VN - Ren'Py - Thief of Hearts [v0.0.3] [MrDots Games]

You gotta hand it to MrDots, he's become really good at making visually captivating porn games. His recent games, including this one, have a lot of things in common:

• More than decent visuals. All the scenes are well-rendered and focus on the right things, the angles, brightness and so on, it's really good. Hands down. MrDots games visually are like CS2 and most others are like GO.
• Breathtaking and rather unique leading female character models. Even though it feels like the core models sometimes migrate from previous games, the dev gives them an overhaul substantial enough to make them different. More often than not the basic Daz models appear from game to game like it's some travelling circus. Definitely not the case here...
• Decent plot. That's it. It's just there. It does well enough to explain what is going on around here and why all the women are jumping on MC's skin-coloured single-seated cabriolet as the game progresses, not more, not less. And you know what? Sometimes it's just the right thing. No excess drama.

Overall, an exciting new entry for this dev, the only reason I'm giving a 4 so far is lack of animations, but I'm certain it'll be fixed in a future update.
Sunshine Love had a relatively short production cycle of FOUR years. I hope this gets finished even quicker and even more titles follow.

Review of [v0.0.3]

Very GOOD GAME!

Unlike Sunshine Love, I love this one. The DEV has improved a lot, good spy story with dramatic twists.

Very good renders and good lighting with good atmosphere and audio.

The game is still in an early phase of development but has a lot of promise. The animations and sex scenes improve over time.

In this game I have seen the most erotic THREESOME.

PROS

• Very Good Renders
• Nice Animations with Audio an Moans
• Interesting Story
• Attractive girls
• Good MC

CONS

• Few sex scenes
• Too many scenes that are dreamed up by the MC

RATING :

Content: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sound: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Renders: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Animations: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Final conclusion: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ NICE GAME RECOMMENDED

Bah! I finally dragged myself to the end of Ch 1 and boy was this last scene unbelievable dumb. Didn't expect the games script could drop the story any lower. Only light so far are the char models and overall the optical quali or this would be a zero star if i could.

For comparison how i received this: They(devs) present us basically a scene, where someone sticks his bleeding arm in a pool of starved piranhas and expect nothing will happen. Cuddling Predators... Its like watching some kiddo who acts as if he runs around in Teletubby land instead on a dangerous spy mission against some underground group.

Whats is the team thinking writing such nonsense? Over the years I have played many stupid stuff of the usual genres like this. Some of me supported, others not, but this is one of the deep blows in terms of intelligence and plausibility. Nobody expects Einstein level logic from a porn game, but really! I am not sure if I will give this more chances, but not in the near future.

Everything about this game just feels like a downgrade from this devs previous games.
-Some how, despite being his 4th game, the render quality and overall look of this game is worse then all of his old games.
-Sex scenes just aren't hot and come across rushed, they feel more like they are thrown in places because they're expected not because it makes the game better.
-Girls less attractive and written in a cliche boring way.
-Overall plot is boring and doesn't give you a reason to care.
-The devs usual amazing interpersonal and relationship building has devolved into a generic marvel comedy film.
IDK maybe it's just me, but I couldn't find a reason to give a fuck about any of the characters they are all so bland and vanilla after his previous work. For the first time ever in one of his games I found myself skipping to sex scenes and even then they are a downgrade from before. Well I guess I'll just hope this one ends soon and he returns back to form because this is a snoozefest.

It's not an amazing game, but it still has a lot going for it.

1. Well made. Good features & design. Nothing overly complex or pointless.
2. regular updates
3. , good renders, animations
4. Unique story

The story isn't going to blow your mind or anything and the writing isn't anything special, but I can't fault the dev for putting out consistent content

Weak game with no interesting plot. Nothing in this game will surprise you if you have played other games from this DEV. As for version 0.3 there is nothing interesting there. The choices are not as significant as it was said. And MC himself is someone no one would go for.
Renders 2/5
Animations 1/5
Plot 1/5
Characters 1/5 ( None of them encouraged me to give a higher rating )
Overall rating 1/5

my subjective opinion, this game's lewd scene animations are one of the best. character designs are good but a little too usual. I didn't see any important bug or anything to let down gaming experience. I am waiting for new updates. thanks for both dev and uploader.

