Others - Abandoned - Winter Warmth [2024-12-24 TEST] [PowerPlower]

I'm struggling with deciding between 2 or 3 stars. All I know is, this aint a 1 star game, and not a 4 star game, and definitely not a 5 star game.

Almost 3 years ago at the time of writing, when the game first popped up, not only was it under a different name (Terror), but it looked extremely promising.
In fact, I dont think I've been SO hyped for a new AVN as I was for this one.
It had an interesting setting. Really liked the family setting and vibes, lovely and beautiful to-be wife. Cute kids (not the MC's though IIRC, so tough luck incest lovers)
And this temptress at work, who you kinda want to bang. BUT that little concience you still have in the back of your head, makes you think of that lovely fiancée you have at home. But she's not 'putting out', she's not very interested in sex. So it makes it more tempting to nail that temptress at work.
And depending on choices etc, I remember that you could start getting closer to her, or more push her towards the "ntr" and see her pleasing some other dude at work.

We're also introduced to the EX-wife of the MC. And in MY humble opinion, super gorgeous woman (preferences and taste might vary lol). But she's a complete b-tch.

Some drama is set in motion. Ex-wife and her NEW man is literally moving in to the house with MC and his family. I honestly forgot the reason why, something about it being her house too, or something.

And it's all set up for some really interesting drama and possible cheating and *shrug* NTR down the road.

That's where the game completely shifts. It turns into a full on SANDBOX game.
Ok fine, some sandbox games are well made, maybe this one will be too?

Weeeell, the dev, in his lack of wisom and intelligence sadly, decided to completely change the engine. Making the game almost unplayable, and an utter SLOG to play, with both a really bad engine, AND terrbly sandbox
Yes the sandbox is both decent and terrible.
See, you can open the map, a layout of the city, and you can click where you wanna go, for example the bar,, which is quite some distance from your home. Do you click on it, and the games loads you into the bar?
NO.
Your literally watching a moving circle/blob move sloooowly towards the bar.
This takes a while.
This is the case for ANY movement on the main map. You dont just click on whatever destination and you're there. You gotta sit thru and wait for the damn game to pretend you're walking there.
But hey, I'm pretty sure this dev is moonshining, his real job must be at Ubisoft. Because guess what, you feel like you level up your stats too slow, you run out of energy/stamina too fast, or it takes too long to get from one place to another? Well I got good news for you, you can pay REAL money to speed things up. lmao.
I'm amazed this dev haven't been completely abandoned by every living person on the planet.

So again, we went from a somewhat linear, typical VN set-up, you have some choices at home, and at work. Then the game turns into a slog of a sandbox, AND the dev decided to also change to a new engine.
But you can PAY to speed things up. Because as mentioned, you have stats, you can increase them, very, VERY slowly, and it's obvious WHY everything is slow to do in this game, because the dev is greedy and wants you to open your wallet to give him even more money.
Just like certain Ubislop games, where they intentionally make leveling up slow, so that you'll buy the "xp boost" for real money.

Now, many years since the first inception of this game, we haven't really gotten very far in the "story". Like I said, first the classic VN mode, then the game shifts focus to 100% sandbox, with intentional blocks and slow-downs to entice you to give the dev more money.
And we're not really gotten anywhere beside that. Its been YEARS since the story left the "VN" stage, and here we are, years later, and if the game wasn't constructed to BE very slow, you could easily play thru these years of "development" in half an hour.
BUT, thanks to the time it takes you to go somewhere in the sandbox, to get the proper stats and skills, it will take you quite a while, and all that work, just to get maybe ONE semi-lewd scene. In most cases, you're rewared with bugs and a crashing game.
Surely this all sounds just LOVELY? You can really see this is an obvious FIVE star game eh? lol I'm obviously being sarcastic here.

This game, early on, is really good, and I really did fall in love with this game. Til we got to the sandbox, and shortly after, change of engine. And everything went from woooooh, to "yaaaaaawn".

