Review for The Grey Dream Ep.4:
Overall: 5/5 - I played this game for the first time at Ep.4. The game nailed the visuals and still did well on everything else. I'm impressed look forward to future updates. I will consider supporting depending on how the next couple of updates go.
Story: 4/5 - The story started out pretty good. It's heavy on drama, and has a few conversations that are way too long. I'm concerned about the mafia theme, though. It's so overused in adult games it makes me want to vomit. There are a few weird things that made me kind of roll my eyes, too. For example, the MC didn't know who Helen's father was even though he dated her for months and spent time at the family beach house. He also didn't recognize Helen's sister (and she didn't recognize him) but later they talk about stuff that happened at the beach house when he was dating Helen. I think the story could use a little work with how it tries to tie things together in the first two episodes. The way this story flows with occasional flashbacks and such is really hard to pull off well without very thorough planning.
Writing: 4.5/5 - The writing is near-perfect which is surprising. The reason I say surprisingly is because I think it's been translated. The reason believe that is because there are occasionally some subtle mistakes, such as cases where it's not appropriate to substitute "I'm" for "I am". There's also a choice screen that says, "You peaked my interest." Then, later in the game dialogue, the correct word "piqued" is used in almost exactly the same sentence. And things like Judy calling herself a "secretary" which is a title really hasn't been used for 30 years.
Renders: 5/5 - The renders are absolutely beautiful. The models for both the women and the men are really good. Kelly's septum ring is a turn-off, but then I realized that it's better than the stereotype skank that shows up in almost every VN who is pierced, tattooed, has part of her head shaved and hair dyed pink/purple/blue/green.
Animations: 5/5 - Animations are fluid and natural and don't look like the resolution dropped by 80%.
Content: 4/5 - The quantity is good for 4 updates but a little light for the 18 months or so that the game has been out. It's hard to gauge where the story is at, but this game seems like it could easily take another 3 to 4 years to complete at the current rate. As for the content quality, the excellent renders and animations make the lewd scenes pretty hot, but the erotic build-up could be a little better.
Sound: 4/5 - In general, the background music is good. There is one piece that is annoying where the balance drifts from left to right and back over and over and that was annoying. The sound effects are also really good, but the game could use more of them.
Gameplay: 4/5 - The game is mostly a VN with only occasional choices and a couple of free-roam segments. For the choices, it's really not clear at all what they do. You can save at each one and check but sometimes you still wonder why the choice exists. The free-roams don't really add anything to the experience, but they're not annoying, either.
Bugs: 5/5 - I didn't encounter any bugs.
Other annoyances and WTFs:
MC goes to help Haley plan a party and he basically does... almost nothing. This segment seemed strange other than to give some more backstory.
Overall: 5/5 - I played this game for the first time at Ep.4. The game nailed the visuals and still did well on everything else. I'm impressed look forward to future updates. I will consider supporting depending on how the next couple of updates go.
Story: 4/5 - The story started out pretty good. It's heavy on drama, and has a few conversations that are way too long. I'm concerned about the mafia theme, though. It's so overused in adult games it makes me want to vomit. There are a few weird things that made me kind of roll my eyes, too. For example, the MC didn't know who Helen's father was even though he dated her for months and spent time at the family beach house. He also didn't recognize Helen's sister (and she didn't recognize him) but later they talk about stuff that happened at the beach house when he was dating Helen. I think the story could use a little work with how it tries to tie things together in the first two episodes. The way this story flows with occasional flashbacks and such is really hard to pull off well without very thorough planning.
Writing: 4.5/5 - The writing is near-perfect which is surprising. The reason I say surprisingly is because I think it's been translated. The reason believe that is because there are occasionally some subtle mistakes, such as cases where it's not appropriate to substitute "I'm" for "I am". There's also a choice screen that says, "You peaked my interest." Then, later in the game dialogue, the correct word "piqued" is used in almost exactly the same sentence. And things like Judy calling herself a "secretary" which is a title really hasn't been used for 30 years.
Renders: 5/5 - The renders are absolutely beautiful. The models for both the women and the men are really good. Kelly's septum ring is a turn-off, but then I realized that it's better than the stereotype skank that shows up in almost every VN who is pierced, tattooed, has part of her head shaved and hair dyed pink/purple/blue/green.
Animations: 5/5 - Animations are fluid and natural and don't look like the resolution dropped by 80%.
Content: 4/5 - The quantity is good for 4 updates but a little light for the 18 months or so that the game has been out. It's hard to gauge where the story is at, but this game seems like it could easily take another 3 to 4 years to complete at the current rate. As for the content quality, the excellent renders and animations make the lewd scenes pretty hot, but the erotic build-up could be a little better.
Sound: 4/5 - In general, the background music is good. There is one piece that is annoying where the balance drifts from left to right and back over and over and that was annoying. The sound effects are also really good, but the game could use more of them.
Gameplay: 4/5 - The game is mostly a VN with only occasional choices and a couple of free-roam segments. For the choices, it's really not clear at all what they do. You can save at each one and check but sometimes you still wonder why the choice exists. The free-roams don't really add anything to the experience, but they're not annoying, either.
Bugs: 5/5 - I didn't encounter any bugs.
Other annoyances and WTFs:
MC goes to help Haley plan a party and he basically does... almost nothing. This segment seemed strange other than to give some more backstory.