VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Depraved Awakening [v1.0] [PhillyGames]

I tried this out because I'd seen it recommended so many times that I wanted to see what the fuss was about (and to see the dev's first game as I was becoming interested in City of Broken Dreamers). That was nearly a year ago. I never got around to leaving a review because I was thinking I'd finish the only route I hadn't played and still have yet to do so.

My recollection was that the game started out kinda rough particularly with some visuals and looped stillshot animations that were only a few frames long and I got to a certain point where I really questioning if it was worth continuing to play. Beyond that point though I started seeing steady progression in just about all visual areas as well as the story/character development. By the end I was thoroughly impressed with how much progress the author had made.

The story aesthetic and storytelling worked well together. The story itself wasn't ground-breaking but it was effective enough to keep me interested. The characters were generally solid and I ended up caring enough that some of the twists involving them (I mean everyone, not just the LIs) really had an effect and upped my appreciation of the storytelling. The LIs were almost all great. There's a certain level of depravity and debauchery throughout the game and though you have a choices in who you're interested in and how you treat them, the level of sensuality only gets better as you progress and things just keep getting hotter. The progression was very satisfying. The only complaints I recall were (besides the rough start with visuals/animations mentioned) the bad guys were overly cartoonish figures that were cartoonishly bad (one of them gets fleshed out and has some humanity restored by the end but the rest not so much) and I didn't feel Mido was integrated into the story nearly as well as the other LIs were. I personally also never felt comfortable with continuing down Mido's route the way it was set up.

Anyway, despite having some issues and growing pains most of the game holds up quite despite becoming slightly dated by AVN standards. I highly recommended it!

God, most devs on here really don't have a single dominant streak in them.

As usual, the girls scream at the 'hardboiled detective' how he has to fuck them harder.

Then the hardboiled detective is so sorry he might have overdone it with the whore he visited, because he did a bit of dirty talk with her, and then he apologizes profusely.

And he is so afraid he might scare a whore a bit, so he tells her he is only a very littely bit rough because they might be watched by the bad guys, so he keeps cover.

And then he owns the asian girl because he saved her, and then he is really going to use her - by telling her in every second line how beautiful she is. Good god.

The whiteknighting is strong in this one.

No depravity to be found on MC's side. He is a simp trying his hardest to act like a dominant guy. Keep your left hand free for facepalming - would be my suggestion.

Waste of time and the male domination tag must have been applied by mistake.

Absolutely tremendous Adult VN.
The writing very good and a big step above 98% of the stuff you can find on this site. It's not a groundbreaking narrative, your standard hardboiled PI stuff, but it's something that wouldn't seem very out of place in a movie you could see in a theater and for a porn game that's saying a lot. Though it does borrow pretty explicitly from a few notes in actual movies the scene There are a lot of impactful choices for people that like those types of things, I don't really, but the game isn't super pathy and there is a ton of great stuff regardless.
The porn is tremendous, even with the dated and mostly clunky animations the sex scene writing is top notch especially if you like male dom.
The visuals overall are great as the dev has a cinematic eye and knows how to make scenes feel alive and kinetic.
Overall it's a game that anyone who has an interest in porn games should play as it is an example of what these games can look like at their best, even if some of the visuals are a bit dated.
Recommended for pretty much everyone

Played this game long back and after replaying broken dreamers the third time, I thought why not revisit this again.
I had forgotten the storyline, so most of the stuff seemed new to me.
But then 15-20 mins into the game, the story just forces the daughter into a sexual relationship with the MC!! I was like wtf and quit the game.

I really liked this game back in the day for other aspects of the story, but guess I am more picky or mature now and the forced incestual love interest was a big no no for me.
I am glad the dev has not repeated the same mistake in broken dreamers, which is 5 star game for me.

The game felt pretty average.

The story is not that interesting. The characters are pretty boring and don't really get fleshed out. The main antagonists of the story are so uninteresting.

The renders look pretty good but most sex scenes felt kinda boring because I didn't care about the characters.

The story is original and interesting, the sex is hot, the music is good, and above all the game delivers on its promise of depravity. There are dark themes throughout, and at least one truly depressing ending. (I only saw two endings in my playthrough.)