Do not bother, do not waste your time with this game. I can't even understand how NTR people can "praise" this game. It's very stingy with the lewd stuff. And considering how long it's been in development, and we're barely gotten anywhere in the last 2 or so years of development, it's safe to say, this game - IF it ever gets finished, wont be before 2040.

What pains me the most is, is that I remember just how much I LOVED this VN in it's first one or two updates. It was on the path of becoming perhaps even my #1 AVN.
But of course, greed and a brainfart or two, made the dev ruin everything.
And this is the ONLY AVN (and I've played thousands, honestly) that still is making me sad, again because I truly loved this one early on. So it makes me sad.
It went from one of the most promising games a few years ago,
to,
one of the most horrible games, today.

To be fair, that HAS been some "mini" updates since I last bothered with this trash, but even 2 years from NOW, this game won't be any good. The foundation is terrible. What this game needs to become at least decent and enjoyable, is either 1 rework from the ground up, again. or 2. New developer. Preferably both.

Another big NO-NO that most experienced players already know. Never, ever have any hopes for a game where the dev is taking ideas and such from the 'supporters' on what to add or prioritize. This dev, has literally 2 patreon pages for this ONE game. One being for the light and one for the dark "path". Dark is basically NTR and shit like that.
So it's obvious, if DARK has more support than Light, the game will focus more on NTR etc. I'm sure the more non-NTR paths will eventually get it's content too, and that the two supporter pages are more like "what to prioritize".
Either way, the game is just pure dogsh-t since the start of the sandbox.
I could've accepted the sandbox, as I said, if a sandbox is WELL made, fine, it could add to the game experience. But in most cases it's just there to give you the illusion there's actual content - which there barely is.
This game truly reminds of your typical MOBILE game. Limited energy, shit takes forever to do. BUT you can pay to speed it up - pay as in real money, not in-game currency. Unless the dev wisened up and removed that greedy d-ckmove. Doubt it though. Even IF there's no"microtransaction" in the game, it still wont make this an enjoyable experience. Things still takes too much time to do, the grind is horrendous. The bugs are plenty.
The ladies are for the most part pretty damn gorgeous though. But it's all ruined with a bad foundation, bad engine, bad sandbox, intentional and pointless grind and slow-downs. With VERY little pay-off, if any.

Again, run, run far away from this game. It should really have kept it's original title "Terror", because this game, is pure terror.
I'm even more tempted to give this a 1-star. BUT, I still have happy memories of the early part of the game, and the visuals ARE nice. That's what saves this trash from a 1-star.
This if ANY game, desperately needs a complete remake - and as I said, would probably need another person at the helm too, as this dev is out of his mind it seems.

Im honest with you, i cant tell much about the Game itself and still feel like i should leave a "Review". Why i am doing that? This Game uses a different Engine, which lead to craches every 10 Minutes. The latest Test build last for 2 min, the previus 1.9 Stable Version for 10 Minutes. Renders seemed great, but how can you play a Game if it crashes constantly and the easy solution for that would be the Renpy engine. There has to be a reason, why its used so often.

The story is gripping and keeps the audience engaged with its high-stakes decision-making and complex character relationships. The idea of "avoidable NTR" adds a layer of tension and emotional investment that makes each decision feel consequential. The narrative's focus on meaningful choices ensures that the player's actions directly influence the story's progression and outcome, making it all the more rewarding.

The characters are well-developed, with rich backstories and personalities that feel authentic. The dynamics between them are compelling, creating moments of camaraderie, conflict, and genuine connection. These relationships deepen the player's immersion, making them care about the consequences of their decisions and how they affect the story's resolution.

I'm particularly excited to see how the plot unfolds as it builds towards its climax. The blend of strong storytelling, impactful choices, and nuanced character interactions promises a memorable and satisfying conclusion. Keep up the excellent work—this is shaping up to be an unforgettable narrative experience!

Why do you even need energy to move with the car around? doesn't make any sense, it's already consuming enough you need money to use it but also energy? what is the point? so you have to walk back from work instead of using the car and walking doesn't take as much energy this just makes no sense at all.

