VN - Ren'Py - ToxiCity [v0.11.0] [ILSProductions]

torn between 4 & 5 purely due to somewhat stale sex scenes. if there's a game you actually read and don't just jack off to it should be this one. the characters & scenes are so well written and everything is built up to in a very real way - so when there is action the payoff is a lot greater.

Good game.

The writing is solid, the gals are decently hot (yet still realistically "everyday" gals, not strutting supermodels), the MC and the gals go through some really relatable sh1t, and the horror setting works well enough that even this reviewer, who generally actively dislikes horror/post-apocolyptic/zombie genre stuff, finds it effective.

Specifically, the slow but terrifying threat posed to the girls the MC cares abt is so ever-looming, that when one gal goes on a little PTSD-and-self-hate-induced solo-stroll straight out into the predator-laden miasmic minefield, I was outright worried, and actively invested in the MC rushing out after her.

The sex is quite sparse, early on, unless you pursue Laura. If you focus Kallie, it's a really, REALLY slow burn, but that is realistic, given her situation.

I have not yet balanced out if one can get all sex scenes for all girls in one playthrough, but a look at the walkthrough makes me think it might not be possible, which adds replay but makes me a bit sad.

The MC and gals do a LOT of talking on their shared predicament, and on their individual issues/traumas, and this feels quite real and engaging, with ONE very notable exception: they sometimes keep the patter going even during sex, which is a problem (this does decrease as the game goes on).

It very often kills the scene momentum, and is also a sign the MC isn't actually all that great in the sack, despite seemingly being relatively well-endowed: if a girl can still form fully coherent sentences **while you are actively fvcking her**, you ain't doing your job right, buddy. All gals are natively actors, as few have never faked an orgasm (even those inner twitches might just be her skill at Kegels excercises, unless it is very obviously real spasms), and Oscar-worthy moaning and O-faces are common, so do not prove success, while a girl still able to hold a cogent conversation is a sure sign of abject failure.

Again, this does get less egregious as the game progresses, as some sessions later on do markedly have the girls losing linguistic ability as they get hammered.

All that said, TOXICity is a gripping tale that will eventually get you to some really good scenes, and where the girls always seem to happily and knowingly take it inside, but is not so rushed (aside from one gal who is actively looking to ride you almost immediately when you finally meet her) as to feel unearned and unrealistic.

Gallery has no ingame clues for locked scenes, but the walkthrough has the breakdowns.

All-round, a good game. Needs more sex to hit 5 stars, but it might be getting there.

Damn, for the first 3 chapters this was really feeling like Now and Then 2, that is a good thing and I was actually thinking it might have been an improvement as the renders are absolutely of higher quality than the devs other works, and the fog was a really interesting and high stakes survival situation. But the longer the game went on the worse it got. See what I liked about Now and Then was we had a survival horror situation with people acting and behaving like actual rational competent people for once. In Now and Then the Mc is extremely competent and intelligent with his decision making, and for company he has the worlds most competent daughter, and her decently useful best friend and mother. The girls behave smart, they are absolutely able to fight if necessary, and are willing to do what it takes to survive whether that means listing to the experienced MC or making there own calls when he isn't there. In this game we get the company of dumb, dumber, and Genuinely Retarded. I liked the lack of typical horror movie stupid characters in Now and Then but here we get the typical clichéd stupidity in droves. You are forced to watch bad decisions get made, and low and behold, bad thing happens. It feels like natural selection that they all die at this point. The least offensive of the 3 is Kallie as she at least has a certain awareness that she is useless as fuck and obeys the MCs orders knowing she is absolutely dependent on him to live. The other girls are "willful" (so tired of that word after this game) and so don't listen to you or really even discuss with you before charging off to try and die. I would have let them. Respectfully I would be trying to live thanks, I would love to help others survive even if they are dead weight (Kallie) but the second they became an active danger (Laura/Shelly) to myself and the others chance at survival I'm sorry but I'd be out. On to the MC, he isn't as competent as I would like ether but he is an average joe office worker I suppose, still he HAS duct tape and said that multiple times but nobody tapes the arms/neck of their shirts down to help keep out the gas? Seriously!? tape your mask to your face even with how poisonous it is. He hasn't thought of making any throwing weapons since you cant get close to the burned without taking damage? He even mentions wrapping there heads with trash bags and tape, but settles on baseball caps to protect from the gas? Its just wildly stupid decision making. Still he can fight and defiantly makes better choices than the rest of the group combined. Additionally. This is really more of a Soap Opera than a survival/horror the cast are seriously more worried about marital drama they have if the survive than actually, you know surviving. The game is so verbose with internal monologues and pointless frivolities and mental breakdowns and drama, they lose entire days to emotional discussions in what is one of the hardest to survive in situations I've ever seen. They all really should be dead. Its a waste of the setting really. I feel that is a shame because it is a rater inspired setting and I would have loved to see a clever, sly, and witty group try to get through this against all odds. But the characters even make the setting feel less believable just because of the fact that with the danger level presented they should be dead as all fuck.

