VN - Ren'Py - The Grey Dream [Ep. 5] [TheGreys]

I have liked this AVN from the beginning. There are not too many LIs and there is a decent story running throughout. Plus the graphics are good, the scene blocking, pacing, etc... are all pretty good. The problem, IMO, is the writing.

I am pretty sure English is not the devs first language as the dialogue is not good. Dialogue is hard to write, even as a native speaker but more so when it's not your first language. Needless to say, this gets in the way of the actual story. While you can get a feel for what is going on, the details are a bit sketchy and some of the MC's plans/schemes while they sort of sound good, they don't really play well. I think this is more to do with the grasp of English than the actual story and ideas.

Regardless, the awkward storytelling and dialogue do cause problems when it comes to staying immersed in the story. Also, there are some scenes that could use a little more meat on them but instead end up lacking and falling short of the intended concept.

I will say the h scenes are pretty darn good, but again, there are some gaps in the language in those scenes as well. Still, they work a whole lot better than the rest of the story.

Despite the obvious talent of the dev, their skills are not enough to make up for the language defects. If they can right that ship and get the story on track, they will have a great little AVN. Until then, it is hard for me to rate this higher than just average.

On a totally different note, I have no idea why this AVN has a sandbox tag. There is no sandbox. There is one segment of point and click/free roam but thankfully, that's it. There are no silly maps. No senseless clicking places hoping you trigger something. None of that, so not sure why it is listed.

I think this is my favorite release yet, models are so unique and the game is so good looking. I like the three gallery option with scenes, rewards etc included. I really hope more episodes won't take too long

Nice one Dev!

This game is being released in Early Access. That means that the game may, or may not, change from its current state.

Too Long Didn't Read Version

Recommend
✔Yes, at list price, on sale, or part of a bundle
Visual Novel Type
Railroad
Acts
Oral✔, Vaginal✔, Feet✔, Femdom
Censorship?
No
Hours of Gameplay
Three to four hours
Difficulty
Normal
Graphics
Beautiful
Animation
Stills - Animated
Audio
Music
Art Style
3D Model
Bugs
A few here and there
Replayability
Once is Enough
Multiple Monitors
Stays up, with audio, when not in game. Cursor not locked to window.
Overall Rating
Good

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Synopsis
The Grey Dream is a RenPy railroad visual novel.

Story
You're a lawyer, fresh out of law school, getting ready for you job interview with Grey LLC. Your interview is with the big guy himself, Mr. Grey. The interview is short as Mr. Grey tells you that you were already hired before the interview even started. Then in walks Mr. Grey's daughter, Helen. Three months ago you had a brief fling with Helen when you were both interning at a different company. It didn't end well.

Gameplay
You start off by entering the first name of the main character, the last name is Robins. Next you are given the option to turn on voyeurism.

The choice selections for this game pop up in the lower right hand corner, not centered like many RenPy games.

The scenes are animated and broken into sections, mainly different camera angles. At the end of a section you have given the option to rewatch the scene from the different angles or continue.

Currently there are about 48 choices to make. None of them have a major impact on the story, but your choices will have a minor impact on the story, i.e. do you go out with character A or character B.

All of the models are beautiful. The main character is a metrosexual guy. The story is okay, but it is difficult to say where it is going with the game in its current state.

As is normal for most RenPy games the text isn't perfect, but it is very good, for the most part. A few misspelling and incorrect word usages, but nothing major.

The Gallery
The Gallery is accessed from the Extras option on the main menu. There is a Gallery, which allows you to rewatch the scenes you have experienced in the game. There is also a side story option that gives you a little more insight into some of the characters.

Final Verdict
The game is currently at version 3.5 which means three and a half chapters. There is one main scene per chapter and most of the game is advancing the story.