Review for v0.0.2a
I really expected a lot more with the amount of experience the dev has. Really, the landlady/roommate (meant for incest) cliche game is the best you could come up with after 3 games. I facepalmed so hard when I saw it, its just not authentic/original at all. And of course there is a landlord (who is an absolute *sshole) and a landlady who does not believe she is beautiful anymore because of her age. We have seen this all before.

Well, okay so the setting and charachters are really cliché. What about the romances/events u might wonder. U guessed right, more cliches... u of course walk into your landlady/roommate while they are showering or whily they are m*st*rbating themselves.

Based on the above, u actually already know exactly whats gonna happen romantically in this game, its just a question of when.

The MC is also this typical carefree, lucky, clumsy kinda guy, (again cliche) which I guess is supposed to be funny or something. But it just doesnt work in the setting of the game. They are supposed to be on some top secret mission, and then you have this childish incompetent dude performing maybe the most risky task of the mission where the most amount of care and delicacy is needed. Its actually more irritating then funny.

If you ignore all of the above, you could say that the graphics are nice. The girls look nice. But its worth nothing withouth any depth. I wanted to give 2 stars because of the graphics, but the sheer dissappointment pushed me to give it 1 star.

I'm really enjoying Thief of Hearts ! The story has me hooked, especially because the characters are so interesting. All the girls are definitely standouts; they are gorgeous.

The visuals are also impressive. The character models are beautiful. The environments are well-designed. The animation is smooth and adds to the overall experience.

Renders 5/5
Characters 5/5
Story 5/5
Gameplay 5/5
Animations 5/5

Overall, this is a fantastic game! It easily gets 10 out of 10 from me. The story is interesting Definitely worth checking out!

Unsurprisingly excellent so far.

The models used are good, especially the red head. There some familiar ancilliary characters models and unfamiliar main ones who vary quite a bit.

The writing is pretty good, you have a 'main story' to complete along side romance choices there are also secrets to find, which i consider a little annoying and too distracting, but the bonus scenes are good.

There's a far bit of content already though not too much progress can be made with the ladies yet, at least not the two younger ones

Awesome game, good updates! The Story is pretty funny and enjoyable. The Scenes are beautiful like all the girls. I really like this game so far, its a nice mix of everything and i really hope he keeps continuining like this

"An enjoyable Ren'Py game with great character design and a unique style. The humor adds charm, and it's a pleasure to watch the story unfold. I appreciate that they consistently deliver completed games!"

Thief of Hearts 0.0.1A

This is the first MrDots game that I've even tried. I've heard good things about earlier titles but every time I looked at their renders I found that too many of the girls looked either outright too young for my tastes or like an uncanny doll assembled in a Frankenstein manner from some strange mix of adult and child-like features. They'd just look too off-putting for me.

So I'm happy to see with this game that there's good variety in the ages and the older people actually look older. Ariel and possibly future characters should hopefully still satisfy fans of previous work (though not my thing personally). Bella's the most my style personally but Vivian grew on me and Megan was great as well (plus Mikayla and Tasha were awesome for their part).

The TLDR pros/neutral/cons list:

Pros: Character models, Animations, Options/Settings, Sound (including in lewd scenes), and amount of content for first chapter/release

Neutral: Fantasy Scenes are hot but have obnoxious overlays, Lewd Scenes are over-reliant on animations (lack good static renders or writing), and In Game WT options are nice but not very helpful thus far

Negative: Writing is disappointing, MC is stupid and rarely acts as a trained thief, Renders lack visual fidelity, game mechanics/point systems are poorly implemented (task points in particular make it so you have to make choices that often don't make sense and limit options), characters are shallow/tropey, and a handful of other smaller elements

Read the full but lengthy version detailing these things:


Conclusion: This game could still be something special if some combination of the writing, renders, game mechanics, and UI improve but right now the best part of the game is likely the lewd/fantasy content and it's not quite good enough to be worth playing the game for on it's own. The relationships with the girls itself is the second strongest draw the game has going for it but after the first chapter I came away not feeling particularly invested in any of the girls and not at all invested in the story despite really initially really loving the premise. It's extremely early yet so there's plenty of time for things to improve but lack of an early hook is never good. At present I think this is overall a disappointing start and only fairly average in the AVN landscape. I do recommend giving it a try once it's further along. I myself will likely return to it much later and hopefully have a better experience. Just bear in mind this game is aiming for a Steam release eventually so there are bound to need to be some changes between the game you play prior to the Steam release and when changes need to be made - luckily it seems like the devs are trying to keep this in mind (be careful with the schoolgirl outfit though guys, lol).