I will rescind this review and give it a 5 if they actually do all die in the ending though tbh because that would actually make this a pretty interesting piece on bad discission making and priorities under pressure.

In summery what made Now and Then great so great that it was worth more than a porn game, was smart and practical characters surviving in a bad situation against all odds because they were smart and practical. This is bad because it is stupid and impractical people surviving in an even worse situation, because dumb luck and horror movie logic.

Really enjoying this. Very much like their first game and I like the setting they've created for this one. Very Silent Hill-like. The characters are all well written, each having their own personality and issues.

All of the love interests are attractive and the sex scenes are good. The dev team is very experienced and it shows with this one. Content comes out very consistently which is great as well.

Here's to hoping it gets better with time and has a good ending to wrap it all up.

Version 0.10.0

As one of the minorities who prefers The Interim Domain over Now & Then, I wasn't exactly thrilled to learn that ILSP's latest work would be back to its N&T roots. However, glad to report that they've built on their experiences from both previous works and delivered a much-improved visual novel in ToxiCity.

ToxiCity blends mild action / horror with deep characterisations of humans under stressful conditions coupled with a healthy dose of sex and romance to deliver something that is entertaining, thought provoking and sexy at the same time.

Story
MC isn't feeling great emotionally after a draining divorce and being stuck in a brainless corporate job coasting along daily isn't helping either. A dangerous fog descends upon the town and soon the guy's trapped in the office with two colleagues, Kallie and Laura.

The plot revolves around MC and crew trying to make their way out of town and along the way we discover many of the hidden demons and issues plaguing the cast. Unlike N&T where there's too much hanging around one place with repetitive fucking and sleeping, the crew here is constantly on the move, so pacing and momentum is certainly much more engaging.

There's also a big mystery as to the nature of the fog, the effects it has on humans and some other strange turned creatures that will be revealed in the future.

Game Mechanic
Visual novel with choices that affect a variety of points such as Trust, Desire, Love, Friendship and Anxiety. These choices don't result in completely branching storylines, but do affect dialogue, mini events and the overall portrayal of MC's interaction with each LI.

Background / Character Renders
Both backgrounds and characters are rendered in HS2 with good mods and decent post processing filters. However the general style is quite different from usual HS2 games which tend to take on an anime feel.

The models are designed more towards the realism spectrum but not fully so like Daz. In typical ILSP fashion, character models for the LIs have realistic proportions i.e. no mega boobs, wild tattoos, bigger than life butts etc. The overall lighting is dark and depressing which fits the ambience of the story.

Character Development
As with all of ILSP games, character complexity is heart and soul of the novel. Don't expect tropey nonsense like sluts who fall head over heels to jump on MC's dick or everyone being fine with joining a big harem without consequences.

The two starting LIs Kallie and Laura are simply hi-bye type of co-workers with MC at the start and we get to witness how their relationship slowly evolves along the way. The third LI, Shelly, might seem like a typical bimbo slut at first, but we get to know more of her then meets the eye after a while.