And why some house rooms are locked and you have to access them navigating through the whole house instead of just clicking on it like the others? you have to be a subscriber or something in order to unlock those rooms? if yes then this kills the entire game.

This seems like very annoying, tedious and waster of time type of sandbox game from what i see, with stats and bullshit like that.

Which means it limits your access to content and you have to grind the shit out of it in order to progress and it's not worth it since many people said there's barely any content to it, why should i waste my time to grind stats points to the MC and the other characters if i don't get anything substantial out of it?

You didn't even posted a guide, you didn't put any hints or even explained anything regarding the game mechanics at all, are we supposed to find that ourselves without explanation? like how do we know that the Power Move stat or whatever it is called supposed to unlock a certain path? the other being NTR path or something.

From what i see this is just another qick cash grab game made only for money where you are limited to use certain game mechanics and in order to be allowed to use them, you need to pay money for it.

Literally a gacha porn game, thanks but no thanks, i thought this game could actually be something good but clearly it's not at all, you just made this game in order to get some money of it and that's it, it's a terrible way of getting financial support from other people, this is not how you get support from people.

Don't let yourself fooled by the models because it's no worthy to waste your time on this game, it's clueless, mediocre and overall terrible regarding execution.

1. Story: 10/10
Outstanding writing. Pretty gripping story, in the sense of imparting a feeling of actual concern/worry over the financial meltdown being suffered. Great archetypes of characters all around. A bit of mystery (partly owing to the in-development stage of the game). Really, really great work.

2. Visuals: 8/10
Top-notch renders. Attractive models. Sandbox is navigable for the most part.

3. Characters: 9/10
I only played the 'Dark (NTR)' route, and you definitely feel the agony haha. Very solid. I liked how one of the LIs turns into an antagonist. A nice twist you don't often see in these games.

I know what you're thinking - if all my ratings are 8-10 out of 10, then why only 1 star?
ENGINE: 0/10!!!! This game is largely unplayable. It crashes so frequently that I have to save after every. Single. Scene. And unlike Renpy games, saving here is an annoying clickfest. The minigames, to get money, are outrageously annoying. Some updates haven't even opened, period. Can't even get the game to load. I don't know what the devs were thinking, using whatever dumpster fire this is, but it is all our losses that they decided not to use a functioning game engine. This should be a top-rated game, one that everyone sits around eagerly waiting an update for. Instead, it is just a mess of bugs and crashes.
The devs have real talent at writing. I wish they'd just release it on Literotica as a story (or hell, even sell it as an epub), so I could follow the plot and see what happpens, because lord knows I'll never manage to get the game to stay open long enough to finish it, even if it was completely finished.

Great story, great characters with their own personality. Over time, it looks like this will become more of a "game", which is refreshing. I am happy there are two paths, and it is not as simple as clicking on one option with huge NTR warning to easily get the content you want. Keeping it enjoyable as a game without making the next step in the content super obvious is nice to me. Looking forward to future dev.

[v 0.1.9.6]
I just wanted to point some things out but then i thought it's a review so here it goes.

For people that want a quick opinion: game is buggy, pace is really slow, much grind, it could be good once it's a bit more refined but as of now it really feel like betatesting.

So since it's a review in the end, i got to rate it. I really don't think it's in a state worthy of any rating as of now since it feel so early stage. So i'll be rating a star more than deserved in that regard.

Engine: 1/5 smtg happen when you launch the app, what's left is very unstable.
gameplay: 2/5 it's nice of the dev to try, it's not nice for us to try them. The VN aspect is solid though.
Renders: 5/5 top notch
Story: 3/5 the benefice of the doubt
Overall: 3/5 As of now, not really worth givin a try, i probably would like the game if it was not for the grind and the bugs.

