VN - Ren'Py - Abandoned - Hot Sand of Antarctica [v0.09] [Grinvald]

Review for v0.08

It's without a doubt one of the better games on F95, but the issues it has are severe enough to warrant the 3 stars. Nothing that can't be fixed though.

We'll start with the positives. The renders are great and the dev doesn't shy away from the violence of the setting, so there's plenty of blood and other gruesome things on display. The animations are also top-notch, fluid and well-composed. The girls are all attractive, perhaps even too much given the fact it's a post-apocalyptic setting but it doesn't bother me that much. Also, special shoutout to the MC for actually being competent without being invincible, it's a line many VNs fail to toe.

Now for the negatives. My biggest problem is the grammar, it's obviously translated word-for-word from another language, which means there are weird idioms, words out of order, and even entire sentences that make no sense. It needs someone fluent in English to give it a once or twice-over and clean it up so everything makes sense. I also didn't like how many times the MC would randomly start thinking about a memory that was, at best, tangentially related to what was happening, as well as the overuse of flashbacks. I also feel like the story is slowly getting out of hand in terms of concepts, going from a fairly vanilla post-apocalypse to clones and advanced cloaking tech. It's still early enough that it doesn't entirely feel disconnected from the setting, but it hasn't been smooth sailing.

My recommendation is to give it a shot, it's pretty enjoyable so long as you can forgive the grammar mistakes and keep an open mind about the more sci-fi tone it seems to be taking.

A good game if you don't think about it too much.

It's one of those games the dev has spent time actually trying to tell a story, and that should be applauded and because of that it should be given the benefit of the doubt for any oddities which the game ultimately presents you with.

So the character renders are first rate, all lovely looking women. A harem game, quite literally. It's the end of the world, you can do what you want.

Game has a lot going for it, a story which is actually interesting with enough going on where you can't just see through it immediately, the characters are interesting and worth actually listening to and overall it'll probably become a great game.

The issues are skin deep really. It's one of those games where it really hammers home the Apocalypse but at the same time everyone looks like they're off the set of 90210, lipstick is non existent but all look like they're ready for a night on the town with most wearing clothes you'd expect to see in a club. Water is in short supply but they have baths. That sort of thing. As I said, it's better to just not think too much into it cause I feel if you do then it'll become a bit absurd. Just sit back and enjoy.

I think the only issue I really have is the release schedule. 2 years, version 0.08. It's not an issue but because the game is so story focused I worry that it may be years before we reach a point where we expect some answers.

Oh, and shout out to the dev for not pulling their punches. There's some gore in here and they don't shy away from it (although they give the option to before it really kicks off)

Really well built. I really enjoyed playing the game. After a long time i found a very good game with good content. Visuals a good but still need some improvements. Need more flexibility in sex options. BESEV my man you really did a very good job. I own you a Salute. Thanks and keep updating. I am still waiting for a lot of content in this game. Keep it up

Good Points
+ Choices matter, not just you can choose which people you can have sex with or not, you can even choose to let some people live, kill them, or leave them to their death, like Rini.
+ Character stories and their past seems interesting, especially MC's and his first wife's story and how she was actually thinking to kill him, but throwing his bag at her changed everything was very interesting.
+ We have a post-apocalyptic story with lots of interesting details, especially the ghost/shadow thing is pretty interesting, I can't express how much I was shocked when I saw that girl transformed out of nowhere! Or with the MC's creepy sister scenes... And what's up with that all clone thing of MCs and Krugers?! There are lots of mysterious things and these things make you want to learn more about the game's story.
+ Like the story itself story-telling is good as well, especially how things progressed at a well-done speed and how it wasn't too slow nor too fast, and successful to take your interest.
+ We have a lot of gore scenes, but there is a choice to close or leave it open, since they suit the post-apocalyptic world, having gore scenes is a big plus.
+ Most women/girls look hot, especially The Twins...
+ Sex scenes have animations.