Another unique aspect of ToxiCity is each LI's character is slowly revealed layer by layer like an onion. As the game progresses, what seems like the most competent and dependable character at first glance turns out not to be so, someone who looks weak and fragile might end up highly resilient. A brainless harlot might actually be far more perceptive of her surroundings and the team dynamic then she lets on etc.

ToxiCity has limited LIs, but what it lacks in breadth it more than makes up with depth.

Sex Scenes
The first sex scene does take a while to appear as the story builds up, but things do start to happen so it's not entirely a realistic super slow burn either.

In typical ILSP fashion, they come with a full suite of acerbic humour, erotic dialogue, good quality renders, sound effects, moaning and animations. Just don't expect kinky stuff, it's just normal sex that can be reasonably expected from the characters given the circumstances.

Each character also has a unique track for her lewd scenes of which all are very well selected. A fusion of romance, dark clouds on the horizon and respite.

BGM and Sound Effects
BGMs are very well curated - most amplify the depression, mental stress and the occasional glimmer of hope. Sound effects though are a bit lacking, I felt some of the action and horror scenes would have been better served with a good dose of SFX.

Conclusion
ToxiCity is first and foremost a character driven story wrapped around by mystery and action. It's pretty cool that we don't even know if the nature of the fog is paranormal or scientific even after 12 - 13 hours of gameplay. Lots of theories and discussion in the main thread which makes for an entertaining read.

Also an ending note on the developer's work ethic - monthly meaty updates without fail, almost weekly development logs, frequent wallpaper renders and an updated official walkthrough. It certainly puts to shame many other developers who can produce nothing for six months besides endless IRL stories.

This developer's work continues to improve. I read and enjoyed previous effort Now & Then, which was thematically similar, but was left wanting more than that story delivered at the end. The Toxicity story has a more unique and thought-out setting that delves past established zombie tropes and into the true nature of the story's calamity. I hope to see this tale spun into a lengthy saga of pain, lust, joy, and survival.

In terms of game design itself, sound design (primarily music) and animations (especially facial expressions) effectively convey the feel of events and character emotions to the reader. As with the better games on this site, the sexy parts feel like a natural progression of story events and relationships rather than features of a casual dopamine machine.

To the developer: you have something really interesting here. As it was with Now & Then, Toxicity's story makes me feel strong connection to the various main characters and the story of the world. Please, don't end things quietly without real resolution as soon as Our Team reaches a Quiet Country Town, and don't force us to abandon our harem at the story's end! While some may prefer the modern reality of choosing a single mate, I as the reader/MC self-insert want to continue loving and living with the sympathetic and "attractive" female characters who have shared joy and sorrow in such great amount.

An enthralling journey so far (as of patch 0.11.0)!

A truly interesting game! I've only just started, episode 11 has just been released. But it looks solid! The plot is already laid out, and we've been introduced to the girls.

Speaking of the girls... They're very hot, with interesting relationship dynamics. The renders are on par with the best in this genre. Overall, it's a truly captivating game that I'll be keeping a close eye on.

Well done, developer!

