Angels & Demigods - SciFi VR Visual Novel

This visual novel has an intriguing concept with tons of potential. Going in, I really wanted to like it. However the execution leaves much to be desired. I'll skip right over the questions of whether the VR implementation adds anything worthwhile to the experience, and whether the writing and voice acting are cringe-worthy or merely passable. The main problem with this title is that, while there are dialogue choices, they amount to nothing, since there is only a single path or very narrow range of choices that lead successfully through the story. All other choices lead to a failure state. Reaching the end of even this very short chapter is an exercise in trial and error, since the outcome of each choice is sometimes not easy to anticipate, and often neither of the two dialogue choices is very satisfying. On the positive side, the artwork is attractive and vividly drawn. But it's not enough to redeem the annoyance factor of having to blindly bump one's way through the story until you find the *one* series of dialogue choices that *don't* result in your character behaving like a massive idiot. It may be free to play, but it's still too expensive unless you place no value on your time. Edited to add: Also, sometimes lines of dialogue are mis-labelled as to which character is speaking them. And the spoken lines don't always match the text. Sad.

Hmm... It's promising. The art is very pretty, and unlike most reviewers, I liked the voice acting (except for some odd emphasis in places). The VR implementation can be better, and needs positional tracking, but it didn't bother me much. I think they did a good job creating depth with 2d art. And little touches like the direction indicator to draw your attention, and the placement of the text, are well made. That said, I haven't finished it despite its short length because I played through the same scenario three times and always ended up dead. It's trial and error to find the narrow dialogue path that lets you progress. There should be more flexibility and multiple conversation paths that get you there. I will go back and finish it soon. I'd like to see more. Sadly it seems I didn't discover the Kickstarter campaign in time. I might have backed depending on the dev plan and the price. Hopefully they will be able to secure funding through other means. With some improvement, this can be pretty good.

♥♥♥♥♥♥ voice acting, starts off dull and takes really long time to get into something remotely interesting. You will be sitting and doing nothing for long time. No fast forward or skip option. I don't actually know what's going on in the story because at some point I stopped caring about it. Move on to something that's actually fun.

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Decent art is nowhere near enough to save this amateurish mess from its terrible writing, poor voice acting, and lousy performance. The dialog was absurdly repetitive, rehashing every single plot point or bit of exposition in slighlty different words multiple times. The overall structure of the narrative isn't any better. It goes directly from the opening scene where you're tasked with finding a runaway supersoldier, to a scene where... you're just kind of there in the same room with her already. Presumably either you found her, or she found you, but not only do you not get to play through how that happened, the developers couldn't even be bothered to include so much as a single throwaway line of exposition to explain it. The voice acting not only lacks emotion, but has that stilted sound of emphasis in awkward places that happens when you try to read something aloud without knowing what's coming next, as if the developer just stuck a script and a microphone in front of a random friend without warning. Finally, there is no excuse for this type of game to run this poorly. I can run fast-paced VR action games with high-end 3D graphics (like Arizona Sunshine) without a hitch, but this visual novel consisting of nothing but a handful of static 2D images and some audio clips would frequently just sit there with nothing happening for at least thirty seconds or so between chunks of (repetitive) dialogue for no apparent reason. There are a lot of other things I could nitpick—old dialog boxes hanging around, the constant presence of a reticle and 2 laser pointers even though you rarely need even one of them, the tired and sexist cliche of the badass female supersoldier being dressed in fishnet lingerie, why a game that is essentially a 2D comic book with no interaction beyond occasionally choosing between two dialog options is even made for VR—but the bottom line is this interactive story fails on every front that really matters.

Quite a novel idea, to make a visual novel in this way. It's just that the way it is executed doesn't really work for me. (If you couldn't tell from the screenshots) This game is "played" in a 3D environment with 2D sprites serving as the NPCs and background objects. With things like tables rendered in 3D space while the objects and people around them are 2D sprites. The spritework is okay, only the resolution is way too low for something like this. For example, when you confront Ashley you can almost count the pixels, while characters who are rendered only a foot away look way better. Also, there is no full-screen option. Which is annoying. (Spoiler warning) Apart from being very short with limited choices and endings, the story wasn't all that interesting, either. It is quite hard to relate to a character who is going to die in three days, but maybe that's just me. Okay, to be fair, it's only a kick starter demo right now so I won't whine about the game's story being short and predictable. (Spoilers end here) The voice acting is bad. At some points they try to put some emotion in their lines but it comes of as really forced. I don't know how big of a company 7 Keys Studios is, so it's not unlikely these aren't professional voice actors, but still. The game is free so give it a try yourself if you're really interested. I won't be following this project. Sidenote: To whoever is running the 7 Keys Studios Twitter account and writing the recent update messages on Steam, please stop putting ":)" everywhere. I have a friend who does this too and it's really annoying/distracting.

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Ангелы и полубоги - НФ визуальная новелла в виртуальной реальности - в целом интересный вариант перевода эпизодической научно-фантастической ВН в виртуальную реальность. При этом пройти новеллу можно и не обладая комплектом для VR. Есть важный нюанс - доступен только короткий первый эпизод, на остальные собирали деньги на Kickstarter, но кампания не пошла, так что будет ли продолжение... время покажет. 1) Сюжет: в далеком будущем человечество колонизировало всю солнечную систему, и увы эта колонизация привела людей к раздору и к желанию колоний получить власть над всей системой. В результате конфликта и путем долгих экспериментов были выведены генетически модифицированные люди - "Ангелы", получившую огромную мощь, но расплачивающиеся за неё короткой жизнью, в результате чего их выводят из сна только в момент опасности. И для нашего героя, такой момент настал. В самой новелле доступен только первый эпизод продолжительностью минут на 15, и с 3 концовками (2 смерти, одна истинная). Сюжет написан Миланом Казаркой - товарищем написавшим сюжет для Invisible Apartment, кто видел сию новеллу может представить уровень текста. 2) Графика и звуки: картинка при игре без комплекта VR выглядит не объемной, а скорее панорамной. Рисовка персонажей и задников, имхо довольно качественная. Музыка приятная и хорошо играет на атмосферу. Есть весьма качественная английская озвучка. 3) Геймплей: все как и в других играх жанра, единственное отличие - можно вертеть головой (мышкой) чтобы осмотреть окрестности. При этом диалог идет только при наведение курсора на нужного персонажа. Основные выборы в тексте идут ближе к концу игры (вообще это вторая возможность выборов в тексте в самой игре), они же влияют на концовку. Новелла в целом стабильная, но загрузка последней части эпизода по неведомым причинам идет довольно долго. Как итог: весьма интересный эксперимент по переводу визуальной новеллы в формат VR. Единственный минус - кампания на Kickstarter`е провалилась, так что выйдут ли следующие эпизоды, не ясно. Сюжет прописан довольно интересно, так что любителям визуальных новелл, и научной фантастики все же рекомендую. 8 спутников Сатурна из 10.