Bad Points
- MC's design is not interesting, his hair and face are quite common and he doesn't feel like a unique character at all.
- While the design of most women looks fine, male character designs and the general art style look quite old.
- Sex scenes need lots of improvements. Most of the sex scenes, except the latest update ones looks quite dull even robotic, characters should have more emotion on their face and eyes. Again most sex scenes don't have animations nor have only 1-2 animations, sex scenes need more animations with different angles/positions.
- The game has no changelog, there should be a changelog in the main menu of the game, it's needed.
- Some details about the story make no sense at all. How and why MC left the suitcase behind and didn't finish of copy of him looking nearly perfect? It doesn't make any sense at all for MC to act like that, he is not the type of guy who takes that kind of risk, he went to that mine with the intention to fix everything he can at that point, so we need better writing for some scenes like that one.

For The End
This is an enjoyable game, and at least it does become better the more you play with the improvements, for now, I will give 4 stars rate and hope the bad points I stated will be fixed with the next updates because with fixed bad points this game could be pretty good, it has that potential.

This game visually is very stunning and has good animations. The plot is basically a dystopian harem set up. But I have to say, I personally enjoyed it and I am looking forward for more. And did I mention there are twin redheads?!

Will definitely be checking up on its development.

English: 5/10
User Interface: 3/10
User Experience: 5/10
Art: 7/10
Dialogue: 3/10
Story: 3/10
Opinion: 4/10
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Avg: 4.29/10 [2/5]

I want everyone who rated this above a 3 to actually read the writing in this. The language says "English, Russian" But it should say "Russian, google translate." This 'translation' is either completely unacceptable or completely stiff. On top of this being a middle school boy's fantasy "I'm the best sharpshooter ever in he apocalypse, I have the awesome callsign [INSERT CALLSIGN HERE] (Default Shooter lol), and I'm so good my boss is scared of me. Not only that but every woman is in love with me." (Read that in an over the top 80s action hero voice) When I first tried this, I thought "Oh cool, there's choices that actually matter" in helping/condemning a boy and such. But MC just ends up in a bunker isolated from everything with 4 lusty women. And the choices only seem to affect how much a woman likes MC. And why do I have to name everyone? Just because you can't figure out their names, doesn't mean I should have to. bUt aLsO tHeRe's cLoNeS. Wow. Taking the "Evil twin" plot line from soap operas. And now that I think about it, that middle schooler's fantasy too. This could have been saved by a translation that, you know, isn't abysmal? But the likelyhood of a developer going back to change the dialogue at all is next to zero.

You play as MC, the greatest sharpshooter in the apocalypse. The time frame is a little fuzzy, he's old enough to have lived in the world before the apocalypse... But his 18 year old daughters never did and he's barely 40? But he was picked up as a kid by his boss and that flashback already seemed like the world ended? So depending on the day, he was born into this or molded by it, whatever the overused batman quote is. Either way, the timeline changes based on what narrative the writer want to make that day. Great. The first thing that happens is MC is on a supply run with some grunt that isn't important. They find two women that they're taking for the master's harem. Because we regress to neanderthals, keeping women as property, as soon as the ice caps melt. One of the women is actually scouting MC for some paradise escape that, up til now, hasn't been returned to. She rewards him with sex because he exists, they return to base, and you meet MC's two wives. That he's allowed to keep because he's so good at the murder. Unless she's a doctor, all the women are barely above brain dead cock sleeves. Personalities ranging from childish and horny, mature and horny, or smart and horny. So, truly, the next Homer. MC goes on two more missions, one for medicine, another to kill someone? And after letting a ghost inside the base and a jealous comrade wanting to kill MC, he's chased off base to hide in a bunker. He finds an underground cloning facility. Then more sex happens. The end. It's really not that special.

The story is short, three things have happened, and it's translated to Engrish. Where it's getting these glowing reviews is beyond me. The UI and UX is stock RenPy, mildly changing the main menu and making you name every character. So zero effort. The art is fine, the women all look like they've had plastic surgery, but none of it is terrible. The dialogue and story are both shot in the foot because of the bad translation. But the dialogue is still praising MC for existing and the women being as subservient as possible. So all that 'alpha male' garbage. And I swear, every update they make it so MC has bigger or more muscles and I have no idea why. He's already the best ever for no reason, how big of an inferiority complex do you have to need more and more muscles?

Review for v0.08

If you want to enjoy this game, treat is like watching one of those so bad its good action movies.

The game is just hard to take serious really, and given that it's trying hard to actually be serious, made it hard for me to get into. The writing (more specifically the dialogue) sucks. I think incredibly blunt would be a good way to describe it. A lot of this game is blunt. The MC being the absolute worst of it. You can write a dominant MC without him being the most bland fucker in existence. He speaks in simple sentences and has to show off his dominance whenever he can to solve even the most simple of disputes (because he's the alpha and you should listen to him grrrr!) It's cringe man. You can give him some personality without harming his masculinity.

