Introduction
I want to try and tell to english-speaking audience why I like this game, an why they should (or should not) play it.
First of all - for some people in ex-USSR countries this game is something like half-life 3 for everyone - we waited it long enough to be happy to get it. Even if it's not perfect, it's still what we waited so long.
Well, where to start. Once apon a time in the year of 2007, on anonymous imageboard 2ch.ru (now closed) one of the visitors posted a picture he draw, of a young girl with blonde hair. People liked it, so he draw more pictures of her. Later, he moved to another imageboard, and with other talented people decided to make a game. It should have been an adult game with USSR-attributes, becase many people grown-up while there was USSR, and had a good memories about their youth.
Well, it was easier to decide than to do. They started. And there was a lot of promises. A lot of waiting. A lot of drama. Changes in the team. Leaking of not ready game. A LOT OF EVERYTHING. So, when, after all this years, game was published to steam, a lot of people was like "Wow! They really did it!".
Now, the reason why I writing this review. Should you, or should not, play it? Well, if you wondered what is "imageboard", never leaved in ex-USSR countries or just don't like visual novels - probably not. Not that you can't like it, it's about feelings, that is the same for everyone. Also, you probably should not play it, if you expect just a game with lot of boobs. It has gone far from the original idea of adult game, and even though it has boobs, and you may even find adult-patch in the internet, it's still not the main theme of game.
If you are (or ever was) alone, if you live (or ever lived) in ex-USSR countries, if you ever visited imageboards (or even still do) - you can really enjoy this game, I recommend it to you. Or even if you just curious to see, what non-professional developers can do. And if you waited too long for this game to be made - you probably already played it)
Now, something about this game, not connected to this story.
Graphics
Graphics has problems. It's not because it's bad, but because many people worked on this game on different time, so you can see the difference between scenes. Not a big problem, but I needed to say about it to impartial. And the backgrounds is so beautiful, you may play the game just to see it!
Music
I don't afraid to say that soundtrack for this game is brilliant. I just love the main theme, based on soviet pioneer's anthem. I hope you would enjoy it too.
Plot
Well, as often in indie projects, it's the weak spot of the game. Nice idea, a lot of good humor (but many of it connected to imageboards, so not everyone would understand it. And I have no idea, how good english translation is), and the target audience would certainly share the feelings of characters. But... holes in the plot, unjustified twists, and other mistakes of a beginning story-teller can spoil you some fun. I still like it, because I somehow belong to the target audience, you know :)
Summary
Oh, whatever, just play it already, it's free. Even if you have nothing to do with imageboards, never was neither young nor lonely, and believe russians have a pet-bears and wear hats with ear flaps whole year long - there is still something in the game you may like)

Знаете, когда я запустил БЛ в первый раз, то не ожидал чего-то прям такого вот, ну вы поняли. Скачать новеллу меня подтолкнули мемасы и новости из групп контакта. И я им чертовски благодарен, без них я бы не открыл для себя этот великолепный мир "Совёнка".
Описывать БЛ можно бесконечно, поскольку у определённого круга лиц игра вызовет бурю эмоций. К сожалению, я слишком бесчувственный (а ещё чмо и быдло), и я не испытал такого всплеска, но, мать твою, что-то в моей чёрствой душе шевельнулось. Прошёл год, и "Совёнок" уже не так цепляет меня, но до сих пор про прочтении отдельных фрагментов в груди появляется странное щемящее (такое слово вообще есть?) чувство, а при прослушивании шедеврального саундтрека я вновь с головой погружаюсь в эту бесподобную атмосферу. Лето навсегда оставило частичку себя во мне. Я даже гитару купил только из-за БЛ.
Да, это даже не обзор, а скорее подведение итогов спустя год после первого запуска, вызванное острым приступом графомании... но мне как-то похуй на самом деле нет. Играть стоит явно не всем, но если ты забитый хмырь, уверенный, что у тебя никогда не будет девушки - то эта игра для тебя. Она поможет тебе осознать всю твою ущербность и заставит плакать от того, что с тобой не произойдёт такого чуда в виде волшебного 410-го автобуса. Быть может, после прочтения новеллы кое-что в тебе изменится.

