VN - HTML - Back to Freedom [v0.33] [Bald Games]

Version Reviewed: v0.16

Overview: Free the cock, free the mind.

Story: You are an ex-soldier who was sent to jail for not killing enough and get back home to start your life over. There is only one problem, every single woman you meet is hardcore sexually harassing you. From the word hello they are stripping you with their eyes and not shy about the innuendo. The MC can't even get a cup of coffee without be propositioned. Despite this constant barrage of harassment the MC maintains a stiff upper dick and soldiers on, servicing 3, 4, sometimes up to 6 women a day. It seems exhausting, he'll just finish making his stepdaughter come 5 times only to get a call that his boss's bratty daughter needs some BDSM treatment, and he's barely done warming up her cheeks before his camgirl daughter needs someone to help with the show or something. The MC spends all day bouncing from one porn setup to another.

Gameplay: This is a branching VN. The game has a lot of mutually exclusive scenes as well as a per-character stat system. All girls have a "love" and "lust" stat, and you will often have a break in the dialog where you can choose one of two options, one of which will bump love and the other will bump lust. Some content is locked behind certain love and lust scores, and there is no advance warning as to which you will need. Between the stat grinds and straight up mutually exclusive scenes I'd guess you would need to play through this game at least three times to see all of the content, and you'll need a big spreadsheet to keep track of all of your choices. The game has a help and cheat system, but they are locked behind Patreon codes. Even the sex minigames will sometimes have options locked out if your love or lust scores aren't high enough with the girl you are currently fucking.

As for the amount of content, well, it's rare to see a game with this many scenes. There are many hours of unique content to enjoy and no grind. It's all killer no filler. Well, some of the dialogs run on a bit long (but at least you don't have to click through every line!) and none of it is especially interesting. If you've played a few of these pornogames you will find nothing novel in here. The HTML engine works fine and I really appreciate the relatively low number of clicks it requires to play. In Ren'Py this game would have required an order of magnitude more clicks.

This is one of the few games where I think it might have been better as a free roam style game than a VN. There is just too much stuff crammed into every single day. It becomes impossible not to fall behind on the stats for the girls and start missing content. Or just spread the stuff over a couple of days and stop making me choose. Why is it always the longest games that want to make you play through them multiple times?

Graphics: It's real porn but a lot of care has been put into using the same actor for a character and when there is a scene with multiple videos the videos will all be from the same shoot so they don't clash. Probably the best way to do real porno games. The guy varies of course, but who cares about him?

Overall: While I don't love games that make you play through multiple times to get all of the content I can't rate this game less than a 5 due to the skill and care used to put it together. Quibbles about the story being dull are overshadowed by the fact that it's easy to skip past the boring parts and the game never makes you wait long for the next sex scene.

I usually never write a review for games but I really wanted to share my thoughts about this game but also what kind of person the developer "Bald Games" in my opinion is.

Fundamentally the game is on the greater side of all the HTML games i have played. The storyline can be intriguing at times and with all the choices you can do you can experience different outcome with different girls.

The gameplay is pretty simple but with how much freedom you have your choices you can almost make your "own" storyline but that also means you can completely end it if you take a wrong turn. Sometimes it can be a maze but also a wrong choice can lock you out of content that you dont know about for a long time and youll need to reload a save far back and sometimes you dont even know which of the choices locked you out.

I dont know if this is my end but sounds/audio ingame is lackluster.
The scenes doesnt have any sound other than the generic background royalty free music that plays in the ground that completely ruins everything.. Try it yourself and you'll understand.

Well ill end this first portion of the review with how is the;
"Sexual Content"
I'm surprised how well its done. There is a lot of dirty talk in between scenes. Since the game is made by real life actors sometimes scenes can be hard to come by that is good but bald games have chosen some good actors. Thumbs up for this atleast.

Now it comes to Bald Games as a person.
I'm just gonna say it outright that you probably never gonna find a person that spends more times on the internet than this guy. You may ask; what does he spend his time on? Well everything that is about his game. Bald games is on every site that has his game "publicised" so he does this to minimize the spread not the game itself but the features that comes from the "codes" patreon rewards; that is his right to do i will never question that, but.. One thing take makes me completely lose respect with Bald games is when he actively shuts down Fan-walkthroughs. As i stated before this game can be a complete maze sometimes so for looking all scenes to collect I outright think it's impossible without a guide to collect all the scenes with all the choices you have to do.