Love interests suffer in a similar way for the most part. Half the female cast just act as sex robots more or less, which I'm not that into. I need to see more personality, more depth, etc etc. I think that blonde "second wife" is the worst case of that. I can't even remember her name and I just played the game for a couple hours.

Now all that being said, there's actually a lot of elements to this game I would actually say I liked. There's some surprisingly fun action scenes, an interesting paranormal element, and the plot is something I'd actually be into if the dialogue was better. Though the sex scenes would feel better if the characters had more to them, there's some pretty hot scenarios with decent animations as well. Bonus points for having some girl on girl stuff (which is optional should it bother you).

Honestly I'm very conflicted on the rating. Would I call this game good? No. But I don't think it quite falls into average either. One of the rare times I'd actually use a 3.5 rating if it existed, but I digress. Personal taste wise this game rounds down for me, but if you can manage to get yourself into it I can see this being a fun time killer if nothing else.

Hot Sand of Antarctica is certainly an interesting game. It has a lot of stuff that a good game needs to have. It has many pretty girls and very decent animated, erotic scenes. It has a lot of content. And it has a big post-apocalyptic world with warlords, mutants, bandits, rusty remains of civilization and all similar stuff belonging to the genre.

My problem with this game is that it's not very believable. You know, the action goes in Antarctica. The cataclysm which resulted in radical global warning happened only 20-30 years ago. Yet we have in Antarctica ruins of very ancient looking temples and abandoned cities with architecture coming directly from 1920s. It all looks very old and worn out. There's no chance that it all was created in 30 years after the ice melted.
Also the protagonist home looks like some very usual, cosy, modern appartment, which doesn't fit the desolated neighborhood at all.

The protagonist is another problem for me, he's too perfect, a "Mary Sue" type with incredible amount of luck that always succeeds in most improbable situations.

The game starts with some karma system but later seems to forget about it. It also lack a gallery.

So there's a lot of space for improvement for me. But try it out yourself, there is a high chance that you'll like it.

Review of v0.08

I was guilty for a long time of writing this game off as a cheap clone of another successful game that takes place in a desert, but I couldn't of been more wrong. Sure on the surface level they share a lot of similarities, but Hot Sands of Antarctica definitely stands on it's own merits.

MC is a powerful man in a strength based post apocalyptic society which makes him fun to play in comparison to other MCs that are weak and wimpy. Those can be fun from time to time too if they are written in a good manner, but an MC that is respected by (most) other characters is a nice change of pace.

The love interests are modeled and written well. They all feel like different people instead of just carbon coppies of each other. Even the twins have enough differences that you can tell them apart easily after getting to know them. Admitedly I would like to see more of Diana in the future (the blonde one). I feel like she is kind of overshadowed by the other harem members and we don't see her too much which is a shame. Also the small harem that you start the game with seems to be growing but nothing is concrete as of yet in the game, but seems to be headed that way.

The sex scenes and animations are also top notch. Some of the best I've ever seen. The scenarios are hot and last long enough to be worthwhile instead of being over so fast that you can't enjoy it. I'm also not sure I've ever seen so much attention to detail put into how fingers would sink into the soft flesh of a breast or butt. It's quite insane how good the attention to detail is in that regard.

The story is also quite good. It starts as you would guess with you performing jobs for the boss of your clan Mongol. Things take a turn and suddenly you go from a relatively well off life in comparison to those around you to simpy trying to survive. All the while more and more strange things keep happening leaving you with more and more questions and never enough answers. I don't want to spoil too much but it has me hooked and I can't wait until we can discover the answers to all the mysterious happenings that have been going on.

Something that I should of mentioned earlier I guess is that this is a VERY adult game. Not just for the porn of course but there is a good bit of graphic violence and gore. It doesn't bother me but maybe someone out there won't like it.

One of the only complaints that I have about the game is the sound. For the most part the soundtrack and accompanying ambiance and lewd sounds do a great job at enhancing the experience of the game. Sometimes however certain sounds won't be governed by the audio sliders and be extremely loud. I've noticed this in other Ren'Py games too so I'm not sure if this is just a common mistake while creating the game or a limitation of the engine itself so I won't deduct a star.