Ну, или можете поиграть ради няшных пионерочек (только Алисоньку не трогайте, мрази, она моя).

A must have FREE game. Go download this unforgettable experience right flippin' now. You will not regret it. Everything is so great about this if you have the time to dwell deeper in to the story and not just stop after one playthrough. It will just leave you empty. Trust me! The game is worth every hour you play it.

I never thought a game, or rather a novel, could actually give me such strong emotional reactions over the stuff that happens in it. Everlasting Summer, on the other hand, fixed it.

Everlasting Summer tells a story about a male, Semyon, who gets on a bus and falls asleep. Rather than waking up in the bus or the bus station he wakes up in a pioneer camp not knowing how he got there and why he is there. From this point the story takes a huge leap to more and more absurd things to happen.

I'm not really a heavy reader. I don't read much. But for some reason Everlasting Summer kept me interested, kept me enetertained, kept me wanting to see more. There hasn't been a story that could make me lose my sleep just to see what's next. There hasn't been a story that actually made me focus on it without noticing my surroundings. There hasn't been a story that could actually get heavy emotions out of me.

The visuals, the writing, the soundtrack. Without these three key elements the story wouldn't have been so powerful. All these elements merged into a one epic and unforgettable experience I won't forget in a long time. Everything worked and behaved so well between each other creating even a physical feel at times. Now, I won't spoil anything about the game but there are parts, especially in your first playthrough, which will, or at least I hope, make you feel just like the characters in the story feel at the particular moment. It may be a little bit of cheating adding audio-visual elements in to a written story but because Everlasting Summer is such an absurd tale having you rush through different kinds of emotions you really need to have something to strenghten the emotions, in good and bad.

Now for the part which is about the story or the theme of the game. Show the spoiler in order to view it. I won't spoil the actual plot but I will be explaining the basic elements in each storyline, which may or may not affect your first playthrough experiance.

Everlasting summer isn't just your typical tale about going to a summer camp, or a pioneer camp in this case, finding a girl and getting it on with her. Oh no, not even close to being one! Or maybe I'm just praising this a little bit too much because the main storylines are about getting the girl you want which will affect the rest of your life. In a good way or a bad way depending on which enging you got. But that's what makes playing the main storylines interesting, getting a glimpse of the absurd happenings in the camp and after the camp, each time revealing something new about the story and Semyon's life.

The fun doesn't stop there though, quite the opposite actually. After unlocking all the good endings with all the girls in the camp and your own good ending you are now able to complete (???) and Harem ending, which will explain the plot furthermore. These endings will give you more answers. These ending will give out the plot and theme of the game. They construct the story all over again and make you think more deeply about the story rather than just seeing it as a dating simulator (although it's pretty obvious to see everything is not right in the camp. These endings just give you more answers, as I said above).

Now for my own thought about the story and theme. Spoilers (again)!

I'm not really 100% sure what the theme of the game was but the theme I got out of this game was finding yourself, knowing what means being you, what you personally think you need in your own life. The secret (???) ending will give you this idea pretty clearly. And the free DLC (which can be located from Options and scrolling down to Mods) will give you even more answers and supporting ideas over this theme. The game is about understanding your life, making lifetime decisions, deciding what makes you... YOU! A really pwerful motivational theme over a wonderfully attractive game visual and audio wise.

After completing the main storylines you will be left with unanswered questions (which I talked about behind those spoilers) but there are a couple of more secret storylines to enlighten you about the whole story. As I said, it's more than just a dating simulator. It much more deeper than that. And the (???) ending, Harem ending and a free DLC ending, which can be located from the Options menu scrolling down to the bottom in the Mod section called 'Pioneer's Day', will give you all the answers you need regarding to the story. I strongly recommend playing the DLC after getting all the storyline achievements.

And for all the perverts out there, yes, I tried out the Hentai-patch which, surprisingly, didn't ruin the game. It doesn't really add anything new to the table other than some boobs and a couple of sex scenes but if you truly are playing this game for the story you will not find the scenes sexually appealing in any way.