The developer has always the right to put his walkthrough behind the paywall but never have a seen a person so actively & ferociousness kill every walkthrough out there. I have seen active developers on f95zone but funny enough that alot of the question Bald games gets is either "update when" or "How do i do this?" that he happiiy answers?? Why not release the walkthrough then? i did ask BaldGames about this and i got this answer;

Bald Games said:

I don't mind answering player questions. But I decided to make the guide supporters-only, as the $2 supporters had no advantage over the public version of the game. That was the only reason.

Click to expand...

He says there is no advantage and i completely mind-blowing with that statement since people with a guide will experience the game in the fullest, when the person that doesnt have it has to resort to the forums and hopefully get an answer from the Developer that has locked the guide behind a paywall (Funny enough) or other players that has done.

I wanted to give this 2/5 but after some thought the game isnt bad, i just actively dislike how Bald games are doing things do it gonna be 3/5 for me.

This may be the best HTML game ever created. I thought nothing will surpass Inner Bimbo to take this title, but the story, the complexity and the pick of models and scenes are just astonishing. I'm surely looking forward to future updates.

Great 5/5 game. Plot, progress, character, visuals, audio - everything is at very good level. Evem choice of actresses is better than in dozens of local HTMLs. Enjoyable to play and replay. Highly recommend, one of the best games on site.

Lengthy and well written, great cast. One of the best games of the year. There isn't any annoying noises or music, this helps a lot and I was able to find myself immersed in the story. There isn't annoying grinding mechanics, yet there is still great progression to the story.

This game has really tight development, a nice UI, good writing, and hot-as-hell sex.

Unfortunately, it's held back for me personally by the unintuitive branching and requirements for scenes and the resulting difficulty in actually seeing all the content. I'm certainly more of a sanbox fan and want to be able to have a single playthrough where I can develop my mega-harem, but I especially dislike that Back to Freedom uses a Love/Lust system without making it fairly obvious whether it is valuable to specialize or diversify. I get the sense that the developer is targeting a more organic and "believable" experience, but ultimately that's just not for me in a porn game. For what it's worth, I have the same issue with College Daze, which I know people tend to be over the moon about, so take it all with a grain of salt.

My actual experience with the game is probably closer to 3 stars, but I think it deserves the 4 on the standing of quality alone.

[Rev @ Back to Freedom v0.12]

I like it but it has room to improve.

Art's repurposed real porn in a twine presentation; it's fine, the girls aren't hideous.

Writing is a mixed bag; voice is alright and narrative is fine even if it's not unique, but the fluency is iffy and a bit halting.

There's a ton of assplay. I don't care for it. Not enough preg conent.

TLDR: good 'nuff, I'll check back. My gripes are just my usual gripes.

Excelent game. I always waiting for the next update release. This game has a few my favorite porn star so that's why i really liked play this game. Good work for the developer and stay healthy so you can keep up to this game.

Well, this was a bit of a shock. I read the previous reviews and saw a lot of them praising the writing so to say I was expecting something different would be an understatement.

The dialogue is stilted and robotic, with people explaining exactly how they feel and having extreme cases of bipolar disorder. Every character has absolutely no depth, they are merely an archetype given a name and concrete appearance. The whole thing looks like it was run through a translator. The way women just fall at the MC's feet is so inauthentic it becomes borderline comedic.

In all honesty, this game reads like it was written by someone whose only example of social interaction is porn and action flicks. It is truly a porn game--where the plot exists only to connect sex scenes together. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if I wanted to watch porn I would simply watch porn.

Now, as a game it's perfectly functional. I encountered no bugs, the systems all worked as intended (though I always found myself with too little money) and the UI is clear and readable. Getting locked out of certain scenes seemingly nonsensically put me off a bit (like when your wife offers you sex in the morning and you can't accept unless her stats are high enough...) but I found no egregious faults in the gameplay itself.

I guess at this point I just expect games to be more than mindless fap material.

The story is fairly simple, which is good and the porn I enjoyed but within like 20 min. The MC is talking to the live in maid about doing porn and then the step daughter is a camgirl. Definite nope from me. Hopefully this will warn some people ahead of time who are like me and aren't to that stuff.

A fun and branching HTML game with great images. It's fun to explore the different routes which adds to replayability. I like the overall story but if you can fix the initial volume then it would be great.

This game has found the sweet spot. The story buildup is not too fast but not too slow either. By version 0.9, the game has finally started becoming what I envisioned ever since version 0.4, and now I have to (im)patiently wait for the next update!

