VN - Ren'Py - Race of Life [Ep. 3.1 Extra Fix v3] [Underground Studio]

Version Reviewed: Ep. 3.1 Extra Fix v3

A great game from start to finish (pun intended).

Pros

• Excellent renders and visuals
• Excellent character models (realistic body parts is refreshing!)
• Excellent story
• Excellent writing
• Excellent humor
• Excellent banter between the MC and Jasmine
• Excellent English
• Fun and unique characters
• Good character development
• Good blend of story vs lewd content
• Good sex scenes
• Good animations
• Character log/history is a nice touch
• Shifting mini-game during races is a nice touch

Cons

• Nearly all LIs are sluts or closet sluts who throw themselves at the MC. The MC has to make little to no effort in gaining their affection (except for Allison (and Maggie to some extent))
• Don't like starting off games with a forced LI. In the end, Veronica is the least interesting LI in the game and is almost guaranteed to get dumped for other more interesting and unique LIs later in the story
• The author doesn't understand how engines and RPMs work. There is a comment in the game saying that the gauges in the MC's car only go up to 7,000 RPM and that his engine revs up to 10,000 RPM so he needs new gauges. FULL STOP! NO WAY IN HELL! Nascar engines are some of the highest reving large displacement piston engines in racing and they have a rev limit of 9,500 RPMs. They run specialized camshafts with low valve lift so they can rev that high. Most engines set up for drag racing have a rev limit of approximately 7,000 RPMs. Blowers produce the bulk of their power through 5,000 RPMs. Blowers aren't nearly as effective above 5,000 RPMs. For this reason you'll never see a blower on a car in an endurance race. Turbos are the opposite of blowers in terms of their power curve. Turbos are more effective at high RPMs as opposed to blowers. The reason drag racing engines can't rev above approximately 7,000 RPMs is due to their high valve lift. The higher the value lift, the faster the engine can accelerate/build power (overly simplified I know). Because the valves are moving a long distance (for valve lift), the momentum above 7,000 RPMs will cause them to become unstable and literally fly out of the engine. If an engine is reved too high, it blows up with valves shooting through the engine and hood of the car.
• The 'Tuner' aspect of the game is severely lacking! I was hoping for a game where I got to purchase upgrade parts, tune it, blueprint it, and balance out the car for maximum performance. None of that really exists. The MC can purchase one part for his car the entire 3.1 version of the game. A missed opportunity here to do something different than all the cookie cutter visual novels on this site.
• Due to all the other story elements, the racing part of the game is a small part overall

The game could be a unique gem here on F95Zone but it ends up being a cookie cutter visual novel. Yes, the author does nearly everything well, but it's still just vanilla gameplay and lacks uniqueness in the hundreds of visual novels on this site. The player does get to choose when to shift gears during races which is one of the few unique gameplay aspects of the game.

I was hoping for a true 'Tuner' car game where I could customize the hell out of my car, making lots of improvements to it. The MC drives his same car in all races with only one small upgrade. I was hoping to mess with air/fuel mixture, airflow in and out of the engine, fuel system and delivery, intake and exhaust, ECU settings, camber/caster settings for the suspension, etc. etc. Nope! Almost none of this exists in version 3.1.

It would be awesome if there was a large selection of parts that the MC could purchase to upgrade nearly every aspect of his car. Each part, or tune would affect various aspects of the car such as top speed, acceleration, handling, aerodynamics, braking, etc. The MC would have to 'blueprint' his car for maximum performance balancing every system (engine, drivetrain, suspension, etc.).

Too much emphasis is on the many other parts of the story instead of racing and custom tuning your car.

The fun and playful banter between the MC and Jasmine is one of the best parts of the game! The banter between the MC and Cooper is good also but tries too hard sometimes to be funny.

My favorite characters in the game are Jasmine and Natalya by far! I'm hoping that with both of their unique personalities (open minded and sexually adventurous) that the author will allow a mini-harem between the two of them!

