VN - Ren'Py - Alice: A Hard Life [Ep1 v1.5] [Caylake]

This is clearly a corruption game and has some of the same tropes we have seen before, but surprisingly, despite the laughable dialogue, I found myself interested and engaged.... until the little man children started to appear. What in the heck are these creatures? They have the body of a teen with the head of a man. I mean... wth.

As a healthy young boy in High School, I had my share of fantasies with some of my teachers. I remember one red head in particular... oy... I still think about her after all of these years. If I had nailed that in HS, I would have thought it was cool and I am sure all my guys friends would have agreed. However, now, when I look at it as an adult, it's just creepy. And that was the feeling I got when I played this VN. Just creepy... and the models for the teens just added more creep factor to it.

For me, it walks too fine a line and I can't shake the feeling of not wanting to look. It's too bad too... as corruption games go, this one had some potential.

I like the concept and models look good (pls dont make a large breasts for female, they are big already)
I would like to see smoother transitiont between scenes without a black screen, because it looks like VN is loading something
I like multiple choices
Waiting for more content to see progression futher

Its a start, its the best way I can put it. But there are some clear quality of life settings turned off for no apparent reason and some decisions that could've used player input.

For example I didn't want to jerk off the old man so maybe give the player the choice of not doing that and have consequences later or something. I can't describe just how quickly that ruined my whole mood.

Then there is the fact that you can't skip, scroll back or at the least pull up the history of what was said. If you miss click you better have a save before that or start over, though I'm not sure how far the choices really matter yet.

The English is readable but it could use someone looking over it. It felt very bland and rather basic. I don't need the next George R.R. Martin or Tolkien to write a porn story, but a bit more than what is currently presented.

So the art is nice enough. The concept is pretty sexy (not new, but nothing wrong with it). The writing though is a bit.. stilted at the moment. It feels like it could really use some volunteer editors to go through it. Which is a problem 'cause for some reason (and this looks to be a RenPy game so I guess it must be intentional?) the roll-back button is off... so if you start fast-clicking through the dialog you land on 'do it / don't do it' choices and you're left wondering what its asking about. Overall at this time.. ep1.v1.0 its.. I don't know, I want to like it and I'll try it again, but for the moment gonna pause on it until it gets further along so I don't spoil the experience.

This game is great so far. Excellent renders with good lighting effects, good pacing, and pretty engaging dialogue. The paths that have been hinted at are all very hot. I'm very excited to see more of each of them. The MC is especially good. Also the plot has just enough to keep things interesting without going too far and destroying any believably.

[Ep1 - v1.0]
So I tried it out since I love 100% Female Protagonist.
The story at ther start seam promising with some lot of choise to play with. It remind me to mix of AWAM and Mila Shaw: Black Mail Obsession and J. H. O. N. some how.

Pro:
Choise and badass Female Protagonist.
Undercover agent (Probably CIA or FBI agent since CIA can olse kill in cold blood when it necessery. See here silenced gun She could killed that criminal for good )


Bad:
1.) Forced handjob scene unavoideble.
2.) Corruption could be make better way since if we refuse The Principal request we get force handjob with oldfart of the ugly landlord (ilegaly) later. She an agent why should be triked into it without thread him to jail bait for harrassement and blackmail? She is a smart woman and know the laws since she an agent undercover as teacher. She could make him threat him with jail bait to avoid forced handjob scene. it look like the choice in this regad were disapiered to force unavodeble content upon player.
3.) Skip and rallback disapeared frmom the preference we can't even go back to see what kind of propsition someone asking to change our mind anddo another one insead. Skip wecan skip whol textas we please becou ther are important to skip usesless text (depend on player preference). We can just go and load our save to make different aproach.

Conlcusion:
The only thing is good ar choise and situation can be avodied by choise expet this fucking Landlord.
My reting would be 3,5 stars but becu of luck of star system on this rating sistem I give it 4 (3,5), can't give it half star.

English? I don't care.

Here new one updated review [Ep1 v1.0Hotfix]
We got a choice with that oldfart landlord. Good thing imporve on this matter.

The only thing the game luck is when open the setting menu to turn off or on skip botton or textx skip option still unavible. these are relly important one in menu seting if the player wnat to skippthe text with on botton withou bee forced to skip manually in like my fingere is too tired after long way or archer shot/practice. Setting option need have optionwhat player prefer to active or deactive skip and rallback option. But they still don't exist to how much text you want skip after choise and transition or active rallback right ot left with deactive as well.
This only complain about the game. in this new version

finally some new game in that kinda niche department i personally prefer more over the majority of games which are way too often male protag games with either harem or young boy/milf content.

the quality of the renders and the female remind be quite a bit of JOHN (jessica oneils hard news) but already with way more potential options and now annoying boyfriend.

i really like the idea of the sexy young teacher. even tho i hope there will be not too much focus on the young schoolboys.
really like her outfits. classy and sexy.
fmcs shape is overall quite nice but i personally would prefer a bit fuller/perkier tits with bigger more visible nipples. (and maybe slightly more hips and thighs but thats really subejctively speaking.)
i am no native english speaker but i think the english is okay, could be better but it understandable even it could be been written maybe a bit better. (but i prerfer a less perfect text and more action and render quality anyway - which seems to be the case)

