Ren'Py - Life in Santa County [v0.9.1] [Bold Bash Studios]

This game takes some getting used to

Initially I thought the characters were pretty terrible looking. The first actual sex scene the womans skin looked so grey she looked like a zombie, but I soldiered on and have begun to really enjoy this game and the characters look better and better

The MC I think is one of the better looking MC's from VN's I've played. I don't mean that in like his overall attractiveness, but rather that he looks believable and not like a weird, goofy teenager with a pompadour. The scenes are animated pretty good and the graphics overall look great. Visually its stunning, and like I said outside of the initial scene everything else looks amazing. The proportions for some characters are obscene but it adds to their appeal, and it looks like there's a wide enough variety of body types for whatever you're into. Even though certain characters were seemingly designed to have below-average faces with a crazy body (the cousin, who the MC basically says has an ugly face with a big butt), her scenes are actually pretty hot and she's becoming one of the more interesting characters

I do think things feel rushed though. The anticipation isn't really there for anyone but the mom as the rest you can get with without much effort. There probably should be a lot more apprehension and resistance about this sort of thing than there is (incest), but hey, it's not so bad it breaks the game or anything.

Lastly I love all the extra features and systems in place. The ways you can make money and the branching paths you can take are great fun. My only hope is that it doesn't become a thing that gets far too big too fast then the updates become smaller and take longer before they slowly stop coming

I completely disagree with people asking the devs to abandon this game. It's super fun to play and hopefully only keeps improving

An awesome game with really good renders and animations. The pacing is okay and the overall quality is excellent. Best thing about it is that it has lots of incest! Two sisters, mom, cousin and aunt.

This game, as well as many others, presents restrictions in its content, which pissed me off a lot when I finished playing it and I realized that I had missed a scene, for those who have not played it, my advice is to put the maximum from the beginning score with all characters, same as intimidation and charisma of the protagonist.
Another aspect would be the fluidity of the animations, I don't know if it's just me, but some of them looked disgusting.
Otherwise excellent entertainment, this game is not based on a good story but on the interaction with the characters. Excellent.

Excellent AVN
IT has everything, not boring sanbox, amazing renders, hottest female designs...
The aunt , the mom and the teacher are the best not only their designs, but the interactions with the protagonist.

This review is based on v0.7.2

The dev is talented in making renders, that's for sure but story telling isn't his thing. I tried. I tried really hard to develop empathy for MC, but it just doesn't work. MC is just a complete idiot. The choices the story forces the player to make are just plain stupid. I have no problem with an AVN lacking in realism. It can still make a good story though. Here, on the other hand, you just want to wish the protagonist from the very first moment that his brain hadn't been removed after he was born. But the other protagonists are also so one-dimensional that it causes me physical pain when I have to read the dialogues. It's a shame. Graphically it's really well done, even if MC is ugly as night is dark and some of the other protagonists wouldn't win a beauty contest either. Unfortunately, good graphics do not make a good AVN. If AVN with bad graphics can still become a top AVN through a very good story, the reverse is unfortunately not possible. Bad stories can never be saved by good graphics. Two stars for the effort and the graphics.

I hope the dev breaks up with this game and start something new. Like I wrote he has the potential in his graphic skills. He only needs good storytelling. This AVN can't be rescued. Just break it and try something new. It's okay to fail. It's the first attempt. The next will be better I guess.

I played this for 2 hrs and i removed it, MC is literally a pussy who every NPC dunks on him, no self esteem and u can't make any major decison, until what i reached so far, choices are just cosmetic they do nothing its like a knetic novel, you are getting blackmailed and humiliated and have no say about it, and you have to do all this to defend a stupid NPC who is rude to you and wants to fuck ur mother, all sex you get you had nothing to do with it just other characters forced you into it.
0/10 fucking waste of time

Love the game. Some aspects can be difficult when figuring out the net affect of choices and content lock/unlock, but very good art and Lauren is a 10.

MC's hair is a little weird and I am not a fan of his patchy facial hair that just makes his face look dirty. As long as scenes are POV, it's no matter.