System Specs
Intel i7-8086K Coffee Lake 6-Core 4.00GHz CPU
Crucial Ballistix Sport AT 2666 MHz DDR4 RAM (16GB x 2)
ASUS GeForce RTX 2080 Overclocked 8G GDDR6

First off the characters look amazing in this game especially Haley lol. So far the game is really good and has a really good plot that keeps you interested and characters that are all done very well and have good back stories. This is definitely worth picking up. I'm excited for what comes next in the following chapters and can't wait to read more. Hats off to The Greys for this awesome vn.

Compared to many projects in this genre, namely the visual novel, this game surpasses them by 50 goals.
Unlike FreshWomen or Man of the house, this game has a great plot, normal characters, unlike other games in this genre because they often use the same character models and their plot.Right there they are all different and it's nice to watch them.Now, in addition to Being a ♥♥♥, the best visual novel, I will wait for the sequel

As soon as you launch it, this game overwhelms you with beautiful, Hollywood-quality renders, and only then tries to support them with substance. Said substance turns out to be good, but does it come in time?

Pros:
1) Beautiful renders, the devs really know their way around camera work.
2) The girls are all very hot.
3) And there's a ton of them, too!
4) The plot is actually good once it gets going. Especially so if one goes for Lisa, which potentially leads to a really interesting power game against Mr. Grey .
5) Good sex animations.

Cons:
1) The girls are very numerous, presented to you almost all at once, and all have very similar design. Martha with her missing eye and Jenny with her piercings stand out, but Haley, Judy, and Lily are basically the same person with slightly different hair, Lisa looks really similar to Kelly, and Beth to Helen. They also have nearly the same body types, which, while uberhot, doesn't help in distinguishing them. With that many look-alike girls, making a list introducing them in the main menu could be handy, as without it, I had to make myself a list of girls who get points via SanchoMod, and then to link it to the social status they have in the game to remember them all.
2) The plot takes time to get rolling, and, as the result, the start is really boring. I think that: a) less girls should've been introduced (they steal focus from both the story and each other), and more attention should've been paid to how awesome Grey LLC is and b) the job interview should've been made longer, with more opportunities to get Alpha and Sigma points as well as GreyImpression points. Also, it'd be nice if the MC could actually fail it, leading to an early gameover .

So, I still give this game 4 stars, but that's in advance and because its flaws won't play much of a role going forward. And yet, the start of the game could've gone smoother.

English is not my first language, so I apologize for using Google to translate. I really liked this game at the beginning. I have rarely played a VN where the women were so extremely beautiful and the graphics as well. Unfortunately, I completely lost interest in the story between chapters 3 and 4. But that's just my personal opinion and I wish all players lots of fun and the developers all the best!

With decent visuals, mediocre sex scenes, and unremarkable writing, I'd probably give this four stars, except the basis of the plot makes entirely no sense...
So the protagonist graduates college as a lawyer, somehow (apparently there isn't law school in this world?), and instead of getting a job at a law firm, like most lawyers do, he gets a job doing unspecified work for a random huge company. The work turns out to be entirely unrelated to his background, and of course isn't simple, and drives the plot through a variety of means, some better than others.
The girls have good looking faces, but their bodies are a little awkward looking. This world must be low-g, in addition to not having law schools, because ALL the boobs are as perky as real boobs can be.
The sex scenes just didn't do it for me. I was skipping through them. Also, they're almost all with the wrong girls: instead of the hot girls who are the main LIs, you do stuff like bang a random mediocre looking nameless slut in a bathroom.
The plot finally hits an interesting point at the end, but not enough to make me want to come back.

Some of the best (if not THE best) 3D models, renders and animations in this industry are bogged down by some of the worst writing in existence.
It feels like the game is missing a dialogue every 2-3 frames. Conversations just end abruptly, scenes change out of nowhere-if I didn't know any better I'd say they were paying a writer on a per-word basis and decided to cut back on the writing budgets by about 70%.

Like holy crap, I've never seen such an amazing AAA quality-looking game with some of the worst writing decisions in existence.

Story 2/5
Theres just not much to come for in this one, story is boring and really dosent make much sense, MC a new lawyer gets hired a the best or atleast biggest company in town, but does absoutly no lawyer work but hes put to work to get shares in the company from someone who has 51% so hes boss can run the firm.

