I don't use Steam and I seldom read reviews, but I agree very much with that statement. When I see some devs responding to negative reviews, this is a big red flag for me. This inevitably leads to toxic debates in which the devs try to defend their games while some reviewers insist that the game is crap, or that it is a scam and people should stop supporting the devs. Sometimes the negative reviews are actually right and then I am wondering why the devs are wasting their time arguing about the reviews instead of fixing the problems that have been reported. Sometimes the reviews are really unfair or based on a misunderstanding of how the game works (I suspect that it is the case here about the grind in this game), and in rare cases a polite response from the devs can clarify the situation. But in most cases the opposite happens and the comments from the devs only encourage more haters to join the debate. So regardless of whether the negative reviews are right or wrong, in most cases I see a big warning sign if the devs try to challenge these negative reviews.
I also agree with that. In my other lives I am also a developer (not for adult games, though) and I know that it hurts to receive a negative review, especially when it feels unfair. But in almost all cases it is better to ignore it and move on, or to try and improve the game if the criticism was justified. Trying to defend the game usually results in more vultures joining the fray.
As a player, I tend to ignore the negative reviews that do not take the time to explain what they did not like in the game. In fact, I ignore most of the one-paragraph reviews, positive or negative. I just had a look at the 20 most recent reviews for this game and the ones that drew my attention are the longest ones, or the ones listing pros and cons. (More about that below...)
I have a different point of view. I usually pay more attention to the reviews when the sites hosting them require the reviewers to write something about their experience with the game, book, movie, or device that they are reviewing. For a game, a longer review usually shows that the person who wrote it took the time to play the game and think about the review, instead of casting a quick vote with one or five stars after spending less than 10 minutes with the game. The sites that allow anonymous reviews or that allow voting without any comments tend to have less reliable reviews from my point of view. Also, the results are biased towards the first impressions of the game, which can be unfair for the games that have a long intro. For this game, the warning in the OP recommends playing at least until day 15 before leaving a review. I bet that many reviewers would not even do that if it was possible to leave a review without comments.
I looked at the 20 most recent reviews here. Starting from the bottom of the page, the ones that I read are:
- 4 stars by jungmonk on Mar 17, 2024: well balanced review, with pros and cons, although it could be structured a bit better to be more readable.
- 3 stars by fh321 on Jun 6, 2024: although it starts in a rather negative way, it also mentions some good points about the game. The second sentence is interesting: "The illusion of choice is presented, but in a manner that makes it nearly impossible to see all the content without paying for the patreon cheats." This is also mentioned in other reviews and it illustrates a recurring problem: several players/reviewers (including those who "liked" some negative reviews) seem to expect Back to Freedom to be playable like a sandbox game in which it is possible to see all scenes and unlock all achievements in a single run. They think that paying for the patreon cheats is the only way to play the game as it is intended to be played, as if the "free" mode of the game was just providing a limited experience that is locking you out of a part of the game whenever you make a choice. They are frustrated that they cannot see all scenes in a single run and that they have to pay to play the full game with all scenes. (I am exaggerating a bit; maybe this is not how fh321 felt, but I hope that you get the idea.) But I think that this is just a mismatch between the players' expectations and what a CYOA game provides. In a CYOA game, some scenes are designed to be mutually exclusive and it should not be possible to see all scenes in a single run. For example, you cannot have zero corruption and maximum corruption in the same game. When this incorrect expectation is combined with the feeling that paying for patreon cheats is the only way to access all scenes, this can lead to bad feelings about the game, complaints about the grind, complaints about a money grab, etc.
- 3 stars by JeezerGeezer on Oct 31, 2024: contains this interesting sentence: "This is a virtual novel and your(sic) stuck progressing through everything and having to endure not being able to access a lot of routes." This illustrates what I just stated above. And it ends with: "This is the kind of game you wouldn't like to re-play once you lost your save. It took too much time and the gave back isn't worth it" Well, that is a problem: a CYOA game should be enjoyable the second, third or fourth time you replay it to discover new scenes.
- 3 stars by KhaelDragon on Nov 17, 2024: starts in a very positive way with a clear list of things they like, but then mentions some shortcomings in the second half of the game. Although there is the usual criticism "Many options are not available without cheats (...)", I can relate to some of the other comments. Yes, I also felt that after the third week in the game, too many side characters and side stories were introduced. I like this game very much, but I think that it could have been better if the main story was shorter and focusing more on the main characters, so that it would be easier to replay it and try different routes. The review also states: "Some choices require the right action a third of the game ago," which is indeed a problem when "some events are quite non-obvious, require a grind or a guide." This was also mentioned by other reviewers. Some choices early in the game do not seem to matter much at that time, and it is not clear if they will have any significant influence on the story. But then much later in the game you discover by hovering over some yellow/orange question mark that your choice two weeks earlier made you miss the only opportunity to get a girl pregnant two weeks later, or to unlock some other characters. I understand that some players are frustrated and think that the game is taunting them (or maybe they feel that the game is encouraging them to pay for cheats?). This would not be a problem if the player had any way to guess the long-term consequences of some choices early in the game, but currently some of these consequences seem to be totally arbitrary and unpredictable. This is not necessarily a bad thing for a CYOA game, but I think that it would be better to warn the players about that: explain in the intro that some long-term consequences are intentionally obscure and that the players are encouraged to take notes so that they can try a different route for their next replay.
