VN - Ren'Py - The Shadow over Willowtown [Ep.2 v2.2 SE] [VNCraft]

This one is a mixed bag for me so far.

As a horror story the game didn't have the time to give too much insight how the atmosphere will be. Some vibes are there, but so far it was rather tame and didn't hit the spot yet. I like the overall theme and would be excited to learn more.

The MC seems quite well written. He is neither a doormat nor a meathead, often times thinks before he acts, and looks decent. Only gripe would be the comical oversized dick, but that is sadly common in VNs.

Quick note for the "best friend": he is, as so many, completely unnecessary and waste of content. On top of that, there is already NTR on the horizon...

The girls range from good to great looking. They're quite different and cater to a lot of tastes. At the beginning, there is acertain side girl that you can decide to have a sex scene with or not. Probably foreshadowing a lot of one-time side content. The sex scenes itself are mediocre, just a badly animated one picture with different angles.
Later on there is an unavoidable scene with Lenore, lots of flirting without player input - this part of the game feels too kinetic without any choices. Bad sign.
The mentioned NTR comes in the form of a LI already dating the "best friend", side girls talking nasty about MC while having boyfriends, etc. Nothing deal-breaking (yet). But completely unnecessary and of course unavoidable.

Oh and of course drugs. Thumbs down, forcing an addiction into a story is disgusting. That should be a choice before anything happens, it isn't. Big fail.

It is very early, so a lot can happen and many of those points could be changed. From what I read of the devs in this thread, they're both flexible with ideas and have a certain plan how the game should come out. Everyone should at least try it for themselves and see, if these things bother them as much as it did for me.

This is a review of the first release.

Quick note: The dev fixed the issue with the unskippable intro. Now you can skip most of it the first time through and then go into the preferences and turn off the intro completely.

It's clear that some effort that has been put into the game UX elements. This game doesn't have entirely standard Ren'Py controls, with a custom pointer, expanded preferences options and decent sound and music. I do wish the rest of the AVN got that same level of attention.

Storyline: The first version doesn't even include one full day, so take all of this with an appropriately-sized grain of salt.

I'm very much looking forward to someone doing a really good horror-themed AVN. From what I've seen so far of the story, the writer needs to work a bit more on his craft. The story feels rushed in spots and relies entirely too much on exposition. You start the game in a dream, but that's not where you get asked your name. They wait until you wake up and you ask your friend who you are and what you're doing there, except that isn't realistic. He didn't hit his head, nor is it established that he has trouble remembering everything past a few minutes. In real life if a friend woke up and asked me who they were, who I was and what we were doing there, I'd call an ambulance. If you want to set the stage, have an intro by the "dev" like you have a closing scene with the dev at the end of the initial release. Or have the main character try to remember his name and situation while in the dream.

Atmosphere: Atmosphere is critical for a good horror story, and there are a few decent points where it is hinted at that all is not quite right. But as with the story, this is rushed and the overall arc of the story is pretty clear before we even get into things. Let tension build over time. You can reward observant people with visual hints, but the bad guys shouldn't be out in the open this early. The writer also seems not to be a native English speaker. That's fine, as it's not bad. You can still clearly understand what the writer is trying to say, but given the weakness so far in the story, it's not helping matters. Comic Sans definitely isn't the best choice for a story like this, but thankfully you can adjust the font with several options in the preferences.

Art: The art is all Daz gen-3 style, which isn't a problem in-and-of-itself, but something you should be aware of. On the positive side, for gen-3 some shots are pretty well fleshed out with props so the scene feels real and lived-in. However, some scenes are as bare bones as you can get and it makes the game feel even more rushed.

Overall: For a new dev, this isn't a terrible start. There's a core of something very interesting here. The game doesn't need to be scrapped, but it does need a lot of polish. I gave my rating one extra star for the dev fixing the Intro so quickly and the dev spending time on the UX. I certainly hope the story improves.