All in all It's a really fun game with good LIs and a solid story. I'd say it's definitely worth your time to check it out!

Excellent game! The story kept me interested, which doesn't happen often. This is mainly due to the fact that I cared about the way events affected the beautiful women this game has.

MC is an alpha though it's done in a pretty satisfying way - an important guy in a cut-throat hierarchy, who still faces challenges and dangers. So we have a small harem and the women are all good-looking and none of them is a bitch to us, like it happens in so many other games. There are also two barely-legal twins (adoptive daughters since I played without an ipatch). I would have played the game for them alone

The renders are very clean and crisp. The dialogue is well-written (sounds natural and is grammatically correct).

There is also background music though it's nothing special, but it's definitely better than nothing. And there's also moaning during the lewd scenes, that's very arousing and I simply don't understand why not all games have this.

If I can say about a game on this site that it's a hidden gem, it's this one: decent story with pretty frequent and high-quality sex scenes. Enjoy!

Rarely you can find good executed games that have captivating and engaging storyline as well as pleasing visuals.
Hot Sands of Antarctica is such game. You can't miss following and supporting this project!

Great! Objectively probably only 7.5/10, but considering that the best games on this site set pretty high bar.

And yet I still gave this game 5 stars. Why? Because the game is worth remembering, and the number of games about which I can say the same is probably can be counted on the fingers.

Some people seems to say that sex scenes are very good, but the story and conversations between characters is just crap. Absolutely disagree!

Played this game primarily for the story, it turned out to be excellent. Maybe a little crazy, but if the author does not drop the bar and is able to intelligently explain and fit it all into the world of the game, it will be top-notch. Surprisingly, I find the plot is even more fun and interesting than in the famous twin game, which in other aspects has a clear advantage.

And yet I'm afraid it's the story that will ruin this game.

???

It's just tooooo big! Now the game has been in development for several years, as I understand it, and yet it feels like a barely finished prologue. And no it's not that the game is very short, although it certainly could be larger for 0.7 version(it's actually 0.07, just noticed), the main thing is that the author apparently has very ambitious plans.
For example, as many people have already noted our partner from the beginning of the game, that you can even give a name(!), appears for a couple of minutes and then we never see him again in this version of the game. Or the karma system, which also disappears.

But like I said, it's more about the fact that the game barely started. We've been shown a bunch of all sorts of story branches, the main characters, the start of the big events and... it seems like the main game is finally about to start... but nope it's just ends. At this rate it's going to take 10-15 years if not more for the whole game to come out.

In other words it will probably never be finished. Sadly.

Let's quickly run through the rest of the aspects:

Graphics.

The graphics are good. Nothing incredible, but quite well done.
Although not the level of a cinematic movie, as in a similar game.

Sex Scenes.

They are there. They are okay. Nothing more than that.
None of them is particularly memorable.
However, I think you can say that the sex scenes are slightly better than average.
Unfortunately only the basic package, no fetishes/kinky stuff... yet.
Incest? Well its step/non-incest variant understandably. By the way, it was pretty funny to see how the author twisted it around with all the characters to make it "NOT" incest. But then again, incest nowadays can hardly be called a fetish, it's quite standard. There's a little hint of BDSM thematic with one of the wives, but considering the plot situation, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The MC, as always, is not equipped with a dick, but with a fucking baseball bat.

It's a game. Not great but not horrible.
- Renders look kind of dull.
- I don't usually harp on dialogue being boring unless it's a game that's trying to tell a story. Which, unfortunately is what this game is trying to do. There's also some typos and just feels kind of awkward.
- I got kind of bored of the plot early in. Just seems like it'd be better to focus more on the action than some deep, overlaid plot in terms of writing. You got warlords, savages, and mysterious people living somewhere else and I just can't seem to care about any of it. It's almost like there's too much at one time instead of letting it build up.

Of these three things, renders can't be helped if the dev doesn't have good equipment. As for the other two, that can come with experience.

So I can't really fault the dev. More importantly, I don't rate anything below 3 stars as long as it doesn't piss me off with things like broken English, pseudo-political bullshit, convoluted mechanics. etc.

Still those three factors make it kind of boring for me.