Well well well, i'm about 3hours in and honestly it's been quite the hussle to get through.
Seems like the game is incompatible with HDR, uppon start, fullscreen deactivate it. Might be a issue on my end with my specific hardware but still.
I couldn't get to the end of the prologue, since i couldn't go to work during the morning, the event didn't pop outside of the house(the morning where Ava catch the MC before work). Had to start from chapter one.
What exactly is going on with all the stats and the hardmode? I honestly couldn't figure that out within the game. I had to make a thorough search on here to find some answer, still wondering what the hardmode does exactly...
I've overwrite my save by mistake after a random crash during a travel on the map, trying to get back to the game asap. Well, nice UI/UX, it's lvl 0 of design.
Constant bugs uppon saving during a scene. You'd like to explore some option of dialogue? Well u better have saved just before the scene started, otherwise you're gonna have every choice made at once for you on reload.


Now to the gameplay part like does the dev actualy play his own game?
Unskipable transition?
Actual time within the game so you're always on the clock? You have to constantly watch for the time, and when you know you don't have anything to do for the remaining hour, you just gotta stay put until the hour resolve...yeah you can skip it you'll say? Well it's bothersome. A game shouldn't be a bother. Just make the timeskip button so that it get you to the start of the next hour. Or just get rid of it all! i absolutely haven't seen any good use of this feature yet.
What about the grinding... it's a novel. Am here for the story. I don't wanna max out stats going over and over again the same scene. Fackin give us the story dude. It makes you look like you're hidding what am guessing is an absence of content behind it. And if there is something, a clue would be nice. Something to tell the player there's something to see in the end. I can get my agility up, i don't know what it's for.
Oh also... what's up with quick traveling in this game? When does the dev thought "EUREKA you can't go outside if you're not on the doorstep, you can't directly access a room if you're not on the right floor!" god please no. NOOOOOO.

Well, it's not all bad though, i enjoyed some of the scene, the renders are nice, the few animation i've seen are well made.Ava is really cute. Characters are a bit bland though, a lot of time is spent to make MC/wife relation credible, it does not really work. Nothing bad, but nothing standing out either. Some of the setup are quite... idk, not convincing? No build up at all for the ex wife despite her being the counterpoint of the wife and the symbol of the dark path. We should have at least as much build up for her relation than for the wife. As of now she's just unsufferable, i don't see any logical reason for the mc to do anything that she says. But well, i've only spent 3 hours on the game.

In conclusion, many things to improve, the first one would be the technicalities: you can't afford to crash often, not provide a working saving system, meanwhile having such a slow pace and this much grind. Like i wouldn't mind overwriting my save if it was not already so hard to simply get through the game with ctrl skip.

My best to the dev, good luck

This is one of the games with the most potential I've ever played. The renders are fantastic, the story is good and I love this type of gameplay. I hope to see more scenes though.
The only problem with this game is that there are too many bugs

I played it for NTR route or "Dark Side" as it's called in the game, and it seems like it doesn't have too much content for now, I get the path with Mina and Ted, and the scene where Melissa talks to Mina, and it seems like that's it for now. But with Andy that just arrives at the house at the end of chapter 1, there is a lot of potential for the Dark Side.

The gallery seems a bit confusing, like when I go to gallery and select Pavani and "Dark", It shows me 3 scenes, if I select "Light" it also shows me 3 scenes so when I select "All" I would expect it to show me 6 scenes, but no seems like the 3 scenes for the Dark path are the same as for the Light one ?
And if I click on the slide, it doesn't say anything, so I don't get any tip on how to get these scenes, I don't get why we get some tips for some scenes and not others.

Just a small thing the app Flitter, for now we can scroll till the end, but in the future if there is a lot of posts, it's gonna start to take a long time to scroll till the bottom.

Otherwise I don't complain about making money, it's pretty easy with the cookie job, you do a 1k5 run and then just use the pill.

The renders are really great.

The game looks really promising, I will keep an eye, and hope the next updates to get more Dark Side content.

Horrible iteration of porn game. If you like tedious busy work with 8 stats to grind, slow unresponsive scene transition, constant fade-to-black between image transition then this game is for you.

