VN - Ren'Py - The Cabin - Summer Vacation [Ep. 6] [CellStudios]

VERSION: EP6
SUMMARY: Great game, models and interesting story, that hopefully goes all the way and does not simply die due to lack of content.
RATINGS: (out of 5):

1. Models: 4
2. Animations: 4
3. General Visuals: 4
4. Characters: 4
5. Story: 4
6. Writing: 4
7. Pacing: 3
8. Content (amount): 4
9. UI & Sounds: 4
10. Fetish & kinks: 2

Average: 37 of 50 possible points giving a 74% rating i.e. 4-5 stars.

PROS:

1. Very nice looking models and they also not completely out of proportion or bimbo's.
2. Animations are very good also.
3. Writing and general flow is good with good structure.
4. Story is simple enough but fairly interesting, though I would maybe have gone another way (see final comments)
5. Sounds are rather nice and sexual moans also provide nice spice to H scenes, which is something most games have little of.

CONS:

1. While MC is young he could look a little better with some scruff, especially considering his hair is black and with junk his size, you would think he would at least have more testosterone and by implication more bodily hair making him look more masculine.
2. The developer makes some "reaches" in driving the characters together sexually. The game is clearly written with family relation intent, yet there are little reservations when the mother and aunt just simple strip down in front of their son/nephew. They act like its nothing, even if they were adopted family or even close friends, there really was no lead up to the sexual suggestiveness.
3. VN does not have many choices really, feels more like a kinetic novel that the player simply follows.
4. Not much in terms of sex, I mean actual sex with MC "Family" which is taking too long considering most inhibitions are broken early on and easily. The holding out part now simply drives player frustration and confusion as to why they holding back.
5. Little if any fetishes or kinks. There are implied, like breastfeeding and pregnancy, but they are not in the game (not yet anyway) nor any other even if implied like the urination hint made early on. Clearly implying lil "sister" has some fetishes. I would like to see more of this.
6. Pacing is good enough, but (and forgive me if this seems to be a gripe) I find that the sexual progress is too slow considering the way the "family" have clearly displayed sexual interest in the MC. At this point it would seem the MC is merely being teased and is a bit of a wimp to not simply "take" these teasing woman, who have even mentioned they they "wanted" the MC for some time (implied).
7. Per above points and as mentioned by more than one person reviewing the game, there is a bit 1 step forward and 2 steps back going on when it comes to progress with the MCs "family" e.g., MC's mother lets him suckle on her, yet when he later makes a move on her and simply kiss him, she shoves him off. Talk about mixed signals. The poor MC is blue-balled and jerked around and they can't feign ignorance, the mother clearly wants the MC.

FINAL THOUGHTS & SUGGESTIONS:

• Personally I would have opted to use the book found as means to fuck with the "family" dynamic, even accidentally, sister being such a bookworm, something could have inadvertently gone wrong while reading it, causing the "family" sexual bond and breaking of taboos and inhibitions between family members. This could have also worked with any relationship really, simply as means to push the woman onto the MC sexually. That would at least have been more believable even if its all mysticism, magic and bullshit.
• Based on development time, there is a fair amount of content but not a lot and to keep the quality, rushing wont do this game justice, only more content would. But, because this game could do with a fair bit of fetishes and such it will need a decent amount of content and not take ages before we players get it. You will simply loose all interest in this game.
• I am hoping, as per my review for more H scenes, decent and plenty more content. The story could and IMO should have followed closer to my idea mentioned above to drive more plausible adult erotic novel with plenty of H scenes and kinks. It could also have been done while keeping most of the original content.
• Adding to the above point and this is just to again reaffirm/emphasize my point. More content, much more is needed for the slow pace this game is going at in terms of sexual progress with the MC's "family". You also can't simply have one full scene with each member, there should be several with different taboos and inhibitions broken IMO, else you come across as rushing a good game to a shallow conclusion. I also hope, as per the latest post from the dev regarding this release, content will be more regularly released.
• All in all a very good game, that could have been better but still very good and worth the support.

The game opens like it's going to have a corruption arc but nope, suddenly everyone throws themselves at the mc desperately.

Scenes which seem like they are going to be interesting and give you a chance to push things forward just end up boring nothings. For example massaging just the calves of your willingly naked sis.

Player never gets a choice - MC always chooses to be a coward.

The girls are horribly hairy.

2 star for you. One for good looking models and one for interesting concept.
Might as well change the title to "Let's guess what sex scene will the dev remove next update".
Devs does a one step forward two steps back type shii, put sex scene then remove it the next update.
Anyways goodluck