The plot is interesting and engaging enough that, for me, it negates issues such as minor grammatical errors and minigames. And let's be honest. The monolithic part of a game, the story, is the most important, because it's almost impossible to change/rewrite/improve without affecting the story's flow. Other minor issues are a matter of time for the amazing and caring dev to fix them, as the version 0.9 has already mitigated some problems, like providing keyboard controls for minigames.

The game excels in its specific genre; a linear flow (not open world) with minimal branching, while retaining an abundance of choices that matter. This is the key characteristic that allows this game to have a complete, consistent and cohesive story.

Enough of that. The sex scenes are the second and, potentially, the most important strength of the game for most people. There are plenty of them, and all of them are carefully made, resulting in very hot scenes that cover a wide range of fetishes (BDSM, cheating, step-incest, MILF, maid, shy girl), and offer many positions to choose from.

If you have played similar games (Twine, but mainly Real Porn games), you must try Back to Freedom; else you're missing out!

The author keeps blowing so much smoke up his own ass he will attract lung cancer, every single woman on earth thinks the MC is THE SHIT
You're soo handsome, you're so smart, you're so strong... BRUH, I have never had that audible cringe that I did when reading those dialogs before, in my life.
Let me borrow this from my review on another game that has this exact problem " EVERY girl he meets falls in love with him, complement him of how handsome and sexy he's, how they're all ugly and just lucky that a smart, handsome, hot, (you get the idea) stud like him looks their way."
I don't know man, what with those games and bad writing/interactions, it's like they never meet any real person in their lives or know how people interact. it's soooo cringy.

THAT aside, the game technicality is good, with good UI and clear choices, and the scenes are good, rich, and handled very well.
The dev is clearly an ass person, not my type, but he has a good cast of characters.
I didn't finish the game yet but it has a good amount of content and clear good/evil routes which is an A+ in my book.

This game has so much potential to be a really good game but the dialogs need to DIE and changed completely for it to become good (which will never happen of course)
2, even with my bias toward real porn games, I can't, I just can't. Hope the dialogs get better as I keep going. Might re-review it then.

By far, it's the best HTML game on this site. The story, despite the fact it's a porn game, it's fairly engaging and offers different outcomes to different choices. Also, its developer is serious and dedicated to his work and very consistent with updates, so it's expected to be completed sooner or later.
Worth it.

[v0.9]

Pure power fantasy. It's not exactly the type of power fantasy where you act like a rapist dominator, but more of the Gary Stu type where you play this impeccable dude who is good at everything and every woman drops their panties in no time.

You need to go into it with the right expectations. I wont sugarcoat it and say that this game has amazing writing or anything like that. The dev is clearly not a native speaker and it shows. There are numerous oddities in the word choices and sentence structure. The dialogues in general are a bit unnatural, as if the characters are poor actors in a stage play. That said, this dev's English proficiency is on the higher end for non-native speakers on this site.

The game has some issues, sure, but it does what it sets out to do rather well. It's your basic "Chad MC bangs everyone" story with a bit of variance based on your choices. The MC is usually forced to be a loving figure to his immediate family and girls that deserve a good guy approach. You can, however, satisfy the male dom urges with some of the females that deserves a rougher hand (they enjoy it). There is a mafia subplot which acts as a source of corruption for the MC. This mafia plot injects some much needed excitement to a story that could have gotten monotonous.

There is no sandbox annoyance that we often see in HTML games. This has a linear flow with occasional minor branching paths.

I saved the best for last. The reason this game gets a very solid 4* despite some weaknesses in the writing is because of the spectacular way the dev handles the sex scenes. There is some interactivity to it as you pick different positions and get a gif and some lines of text. There is a meter for the girl and the MC for the climax. You can cause multiple orgasms and feel like a boss and sometimes it even has a gameplay effect if you do well in bed. The gif selection is amazing! The sex dialogues are great for fapping.

I just have a couple grips regarding the sex scenes. In general, you want to cause 3+ orgasms for the girls, but the male MC can only cum twice most of the time. This means you gotta spam the pussy licking a lot instead of banging them to achieve the best results. The other smaller annoyance is that occasionally, some positions/options are greyed out unless you meet some breakpoint for their love/lust. That seems a bit arbitrary, so I generally just use console to increase those stats. You will miss a decent amount of stuff if you don't cheat these stats. I don't mind mutually exclusive choices on which girl to go with, but I don't want options greyed out when I am already engaged in their scene.

