VN - Ren'Py - The Mason Gambit [Ch.10] [CorForce Productions]

As of Chapter 10

Good

• Excellent action and plots pertaining military & criminology
• Action scene are fun to see
• Good blend of humor

Bad

• The Dev is preaching his values too much in the story. It's repeating the same lines every few chapters
• The Dev is a huge hypocrite - starts of preaching the values of loyalty and the main characters shares the same values with him. Only to create a harem story where every females characters loves the MC and dates them
• Some of the lines by characters are ramblings and out of character. It seems to a line where the dev would say than the character themselves

TLDR
The game would have a higher rating if the dev write a proper story and not use the story to preach/ramble. Certain plot of the story/romance of the story doesnt make sense. It's seem like every female character just fall in love with MC without much development. 5 Star for action only. 2 Star for everything else.

Everything i s excellent about this game except occassional argumentative essay on relationship which I like, personally speaking, very much but this is a harem game which is in itself more of a fantasy. So, in fantasy game overexerting moral lesson can be seen as unnecessary rantings.

Apart from that the story is first-class without any doubt, the renders are wonderful. I am giving this game a 5-star because most of the riviews seem to be signifying the ranting of moral lesson part. Hence, this game losing it ratings.

Real quick review.

Dev uses this VN to rant about their personal views on how relationships should be, and then very quickly inserts the MC into a harem with all of the women he encounters.
Needs to hop off that soapbox and give us a better VN.

Story started off good enough, but quickly fell into a pit of unbelievable BS
LIs are abundant. Like a lot of them. They all seem to be set as primary.

If the dev wants to rant about their relationship views then I suggest blogging. We're more interested in a good story, good renders and believable characters. We really don't need an entire intro explaining how relationships work. Maybe separate fiction from non-fiction.

To sum it up, I recommend skipping this hot mess of a VN. There are better ones out there for sure.

While overall I did enjoy this VN, it has serious issues with the story and how it is written. I could sum up everything in a couple of words: hypocrisy and double standards.

The overall idea of the story is catchy and entertaining, and as long as they stay out of the dev's rants about his "values" the story is actually good, and the images/renders while not perfect, are quite good as well.

But what spoils a rather well-thought story is the constant push from the characters to argue about the same thing over and over again: having sex with anyone outside of your life partner removes any human value on you.

First, you'll have to read at least 15 - 20 minutes of a character impersonating the narrator (aka the dev) about why he wants to write a story where the characters want to stay virgins until find the right one, and how society is wrong and everything you could expect from someone with a nearly radical conservative thinking.

Had he left it at that, it wouldn't be much of an issue, but then every single chapter includes around 2 or 3 discussions around 5 to 15 minutes long each between the LIs, the MC, the friends, or whoever wants to listen about why if you ever have sex with more than 1 person in your whole life, you have lost all your value as a human being.

Even tho I do consider myself conservative, this is way too radical.

But then start the contradictions/hypocrisy:

The step-mom? She had a previous marriage, and by the same thinking the dev imprinted on the MC and the main LI, she should be considered worthless (or as they said about other characters a wh0re, s1ut, trash, etc), because not only she had sex with someone who was not her "true love" but also had 2 daughters with him, just to get married again with the MC's father. Even more, the story is pushing (the now widow step-mom) to fall in love with the MC, which would make him her third partner.

But no, she is a saint, she is a person of great value and whatever happened to her was not her fault (unlike any other woman who dared to have sex with more than 1 partner).

There is also the hypocrisy in how the characters speak of such "values". On one hand, they claim anyone who doesn't share their views is trash, worthless, and many other pejorative adjectives; but on the other when speaking about how they were raised "with the traditional values" they have another rant about how other people is disrespectful with them by calling them outdated, old values or traditional values, while they should respect that they are only "values", not old, not any other adjective.

Then comes a very cringy scene: a girl was brutally murdered, and a close friend from the family is at life risk, but hey! they found a horse-sized dildo hidden in the victim's house and then decided that was the best time to make jokes about the victim's overstretched ladyparts, and how she is worthless because she enjoys masturbating with such things.

Just like a good guy (MC) or a so-called feminist (LI) would do, right?

Finally, while there are several ester eggs and crossovers/cameos from other VNs that I loved to find in this one, I absolutely hated what he did regarding Jaye from Chasing Sunsets.

The dev depicted her as an easy slut, who has been sleeping around and was rejected by Jeff (Chasing Sunsets MC) because she did so. Not only that is not how that character is on Chasing Sunsets, but the double moral or hypocrisy comes up again, as in the VN the MC has at least 2 non-optional sex scenes with other women than Jaye, but hey! She is the one who is worthless now, not the MC.