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I'm schizophrenic,
And so am I.
This game, man. Such nice renders, hot girls, nice build-up to possible family jollies... unfortunately, you've got this 18-year-old MC who seems to be a mixture of Puritan, horndog, older brother assholiness, empathetic son, and, most disorientingly -- someone who professes to care about his family yet when he's in the woods with a girlfriend and she is kidnapped by an unknown psycho right nearby, chooses to keep quiet about it at her casual request. Oh, he does tell his Mom's friend about it the NEXT DAY, and she advises maybe getting some outside camera - tomorrow. Where is the urgency after such a terrible experience close by?
And speaking of his Mom's best friend -- there's a scene out in the woods, in an underground sort of bunker they find, where the Mom's BF strips, after getting spritzed with water, so the MC, uncharacteristically, strips too. Then she just offhand starts wondering if maybe they could role play a bit to help her writing. Which MC, again completely uncharacteristically, is fine with -- and he takes charge, and sex with his Mom's BF ensues. It would be hot if it was in any way believeable. It's just that this MC is all over the map, and it's never clear what is at stake for anyone.
In this same exploratory setting, MC happens to pull his pants down and jerk off into his sister's hands -- and yet that night, when she slips in the shower during a blackout, and asks him to give her a hand up, IN THE DARK, he replies, "You're sure? You're, um... kind of naked, Lisa." -- ???
I had alREADY been turned off by him when he decided to keep his mother's revelations to himself, despite knowing that his sister had been as mystified and upset as he was.
If it wasn't for this lunkhead, and tonal inconsistencies, my rating would be a 5, probably, but the story is too wrapped up in his unbelievable --literally -- behavior, to allow me to get behind it. Oh well. I would not know HOW one would fix this outside of a total character removal/replacement/amputation, so .. better luck next time, dev. But thanks for the effort!

I really like the models and the renders are good. I don't have any problems with the characters relationship plot, but the overall story is so dumb. Mild spoilers, a friend of the MC was kidnaped and maybe almost killed. The MC doesn't call the cops or tell his family right away that there is a killer (or something) on the loose because he doesn't want to worry them or something.
I don't mind porn logic in my porn games, but stuff like that really pulls me out of the experience.

The Cabin - Summer Vacation [Ep.5]
Finally I played up to EP.4 and the Developer went dormant for like a year and I thought it had been abandoned, I kept checking around to see if maybe it was still active and there it was. I love the story it has just the right amount of suspense and the lust attraction is perfect, hopefully it won't be a year before the next update.

I gave a 5 star, because quite frankly, it has it all.
Great renders and models, excellent writing and plot, great story progressing, good to excellent sex scenes.
I won't spoil the story, but it's basically my fantasy come true.

Really good game. Very well written. Renders are very good quality as are the girls. Relationship between MC and others realistic enough to build a bit of intrigue . The actual story itself in where it is leading actually wants me to play this more. Can't wait for the completed version and will definitely be buying it. Thanks to the developer for the effort in creating something worth playing.

This is my first review. I must say that I'm really impressed by the author's ability to make a story that not only capture the sexual arousement going on in this very special enviroment and situation. But also creating an exiting tale that makes it worth the wile reading the dialogues instead of skipping. I must say this is one of the greatest adult games out there, I really think it's worth top ratings! I give it a 5/5 because I'm a big fan and looking forward to the continuation of this project. Thanks!

Visually the game is very good, there's a small core of characters and each have had sufficient attention so you're not just seeing character x from that other game but I feel the game is let down with... it's hard to really quantify. Like the game seems to struggle with what tone it wants to set and the story suffers from it.

The dialogue between the characters is very light and then suddenly you get some HEAVY backstory which is like the most traumatic thing ever for a character... and then it seems to jump back to being light and airy.

So the game is hamstrung by trying to be both a nice fun romp and something a bit more sinister. Even the Overview is weird "filled with adventure, love, fear and dare I say murder", it's worded like an old 50s radio program but in the game itself they talk about cannibals and the like.

I fear no matter what the issue is, the game will never get over this initial confusion over tone. The characters are interesting if somewhat hamstrung by the clumsy "this is x, she is your y, she calls you z" nonsense but really the story is weak. In one scene you're having a nice jolly wee frolic in town and then it switches to a scene with a lad who may or may not be a rapist. You're having a nice wee time in the countryside and suddenly your date is being dragged off by Michael Myers. Like...... what? And then you're not meant to say anything like that's something you'd just agree to forget? Bizarre.

The game could be forgiven if they realised the issue with the story and just buried the player in smut but the pacing is actually pretty damn slow. It's actually a good pace for a lighthearted game but for a game with story issues it leaves you feeling a bit confused.

SPOILERS

Nice renders and story beginning. But story became absolutely retarded, when mc didnt warn his family members about attack and kidnapping a girl who was with him in the woods NEAR HOUSE WHERE LIVE HIS FAMILY, because kidnapped girl asked him not do that because she didnt want to freak out her sis and because her uncle is sheriff (like its somehow explains this utterly stupid request). The girl which you literally see second time ask you not to tell anything to your family about psycho who kidnaps people in the woods near your house and mc be like "well ok, sounds legit". He only told aunt about it at the end of the day, when mother and sis went to sleep. Next morning nor mc nor aunt told others about this horrible accident. First time dropped game at this same moment but later saw "rewrite" and gave one more chance to this game in hope that dev corrected this absurd and other lesser bad plot decisions. Cant tell what was actually rewritten, but not this catastrophic plot part thats for sure.

Shame, because overall story was +- interesting, even with other problems with plot which I tolerated to some extent only because of good renders ,but story driven adult game means nothing if story is objectively bad and even godlike renders will not make it better and more enjoyable.