It is post-apocalyptic, and you play a strong and intelligent MC, which is always great. Because it's post-apocalyptic, you have the kind of traditional gender roles and harems in the society, which is great, and you have your own little harem, because you're second in command of one of the bosses. You've managed to be strong, smart and loyal enough to survive the apocalypse, and you've earned your rewards. The setting feels realistic, with attention to details such as food, water, gas and ammo.

The characters are all really good. Characterization is very well done. The sexual scenes are REALLY GOOD! You get a lot and it's great.

The story is where this novel just keeps getting better and better. It already started off good with your role in what's currently going on, and making a few choices. But then the story just keeps getting more interesting and mysterious and thought out. There's a lot of potential here! I can't wait to play more.

The story looks very intriguing, because there's some supernatural elements at play as well, which for now mixes well with the realistic setting as the mysterious things continue, and logical sense hasn't been broken yet. But i struggle to imagine how this is all going to make sense in the future, but i very much hope it does. Right now it's at the perfect time of realism, mystery and intrigue, with a lot of potential for the future. I hope it's realized, because this could be very great. Can't wait to continue.

Interesting setting, I love post-apocalyptic scenarios, the characters models are superb especially the redheads are gorgeus! The renders are of high-quality and they pair well along the story, I can't wait to see what happens next!

This game is a hidden gem. An incredibly interesting story, decent renderings and ok animations. If the story wasn't as good I would probably have rated it 3.5 stars on the technical merits, but the story really and the pace really elevate it. It's the most interesting VN I've ever player so far. Highly recommended.

great game so far, only a few things that bother me a little like


otherwise there is not much to complain, maybe a suggestion that would make the lewd scenes even hotter like a bit more dirty talk while the animation is playing. otherwise i really like the game and appreciate that people like me that don't have a problem to share their harem member with each other got some pretty hot stuff. pls more of this.

I am since a good amount of time on this website and have played probably about 150 games.

But this is the very first time I write a Review.
This game is so beautiful written and developed, not only the characters but also the post apocalyptic story as setting.
If u are a man and do not want to be like the MC than I dont understand u.

Keep the excellent work up @devs im excited for more!

v0.07

One of the few VNs and post-apocalyptic themes i thoroughly enjoy.

This VN has a straight forward and simplistic approach to the storytelling which is the beauty of it. So, no long winded pointless banters or awkward and cringe short conversations. Every scene is to the point and conveys the plot direct. It also has a good balance between the sexual content, the romance and the main story.

Models and renders are gorgeous, i'm really liking the models for the love interests, mind you they have the anime-ish features(big eyes etc) which i'm not a fan of but somehow it grew onto me. Also it helps that the the facial features are done well, makes them feel alive. Lewd scenes are good and more on the romantic side while the animations are pretty ok.

The characters i'd say are the other main factor(besides the narrative) that carried this VN, specifically the 3 red heads. I'll be frank, majority of the LIs don't differ much from each other overall, they have similar backstories, agendas, wants and needs etc. Pretty much cookie cutter harem characters. However their character development and the romance progression are beautifully narrated. Especially the twins, their opposing personalities really bring out the best in the relationship with the MC, further enhanced with the inclusion of their mother. There's also a social dynamic between the various characters and love interests, for example one of the twins doesn't like your second wife(possibly due to competition) while your first wife has a feud with your other girl. There's some tension and drama between them which makes the various relationships feel grounded and alive.

The plot is pretty much the mix & match of various typical post-apocalyptic stories you'd see in other media but is still an enjoyable experience. Post-apocalyptic earth ruled by warlords, degradation of technology and scarce resources like in MadMax. However overtime there's hints of strange phenomenon(possibly paranormal) and sci-fi elements thrown in. I'd say there's nothing inherent bad about it nor good for now, though it is probably because the narrative is still in the early stages. The writing overall is quite solid.

Highly recommend this VN, not the cream of the crop but one of the top few VNs out there.

Love the game, love the characters, love the sex scenes, love the story.

So why only 4 stars?

Well, the story has some major plot holes in the backstory and the current state of the game world.

Having said all that. suspending my disbelieves, and just seeing it as a post apocalyptic world set in a more normal setting (like Australia), it makes a bit more sense.

To sum it up: I think the game is awesome, the characters are cool, the sex is sexy and frequent, but I had to suspend some disbelieves to really get into the game.