I played the unofficial Android port linked in OP, which worked well.

There were a few minor typos, but nothing too distracting. (I played in English.)

Definitely worth playing if the Tags/genre don't turn you off.

Reviewing info: How I rate/review and other info is HERE . W.I.P This sentence will not be included if review format is finalized and blog updated.
Review layout: Lazy/minimal format (others)
Review type: Game
Review format: Lewds
PROs
✅ Okay fetish variety as far as “bound to reality” fetishes go
✅ Renders are okay
✅ Choice driven narrative is okay
✅ Plenty of scenes and not too tedious to obtain
❔ Vanilla for most part I guess?
❔ The redhead was my personal fav.
CONs
❌ Characters are dull and very loose from get go
❌ Story itself wasn’t too interested in
Comments
What can I add. As far 3DCG VN type games go it was solid enough. Had nice premise and solid choices narrative, whilst the story itself felt pretty meh, but TBH as far as hentai/porn games go, story is the last thing I worry about. Nice story is good plus as long H deliverance is great. While this game offers plenty of scenes with various characters and some fetish variety, it still felt rather tame to a point where I simply was not in mood in most scenes. The renders quality is fairly good but “animated” sequences are quite awkward.
But yeah… solid enough 3DCG game with plenty of stuff… but wasn’t simply my cup of tea.
Total Score: 6/10
Game status:
✅ Finished

The game had a very good concept and had a strong execution in certain places, but I think it would have benefited more from leaning into the detective aspect and given the player more free-reign into investigation, letting us come to our own conclusion even if it's wrong, and have events play out accordingly. Obviously that's a lot more work, but I'm left wondering about the masterpiece it could have been.

More related to the content that is actually there, the art is solid and the story is well told, although a little linear and short.

It's a terrific game - a rare gift for anyone who can see past the fact that it's a Patreon-funded 3D rendered visual novel. It's slightly hampered by an unoriginal opposing force, but it's a minor annoyance in compared to all else it has to offer, and I wholeheartedly suggest it to everyone.

TL/DR Review: As the first outing of the creators of the superior game City of Broken Dreamers, it falls into many of the trappings of the “learning as you go” development cycle of adult virtual novels with the quality steadily increasing as the game progresses. The story is strong throughout while the adult scenes are a bit hit-and-miss with the best scenes appearing later on with improved writing, length, still frames and animations. Despite its faults I find myself playing through it a second time, and I feel no compulsion to skip scenes or dialogue. 4 out of 5.



Now, for the longer review.



As someone who found this game after having already played several chapters of City of Broken Dreamers, it was interesting to see how far the authors have come based on their previous, rather popular first title.



The renderings are a bit scattered in quality, though like everything else in this VN they improve as you progress through the story. Backgrounds are consistently high quality and varied while the characters themselves sometimes pull weird faces, like a render that didn’t process correctly but wasn’t broken enough to warrant the hours of rendering time to redo it. All of the love interests are attractive though the real standout is the Hooker-with-a-Heart-of-Gold. Near perfect body proportions and an excellent face. Her scenes are by far my favorites.



The music and sound effects are… well, they exist! That’s a selling point in and of itself. There’s a consistent noir soundtrack that plays throughout most scenes that sticks in your memory such that if you ever hear it again, this game will come to mind. That’s a good thing. The sound effects are rare but spot on, like the crack of a rifle, breaking glass, or the breaking of someone’s jaw. I would have liked more variation in the musical scores but that’s a nitpick more than anything else.



The story has a detective/film noir feel to it such that if you’re a fan of either genre you can probably pick out some classic novels or movies that the creators took inspiration from. There are some holes in the story but they’re not so obvious that you’ll pick them out in the moment. Rather, they’ll come to you upon further reflection after you’ve finished a playthrough. There are multiple endings that are quite rewarding, with lengthy adult scenes to signal your triumph.



Speaking of the adult scenes, as I mentioned earlier everything in the game improves as you work your way through the story, and this is especially true of the adult scenes. Some of the earliest adult scenes have animation so jerky it can scarcely be called animation. I’ve seen GIFs with better quality. There’s a healthy dose of… well I’m not sure if it qualifies as NTR, but unless you choose to turn it off you will occasionally see people other than you having sex. Two of them are with a love interest but they occur before you’ve even met them, and a third occurs with a non-love interest you get to enjoy once during the story and is one of the villains. All in all, I never felt that distinct “betrayal” emotion you normally get from NTR, so I would recommend leaving it on.