Pros:
+ fmc
+ old men kink (which really look like nasty old men)
+ classy, sexy outfits
+ young teacher theme (even tho i am not too happy about schoolboy content)
+ classy looks of the fmc (even tho i still hope her tits get improved)
+ already some naughty paths building up
+ quality render images

Cons:
- fmcs tits need improvement, body is fine even tho i personally prefer a bit more curves
- at the moment a bit too much schoolboy content but maybe this will get less over the updates
- introduction of the fmc feels a bit... uninspired but it sells the deal and its okay for me

This review concerns the first version of the game and is based solely on my own tastes and interests :

- The protagonists :
In this first version, you'll find a wide range of characters.
Whether they're related to Alice's work (colleagues, students, boss), her home (landlord, neighbors) or directly linked to the scenario, each one has its own personality and is sufficiently detailed to enhance the main character.
So let's talk about this MC : Alice.
Damn I'm in love, she's just the personification of my feminine perfection made with Daz : red hair, a dream body who puts on outfits that suit her to a tee, whether at work or in everyday life.
Educated and refined, she evolves according to the player's choices.

- Playability :
And about those choices...
They have a real impact on the game, leading to real re-playability.
This is rare enough in today's VN to be worth mentioning.
I'm not talking about a choice that will have immediate repercussions, but a set of choices whose consequences won't apply until much later in the game ! And I love it.
Plus you get indicators of the impact of your choices on Alice's feelings.
Finally, you have access to a gallery of the game's most "enjoyable" scenes (with the exception of one, but I'll come back to that later).

- Universe, atmosphere and music:
Immersive, clean and polished. A pleasant, personal style.

- Possible improvements :
One scene is not present in the gallery :
This has already been mentioned, but if the "rollback" function were active, it would be great.

-Conclusion:
I loved this experience, being that little voice in Alice's head that guides her in her life choices...
A Ren'Py/Daz VN like so many others, but with that little something extra that makes it unique.
I recommend it to everyone, and personally I'm keeping an eye on it and can't wait to find out what happens next.

-In short :
An excellent start.

Good luck Dev with this game, which I'm definitely a fan of !

If Caylake is uncomfortable with a colleague's review, I can remove it on request.

I would say the game has good enough renders, and a few attractive female characters. It's also a bonus it has a decent amount of content for a first version of the game.

The CON's for this game are quite bad as well:
- grammar, grammar, grammar. Some spelling mistakes but the worst is the confusion of pronouns. A lot of her/she for his/he and the other way around. It really takes you out of any type of story.
- it has a lot of scenes copied from at least two of the most popular female protagonist games. If it was just inspiration it wouldn't be so bad but it's so blatant that it's kind of a big downside.
- the story, outside of what is copied from other games is very meh at the moment. I'm hoping it will pick up.
- the rollback function is blocked. It's just unnecessarily bad. The dialogue is bad enough that I want to skip through most of it but if I skipped a little too much I can't go back and see what was said, or see a previous render.

I would normally have given it a 2 star rating but because it's just the first version, I felt like being generous.

If the dev is reading this, I suggest you get yourself at least one playtester, you can try to get some free ones on this forum, if you can't afford to pay any yet. At least correct the spelling mistakes if nothing else.

Wow. pretty great stuff, great renders, story is interesting and MC is not a usual soon to be slut. More mysterious and confident. I like where these stories are going and my only realy complaint is the UI needs a roll back and what not. Keep up the good work, hope to see more and always great to see another female protag game

Another female protag game with realy hot mc, yet no actual scene with her. The tags are there cause side characters gets all the action, which i find quite sneaky / deceiving in many ways. Renders are good, some spelling and grammar mistakes here and there... For now, it appears to me as average (i would go with 2 or 1 starts just cause i felt mislead cause of the tags but that would be unfair) but has a potential to become a good one. Might edit this review in the future when we see some real action with our heroine.

REVIEW FOR: Ep1 - v1.0

Renders are pretty nice, but thats all this game has. The grammar needs A LOT of work. Dialogs feel unnatural and spelling errors are all over the place since the beginning. Reading this as it is right now destroys any story telling the creator of the game wants to develop.

The game has potential, if the creator can find someone to write the scripts and dialogs properly, this could be a +4 stars game. But at the moment, I dont recommend trying the game at all.

My Ratings for this Game:

PROS
+ Hot female protagonist
+ Nice Action Story
+ Long Game Play
+ Easy Gameplay
+ Great Game
+ Hot Scenes

CONS
- Some spelling errors

STORY: 5/5
The Story is like from an Action Movies, with blackmail, bullying, and everyday People.
The Story is being told as if it was true.

Gameplay: 5/5
Very simple mechanics that don`t get you locked out of the Game play without knowing what to do next.
Lots of scenes with Long Game Play which I didn't expect for the First release.

CONCLUSION: 5/5
The Game was Great and I loved it, and I would love to see that this Game would continue but only the future will tell.

RECOMMENDATION.
Damn worth the Download.

Episode 1 review.

Pros ->
- Really great renders , love the use of DOF and clear renders when showing scenes without blinding bloom

- Somewhat interesting plot so i hope more writer is given to explore her past a little more too.

- Liked the option to avoid situations

Cons -

-A little short for a full episode

- Did not like the fact that i had to go into certain routes to actually see scenes , a modifier or some strat depending on choices would be nice ( ig that's for future tho )

- Protag is great but other characters look stock , might want to increase the resolution maps on those.


That's all , good luck!