Then he plays superman by entering a house with 15+ guards knocks one out to save a girl that has been kidnapped and runs away with her, it just dosent make sense.

He also learns that hes new boss apprently paied for hes education which MC had no clue about which also feels a bit weird but oh well.

When it comes to the girls/LIs they are just boring, they all have the same facial fetures lacking emotions making the bland, it dosent help that they all have the save build as big tittet bimbos, when it comes to dialogs they are also bland and boring.

As for the speed its a slowburn in most cases, take Kelly first girl you meet and there has been 0 content with her other then a kiss on the cheek....

Overall its just to vanilla and bland in every way, including sex scenes.

Girls 2/5
They all have the same facial expression with fails to show any real emotions and makes them look to much alike, it dosent help that it only has focus on big tit fetish meaning the diversity in build is pure shit, they pretty much have the same bimbo build and a few just have even bigger tits, absolutly no smols and they all look like milfs even though they should be right out of college for alot of them.

Animations 3/5
They are average and again bland and boring, no real kinks or anything.

Music 3/5
Again average nothing special and nothing with lyrics.

Choices 4/5
Main story feels very kinetic but the choices for relationships works great, you can pick who you want to be with which is great so atleast game got this right.

Nonsensical story, a fresh hotshot lawyer gets hired and is tasked with something that has absolutely nothing to do with law, proceeds to break into a mansion that is guarded like a fortress to rescue a kidnapped girl that promptly runs away. hobo safehouses, pi work, wtf An AI could do better at this.

The game's name makes sense because playing this game feels like that dream where everyone's speaking in a language you don't understand, because the writing here makes zero sense.

It's literally gibberish.

The dev does not speak english and seems like they used some crappy translator for the dialogue in the game. The 'english' used here is a barely intelligible mish mash of words and you will have no idea what the hell is going on in the story.

The renders look nice, but the presentation is extremely stale. The story feels random, but also boring and uneventful, so I guess the 'Grey' descriptor also fits the game.

There's not nearly enough lewds or anything interesting happening to justify the time wasted selecting dialogue options.

Honestly the only two good things this game has are renders and animations.

While writing is ok, the conversations with most characters are hollow and not interesting. Pacing is odd as fuck, and I had the feeling that there was no plot at all. At some point I was just skipping through dialogues, something I rarelly do.

Sex scenes are just ok I guess? You have no choices at all, just angle changes, 95% of them are vanilla, you have some light femdom but the game would benefit a lot from some kink adding and more options during sex.

Overall I found it pretty boring, and the fact that a game with just 4 updates is already in Steam... I've seen it before, I give this game a maximum 2 years prior to start receiving bad reviews.

The Grey Dream [v4.3 Steam]

Pros:
+ Beautiful models and renders
+ Great animations
+ Action-packed story
+ Most conversations feel decently written

Cons:
- Not that much content yet
- Pacing feels a bit too fast
- Story feels a all over the place
- Overall plausibility of story narrative feels very poor
- Linear story progression
- Lack of emotional impact


The renders are beautiful and the game is very visually pleasing. However, the story progresses at a pace that takes you all over the place and a lot of things just don't make sense. Events feel very unbelievable or not very thoroughly fleshed out.

Part of the reason the story feels so action-packed is because we are presented with small conflicts, one after another, without pause. And each of these minor conflicts seem to go start to finish without any real substance in between. In a sense, it feels like reading a storyboard narration rather than a fully fleshed out story. And, despite being presented with so many points of conflict or obstacles, the overarching plot doesn't progress much at all.

The game has potential once it has more content. However, I believe the overall story's integrity and pace are things that will need to be addressed, or they will always end up hindering any kind of emotional impact.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Fantastic renders and an interesting plot. I think what I liked most about the plot is the villain; he seems competent and spices things up. Unfortunately, so far, the MC is not up to the task, he has been pretty incompetent. Hopefully, that will all change in the coming updates, but we'll see, I guess.