As a generic visual novel, the game succeeds in spades! As a racing 'Tuner' game, the game fails completely.

Overall I recommend the game and encourage others to give it a try.

It's rare that there's a game that has both a compelling story and a good amount of sex/lewd scenes. Even rarer that the renders are this high quality. This is one of the games I religiously check for updates and news, and would be incredibly disappointed if it were abandoned. Every main LI is interesting and attractive, and I even feel somewhat bad when I reject them when I'm not on their respected routes. The MC is also fun to play as, and I enjoy his characterization, and watching him grow/decline is fun. I want more Jasmine, 10/10

Very nicely rendered with good story and original ideas. Mini games are fun addition as well as being directly involving to the story, which is a welcome change to other titles where the action on screen doesn't quite mesh with mini game feel.

Excellent game so far. Good story, well written dialogue, hot ladies, fun races, great renders and animations. If it keeps going that way, it will be one of the best for sure. I hope dev doesn't add more LIs, because right now I think it's just the perfect amount of options and all of the main ones have decent amount of content.

Just play it. The writing is A Class, and I think you will be immersed in the first 5 minutes of play. There isn't any part of the game where you feel you are in the "story" part rather than "porn" part, if you get what I mean. Like, in the majority of AVN you get hit by a massive wall of text which give context to the story, sometimes all of that is excessive, but here the dev makes it very subtle by having you driving the car making it less "boring".

The animations are also perfect, the characters are greatly developed and very different from one another.
If the devs reads this reviews I'd say to don't break the perfect relationship balance from every character, because as of now is very realistic, but if the mc starts a gangbang in the class the game I think would lose most of its "serious" aura.

Next to the majority of the games I play, this one is so refreshing. It’s a school setting, at least in part, but the difference is you play the teacher, rather than a student – although of course, there are still hot students after your body! As the title suggests, racing also plays a big part in the game, and you get minigames where a race is taking place and you basically have to do the gear shifting at the right moment. You can gain money from racing, and betting on racing, which you can spend on upgrading your car, but most of it will go towards another cause, which is the catalyst of the game and which I won’t spoil.

The overview in the game thread does not do this one justice at all, as there is a lot more to it than just racing and trying to get the hottest woman. There’s a lot of feeling in this one, with a really sad situation leading into some heavy themes (that do not at all detract from the fun and the thrill of the story).

The visuals are great and the women are fantastic, with MC’s ex-wife Allison absolutely in with a shot at being my favourite love interest across all the games I’ve played (I will get back together with her!). Although you’ll want to be careful (and potentially have multiple saves) to avoid getting into conflict with the great selection of LIs available, there are some great scenes to be had with whoever you choose.

There’s some great humour in this one too, and not all of it comes from the loveable clown of a best friend (although admittedly, Coop is the source of a good amount of the laughs). I’m interested to see where this one goes, and whether the teased espionage storyline comes to anything, or turns out to be a red herring. There’s a lot of potential here, and I for one really hope it makes it.

Was recommended to me and to be honest i over looked it ,but boy was I wrong to do that. This VN is amazing the renders the story is so deep. I can honestly say that I sat and read every line and didn't skip anything which is something I can only say about maybe 4 others that I did that with. I highly recommend this and can't wait to see what is next.

Excellent game at everything that matters. Visuals are stunning, with animations ranging from excellent to nearly perfect. The story is a bit "buggy", though; at several points characters use dialogue that doesn't match a previous choice, like Emma mentioning a massage you actually refused to get from her. Also the scene with the obnoxious doctor at the hospital tries to be both dramatic and funny, therefore failing at both. No doctor speaks like that unless it's drawn by Disney.

Other than that this is Being a DIK / WVM quality material. Why can't this be the bare minimum quality in AVNs? Keep it up!