Thief of Hearts [v0.0.1b]

The women are all pretty as usual on this developer's games, and i'm no expert on this but the backgrounds seemed like a downgrade from his most recent games, but could be my impression...but for me it seems quite basic .
The MC is okay, at least he's not like Sunshine Love MC.
What i didnt like: (spoilers ahead)
- MC and Bella (blonde) with the tattoo guy, if you let her handle the situation trying to know more about a tattoo she will throw herself (and her tits) on the guy in a insinuating manner to gain information, if you dont want that, you handle it... this already made not like her that much... that is her first choice? Use her body? She should try using her brain first.... every guy she crosses path with she will jump on the guy when wanting to know something then?...and knowing that shes the kind of character that will resort to this kind of method makes me doubt on her as a love interest.
- Later on a restaurant, you go to visit Vivian ("landlady"), then theres a old mofo already sexually harassing her, touching her butt (he does it twice), the revenge? Yeah, MC takes some money from his wallet, flush the wallet on the toilet and the guy is escorted out...wow...yeah, lame as fuck...and honestly, why all that? Just to show MC as a savior? The White Knight? After so many games is this dev come up with? In this way? I expected more.
- Later, MC goes to a club, there he meets with two girls and one male friend.
If you pick one girl, he takes the other. If you pick both theres unavoidable lesbian content...You want both, but with no lesbian? Out of luck buddy! You want to pick just one to avoid lesbian content without the other guy having the other girl? Out of luck buddy! Or you let the guy having one or you watch the lesbian sex shit show.
- In some other scene Vivian pulls the same bs of using her body to get her way on a situation involving a security guard, she uses her tits....really? That much out of ideas?
This is what the game will deliver? Female needs information or acess? Seduce some random dude. MC needs information or acess? Fuck some random women! And after we start a relationship? How cool is to see our partner seducing some other guy? See her touching our being touched? Is this what we have to expect? And how attractive is a L.I that resorts to this kind of behavior? I know im stretching here but this is what the game is already showing players.
Now think about his previous game "S.L" and what he did with the twins (and later was changed i think), think about what MC's sister did with the latin chick (dont know if it was changed), about what he did with a blonde milf and the driver as additional content on this new game (dont know if he removed) and now take the things i listed above, see the recent tendency? This dev takes some weird decisions, have some questionable choices on content and its hard to play thinking about the next one he will put on the game and which character he will ruin for you (me). I honestly was expecting more from a seasoned dev like him, all this seems like "design" choices from a new developer wanting to have as many tags as possible on the game release, and lets remember this is only the first update.
I can get past some things, but this much in so little time? Just on the first update? I cant.

Very interesting beginning and unusual plot in the robber genre, from experienced game creators.

Overall, I liked how the story started so far!
The idea itself is really rare in AVN's, where the main character is a thief, especially when now the whole family is involved in the robbery! Very interesting idea.

The plot itself is quite good, and despite the fact that the first issue is already quite long and the girls are each beautiful in their own way.

MC himself is also a completely normal guy with a sporty character and good humor.

The animations are surprisingly very good and beautifully done! It is worth trying this unusual story about a robbery.

[0.0.1a] - 3.5/10

As flavorful as a bowl of porridge.

THE GOOD

The 'family of thieves' is a cool concept and should be explored more.

The GUI is pretty good.

The animations are surprisingly solid.

THE NEUTRAL

Locking sexual content behind a paywall code is understandable, but also pretty shitty.

THE BAD

The renders are simply terrible.

Reading up on other reviews and some comments, I was confused whether we were playing the same game. This is MrDots' fourth major title and the render quality somehow regressed compared to their last two games - Sunshine Love (2020) and Melody (2018). The framing is super basic, the lighting is pretty much non-existent, the character models look dated, and the compression level is so high, I can easily count the pixels in every shot. If I was to judge the game solely on the visuals, it would be the easiest 2/10 of my life.

