VN - Ren'Py - The Synthetic [Ep. 4 Beta] [Carbon]

Review as of Ep 4

Visuals
Fantastic aesthetic in this game. Top tier renders. Lighting is good, poses are excellent. Characters' bodies have great textures and clarity. Very refreshing to see.

Ariana is sexy, but to a degree I feel like the aging applied to her is a bit much; if her son is freshly 18, we can reasonably assume she's as young as 36-38. She appears in her 40s-50s to my eye.

Sarah is also hot, as is Monica. All 3 women have a mature hourglass body but it’s a truly perfect one; many renders capture a heart shape figure from the waist down. I’m glad every woman has large breasts and a big ass.


Story/Dialog
The story is atrocious. It could have been intriguing if it were a convincing narrative, but it's not. Don't play this one expecting a compelling narrative or setting.


Dev seems to have somehow forgotten that in the very first scene with Ariana and a prospective buyer that he both claims to have never been married, then moments later that she
Pacing/timing issues that quite frankly are just lazy and overlooked. Example:
Some of the vernacular of character speech comes across as having been translated and then refined. I don't know if that's the case, but any countries with English as their primary language don't say things like "Do you want to watch the new installment of [xyz]?" It is just weird.

Why does MC's inner monologue contradict itself so openly? Example:
There are many more examples I could cite here that just make you go “huh?” But, you get the picture.

The dialog/narrative itself is OK. English contains good grammar and punctuation throughout, with some minor errors.



Other
UI is excellent. Textbox is unobtrusive, clear distinction in spoken vs thought dialog. I'd like to be able to hide the quick menu, but that's being pedantic.

The music is fantastic. Excellent choices that evoke subconscious/emotional/visceral responses. Very well done.

It’s confusing that some choices are unavailable but not hidden. It should be clear as to whether that is due to the point system, or that the resulting scene just isn’t completed yet.

I’m not a fan of the forced NTR (and yes, it is forced if you don't provide an option to either disrupt it or skip it).

Final Thoughts
This is a visually pleasing VN with an enticing story concept, but it is unfortunately ruined by bad pacing, lack of backstory, lack of development of the characters, unrealistic narratives, and contradictions. Dev should have a dedicated writer they can bounce ideas off of for both story content as well as character interaction. It’s obvious their strength lies in the ability to render a good scene, but that seems to be where their talent ends. I’m going to keep up with this one solely for the lewd quality, but the bar is on the ground for storytelling.

The Synthetic [Ep. 4 Beta] [Carbon]

It's weird, weird mish-mash of fetishes and aside from models nothing even comes close to being good. What a waste of good renders.

Story - ~1,7/5 Average dumb porn story, started skipping it at some point.

Characters - ~1,5/5 ""MC"", ""landlady"", "" some older woman"". Don't care.

MC - 0/5.

Writing - 1/5 Boring.

Models/Animations - 3/5

Grammar - 3/5.

(Review of Ep. 4 beta)

This is a novella (calling it a game in this case is taking it too far) for NTR fans, if you aren't one of them don't bother. I'm not giving this a bad rating for that (I admit, I'm anti-NTR) but because of many other things that are wrong.

The MC is a pervert virgin. He lives with a very attractive landlady with dual personality disorder that triggers when she drinks alcohol, turning from her usual ice cold self to a frisky one until she eventually passes out. The MC has just managed to create an AI capable of almost anything, starting by netting him $450 in a few hours, and what does he do? Paying a psychiatrist to treat her would ruin the plot, and so would saving up for a few days so she could drop her shitty job, so here we are with the standard pervert MC, spying her emails and groping her while she sleeps. Congratulations!

There's the old beaten love and lust paths, but I can't say things change much whatever you do. You only get to decide if you're a regular or an extra evil perv and how many constructive "thoughts" from the MC are you willing to endure before you begin skipping.

There isn't much more to say. I like the "intimate" style when it comes to visuals but in some renders even these models manage to come out awful and fake, just like virtually everyone in the cast except Ariana (who obviously plays the victim) and the storyline itself. Animations are decent and fluid but sometimes they reveal how bodies react like they're clay.

Not a fan.

This game is simply incredible, a worthy spiritual successor to Demond Boy. Please keep up with the updates, especially with the NTR route, taking advantage of both of them, and with the family route as well, exploiting them. The dialogues and everything are really well done. The fact that they don't want to be involved in these scenarios really gets me, and that's exactly how it should be, nothing too flashy. Stay on this path, don't stray like other developers. Keep it up, and congratulations!

