VN - Ren'Py - Sophie: The Girl from the Zone [v1|3.5] [DavyCroquette]

I wanted to like this game more than I actually did. Extra star for ambition and mega-story.
BUT. My main problem was that I felt absolutely CHAINED to an LI that I had no way to shake off. Even when I let her fall off a damn 25-ft cliff -- BACKWARDS--right in front of me, to see what would happen -- nope, she's just fine. Eventually, it overwhelmed any fascination I might have developed with the madness/dimensional /zombie apocalypse , and I really just wanted her to go AWAY! At one point I finally got some time to myself on an island, looking for Sophie and meeting other gals -- and who pops up in my face? "I wondered where you were..." Aaaagh!
And oh, there's a very hot young (but not TOO young-20) woman who just happened to have a boyfriend, who MC spends a long time traveling with (of course with stickygirl LI) -- was SHE ever available? Nah... Maybe later -- but I got too tired of smiley-doll leech with the 80's-style Andi MacDowell hair, and gave it all up. If Vi was killable, I'd keep on...

This is a steaming mess

The models chosen aren't bad, but everything else is poor

The ui defaults are poor, the lighting is poor, the story is poor, the largely irrelevant choices are poor and the writing is shockingly terrible.

The translation is very badly done, on top of a base failure to understand even the most basic human emotions. Nobody acts like a human

If a dog wrote a screenplay about humans and their emotions, it would be like this.

A character can go from traumatized scared and sad to horny and gleeful with just one failure-to-be-macho line from the MC

Sex is thrown at you 20 seconds into the game because remember women dont have thoughts and emotions are ... ooh shiny thing... what was I saying?

Also the sex scene are terrible and not at all sexy

I really like games that give players freedom of choice and our choices actually matter.

In this game we are given many choices, not only choices that affect the relationship with the character but also choices that affect the storyline.

Leave a review here, I'll be waiting for this game on Steam in January next year (hopefully earlier).

I loved this VN, I started playing it a few versions ago and I've been trying every update. The story is really interesting and worth giving it a try, plus the animations have been improving. I'm interested to see how it develops.

Pretty good game overall. The dev warns you at the start that this is not a fap game. However even for someone like me that's here to fap there are plenty of diverse women constantly teasing in lingerie and bikinis to keep me engaged. The story is a wild ride, always on the move, the dialogue is short and to the point, there are many options and alternative routes that change the game quit a lot (and sadly lock a lot of content), lots of sex and violence, you will always meet new women and new fucked up people.

There are 2 reasons that detract 1 point from me:
1. Women are very jealous in this game and there does not seem to be much reward to sticking with a single one. You get 1-2 elaborate sex scenes then a lot of "lets sleep together but nothing happens" or maybe a blowjob. So it seems like we are incentivized to always cheat and start new relationships, that way we don't miss too much content.

2. The story becomes schizophrenic, the longer the game goes there are 3-5 plot lines developing simultaneously. Think the matrix or assassins creed but on crack. Switching from one reality to another so fast is jarring for me, I wish the dev stuck with the zombie apocalypse and focused on that since it has the strongest story beats and theme, I don't want a space game inside my zombie game.

Great story, great images, great characters. Complex but intriguing. You should play it several times in order to explore all the possibilities. Besides it has long chapters and you need a lot of hours of game.

Characters model are diverse and beautiful of course except, MC model could be better though (Too Thin) for my style and for rendering are above average.
Sex scenes animation are bad at the early but it gets better on later chapter. well that's it for me now i Really enjoyed the story so far, can't wait for continuation of the story and future updates.

Storytelling – 2/10
The story is an absolute mess. The translation from French to English is either poorly done or the writing itself is just bad. The plot jumps chaotically from one setting to another, making it hard to follow. You start in an apocalyptic world, wake up from a coma, suddenly find yourself in virtual reality, and go through multiple other disjointed scenarios. Every transition feels abrupt and incoherent, making choices from earlier in the game feel meaningless. Instead of meaningful plot twists, the game withholds crucial information, forcing unnecessary replays. It feels like someone tried to stitch multiple unrelated stories together but failed to create a satisfying or logical narrative.

Renders and Animations – 3/10
The visuals are nothing to get excited about. While they might be serviceable, the animations are stiff and unnatural, breaking immersion rather than enhancing it. The lack of polish in this department makes the experience feel even more unfinished.

Characters/Love Interests – 3/10
The game does offer a diverse cast of love interests, which is a plus. However, due to the weak storytelling and lack of refinement, none of them truly stand out. Their depth and interactions feel underdeveloped, making it hard to connect with them.

Final Verdict: 2.5/10
This game struggles in almost every aspect. The storytelling is confusing, the animations feel clunky, and the characters fail to make an impact. It comes across as an unpolished, fragmented experience that lacks coherence and engagement. Unless major improvements are made, it’s hard to recommend this game to anyone.

One of the rare VNs where there's no need to skip the dialogue because the story is actually interesting.

The only thing I would change is the possibility to switch girlfriends from Vi to Margaux... Yes, I know...
And I understand why it may not be possible. Still, in virtual reality, isn't it possible to reshape characters?

Can't wait for the continuation of the story.

