When a young man heads off to art school after a major upheaval in his life, he has no idea that someone from his past is waiting there to potentially cause further disaster.
The conclusion of AlterWorlds’ first AVN is here. After almost eighteen months since the release of chapter 4, Bare Witness has finally been completed. To celebrate, I replayed the game from start to finish, on multiple branches, in appreciation for the mark this game has left in me, being one of the first few AVNs I ever played. This journey rekindled my love for the best parts of this game, like its wholesome romantic dates, LIs, branching, and natural feeling dialogue. I also rediscovered my gripes with its story and structure, the time skips, the rushed feel of most relationships, and an out-of-place third-act story climax that almost feels unnecessary.
Valeria and MC
While I have some gripes about how the plot was tied up and the loose ends handled, I can’t deny that I was smiling throughout the celebratory conclusion of this story. Without further ado, here’s my review of Bare Witness.
This game was first released in April 2021, and you can tell. AVNs tend to start out looking rough until the developers obtain the funding they need for higher-fidelity images and better animations. Bare Witness follows this trend but to a smaller degree. While you can spot the game’s age in the first chapter or two, I don’t think any part of it ever looks bad. And as expected, the game’s graphical fidelity goes from solid to great as time goes on.
Few environments in Bare Witness are memorable, though many are eye-grabbing. Most are familiar locations that serve as a background for the characters but offer little more than that outside of a few romantic scenes—shoutout to Slockie for the snow date, you know the one.
The animations in the game are reserved exclusively for lewd moments. Their quality also increases throughout your playthrough, but they never reach excellent, or even great status, ballsack physics aside.
Heidi and Athena
The most memorable part of this game is its characters, and the LIs’ models play a big part in that, offering a decent mixture of sizes, appearances, and personalities. I also thought the game did a good job of making the world feel populated. Even early on, you’ll rarely encounter an empty class or shop during business hours. Most players may not consider this relevant, but I appreciate it.
You play as Jackson, the MC, who’s traveling to a new city because mysterious circumstances, which will be revealed in the course of the story, forced him to run away from home. Fortunately for the MC, a new life full of opportunities awaits.
Storm may not be the best at writing larger plot points, but he’s tremendous at writing enjoyable dialogue interactions and likable characters. The banter in this game is one of its more enjoyable qualities, and even if the larger story events can delve into the reign of the absurd at points, the dialogue still feels natural. On the version I played, I still found a few typos on the first two chapters. The rest of the game was smooth sailing, however.
Every single one of the LIs in Bare Witness are people I was interested in knowing beyond their good looks, and a huge part of that comes from the different ways they express themselves. Much of that is credited to dialogue, as we just discussed, but the inclusion of multiple dates with the girls deepens your attachment to them. However, I suspect relationships in this game can feel rushed to new players, even if I personally love them. The game makes excessive use of time skips to rationalize the growth of relationships and compensate for its relatively short runtime. But if you are able and willing to suspend your disbelief and allow yourself to love these characters, it’s very hard not to.
The MC is a bit of a mixed bag. He’s slightly too awkward and shy for my taste, which is explained by his background but still. However, your opinion will vary wildly depending on the type of player that you are.
Mora