Edit. SPOILERS EP4. 1 bad thing:
I have to point out something negative. I’ve played episode 4, and the only bad thing, aside from the fact that, like all games on this site, there’s very little content and a lot of milking, but that’s a general issue. The bad thing is that it makes no sense for the boss's wife to be such a bombshell. Why risk so much if his wife is younger and more attractive? It doesn’t add up. It would be much hotter if the wife were just a regular older woman. Then I’d understand much more why he’d be so obsessed with Ariana and do all of that. It would make a lot more sense. Just leaving that out there. Other than that, great job! Please keep going.

How Long To Beat: 1 Hour (as of Episode 3)

There isn't much here (so far) if you don't dig NTR.

MC has two love interests, his landlady/mom and her sister/his aunt. The dynamics aren't incredibly unique. Landlady/Mom is strict, aggressive and cold towards the MC, unless she gets inebriated, which makes her lusty and affectionate. You may have encountered this trope before. I like the aggressive attitude; she seems genuinely mean. There are hints that this is a facade to protect her insecurities with intimacy. The turns to lusty and affectionate seem too incongruous with her other personality. There's potential for an interested Aggressive Route, where the MC can make choices that promote her anger, leading to a more FemDom relationship. As of now, this is unexplored.

The models very in quality. I think the Mom/Landlady is good, but she looks so much like Megan Fox with aggressive botox and yet still has age lines in her face.

The aunt character is the most attractive in the game so far. Blonde, tatted, sharp long nails, an angular face that looks slightly more natural than the mom. She's fun, playful, adventerous; a nice foil to the mean mom character, but feels like she'll be relegated to a side character rather than a Main Love Interest. As of now, she just has a handjob scene.

The real potential for the story comes in the premise of the AI. The MC creates an AI that immediately becomes overpowered. As of this episode, her actions are mostly benevolent, but she induces a sense of dread. The avatar she creates for herself looks threatening, and her capabilities could be disastrous. I hope the author leans into her potential for the writing. As of now, she's not given a lot of attention. She's the most unique aspect of the story, and it would be a shame if it goes to waste in favor of something more predictable and rote.

There's not a lot of meat on these bones, in the sense of sexual scenes. There is a heavy emphasis on NTR, but the settings allows you to add hints to every choice. I avoided NTR, and seemingly the majority of the content. In my playthrough there isn't a lot between the MC and Mom/Landlady outside of some massages, nudity, and an awkward blowjob (that is characterized by the MC as a sexual assault; this is a little strange, because my choices up to that point means the MC is sexually interested in her, so to characterize it as an assault---but he's into it?---has some narrative dissonance; if I had chosen to not be interested in her, then it makes more sense). As mentioned earlier, there is really only a handjob scene with the aunt. There is an option for the MC to have sex with a sex worker. The character's body was curvy and nice, but her face had more wrinkles than a geriatric Thanos, which doesn't appeal to me.

The user interface is stylish. The music and tone are good. The writing is mostly solid. We are three episodes in, but it feels more like one or two stretched out. There's already a side story, but it is NTR, so I didn't play it.

There's great potential here, but so far it's an unsatisfying experience if you aren't fully into NTR as a kink.

The game is highly interesting and maintains a good pace without dragging on, which keeps players engaged throughout. It features impressive animations that enhance the overall experience, making the visuals both appealing and immersive. The game's design and execution are top-notch, offering a seamless and enjoyable gameplay experience. It's clear that a lot of effort went into creating a well-rounded game that captivates from start to finish, ensuring that it remains entertaining and visually stunning throughout the entire playthrough. Very good 5/5

Without a doubt one of the best porn game developers, the renders are full of details, Ariana's scenes with her boss, the buyer of the house, her son, and the parallel story... wow!! Ariana is undoubtedly the face of this game, sensual, hot, perverted, snobbish, bossy, submissive and I really enjoy it when she has control over herself, a true Goddess or a Devil

Good but...