The pacing makes no sense.

Whoever thought putting no transitions between shots is a good idea should be flogged and thrown overboard. Every click makes me feel I'm being teleported rather than smoothly transitioned to a new action/location. The same goes for the animations - every click feel like I'm hastily opening a new video file rather than having a curated experience. Ugh.

The writing has an identity crisis.

I did not have high expectations given MrDots' previous works, and maybe that is why I am not completely disappointed. The dialogue and storytelling are in this odd superposition where they are both pretty good and utterly dumb. In the span of a single scene we can go from a logical conversation between the 'family members' to straight-up oversexualization of every female character by the MC for no apparent reason.

I believe the problem lies in that the writer is mixing up the words 'implicit' and 'explicit.' Instead of the story being told in an organic way, we are presented with the same old 'Here is X. Their were my Y, and did Z." It assumes the 'main cast' has had no interactions and lives prior to the game's start. I like to call it the 'spawn problem' where the characters are spawned/forced to appear in a specific point of the story rather than being "born" gathering experience along the way.

Conclusion: Avoid if you value your time.

Review as of Version 0.01

The comedy parts in this game are going to be hit and miss. As I find the comedy the more stupid / cringe kind of comedy which doesn’t really work well for me. There are even some cringe worthy scenes but not alot of them. The story in this game reminds me of some heist comedy movies I saw in the past. Where they aren’t good but enjoyable for what it is.

I’m not a fan of incest games all that much and this very much a incest game 3 of the main LI are your family. But for someone that doesnt like incest I don’t mind it here because all the characters are very likable to me and I just love them so far. So I can get past any gripes I typically have where I think most games fall short when it comes to taboo topics incest . But it’s worth mentioning all the same.

The animations in this game are probably some of the best ive seen in an AVN. Which does make the extra unlocked non scenes a bit of a disappointment after seeing how good they could have been. However it’s understandable why extra scenes wouldn’t get the same amount of effort and time spent on time compared to something that is part of the main storyline.

I typically dislike using walkthroughs but I activated the walkthrough since it was part of the game and I noticed it was very much needed in this game. As to get a perfect A+ score some the choices aren’t all the obvious to which one you have to pick.

One final thing to mention as this could be a big deal to some people. One part in the story there is a lewd scene with I assume 2 side girls one we might see again unsure about that. But it’s forced on the player for plot reasons as I honestly would of turned both of them down if I could ( you get to pick which one based on your choices)

Overall a very strong first episode with alot of playtime, for once I actually look forward to the next episode in a Mr. Dots game. As it’s very enjoyable for what it is but if you take it seriously, something not just to have fun with it’s not that great.

great renders, great story and more content that i expected for the initail instalment. the models look amazing just lilke thier other games and i really lokk forward to seeing where this is going. not much spicy content yet but its setting up way better than some other games do and its a massive credit to the writer

Story 4/5: good and relatively unique premise
Writing 3/5: lacking, but not terrible. main problem is the terrible humor
Renders 4/5: good, but not exceptionel
MC 2/5: he is a coward, overly perverted and lack self-control
Girls 3/5: decent variety, but a lot of them are dislikable
Choices 2/5: quite a severe lack of choices. MC is often very interested in a girl/woman, without giving the player a choice, and with a lo of the girls being dislikeable, that makes it a severe problem.

It's a mrdots game so you already know what to expect.

The renders are good but they feel like a downgrade from the previous game, which is surprising because one of the things they were talking about during the development was improving the quality and the expressions (which to be fair they did improve).

The models and characters are fine, unfortunately they had to go with the bitchy older sister trope.

The writing has been improved from the previous games but it's a bit jarring because one scene feels reasonably grounded in reality and the next scene is pure porn logic that looks like it was written by a horny teenager.

Having the players input the relationships instead of using a proper incest patch is also a downgrade, on top of that it's also not very polished, there are multiple instances of you calling your dad by name.

Still, an impressive first release just for the size alone and despite these flaws a solid game

edit: the porn logic got even worse in 0.2, lowered to 3 stars