In summary, decent Gary Stu wish fulfillment plot. No unnecessary sandbox mechanics. GREAT execution of sex scenes.

I remember the day when this game is show up for me in gamcore, lot a fun!
But now here in f95, i see how the dev put all his efforts to make the best game he can make, and the job he doing in that game is just amazing!
The development of the history and the characters around the MC, although the mini games be kinda a little hard the system of corruption is by far actually the best add in game, because if you make a choice of for the corruption certainly this gonna affect how the MC gonna be acted, even maybe the consequences and the finale of the game.
I already say this but the way of this dev thinking is golden, if you want a game to play for a lot of hours, to having fun with it and a game when the choices you make and the form you play...

This is the game for you.

Although I can see the potential of this VN, theres way too many grammar errors, to the point it becomes a pain to read.
Seriously get an editor or something.....

Theres also instances where words are used in a sentence in a way that doesnt fit in the sentence itself, if that makes any sense?

Also whenever MC tells a joke there's this (smile) at the end of his dialogue, as if the dev is implying the players cant take a joke

Also MCs personality is a bit too soft for someone who's been in prison imo, there should be an option to choose his personality yourself.

Theres way too much nonsensical dialogue.

You are a guy who was locked up in prison for 10 years due to a BS "crime". Now you're out, and you're swol, and your cock is hungry. Sex ensues. There are lots of females. There are many scenes. The scenes have many selectable positions and accompanying videos - really well done imo. Also, there is music! *Gasp*. This game falls down in the grind dept. It's a lot of reading and story. It definitely puts out, but it definitely makes you work for it too. Also, the fucking mini games, fml. Give me a skip option, they're not as fun as you think...

This is a four star game... if you know how to cheat it. Otherwise, getting all the content is a slog and I'd call this a 3 star game. Unlike what the previous reviewer has said, there is actually a decent amount of branching. Yes, relationships with most characters are forced to an extent (its a fucking sex game), but the level of content you get with each one will vary based on how much you focus on them, and other aspects of the game. You will straight up miss whole sex scenes in your playthrough because you have to chose between girls, I guarantee it.

Naturally, this sucks ass when trying to see it all lmao. I don't want to play this thing three times to see all the content. So, how do you cheat? Well, first I recommend giving it a play through to generate a full save of your own. It's a decent experience and it helps generate some of the save file code needed too. Then, download your save to disk in the save menu, visit everyone's favorite save editor, load your file in, and fuck with the file in the following ways:

1. Get all the scenes:
   • Unlocked scenes in the game (to be viewed in the gallery) are numbered with the girl's name, scene, and a number, towards the bottom. Ex, the wife (Angela) has scenes angelascene1 through angelascene9 (this corresponds with the number of scenes shown in the gallery). Make sure each occurrence of this appears in your save file, based on how many scenes the girl shows in the gallery.
     • Note: This won't work for the miscellaneous scenes, unless you know the girls name (I dont lol).
2. Get all the content in the scenes - I'm not actually sure which of these two did it, I recommend starting with the top one and if it doesn't work, do the second one too:
   • The girls have love and lust values. Make them all 99 (idk).
   • Save this for last if you're still missing stuff, not 100% sure if it's needed (and it's tedious AF to do): As you play the game, each event you encounter is logged. I think that some of the sex positions in the scenes require you to have seen certain events. If true, each event is numbered by day, and then by screen. So, day1-1, day1-2, day1-3, etc for rest of day one, then day-2-1, day-2-2, etc. You will notice there are missing entries in your file. Do your best to fill in any you are missing (ex, it could go: 1,2,3,7,8,9 - you are missing 4,5,6).

I hope this is obvious but for these save edits, I recommend copying an existing line, pasting a copy of it, and editing it as needed per above (to avoid syntax errors).

It sounds like an excellent game, until you understand that there is no real choice. You can ignore the characters, invest in love or corruption points and in the end the same thing happens over and over again.
Don't you want to get involved with the maid? Fuck you, there's no choice and you're going to fuck her all the same.
Has your secretary been interested in you? Fuck you you're going to fuck her the same way.
Do you want to prevent daughters from arguing and only want to choose one? Fuck you, you'll always get involved with both of them.

It's a good slideshow, but as a game you'll be watching the MC make stupid choices from afar and it will be your job to deal with the consequences.

First things first the video scenes are really great, but its sad that they arent with sound .

But it is one of the best HTML Game with Real Porn that i played so far.

Nice scenes, nice story and nice progression through the game.

One thing i would like is more decisions.