Everlasting Summer was one of the very few Visual Novels I've played but I still could say Everlasting Summer will end up as one of my favourite games of all time for years to come. Maybe even to the day I die.

My first ever game review here; and I will explain shortly why this is the case.

I normally don't bother writing reviews for anything because when I write a review, it is usually serious and well thought-out, and that takes time. A lot of time.

Now why did I bother to write a review this time, for this Free-To-Play (eroge?) game no less? Because the contents of this game totally (and very surprisingly) entertained and amused me for the past few hours I played it from start to finish without so much as a pause.

Now, I don't play eroge games often. In fact, I never played one, until Everlasting Summer that is. I simply played this game because, well, it's free; but also because the other reviews heavily favours its storytelling over the visual aspect of the game. Curiosity got the better of me, so I thought, "Why not? First time for everything, right?" Well, I will tell you readers right now, that my past few hours playing this game was well spent. And so is the time fleshing out this review at the moment...

It isn't just the storytelling of this visual novel that is entertaining. The music is very good given that this is a Free-To-Play, and they really suit the atmosphere of the scenes. The only complaint I have about the music is that sometimes you get electric guitar solos playing durings scenes where the characters appear to be playing an acoustic guitar - totally immersion-breaking. But otherwise, for the majority of the game the music is awesome and very well laid out.

What adds more to the atmosphere is the writing style. If you can turn a blind eye over some grammar/spelling mistakes (which there are very very few considering how much text this game contains), the descriptions of emotions, sceneries, thoughts and atmospheres etc are very detailed and beautiful. Perhaps when coupled with the background music or sound, you really start to feel lost in the story as you dive into it.

Perhaps the only major complaints I have about this game is that it takes at least an hour or two (in your first playthrough) before you really start to get past the "introduction" of the story. During my first two hours, I came real close to stopping for a save and perhaps continue it, maybe 2 months later or something... Because of the slow-paced nature of the story, but also I was getting tired of the narrator describing every single emotion or feeling he feels for every piece of dialogue he is engaged with, whether he's speaking to or listening to someone. In that sense, there is a degree of repetition which can get annoying. I feel that if I get to make more choices rather than make a single choice every 10 minutes of reading, it would make things more interesting at least.

However, if you managed to get past the initial 2 hours or so (depending on how fast a reader you are of course), you will find yourself making decisions that somehow make you wonder if they really make a difference... Which I can assure you that they do. I have only played through this once so far and I happened to get the "good neutral ending" because my decisions were based on what I would actually do if I were to be myself (i.e. I wasn't trying to be a bad Johnson flirting with every chick in the game). In fact, I was actually trying to hook myself up with a specific character but because I made a small blunder trying to get to know the other girls first, I ended up giving up the opportunities to learn more about the one girl I was going for... (And I didn't know the story only lasts for several ingame days rather than weeks...) So all in all, if you're aiming to date one of the girls, shoot for her at every opportunity you can get, because if you miss your chance, you may very well have to restart your game to win her heart.

Long story short, this game is simple in design; perhaps at times too simple, but it mimicks certain aspects of real life (other than you seem to be the magnet of every girl in the game) in a sense that if you lose your opportunity, you might not recover from it at all. And at the same time, the storyline isn't hell-bent on chasing after skirts. Like I said, I ended up with the "good neutral" ending albeit unintentionally. And I won't spoil you, but even the good ending itself contains a plot twist...

In terms of replayability, I would say if you are a completionist or you like choice-based storytelling games, and definitely you aren't foreign to reading tons of texts, then you will certain feel at home with this one. However, give it at least one go if you don't mind the occasional cleavage or panty shot. As for me, I am definitely replaying this. (Not for the cleavage and panty shots, although those can be the icing on the cake, perhaps?) ;)

I knew about Everlasting summer long time ago. Its fairly well-known game in narrow circles. But only when it came to Steam I seriously interested in it. I never played visual novels before. And you know what? It became one of my favorite games of all time. Not kidding.
That story. This is the case when you want this to happen to you. But it will never comes true.
That music. It's forever in my playlists.
That atmosphere. Even if you'll play it in cold winter evenings, there will be still summer all around you.
If you want this feelings too, just press Play, it's free.