Pros:

1. Nice models, looks realistic, more so though than many other MILFs,
2. Story is fine so far, believable
3. NTR on and off option always good

Cons:

1. Short...way to short, updates have little to no content
2. Side stories already...what is the point? Focus on side stories later once you have some decent character development going, its like dropping a pilot episode that ran half way then you start your filler episodes that have no bearing on the main plot. So far the main plot is being overlooked!
3. As per above, story needs more development and needs to mature, characters need more background. The MC staying with the Landlady/Mother/Whatever, there is no background and she is cold towards him despite living as they do.
4. NTR Side story doesn't work as NTR imo, the MC does not feature or is involved, at this point in the game there is no relationship even with the other characters so not really NTR imo. Are the side stories the other side of the coin if you made another decision?
5. Slow updates and updates have little or no real content

TLDR: Good for looks but bad for story, slow content release, my fear is that this game is more about looks and nothing about building characters, anticipation, nothing alluring, nothing that really gets the player pulled in. At least IMO not enough

Overall the story is ok, but as developed the game is barely addressing what it's described as in the intro. Instead, we have a NTR focused game, primarily around the 'landlady' so far just sexing up everyone else, and the beta/weak MC doing nothing to even tell anyone about the AI he made, that could otherwise help their lives improve.

The NTR is optional, but the story HEAVILY focuses on it. The non-NTR routes have a lack of content in dialogue and renders, to the point that the dev seems to have just added a token 'non-NTR' choice in to skip everything. The NTR routes have double or triple more content (not counting the sex) in them, better fleshed out character interactions, etc.

Long term, the game may start to actually focus on the MC and the A.I. but for now, this is the typical "coerced" or "blackmailed" NTR trope heavy story for the female character(s) and the weak/beta MC who has the ability to do something positive to change it but doesn't. This doesn't really reflect the story as presented in the description.

The story also has the beta MC doing the normal pervy "sleep assault" situations against the sleeping 'landlady' which further pushes the game down the "weak MC" focused path.

Overall, if you like NTR, or don't care if it's in the game and just want to see women sexed up, the game is decent (although the skin textures are pretty bad).

However, if you actually try the game based on the written description in the OP, know that the game (as of episode 3 release) DOES NOT focus on that story, and instead focuses on having the 'landlady' sexing up multiple people, with very little development on the story at home.

2/5 stars for decent renders (the skin is bad as noted), the characters overall, but for not following the main story as presented of what the game focus is actually supposed to be about, cutting significant content (outside the actual sex) in the non-NTR vs. NTR routes, the rating is penalized.

Update the intro to actually talk about the 'landlady' suck and fucking other guys as the main story focus to 'protect the family' (which is where the game is now) and the rating would reflect the actual honesty of what the game is about vs. what it claims to be.

EDIT: I appreciate the upvotes/likes for this review, but please make sure if you're liking this review that you write your own for the game also. Having more people be honest, and write accurate reviews is the only way to keep games from being artificially padded to be more positive than they are, especially when the game the dev describes does not match what they actually release.

I think it's a good game and very well made graphics, the plot looks very good, and the sounds of the hot scenes seem very accurate to me, the updates are quite fast and that's the most important thing, so that's why my rating is as much as possible, continue at that pace of updates and I'm sure you will have great success

Awesome renders, cool plot (that needs more work, but it's a good start) and correct grammar. Would love to see some kind of initiative by the MC, he looks really really soft.

And please... Amber has to come back from time to time, she looks amazing.

the gameplay of the game itself from the first episode I really went in and really liked the plot the branches of choice are very different in plot and mom talks when he was not at home or he was at home very different dialogues communication character prosirovka are made beautifully

the game is very cool mom of the father-in-law and the MILF who took your virginity the plot is very good and coolly written the characters themselves are very cute and coolly made in drawing the details of the characters well, in general, a good game that I really liked the game

This game continues to impress. Wonderful graphics, simple story, super hot scenes, and the AI is such an incredible idea with lots of potential. Looking forward to following this game for a long while

One of the greatest 3D arts, with tons of little details such as rings, wrinkles and stretch marks. Wich adds a nice dealing of realism. Standard but interesting storeys. Finally game with quality life features as a hint in the base game.

This is a lot of horny muscle bimbo great game.
I haven't seen such thoughtful in-game tips in a while.
It's very comfortable for a non-native English player like me.
Can fully understand the story, and the different choices will be easier.
The developer of this game is very good at the production of graphics.
Every movement and expression is exquisite.
Even the Angle of views is very new and subtle.
This game is a surprise and I highly recommend it to everyone.

The graphics quality is very very good, the story progresses a bit slowly, but it has the potential for good things. I am waiting for new updates with hope. The character is very beautiful and thicc. The ai that the character does is intriguing. I liked the game in general.

Simply one of the best arts you'll see around here in an interesting story with very good gameplay. It's just a shame that it's still a very short game. I really look forward for further updates from this one.

This visual novel is absolutely captivating! The artwork is stunning, the story is engaging, and the characters are so well-developed. I was completely immersed in the world and couldn't stop reading until I reached the end. A truly wonderful experience