Meh, lost my interest with the story when that coma/sci-fi stuff started happening more, so i skiped to the end (didn't like it/not for me). To me it could have been a superb zombie/survival without that stuff.

Overall the renders are nice, animations are ok (seen worse) and the girls and characters are nicely made. Best one for me was Fiona, found her unique, being (slutty) Native american milf and nicely made. Too bad her story seems to end as of (3.01).

2.5/5 but i'll round it up to 3/5 (love that the game has a lot of gore though)

[version 3.00]

Okay, at first the game is confuse, if not disturbing. And the fact that you've to pick a name for the MC, but that its name isn't used right from the starts feel weird, and don't looks like a good omen.
But, while being skeptical, I decided to give it a chance, and when the prologue ended, I knew that I made the good choice.

It's hard to talk about the story without spoiling it. It's way deeper than the basic zombie outbreak that it looks like at first, and really hooking once you've advanced a bit more in the first chapter. Especially when you discover that in fact you haven't picked a name without reason, and that it's actually used, but only on a given context.
It's also where the writing starts to evolve, in the good way, so don't be discouraged by the starts of the prologue, there's better to come

A good point to is the handling of the story. You can have most of the girls, but you've to be careful and balance your choices. This said, you can also decide to give the priority to one over the others but, for the constancy of the story, I recommend to not completely ditch Sophie or Vicky.
Talking about the story, at some point in the prologue you'll have to make a radical choice. Behind it hide two really different stories that are really well handled. Even better, if you decide to go for a multi playthrough and follow both stories in parallel, you'll see that they intersect time to time. But each time the context is different, and the outcome will be too.

The CGs are also above the average, what is pleasant to see.
The only default is the English translation, that tend to be approximate because too literal. It's far to be the usual Engrish, so by itself it's not a default, nor a burden, but it's enough to remove the 5th star.

Wow! I'm really impressed! This little visual novel starts off mysteriously, but the further you get, the more incredible it becomes. It's gory, sometimes creepy, disturbing, and anything can happen!

The character design is well above average, and each character has their own personality (I love Linda, Vicky, and Eva). The animated scenes are decent, sometimes even great. But the real highlight of this VN is undoubtedly the storyline. I absolutely love it!

I don't understand why this developer doesn't have more support... With every update, it's a new surprise, the story progresses well, and the content is huge.

• Story: 5/5
• Graphics: 4/5
• Animations: 3.5/5

+
Good enough renders
Big amount of content
Okay variety of LI

-
Terrible narrative, from dialogue to the story, LCtrl level
Girls don't have nearly equal screen time
In some cases MC becomes braindead so the story can happen how Dev wants
The further you go the hotter new girls become. But oops, you're already tied up to mid girls from the beginning of a game.

Overall: It's definitely a game, but it's very close to being just a series of porn animations slopped together without a plan.
Can be played for lewd stuff but idk how bad your taste must be to be invested in the story.

Very nice and original story. At first, it looks like a usual survival/ zombie story while in fact everything is far more complex. What is really the story ? As far as the story goes on, you can't tell. Meanwhile, this is truely good.

The pictures looked good, and, together with the title, I thought, it was a game of a jail story.
But there also was a thing with lots of "renders" added with every update, which could only mean one thing.
.................................................

All in all, it's a shitty VN about Zombie apocalypse, that also tries to deceive you into thinking, that you are in a coma of some sort.
Also, sex scenes are scarce, far between, short and the game would only win, if there were none of them.

It's kind of unreal the twists and turns this game takes, I will say some stories have me way less engaged than others, but the post-apocalyptic zombie main one is great. Looking forward to more content.

This is a great game. I was surprised at how much content it had in it.

I liked that it gave you a good idea of what your choices meant so it does not need a walkthrough. The gallery was also very helpful in telling me not only what scenes I missed but how to get them.

The graphics are good, animations are pretty good, and the variety of girls is excellent.

The plot was also great. It is definitely a VN that you need to read through to understand what is going on. It still took me awhile to figure it out with all of the different cut scenes and jumps from place to place.

The only really drawback is in lots of spots it says him when it means her and vice versa, an English proofreader could improve that.

Overall one of the better games being created right now. Definitely give it a shot if you have not tried it.

This game is at least 3/5 just because of girls bushes and it has a lot more content than you expect from half year of development.
But story after boat becomes erratic af to the point you don't even want to read it anymore. Random shit just happens.
Also point system that locks you from seeing scenes by meaningless small choices dosen't work properly. Min/maxing relationships and karma points isn't fun.

It's unique and insane, and amazing. Currently one of my favorite games on the site. It's the most brutally graphic game I've seen here. Absolutely psychotic. The overarching story is a bit confusing but I haven't tried too hard to understand it, I am just along for the moment to moment scenes, and they are great.

Great Game. Ambitious story which is well executed so far. Visuals are good. Would be nice to have more music.

I played it in French as I'm currently learning it. Appreciate that it's native French instead of being translated to French from English, even if it's "traduire humaine".

There are a few typos here and there, like prériple instead of périple (when Nia was driving the van in the desert), but it isn't serious.

Bums me out that there isn't going to be a Linda route though...