I have no Idea what compelled the dev to switch to such a banal concept of porn game design, since his early version was straigthf forward and to the point.

My guess is to pad minimal future content was tedious busywork.

Story does have potential and i do hope they can turn this mess into a real playable game, but as it is now its just has to many bugs and issues and a really really bad interface, wich ill make a list of later, its also a multiple path game NTR/None NTR (dark/light path) which means progress will be slower when working on two diffrent kind of games, its fine but i just like when a game focus on one path so progress is faster.

Be ready to play an extreemly submissive MC, if its diffrent on dark path i dont know, but on light path he bends over and take it up the ass over and over, even when some kids comes into hes house to visit hes step-daughter they treat him like total shit and MC never does a thing, he lets hes ex-wife freeload in hes house, paying for her food and shes a real bitch....it just gets so annoying to play a MC like this when your not a submissive type your self, MC constantly thinks about how mad he is and how he want to do this and that, but he simply just never does anything, hes goes from wanting the stepdaughter to see her bad friends to letting them sleep over??? potential drug dealers which MC knows to and he invites them to sleep in hes house with hes daughter there to.....it just dosent make sense in any way what do ever, i truely feel like story is turning into absolutly shit...

I am not really a fan of having a wife/girlfriend forced on you from day one unless you have the option to dump her, most cases i wont like how they look and this game is no diffrent.
Not sure why he is even with her since shes a weird one that dont want to have sex or do anything with MC other then on a monthly quota thing, just seems weird and it makes you think its just to avoid making animations.

Also hes GF/Wife pushes MC to be with other girls which just seems worng, i get that its a harem game but still its just meh, it also dosent really make sense in a NTR path to have a wife that dont want sex with anyone, not that i ever play that path but still.

Not sure where to start really, so ill just make a small list about interface and issues.

1. Cant change text size.
2. Auto save dosent work, game has check points but its pointless when auto save dosent work.
3. Cant scroll back, either due to check points or game freezing up and crashing, which is really shitty since auto save dont work so you have to start over....
4. You can speed up text so its not annoying but its not the normal way so you need to read up on it to know, (Shift-key makes it faster) but you need to click it every time you go from sandbox to a scene.
5. Instant travel locked behind paywall along side things like gold boost, full karma and whatever.
6. Alot of issue with manuel save as well, where it might take you back days before your save or even longer, this is really making game unplayable, save at a choice might load to after the choice picking something for you, its just a mess.
7. Sandbox you can get stuck, bugs, big grind due to paywall, saves is also a mess there.

It is a sandbox game as well, and it is a big grind and also has alot of issue with people getting stuck and bugs and save problems, its also where there is a idiotic paywall for stuff like fast travel or money boost, like the sandbox wasent boring and bad enough...proberly a stupid move if they want supporters, most people will proberly see it as a ransom to make the game playable which most wont pay so they just move to something else intend.

When it comes to Girls/LIs they look great but it is pretty clear that the creators must have a big tit fetish since its the main focus of the girls, there are 2 daughters with more normal/small tits atleast, personaly i find big and huge tits as a huge turn-off but it comes down to peresonal taste.

As for the main story its pretty good but not really something new, MC gets trown into the shit by losing hes job, being broke, having a crazy ex-wife move in to hes house to take it from him, i hope the good/light path will have some good revenge stuff with that bitch and anyone else who fucked him, since losing hes job the way he did is against the law, 0 noice 0 pay which MC should have looked into from day 1, he does have a lawyer after all.

Animations.
Well there arent really any other then a BJ so hard to rate.

Music.
Is prett standard backgroud stuff, not bad but not great either.

For now being the mess it is i cant rate this more then below average to be fair to other games that works, i will revisit this once it has alot more content and i hope the issues will be fixed by then as well, so i can adjust the review to the better since it does have potential, but dont see how people can give this 5 stars as it is now, it just dosent make sense.
Also for close to 7giga big it really dosent have much content yet, maybe due to it being two paths but alot of scenes are reused to that cant really be it.