The adult scenes improve steadily with many of the later scenes worth revisiting in the gallery, especially the scenes involving multiple love interests. None of it holds a candle to their current work, City of Broken Dreamers, but that’s to be expected.



A few nitpicks aside, such as characters using the L word too soon in their burgeoning relationship or steamy but out-of-place incest that progresses far too fast and is accepted by others far too quickly, it’s a solid title with an entertaining story, strong dramatic elements, some truly breathtaking love-interests, and some steamy adult scenes. Definitely worth a 4 out 5. Not a must-play, but definitely recommended.



Final thoughts: It’s unfortunate that the authors themselves rarely make these, but the walkthrough by Maim Lain is essential if you don’t want to miss a lot of the content due to inadvertently making poor choices. There are numerous instances where it’s unclear if telling the truth or lying is the better course, and you won’t find out until many scenes later where you’ll have to reload a save to try to correct things, and there are other times where you won’t even know that you missed a scene until much later. On my first playthrough I ended up with an undesirable ending despite making what seemed like the common-sense choices. The walkthrough fixes that, but it’s unfortunate that a walkthrough is even necessary.

Excellent game. Plot is pretty good although it would be nice if villains would be more fleshed and had more influence on characters. Kira for example could corrupt MC and Judy more if she would keep herself closer to them.
Heroines most likely are the best part of this game. Especially Carli. In My opinion she is not only an icon of this game but also icon of all 3dcg visual novels.
Graphic part is still decent despite it's age. Of course there is no animations which is a shame.
Music..... Ok it's the worst part of this game, generic and repetitive

Came here because of Broken Dreams which was/is an amazing VN. Unfortunately, the only amazing aspect of DA is how far of a step back it is. The story is weird... not interesting or unique, just weird. The renderings are sub par, music repetitive and in general the whole thing feels like more of a treatise on entropy than an actual novel.

Engaging story, beautiful girl, hard choices, a bit cliché plot (but nevertheless good), drama, life-changing events, lust and depravity - it's all about this game.

Graphic - 9 out of 10
Gameplay - 9,5 out of 10
Characters - 10 out of 10
Fetishes - 9 out of 10

Overall - 10 out 10. Easily - one of the most intense adult games I've ever played.

4.0 / 5.0

[1.0]

No spoilers!

Note: this novel started off back in 2017, so the graphical and technical department of the novel is obviously outdated. In my review I applied a time adjustment and omitted the visual side in the cons list like if it were 2017 again.

PROS
+ High degree of control over our protagonist who has his own background and canon name – Jake Spade. Jake is not a blank state and generally a good guy.

+ The plot is properly designed, so your choices do matter and lead to different outcomes within the plot circumstances given.

+ Story-driven nature of this novel implies semi-realism in the characters build-up and relationships.

+ All the characters have their own distinctive personalities and do contribute to the story value.

+ Writing in terms of form and content. This is an unequivocally mature story and the dev doesn’t attempt to appease non-target audiences (that’s a dig at the novel Nr.1 about college adventures)

No anime tropes, no contrived drama, no necessity to exploit your suspension of disbelief, no mindless borrowing of lines from other media, no bimbo broads falling for Jake at first sight for no apparent reasons, no emo kid behavior (as opposed to one sexless ostensibly “story-driven” novel about a sociopathic teen who endured some mental trauma).

+ Unlocking the lewd scenes isn’t tied to dirty tricks and lame power fantasies. There are a few specific instances that probably do not comply with this assertion but they are well-founded plotwise and do not break the established narrative rules.

+ A plenty of lewd scenes.

+ Unlike many popular novels including the novel Nr. 1, all the heroines are neither oversized nor over-exaggerated in other ways. Jake’s schlong is not oversized either.

+ Definitely not related people getting laid with each other. The so called incest patch is a third-party mod neither endorsed not supported by the dev. Moreover, the dev dared to harshly roast incest porn fictions several times, which I personally appreciate.