Overall, if you want to play this game, I'd recommend getting ready to press skip whenever they start again with their rantings about virginity or values until you reach a new scene. Aside from that overly repetitive argument, the story is quite good. Too bad that they have to rant every chapter about the same thing over and over again.

Writing as of Chapter 10

Found this game and so far really enjoyed it cant wait for the next update.
the story is great lots of humor doesn't look like a 5 year old wrote it like a lot of AVN's I have played form this site are.
The only gripe I have story wise is the mc and other characters go on really long rants about why sex with more than 1 person is bad and why sex with someone you don't love it bad I think it would be fine if it wasn't so long seriously there are 2 different times it has taken me 15+ minutes to get through a spot where they are talking about that and there are a few more than just those 2 that took around 10 minutes to get through.

The renders aren't perfect but they are still pretty good if you look a lot of the other VN's out there. Same with the animations not the best but still great compared to other VN's i have played.

Really like the fact the mc is nice (at least to the people he cares about) and doesn't act like a douchebag in general also really like the li's and other female character's aren't complete whores.

I would say maybe try and redo the intro it is kind of cringey and almost made me skip playing this because it seemed like you where getting insulted by the dev.

V. chapter 10

unlike most of what i see/download here on this site, THIS one is an actual VN. one of the very few Adult VN's. it does not throw a sex scene at you every 5 minutes to blind you from noticing a lack of N, but instead has an IQ above a shoe size involved in the writing. so refreshing

the visuals are pleasing but not polished and animations are good. some work there to make them great but not much. visually it has a good high standard compared to what plugs the usual holes in latest updates here.

the writing. as already mentioned the writer is not a kid and understands how to write dialogue above something read in a teenagers book/magazine.
it is such a rarity.
it makes for a very pleasant read and even the humour is a little smart at times. include this with a decent plot and you already have a project worthy of a purchase once it completes.

no coding errors, not that i would expect any from a clearly capable developer (no i am not being paid for this)

it is a slow burn if you came to fap, but for those of us loving the N as well as the V, this will not matter even slightly as the story unfolds at a good pace and with natural dialogue and writing.

worth watching until it completes and the worth a purchase ( i dont back crowd-funding at all for any developer)
it's a good little fantasy really brought to life

This game seems to be written by a gravy seal/incel type that feels the need to go off on the same rant repeatedly that has been covered in various reviews in detail(boils down to= if you had sex with anyone you are untouchable).
Emphasis on story seems to be spiraling into more and more of these rants.
And to top it off the graphics seem to be getting worse as the story progresses(as opposed to the norm being that over time graphics get better as skills improve).

This did seem like it had potential at first, but at this point it's like watching a dumpster on fire that the dev pushed into an orphanage.

Interesting.

I'd say this is better than average. But that's me.

Start a game by saying you believe in all the wholesome things in life that are based on traditional views over the more contemporary views.

Then take it to this being meaningful over the alternative. (as much as some people have been massive fans of story to the point of delusionally believing something to be a sort of porn of a higher calling, f95 is that last place for something like that.) And being antagonistic about it. I mean. . .
If we take the example of Tate and a lot of the people who arose to do something similar. Yeah, they and others believe you will only get a good outcome by alphamaling the change and standing for it. The effectiveness of that action has yet to be seen. And yet, just like Tate, it doesn't seem to be going well. In addition, just like how Tate is the proven leader for what he claims is consensual sex trafficking, having a message like this in a porn game really takes away most of the respect I would have otherwise had for someone who makes genuinely good points with a few bad ones.

Now, it was a fucking good point to point out how many ancient societies were promiscuous so being "traditional" does not equal being antiquated.

The references here and there were amazing. In particular, it was awesome to see Sandra, Lucy, and Alice. The lack of pancakes was disturbing for the scene however.

For a VN that is supposed to be focused on story-telling more than the adult content, it does a hell of a poor job in keeping that pemise.

The intro may be the most cringe thing I have seen off of this website. It is basically a combination of the Navy Seal copypasta and attempting to insult potential viewers. Before he added the intro I was usually able to just get through the intentionally antagonistic parts of the dialogue, however the intro makes that impossible. There were some attempts at some interesting plot ideas that unfortunately don't work due to the devs insistence on talking about virginity over advancing the plot.

Starting off an AVN with ranty preaching about how you're a superior person because of their morals is a great way to immediately paint yourself in a bad light. Doesn't help that the story goes around slut-shaming people and giving off huge incel vibes. Really, without the holier-than-thou preaching, it probably would have been tolerable as a different narrative take, as the renders are decent, but as a package, it's just off-putting.

Good models, really good writing with deep ideas (psychological, phylosofical and moral) in compact and clear dialogues.
Slow burn, and I mean in a really good way. Characters with story, proper individual personalities, with their qualities and flaws, well flushed for the player.
Refreshing compared with other games "faplay instant satisfaction next one" (there are times for that, it is just so frequent that gets... more of the same).