It's just an absolute mess at the moment, so many bugs that break the game. You can't progress 90% of the time because of bugs. Like you're supposed to meet a daughter in her room at a certain time, she's not there..ever

You're suppose to meet your friend at the bar, guess what? The bar doesn't even show on the map.

You're suppose to go for a job interview, guess what? You can't get there because you have 0 money to drive the car there, and selecting to walk doesn't work.

Just an absolute mess....

There is no content in this game, a house full of women where the object is to *checks notes* grind for money otherwise you will lose stats with your partner and her kid.
Dont be fooled by the flashy looks, this is trash!

Update (many, many month later): The game has not moved into any positive direction. Updates take forever and they dont even change or add anything (at least on a significant scale). At this point you should throw this into the bin and start new. -2 stars

Had high hopes for this game. But right now this just disappoints on many levels. Sadly they switched from a linear VN (first version) to a sandbox style game. I loved the first version and was very excited but this new version left me completly disappointed.

• way too many characters. Already tells you there wont be the time for good character development or corruption (it claims to be a ntr game after all) or the updates will take super long.
• sandbox style doesnt make any sense right now. Afterall most of the time you click on the same locations. Before you realize that, you dont know what to do 'cause there is no questlog. Also it just breaks the narration and the immersion and disrupts the whole flow of the game.
• the game just didnt really hook me even though the CG are good. The tension is missing. The whole game just feels kinda shallow, generic and empty. That is the problem games with too many characters and sandbox often experience. They are too ambitious but in the end they often dont reach the depth in detail because they want to make too many things at once. Sad to see.
• The ntr is only pointed out in the description of the game you wont find any atm. There are two male characters in the game (compared to 10ish female chars) that might play a role here. Though we only see them like two times.

There is good in this game as well, but those things just dont really get to shine due to the bad things. Also its like with all those milky games. Good CGs blabla bad storytelling. Still I want to point them out:

• good CGs
• good camera movement
• looks polished
• good music integration, though I am not a fan of the genre and themes

I am torn between 2 and 3 stars, but as we bury our hopes last I will give it three stars but really hope they cut 2 female characters at least and we take a closer look on the development of the other (still many) characters. I hope they really go into depth and not like some other bigger nowadays very disappointing studios... and I hope for some juicy, dark NTR, but that hope is vanishing...

well. we will see.

Pros:
- Girls are beautiful.
- Story is good (at least until I got sick of so much reading).

Cons:
- too little action for v0.1
- too much text for my taste
- the room navigation in 'free roam' is horrible. The options change when selecting some rooms, while there is almost no content in any room

The game has potential, but for an early version is disappointing.

Excellent game with great renders and animations. As a new developer, I would love to reach this level of quality! The story is engaging, and well written. I also like how the models look, they are very attractive. I have to say that there is a good amount of content for the early release. I can't wait for the next update!

Top notch renders, and it shows that the dev actually cares to write a story alongside the porn. I'm interested to see how this develops and I hope it doesn't get abandoned or have updates that take half a year to come out but add only a couple dozen renders like the vast majority of porn games. I was impressed enough to throw in a membership even...

Amazing game Awesome . Very good story . Game characters very beautiful . Game animation are also very good . Game story looks very promising hope we see many interesting event in future update . I hope in next update we find more content .

It certainly LOOKS to be on track to a 5 star game for me, but as a matter of principle, I can't highly vote mostly incomplete games, as I would prefer to incentivize devs publishing full products, in complete pieces, as opposed to "alpha early access spoiler early v0.001". Exaggeration of course, this is by no means one of the more egregious offenders.

Art renders are quite good, the limited animations are good, it just needs more of them.

Storytelling looks to be strong, I really have no complaints other than it's an incomplete piece of work.

Love the intro, both the NTR, and Alpha paths are well done. I'm a little leery about the sandbox element, but hopefully that doesn't equal grinding. Graphics and models are top notch, writing is decent. All in all, a game worth keeping in your library.