Another good game from this dev. He made it quite strong with "Now & Then", as a AVN heavy with story but no porn forgotten. Story comes first, as it always been with ILS Productions. And it was a good story of survival against all odds. And in the meantime, no survival comes without good old intersex relations, which were portrayed quite life-like. It was enjoyable experience all the way to the final update, story comes to normal end and by itself it's achievement (rare dev can make a good final).
Then there was "The interim domain", showing us that every genius has it's moment of weakness (or that everyone of us is a human and humans do make mistakes). In my opinion, it was the story that made game uninteresting. Writing skill was on the same level, characters were interesting but the story itself was the stone that broke camel's back for me.
And the third game, "Toxicity". The same story trick, humans amid life-changing event, MC is a some kind of common man with nothing to show off, but in this event he got some kind of awaken call and he's trying to overcome the odds. As in the first game, he's surviving not alone but with a group of women. The rest is easy to guess.
What I like about ILS Productions is the that he's not trying to find ideal story scheme and just follows it. He's a writer, so he wrote one story and then he's writing another. He's learning from his mistakes but he's not trying to repeat his first game with the third one, he's writing something new. So, what's new?
In my mind, the most difference was in the way story is told. Again, adult MC with some life experience under the belt. But in this case he's the most common one as he can be. A guy that go with the flow, no ambition, no goal, just following the majority. A loveless marriage, divorce, a job with nothing interesting but everyone needs to pay their bills, some coworkers with the same approach. Then comes the toxic fog. No zombie apocalypse here, just toxic fog. Why - is a mystery, of course, it just happened. And so we see with the eyes of this commoner what is going on and how he tries to survive. Fucking all the girls that's near him, of course. We see how his female coworker falls into depression, how he tries to cure her soul for her to come back into surviving mode, how he justifies for himself each and every sexual encounter... It's the same "Now & Then" but with all the soap opera drama (inside MC's head) and all that "soul research" that some wo... people like to read. I think it worsens the story and storytelling but it's like how Americans see each other and the world around them. Beside that dev made some links to some terms and idioms that some non-Americans can be not familiar with. Not like many people, speaking American English, don't know what second base is (after all, more than half of American movies used that term) but I'd say it's good to have an explanation (and now I know what the first and the third base is).
So tldr (thanks dev for explanation, now I know what it means), it's typical American story about common people that were put into "survive or die" situation, with all the psychology of typical Americans. "Now & Then" was totally fine without it but here... it's like watching some dumb American TV series, clearly worse that "Now & Then".

A good survival AVNs. Here is my rating:
-Render: 8/10, suprisngly, at the beginning I feel like the characters are alright at best, but holy, when they reveal their body, the dev show us the bombshell curve, I am talking Laura, what a milf, and her unbuttoned shirt is also so tempting
- Story: 8/10 very little porn logic, the game focus on the journey of survival, where people try to make decision with their rationality, of course, stress, despair, fear get in the way. So people make stupid decisions but you don't hate them for it, but rather understanding that they are on the verge of breaking.
- Character: 9/10 The girls are diverse, realistics and beautiful. Our MC is mature, reliable and trustworhy, It is one of the game that don't use big D power.
Overall, 8.75/19, highly recommend

First of all, if you don´t want to miss a lot of the lewd content, you have to use the walkthrough. Choices aren´t straightforward, and the points you have to obtain to see all the scenes have little margin for error. I missed half the scenes during my playthrough.

The game has a fairly unique setting (simmilar to the movie/book Mist), characters act fairly realistically and are believable. At this point (0.1), there is quite a bit of content, and the game is worth a playthrough. One of the few games of this style where the story/setting in itself is engaging, without just serving as filler for porn.

My only complaint is the fact that some of the conflicts can drag on a bit, and the dialogue might be a bit padded at some parts. Still I actually read through the game fully without skipping which is a rare thing for me in a VN. Big thumbs up, I certainly recommend anyone to give this a try - the game is quite consistent in tone and I think you will be able to judge fairly quickly if this is for you.

Excellent game with an interesting story and good pacing. All relationships develop at a believable rate, not too fast not too slow and a very consistent update schedule by the Dev with good amounts of content and great quality.

You guys are rockin, Toxicity is even better then your two previous VNs.
I like the Romantic/Horror theme like Now and Then, good story telling too and etc ...

The only remonstrance i would have, and it's a little one, it's the MC.
To get point with Laura, he has to be a little bit of a sissy, he could be more assertive with her, especially after she went out endangering the MC and subsequently , Kelly and Shelley.

Buddy! Talk about packing up the taste buds for a weekend trip to smut-town.....cuz apocalypse-esque concepts make my pp go brrrrr........

Disclaimer: I LOVED "Now and Then" by the developer so I was hoping this would meet that itch. Oh boy does it deliver!!!

Pros

1. Good character development and scene setting.
2. The best thing this author does is make the MC actually likeable. Like he is not just here to fuck anything with a pulse. Dude's actually gives a shit
3. Animations are sexy AF.
4. I personally feel like the dialogues are long but serve a purpose. Gives me insight into characters head.