CONS
- Underrepresentation and underuse of important characters. First off, it applies to villains whose background, motivation and true identity stay unexplained and vague. In some instances we do not even know their fate at the end of the novel.

- A few unpreventable and unavoidable atrocities we certainly wouldn’t like to behold in a porn fiction. Leastwise, they match the narrative tone and the atmosphere established since the novel start, do not abruptly shift the story directing and do not tarnish the protagonist for his alleged misdeeds that was the case in one novel about a cryptocurrency trader and his black sidekick.

- Eyes of some heroines give the uncanny valley effect – because the dev didn’t poke around in the settings of the stock models to re-morph the eyes.

- Outcomes of several major happenings might feel undeserved because they went kinda too easy for the protagonist.

Further notes
* The novel lacks proper animations in contrast to the dev’s next project. I didn’t find it a flaw in my review as a consequence of my time adjustment. The renders are not in full HD and their quality is rather generic by modern standards, although not bad. I leave this out of my flaws list too.

* The music variety can seem quite low. On the other hand, it perfectly fits with the atmosphere and doesn’t consist of any overused tracks (for instance: Kevin McLeod’s) that you might have heard in a bunch of various novels and fictions.

* At times the porn factor prevails over common sense and characters proceed with carnal interludes despite a mortal peril and overall inappropriateness of any lewd action at a current moment. Since we are in an adult VN, I can’t call it a shortcoming.

* The protagonist is faceless. In my books it’s a major shortcoming, because for the sake of fake immersion and self-insertion the novel loses a lot of cinematic, erotic and dramatic value it has potential for. The kissing episodes look ridiculous due to this.

CONCLUSIONS
* If you don’t mind clearly outdated visuals and an absence of animations, yet you are keen on story-driven novels and not into mindless sexfests, I definitely recommend you to give it a try.

* If you can’t stand the gore then this novel is surely not for you.

* I consider this novel sort of exemplary from the plot design standpoint. Newcomer devs should look up to Depraved Awakening to a certain extent. Keep in mind, the dev of the novel Nr.1 owes this novel, because it inspired and triggered him to start off his own project about that cryptocurrency trader, black buddy and fire in a house.

It is one hell of a good game for the people who like to play games for the plot. The story was amazing. It was action-packed, sex-packed, and adventurous. There are options for NTR. so you can choose your taste. the graphics and the renders were also amazing. there are also multiple endings. so in short the game is packed. good job from the developers. best of luck for the next game.

Best detective game I've ever played this game It has one of the best stories simply well done It looks like an action and romance movie script mixed all together several choices that can affect the future of Mc in the game too much and it's also one of the only ones games that Mc dies and the game continues with a sad story I'm too weak I always cry at this part lol this one (Philly Games) made a masterpiece will always be in my top 10 like his other game that is almost similar (City of Broken) This is my top 2 one of the best games ever made

I also saw this Carli character first in city of broken……. there she had a very good VR scene with the protagonist, one of the best in the game. Another cool thing here is that the RP here really works because there are a games that have RP just for you, it seems like it doesn't even make a difference, but here the more auto the RP the more the character will like the protagonist and he her, I saw this after making one test with judy because she and Carli have the highest rps more like I like Carli I did it with Judy and it works.

It's nice to have a game with a solid plot line that can be played without feeling like you need to gather a harem. I don't think it would have a huge impact on the end game, but I actually was considering how sleeping with one character would affect another. That tells me character development was a priority of the author\developer.

i thought i reviewed this ages ago but apparently i didnt
it was a nice game many beautiful women, loved the japanese girl which was married to a rich guy that got killed or something
will be looking forward to other phillygames

It has really nice graphics and renders. The story in my opinion too much complicated and does not catch that much so skip function is quite usefull. Overall I would say it is average game...not awasome not bad...

Still one of the greatest AVNs already made. A well-made noir/mystery thriller, likeable MC and a cast of interesting and very beautifull female characters. Meaningful choices that branch the story and lead to differents scenes, outcomes and endings. Well crafted sex scenes . Years after be finished, Depraved Awakening still stands as a gold standard of quality AVN.