Can't wait for the next update.

milfs are the best
the beginning is a bit boring but after the intro the good part begins
the bodies look very real and toned, in addition to the drops of sweat that are observed, too real
I will be waiting eagerly for the new update

Life in Santa County [v0.7.0]

Genre:
Linear? Sandbox VN

I put a questionmark after linear because I didn't play long enough to confirm how linear this game is.

This game's got amazing renders and gorgeous detailed environments and a super clean UI with clickable little details everywhere. But it feels soulless.

There wasn't a story interesting enough to draw me in and the amateurish use of English was off-putting from the start. On top of that, the women's proportions all feel off for some reason. Maybe it's the unnatural posing's fault or maybe they're just past the point of being believable as human beings. The facial expressions feel off and aren't properly reflecting what's being said or done.

After playing for a while I downloaded a gallery unlocker so I could check a few sex scenes to see if they could motivate me to keep playing but they actaully did the opposite and I've since uninstalled. They are straight-to-the-point without any notable eroticism and they feel mechanical and boring.

It's sad really, the technical skill on display here is formidable, but this dev is a programmer, not an artist. Or a storyteller. And that makes for a pretty mediocre game in the end.

Honestly, the only really good thing about the game is the renders. Which sort of make the game worthwhile. The story is both underwhelming and convoluted with mediocre "exploring" mechanics. I assume English is not the dev's first language.

Which I would normally just deal with, but the writing isn't...great. The MC was trying to have a "meaningful conversation" with not-the-sister and she's trying to talk about her feelings but the words don't accurately reflect the seriousness of the conversation. Its hard to take a heart-to-heart conversation seriously when half of dialogue is ellipsis and the rest is either misspelled or using literal texting language like "U kno". Still I would feel bad for taking points off for it. English is a tough language

But what really is the most jarring is that how much of the game is lifted straight from another, more notable "school setting" game and that game just does everything better. I dont want to be a dick about it but there's no getting past the the fact that here's very little that this game offers besides strong renders that other high school/college games dont do better

This game is awesome in every sense. Not some random game where you start fucking. It starts with characterization of each character. The way, MC is trapped and corruption happens is something, which is rare in porn games. It is a gold mine. And gratitude to the devs.

I thoroughly enjoy this game. The renders and animations are very high quality. The sandbox element is short and simple. Definitely recommend. Quite a bit of teasing for a while but the game is far enough in development it wont leave you blue balled.

v0.6.1
There's very little I have to say about this game, the renders are very good, the models are very good, the animations are very good, the rest? It's terrible, it causes me actual physical pain knowing that this graphical quality is paired with such terrible storytelling and dialogues, and with such an unbearable MC.

Man, I really wanted to like this and had huge hopes with the synopsis, but I think I'm not exaggerating saying this is one of the greatest disappointments I've ever played.

Good game overall with amazing love interests. If you want great scenes and steady buildup with each of LI, then you'll love this game.

The story goes some interesting places, and I can tell the creator is really experimenting with the technology and typical AVN structure. The choice system around how MC progresses through the investigation and daily life is refreshing.

I'm a fan of the free-roam parts at the school and home too since there are many things that can be missed if you don't dig into them.

Man that sucks, I really wanted to like this game as it ticks off pretty much all my boxes in terms of its premise.

But the dialog is just so fucking bad,
Its like dev is purposefully trying to slap you out of immersion and its infuriating because the graphics and scenery are just so well put together.

I though that it could be because of the incest patch that makes the dialog appear weird as fuck, but without it its all even fucking worse!

your mother calls you honey, your aunt calls you honey, your sister calls you honey, your cousing calls you honey, you little sister calls you honey..
Hell even the mature lady selling flowers on the street calls you honey.
Youre everybodys sweetie and baby in this game.

And where does the idea to end every single fucking sentence with Mom comes from when talking to Lauren?!

Hey, Mom.
Bye, Mom.
How are you doing, Mom.
I feel like something is bothering you, Mom.
Do you really think that I have the means to steal your panties?, Mom.

