Version: [v0.5.1]
In 'Summer Heat' we get to experience summer camp, woo-hoo!
the game starts as the MC, his friend and the friend's sister are leaving for summer camp, they meet a couple of cute girls and are about to spend a few weeks with them.
Well, there are some background stories about some weird father figure and whatever he seems to be involved with, but under all that 'Summer Heat' is a love letter to summer camps, to late adolescence, to clumsy flirtations and love-struck puppy eyes. and it does it with so much charm.
The renders are pretty, the models are beautiful and high quality, the scenes are really sexy and well done, absolutely wonderful so far.
When it comes to writing, well, it's really really great, the conversations makes sense and feels natural (which is unfortunately very rare in the genre) and therefor the large amount of text does not hinder the experience at all, but more on the writing later.
The sandbox sections are nice, quick and concise which I really appreciate. the choices are simple and the outcome of them is clear, I do worry about things branching out so early as it pretty much guarantees you'll have to wait a long long while for your branch of choice, still, it's a reasonable decision that makes sure the player knows this isn't a harem VN.
I do want to make it clear, thinking and reviewing specific aspects of this VN doesn't do it justice (even though all of them are great!), 'Summer Heat' is an experience, and the whole is greater than the sum of all parts.
The relationships built over the first few days makes sense, they feel real, natural, they have weight.
As previously stated, the interactions between the characters just feels so believable, some things the characters say are clumsy and cringe, but not in a weird, badly written way, in a 'huh, that's actually how teens are sometimes' and oh it is so so charming. the sexual tension is off the charts, not just the scenes themselves are sexy, but everything in between, the (sometimes no so subtle) flirations, the long gazes, it's all done so well and it works amazingly.
The characters fall in love and explore and make mistakes and learn and fuck. It sucked me in. it made me nostalgic for my summers as a teen, for young love and fumbling through life with a smile and no idea what's what. Honestly, I'm not sure I can give a bigger compliment than that.
amazing work.