Cons

1. More music selections

Verdict: Absofuckinglutely play it if you like his last title. Might be hard to get into for people that don't like reading a lot but if you want sex, there's plenty that comes after the first hour or so. It gets hot and it keeps giving but actually makes sense rather than fuckfest.

This creator's games are always very good. They're always worth it and keep you engaged from beginning to end. I always appreciate that he doesn't include sex at the beginning, so I can see what the characters are like and their perspectives. It's the closest thing to a story in a series.

I played through v0.07 in a few evenings, and found it moderately enjoyable.

Post-apocalyptic stories offer their writers a lot of freedom compared to ones set in the everyday world. The laws are a dead letter, polite societal norms have gone by the wayside, and the world is the MC’s oyster. Well, it could be so, if authored by someone else. ILS Productions has an amazing ability to make even this kind of story feel mundane.

On the positive side, the game has a nice spooky atmosphere, and the few LI’s are okay. The devs are very productive, and complete the projects they start.

On the negative side, there is a great deal of internal monologue from the various characters, relieved now and then by dialog between them: almost all of it a snooze-fest.

The greatest negative I found was the non-intuitive point system for progressing with the LIs. I tried to wing it without consulting the walk-through, and missed half the sex scenes as a result. The story is not exciting-enough to justify a second play-thorough, so I recommend relying heavily on the official walk-through if you want to give this a try.

There was a more subtle problem that I found somewhat off-putting. There is a standard trope in a horror movie where the writer has the MC do something obviously stupid to advance the plot. The audience, helpless to stop him, can only hold their breath while they wait to see what happens. I don’t think this technique works well in a VN. The player is not just a passive observer: he is made to feel empowered by the decisions he makes for the MC. If offered the option to do something obviously stupid, they will probably refuse. If the writer just has the MC do the stupid without asking for player input, it causes an annoying disconnect between the player and MC.

I think the writers make that mistake here. The player is asked to make lots of seemingly trivial choices for the MC--though they matter in terms of unlocking sex scenes--but when he is faced with a momentous decision we get no say.

If you liked the dev’s previous games, I am sure you will enjoy this as well.

I've been following this developer for a while now

His latest game ToxiCity is definitely an improvement over his second one. I actually really liked his first game (now and then).

His second game wasn't quite as good in my opinion. It had some interesting ideas, but the execution fell a bit flat for me.

But then came ToxiCity, and I have to say, it's a big step up from the previous one. The idea of surviving in a post-apocalyptic world is really compelling, and the characters are all pretty cool.

The story is a clear narrative that keeps you engaged.

One thing that might be annoying for some people is that the main character talks a lot.

just don't have super high expectations if you've only seen now and then (first game).

ToxiCity has a interesting premise about survival when all hope seems lost, the characters are well thought out and the setting is similar to after a natural disaster, where the main character has to navigate through the new norm. Looking forward to each new update.

One of my favourite games here!

+ Excellent renders, greatly improved from the dev's previous games, even if it still uses Honey Select

+ A smaller cast of LIs, which allows a more in-depth characterization (I am a big fan of this, more games should do the same, rather than shoving 20 women with 5 minutes worth of content in the game and calling it a day)

+ Good story and world building

+ A mature MC that does not behave like a 15 year old horny kid

+ Fast and consistent updates


- The MC monologues a lot. I am not particularly bothered by it, but I can see how it might frustrate some people


Easy 5 stars! Highly recommended!

If you like the narration and character style of this dev, you'll definitely enjoy this one as well. It's a little more like Now & Then compared to the second game, which was a sandbox.
The premise is interesting, the girls are varied and lovely so far and you can really feel the pressures of being in an apocalypse-like scenario. The characters would be horrible apocalypse buddies though, as they're constantly making pretty stupid choices, but if we're honest, I'll just put that off on realism.

I didn't realize this was from the same Dev of "Now & Then", I'm totally a fan of that AVN. After playing this one, I can see the similarities and a lot of improvement from then. I like where the story is going, the harem in apocalypse is definitely my number one trope. I hope this will get far and I feel like we can expect a lot from this Dev.