Why the fuck change chloe's name to Aunt this is so fucking beyond me.
Your Aunt
Our Aunt
My Aunt
Their Aunt
Whos Aunt again? srry I forgot

Seriuosly dialog is so broken the patch doesnt make it better some would argue it actually makes everything worse.

Even without considering the conversation between family members,Characters express themselves in a robotic and...dumb way, I really cant describe it differently
The dialogue is dumb!

As I said 2 stars for graphics and UI, overall technical implemntation is well executed, but the writing oh god.

Very good game. I like it equally, both the graphic component and the story, and most importantly the characters. Especially interesting is the cousin of the main character and how their relationship is built and her gradual submission / taming. The story itself is not trivial, and most importantly, it really exists here, unlike most incest-themed games, where the whole plot is based on the fact that you finally fucked your mother, in this game it happens (will happen) rather in addition to the main story and that's how it should be!

Its a shame to give this such a low rating since the renders are so good and the girls have something different and unique to all their looks. Nothing , however can help the truly dreadful storytelling. Honestly I cant even tell you what the dialogue choices mean half the time the English is so bad. Just awful. People gotta learn to use Grammarly or something to help themselves out if English isnt something they are good at and they cant get a native English speaker to translate their translations. Like i said its a real shame since its all so pretty to look at.

The sandbox was very difficult to play in the beginning , it's almost impossible to play without a walkthrough .
Now with the 0.6 version, the game is great after the authors have eliminated the sandbox .
In its own very high quality, the author also enlightened , this game will be a classic in the future .

This is the best game on this site, hands down. The graphics are outstanding, the female characters are breathtaking (not to mention fully fleshed out, with distinct personalities) and the story is surprisingly deep and complex, with moral choices that lead your character down different paths.
I had come across this game many times, but never bothered to play it until recently, and I was shocked at how much content there is, and how much the story actually progresses in a short period of time. This is not the same old "guy lives with his landlady and roommates" story we've seen.
The story takes a bit to get started, and there's plenty of setting up scenes that will become important in future chapters, but goddamn, once it becomes free-roam, the game truly begins to shine. The whole thing just oozes originality and vision, even when it delves into a bit of fan service.
Give it a shot - you won't regret it.

I'll start off by saying that the strongest points of this game is its visual quality, animation quality, and the many stunning girls, particularly the girls who are "closest" to him, if you get my meaning.

However, that's pretty much where the good points end.

The story is completely all over the place and feels very chaotic, like the devs don't really know how to handle the story they're trying to craft. It feels like it just throws too much at you all at once with these really high stakes and sinister, shady goings-on. It's just one thing after another with little time to breath in between and things often move at too quick of a pace, particularly many of the romantic relationships. It also suffers from pretty bad "Engrish" at times where characters say things that make absolutely no sense in native English speech and this can add to the confusion when trying to understand what's going on in the story.

After the prologue, things sort of settle down, but that's when the story really feels like it falls apart and doesn't seem to know where it's going. Again, more details are just thrown at you without much context, or build-up, or really any great care to make you actually invested in them. It tosses girls at you and expects you to just like them straight away, but they aren't really given any kind of decent development.

Then there's the freeroam and "levelling" systems which feel clunky, unnecessary, and oftentimes pointless when they throw in what seems like really arbitrary things and things which make no sense because they haven't been given any kind of decent context. The devs would honestly be better off removing the freeroams and just making these sections more kinetic in terms of the scene order but still include choices when necessary.

There is a lot of potential for this game because its visual quality is excellent and I can appreciate that the devs are trying to craft a serious, gritty story, but I feel that falls flat in this regard with shallow character development and a messy plot that doesn't seem to know what it's supposed to be. The latest update, for example, all but abandons the central plot for a typical AVN feel of spending time doing lewd things wth sexy women and building towards more lewd things later but without feeling like there's any real plot in the background.

I'd honestly say this game is in need of a major overhaul. I think it could be a huge success and close to a 5 star game if it were to have a better paced and clearer story, no freeroam, and a greater focus on meaningful relationship building.