PS. Please don't ruin this by adding dozens of LIs. The cringy behaviour of the gals at the new hospital feels already like a fuckup in the storyline, at a certain point it looks like you're going to be able to fuck Tiana in front of your comatose daughter FFS.

This one is firing on all cylinders. Characters look great. Animations look great. Really good sound. Writing is excellent. Love interests are varied and all feel unique. Scenes are really good and look smooth. The driving mini games are fun and the extra systems like upgrades and betting add depth and are interesting. It's already really good and I can see it getting even better with future updates.

This game here is a case where the hype is actually well-deserved. I hesitated with playing it as I was expecting street racing to take most of the screentime, and that's something I'd prefer in a racing game, not an AVN. However, it turned out not be that case at all. The game is actually a great mix of drama and adventure, and is not overly focused on street racing, with the MC's day-time job and family problems taking center stage.

Pros:
1) The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, some of the best in the genre.
2) The plot is good, and very well written. I believe this drama.
3) The MC starts as a self-centered moron, but the player gets the first option to change him for the better as soon as the game begins, which is exactly how MCs like him should be realized. However, if a player wants for him to stay a moron, that's an option too.
4) The characters discuss the subjects they specialize in at length, demonstrating that the devs have done their homework.
5) The interactive phone is here, and we get a street racing mini-game, of course, as without it, the entire theme would fall flat. And it's skippable.
6) The LIs are all stunningly beautiful, and great characters, too. Damn, while I haven't picked Allison, I admit that she's instrumental at helping the player feel the drama, while Jasmine and Alexa help with the humour.
7) The best sex scenes I ever saw.

Cons:

1) Cooper is annoying to me. I mean, if any of my IRL friends I'd cease all contact with him on the spot.

5 stars! Why are you still reading this? Play it! Even if you just did it, do it again!

The character development was great, properly fleshed out. The Need for speed, racing story was so good, i stayed for the story, and was not disappointed by the scenes and models. Worth supporting the developer.

Top Graphic and Music

The story is even more excellent, every girl has her own personality, and more importantly, it all makes sense, which makes the story very immersive.

Thanks for the developer

5 Stars no doubt

After episode 1 I thought this was going to be the next big game. But after episode 3 I'm just not feeling it any more.

I'm not entirely sure why that is. But it's probably because it has too much going on. There are too many love interests and the story takes itself too seriously. You're building half assed relationships with all the women and it just becomes a big nothing burger.

I couldn't even remember half the women in this game. I think that says a lot when compared to another game like being a dik. Which has even more characters but I know who is who, because they all have distinct personalities and they don't bore me to tears with things I don't need to know.

I can't immerse myself into a story that tries to be serious yet removes all consequences for MC's actions. Be serious and do it right or be light hearted. Don't go in between, that's a half baked cake, edible but not great.

I just loved it!
The combination of the girls, story, animations, soundtrack and the racing mini-game is superb.

I must admit that part of the story dialogues were too long so I had to skip some, but beside of that I really enjoyed play this 3 episodes, so I can't wait for episode 4 to be released.

Tbh, I will be with the few not getting why this game has such a high score. To me the game felt strange from the start. The mc has a ego from here to tokyo and to me it was really of puting how cocky he was. The best friend feels like just a huge moron and like he has no point. Like poop jokes and him stalking a girl... The whole ex wife thing felt also bad and the forced dating from the start even more...

The art is great and all but fuck the story. Like expected a racing game and then go from that but no we are a teacher\scienetist, ex husband, strugeling to meet deadlines and then our kid gets in a coma before we even really go in to the racing plot.

No, dont get it

This game is great. Solid visuals, excellent animations, tense racing scenes with equally excellent animation videos, and a competent enough minigame that is enjoyable and interesting.

The visuals are easily the best part of this game, with several animations for sex, racing, and other miscellaneous items.

Story is not unique, but is executed very well, and is quite compelling. The characters and their characterizations are another big star of this show, as each of them are different, unique, and compelling in their own ways. There's also instances of them communicating between each other, which always turns out interesting.