There's some sigma/alpha personality concept to shape your MC and honestly, it's a great idea, but I don't think the game really nails down either personality. Whatever your choices, the MC is still pretty milquetoast of a person. Still, by the AVN standard, he's above average for an MC, but the problem is that he's dealing with powerful people so he really needs to up his game.

Decent amount of choices, though, and aside from the sigma/alpha thing, it seems that the choices do indeed matter in this game so it puts it above average.

The LIs are all interesting so far and likeable, my only complaint is that the tension with Helen just kinda dissipated as if by art of magic. Even when you she makes a move and you reject her, absolutely nothing happens. She was kind of a bitch so I was itching for some satisfaction and wanted to reject her, but when you do, there's absolutely no drama and you never punch back at her despite everything. Massive blue balls there.

I was going to give this 4 stars, but despite its faults, it's still far above other AVNs with a better rating. As long as the choices seriously start shaping the MC's personality and we get a more satisfying conclusion with Helen and future LIs, I think this one will be great.

Surprisingly underrated for how much quality and attention to detail is put into this game and the quality of the renders and girls. I also appreciate the MC not being a douche most of the time and the best friend character isn't completely intolerable (most of the time, part of his charm though).

Recommend giving this a few hours of your time and you'll walk away satisfied and hungry for more. Adding it to my watchlist and waiting for future updates, good luck to the dev! Look forward to what comes next, especially more lewd scenes for these beauties...

I can't shake the feeling that this game has story all over the place.
It's as if it's locked into one choice, and if you don't make it, it cuts off parts of the story and continues as if you have to know what happened.
Having played the latest version without mods, in several episodes, the game made no sense to me.
The characters don't have any integrity in the story, and the story feels too naive?
The protagonist is hired as a lawyer, but throughout the game, he does nothing to match his position.
The protagonist's ex-girlfriend is the daughter of his new boss, and he doesn't even know about it?
The protagonist risks his life and rescues a woman from captivity so that she can theoretically help him in the future?
The head of a criminal group has a grudge against the protagonist, and so we go to a meeting where this person will be, to observe?
Too much illogical in my opinion.
Judging by the reviews, I expected something different from this game, but as they say, my expectations are my problems, so if someone likes this game, it's cool, but it seems this game is not for me.

Nice renders although the general level of renders has increased over time so it doesn't stand out as much as it did on release. Update cycle is about half a year or so, content amount isn't huge, and at this point a few years in the story and characters are still not really developed. Story had its first major beat at the end of the last update, almost as if we just finished the prologue, reviewing v4 release.

The game is mostly linear, very few choices that don't seem to have much deviation. Maybe a lewd scene here or there that you can skip or plays out differently.

It could still pick up more but I'd kind of recommend not picking it up now, maybe in 3 years with more content, if you are really looking for a light story adult VN with nice renders. But even then it's just that there are no real relationships right now and little to no choices so it's hard to name something that would hook someone, outside of the renders.

Pros

1. Story is intriguing, nothing earth shattering but pretty good for an adult VN. That alone keeps me interesting in game and reading the dialogue.
2. Models are beautiful and animations are very well done!
3. Dialogue is good, script is also nicely put together and there is a flow that actually makes sense.
4. Characters are interesting and are fairly unique in their own ways.
5. Several choices exist through the play-through, the long term effect is still unknown obviously but some have immediate effect which is always good and gives weight to choices.

Cons:

1. At the time of the review, I can't rightly give any negative critique to the game. I am still gauging the game and will provide more info once I have completed the latest update.
2. The rate of updates and amount of content per update could be something to monitor

A fair amount of work and effort went into this game and I would highly recommend it to all and support the developer if you can.

A non-fantasy (which I like) visual novel with quite good renders. Writing is also good (as of season 4).
The (currently only) free-roam event in the last episode feels a bit pointless (as so often in such games), but if you take it as what it is - a visual novel - it is really one of the better ones