This vn is one that I will likely never play again regardless of the updates. It has decent renders and the grammar is decent, but it all goes to hell with the story line. I would suspect that the only person/people who would not inform their whole adult family/friends of an actual kidnapping assault and rescue would be an actual psychopath who has zero ability to connect with others.
When I read vn's or kinetic novels written like this I can't help but think that the author would score high on the Machiavellianism scale.

The game is in development quite some time since the dev decided to fix some mistakes he did in the earlier version and update a few renders. It was a good decision here imo.

I always liked the game, the characters that had big issues because of the writing didnt really matter to me. The renders and models are very good and with the rewrite many issues have been fixed or improved.

The Dev is active and responds to questions, which for me is one of the most important things. And he needs way more supporters on patreon - for the quality of the renders alone!!

I don't usually leave a review this early on in a good VN because I've seen ones that start off well then go downhill but I feel this one has gotten some undue negative reviews.

This VN has a ton of potential. The graphics look good, the models look good as well. The dev gave at least some variety in that they don't all have overinflated beach ball boobs with super tiny waists.

For purpose of this review I consider Lisa, Grace, and Hazel to be the main girls, all others side girls. The dev has done a fair job of giving the choice to spend time with a main girl or a side girl, mostly. This is something I appreciate as I tend to like to play through concentrating on main girls first, then maybe trying a side girl on subsequent play throughs.

The writing is pretty good, no glaring errors that disrupt the flow. The story line is entertaining and actually avoids too many of the usual tropes. I hope we don't have to wait too long for things to heat up between the MC and the three main ladies, and also hopefully some encounters that lean towards the romantic. The game the MC played towards the end of ch. three with Grace and Hazel was sexy as hell.

Going forward two things I hope we see are a replay gallery and an option for pregnancy. Even if you don't like it it's nice to at least have the option. This is a VN I have no problem becoming a patron for.

art is amazing.
haven't tried the rewrite yet so I don't know if there are more options.
But at the moment, I quote the game to say the "bitch" is being forgiven way too easily. Not in anyways defending the baldy.
From what I remember, the bitchiness had been going on for a while. Too long to be in the "I'm sorry" "Oh, that fixes everything" stage.

English: 9
User Interface: 4
User Experience: 5
Art: 8
Dialogue: 4
Story: 3
Opinion: 2
------------------------------
Avg: 5.0/10

I usually wait until a certain version number comes out, but this one will probably never get there and be rewritten again. So I will go off what little there is to work with now. Literally nothing makes sense in this story. Two GROWN ASS ADULTS, MC and sister, are "taken away" from their father by their alcoholic mother? After you're 16, even, that shit does not fly. MC is 20 and Lisa is at least 18, already braindead stupid. And even after that, the father conflict is the dad's just being a dick for no reason especially after a miscarriage his wife had. Then some mystery book that they stole from a creepy cabin that up til now amounts to nothing. And the rewrite just adds scenes that make MC think about a romantic relationship with his family. All while the patreon supporters are strung along as long as possible without giving them an actual story. And actually taking away content if I remember correctly.

Sure, the renders look good and the English isn't grain fed through google translate. But with this "new version" you get less content, less story, and a whole lotta nothing good. I really think it was "rewritten" just to have MC think about sex with his family more. And for someone like me that gives no shits about incest, wow. What a slap in the face. It has default Renpy UI save some fonts and a solid textbox. The UX presents the "Name all your dumb relationships" better than most but it's still something I had to do so I'm not a fan. The dialogue is boring and MC and his sister act like children so it takes me out of it. The story is boring and they added a "hook" at current end of content which cliffhangs an event that is resolved in the old version. On top of the fact that the update frequency is not great either. I feel bad for people that paid for this. Instead of silently updating old content while adding onto what they currently had. They stripped back everything to change one character and add a conversation with MC's cousin about her being a redneck.

I can't recommend this to anyone based on all that. If you support games based on hopium, this is all you. But if it's happened once, it can, and probably will, happen again. So unless the future releases are straight fire, because I will come back to this (albeit in like 4 years when there's more than 20 mins of content) I'm gonna have to round down with my 2.5 rating.

Giving it a four for now. It's fairly interesting so far. I hate the mom (full disclosure: my own mother was an alcoholic who refused to get help, so I have fairly low sympathy for such as a result) and want to avoid her, but the rest of the cast seems solid. It's maybe too slow of a burn? Like, I don't need too much going on, but it took the MC towards the end of the current content to even get one sexual encounter, and that was just a basic handjob. Like, a bit more action would have been welcome.

Great game, Renders are great, the story is interesting, the writing is good, the characters although they are nothing new are very likeable, especially Lisa, who is super adorable.

I don't have much more to say, this game has great potential and I hope it has a good development.

Went from an interesting game with tons of potential to a watered down, sanitized, rewritten, lump of trash, just so they could get on steam and try to make a quick buck. It's a shame this happens but that's the world we live in. Profits > Quality.

it's pretty interesting, i like the pacing overall and this mystery in the story keeps me on the edge. Characters are great too and it's fun to observe how they develop. CG is very good, not too over the top. Well done.