by adding more renders and showing different angles. Sometimes you won’t even see the bare breasts of a female during sex, which is an absolute no-go in my opinion.
Unfortunately the sex is pretty much “meh” in this game, despite some optically super-hot characters. In the lewd department there is really lots of room to improve.

Least but not last various music tracks add a lot of atmosphere to the game, which is a big plus.

I will rate this game with 4 stars, despite the flaws, I’ve mentioned above, because I really like it. An honest rating would be 3,5 stars for the time being, but I really hope, that the dev will still improve this vn in order to earn 4 stars. Snowstorm even has got the potential to become a 5 star game, when finished and polished, but that's still a long way to go.

The models are great, the story seems competent, but I simply can't abide missing so much content simply because of a starting route choice. If you don't mind that and don't get FOMO from just 'hearing' about all of the other stuff happening instead of actually getting to see it, I'm sure you'll love the game.

Also this is very much not "How to Train your Dragon" for adults. It's pretty not wholesome, with slaves and thralls and rape and stuff, at least all heavily implied. Should have figured with the whole viking motif (but sometimes the darker aspect of vikings are toned down, like in the aforementioned how to train your dragons, so don't be fooled like me), but I didn't play the dev's previous game (because it has NTR and rape tags) and figured this would be different, since those tags are absent.

TL: DR, visuals are great, story is competent, hated the vibe, lots and lots of FOMO.