The racing stuff is done a lot better than you probably imagine, mostly down to a series of quick time events. There's also an upgrade system introduced halfway through.

The biggest issues I have are with the MC honestly. Because he's conventionally gorgeous, he has an ego the size of Antarctica. This causes him to be a pretty manipulative and self-absorbed prick for like 60-70% of the game, regardless of your choices. There's also a lot of history between him and several other characters, that the player can't really do much about (namely, Veronica, Allison, William, and the redhead). This history seems to produce more potential issues to work through than anything else.

I understand why it was done, and I won't say it is the worst problem a VN or story in general can have, but it does marr what would otherwise be a perfectly enjoyable experience for me.

4.5/5, this is still an excellent game, and I genuinely encourage people to try it out.

(Also Maggie is unbelievably gorgeous, kamioshi material.)

One of the best, if not the best, new game on the AVN scene in my opinion. The story is very well written, and girls are incredibly sexy. Jasmine is becoming one of my favorite LIs in all AVNs, and that is no simple thing considering what is out there. I can't say enough good things about this game really.

Been quite a while since a game impressed me as much as this one had.

From the character writing and models, animations, music and overall plot it all impressed me with the sheer quality.

Blender animations elevate this to a whole new level and really show how bad most others using DAZ 3d really are.

Character models deserve extra praise for being just so great!

Apparently it takes quite a while to update, but quality unfortunally takes times.

I strongly recommend the game!

Three episodes in and I'm totally sold on this VN.

The renders are top class, I'm glad I'm finally past the expectations of ugly looking DAZ models and the same faces you've seen a million times. Animations are superb, especially in the racing scenes and the sporadic lewd scenes. The developer has created a stunning set of love interests that make you genuinely want to navigate the dialogue in a way that bags you the best girl(s).

The story premise is pretty engaging and ambitious in the topics it wants to handle. I'm personally not a big car guy, but I found a lot to enjoy about the racing themes regardless. Of course the story isn't just about cars as I find, there's a serious and emotional story event that takes place which serves as the main driver of the plot, no pun intended. I felt it was handled pretty well considering the dark themes it went into. Quite a lot of melodrama, especially with the back story of a certain girl, but it develops in a way that doesn't break your immersion too much. Overall, the story is a really fresh take on a plot for an adult game.

The writing is well above average for the genre, everyone gets characterized appropriately and you get some funny and insightful moments. Certainly way past the threshold of awkward and stilted dialogue you find in countless other games. However it can get too jargon-heavy at times, I felt the medical subplot suffered for this and so did the workshop stuff to a lesser degree. The central story is very emotionally stirring but some of the plot points are a little contrived and more care could have been put into the hospital scenes and the realism of the medical themes the story dives into.

Girls do kind of throw themselves at you but the protagonist Jake Miller is established as a character that probably warrants it. He has an interesting backstory and established character flaws that make your choices seem more impactful than the standard chosen one affair you seen in some other games. It's refreshing to see that the developer doesn't shy away from introducing conflict into your interactions with various characters in the game. I like the dynamic of having an ex that you need to work with and all the baggage accompanied with it. Same with the bickering and competition between the LIs in the game.

Overall really pleased with what I've seen so far aside from a couple of gripes with the writing. As a side note, this game has a really cool feature that I haven't seen anyone else talk about and it's the camera feature. Being able to save a render you come across in the game is quite titillating and useful in cases where the moment you see isn't part of a dedicated gallery scene.

I liked a lot about this game, including the story premise, the visuals, and the UI. I thought it was all very well executed and somewhat original as far as porn game ideas go.

What I *really* didn't like was the poor writing. From boring to laughably bad and frustrating, especially in the more *serious* scenes. It pretty much tanked my enjoyment of the game. The first scene with the token nonthreatening best bud or the doctor scene early on is a fine example of what I mean.