Slut shaming a dead girl because you found a dildo in her bedroom is just not ok. It doesn't exhibit wholesome traditional values. I liked so much of this but the hateful ranting is tiresome at best. The worst part is that sort of thing is isolated to a few scenes and feels jarringly out of place when it happens. The dev could just cut a few paragraphs worth of text and this would be great.

a good harem based kinetic novel

it has some action and good story writing and deals some serious topics as well(ptsd,depression and such) mix in some humor and you have a good avn
so far i have really enough it a lot(chp8)
hope it all stays like this

Binge read this to the latest (Ch. 8).

Enjoying it. The lack of a lot of sexual scenes is appropriate.

The graphics and characters look good, a little too perfect but that's a risk of 3D art.

It's not a deal breaker but the lecturing about monogamy and virginity was old by the third time. I hope it doesn't have to be repeated yet again in the coming chapters. We get it.

Reminds me of something David Mamet (famous playwright) wrote about. The "Problem Play". Where a play, movie or book becomes about an ideological position more so than the plot. No audience enjoys being lectured to about any issue unless they are already in 100% agreement, but even then that's not art, that's a circle jerk.

Personally, I want to know more about the struggles of Cynthia and the girls, than the preferences of the MC and Nix when it comes to intimacy. Give me depth, connect me with the characters deeper. Through the story, I will discover my truth about intimacy, trust and love.

But that's just me. I can't wait to read more. Really enjoying this.

Damn, I really like the story so far. It has great characters, so I am going to play it till the end. The character designs are appealing to me. I like the scenes so far. It's great that all of the characters have different emotions. Every character has a unique story to tell.

this is a work of art. i can honestly say there is nothing wrong with it. granted it may not be up to the 'Perv' standard. but it is very well written the art is good as well the renders. characterization is deep and heartfelt, it is a sublime work of fiction... or is it??? i can sympathize with many of the characters and align with their values. thank you so very much.
i would like to support this author and if my disability goes thru i prob will.
i looked at the T4 Commander lvl but saw the jab at pinapple on pizza and said flop this slop, i Like pinapple on pizza.
well i guess i could forgive the author for that....

So I like Harem games as much as the next guy. Hell I'd argue that most guys (including me) would kill to be in their shoes. However, this guy just reeks of incel mentality. All girls have to be virgins or they're sluts to their man. Somehow this doesn't seem to apply to men though. This guy also seems to think that all feminists are feminazis as though most people are unreasonable in real life. I almost thought it was a joke until it clicked that no this fucker really believes this shit.

Mason's Gambit ( Chapter 8) review

Masons Gambit is a decent visual novel but a terrible / horrible adult game. And I swear, the dev is Todd Howard incarnate of the Adult game world. Masons gambit is not a harem builder, but a porn version of Fallout universe's settlement builder where you rescue helpless girls all while teasing a harem since like early chapters. Apart from the story, there is nothing remotely interesting happening in the porn part.

When I downloaded this game, I was quite optimistic about there being 8 chapters and expected a lot of action, but boy oh boy, I was terribly mistaken. Apart from some tits flashing aand 1 sex scene, there is nothing else in a game thats more than a year old. Also, there are a lot of things wrong with the MC, specially how shitty he treats the women,. I've only stumbled across those kinda incidents just a couple of times ,because I skipped most part of the game in the later chapters. But if you read all the 1 star reviews here, it gets clearly evident how bad it is.

As the chapters kept on going , I felt more and more annoyed with all that military bullshit, to a point somewhere in chapter 6 , it clearly became evident that you're probably gonna get blueballed. To top it off, after blueballing for 6 long chapters, I cant fathom the audacity of the Devs to put in an option to Skip the sex scene , and that too the very first one. Like why the hell is that option even there ??

Just for a perspective on how bad the scene is, One of the 2 step sisters actively tells the MC that she's in love with him and would like to pursue a romantic relationship in Chapter 2, The game is in Chapter 8 and almost a year of development the MC has not even french kissed her till now. The MC haven't even touched the stepmom and the other stepsister yet, and all 3 of them are actively making Harem plans and forming wives club. Im always okay with slow burn and story rich games, but at this point it seems the dev has forgotten that this is a porn game.

At this rate, the quality sex scenes are probably gonna drop in early 2024, probably somewhere in chapter 20 or 25 maybe, so kindly save youself some time and pointless clicking, cuz ur dick is gonna be as shrivelled & cold as you can ever imagine.

Very nice VN with characters which have conservative values. It seems it will be a bit of the harem in the end but who doesn't like that . Not much sex scenes to be expected (1 until chapter 7) but you will see some naked skin