- 5 stars by LordCorwin on Nov 24, 2024: very good and useful review that starts with some ratings for the different aspects of the game. One of the few reviewers who mentions having played the current version of the game around 5 times: "Sometimes as a pure good guy, sometimes as a corrupted jerk, and other times as a huge prude who only bangs his wife while fighting off the advances of all the other girls who approach him sexually." When I read that review, I know that I can trust it because that reviewer has played the CYOA game as intended, trying different routes in multiple replays. I may or may not agree with LordCorwin's preferences about some aspects of the game, but at least I know that this review can be trusted because it was written by someone who has actually played the game and who understands that a CYOA game does not (and should not) give access to all scenes in a single run. This reviewer deserves 5 stars.

- 3 stars by thaeral on Dec 24, 2024: another reviewer stating that the first half of the game was better than the second one, and complaining about "gatekeeping" as if the game required you to pay to have the full experience. Even if I disagree with some parts of that review, there are two comments that match my experience. The first one is: "I understand that this is supposed to incentivize multiple playthroughs, but I was TRYING to impregnate all of them and I cannot FATHOM how I missed Jillian unless I chose someone with more priority on that day and unknowingly blew my only chance at that option." This is indeed frustrating because if you start a game with a clear goal in mind, some choices are definitely not obvious and you have to keep on playing for two weeks until you discover that one of your early choices blew up your only chance of achieving your goal, so you have to throw away your game and restart everything again. The second comment that drew my attention is: "For a guy that developed a city-wide reputation for being a problem solver and always knowing what to do and gets things done. I cannot abide by the sudden idiocy in his reaction to Kelsi." I feel the same: no matter if I play as a good guy or bad guy, I always feel that the interactions with Kelsi are out of character and he is suddenly reacting like an idiot.
- 3 stars by goofball69 on Jul 21, 2025: very short review, but at least it contains pros and cons.
- I ignored most of the other reviews, positive or negative, because they are too short or too one-sided.
After reading these reviews and the comments here, I realized that many of the misunderstandings or criticisms could disappear if the players were warned in a more direct way that they are expected to replay the game several times (even if they pay for some cheats) and if there were more incentives to replay the game.
So I have the following suggestions:
- Telling players that they should play multiple times. When you start the game, there is already a warning saying that all characters are over 18, etc. There should be a second warning saying something like: "This game is designed to be played multiple times (even if you use cheats) because several routes are mutually exclusive. Each replay will become progressively easier. Later in the game, some hints will tell you about some scenes that you may have missed. Take note of them for your next replay." Some players may see the warning and decide to stop playing because this game is not for them. But it may be better to lose a few players early in the game instead of letting them play and then having them writing a 1-star review because they did not enjoy the game. Also, mentioning that we should play the game multiple times even if we use cheats could help defuse many misunderstandings about the idea that cheats are the only way to play the game in a single run as intended.
- Keeping track of what the player has seen in previous runs. Currently, when you reach day X you can see a hint telling you something like: "You could have seen something different if you had done Y on day X-10." The basic idea would be that as soon as you reach this hint on day X, the game remembers this for you. The next time you replay and you reach day X-10, there would be an additional hint appearing next to the buttons that are asking you to choose between several options. The hint would remind you of what you have already seen in previous runs. For example: "Selecting Y1 will allow you to frobnicate on day X. You do not know yet what Y2 or Y3 will do." This requires a significant coding effort (usually by pushing a short name for each revealed hint into a large array, and ensuring that this array is preserved across restarts), but that can make an enormous difference in the motivation to replay a CYOA game. I have seen some games that have successfully implemented such a system, and this makes the replays much more enjoyable.
In the previous suggestion, the last advice about taking notes would not be necessary anymore if such a hint system was available.
- Achievements make future replays easier and faster. The recently added permanent bonuses unlocked by the achievements should probably be much bigger, so that future replays become much easier. There should also be a hint about the expected rewards for those who have not unlocked these achievements yet. The idea would be that on your second or third replay, if you have unlocked the corresponding achievements, then you may earn money twice as fast when you work, or you gain twice as much money in the casino, or you can skip some or all minigames, or some girls are already madly in love with you so you can skip the first dates, etc. Some of these bonuses may overlap with patreon cheats, but I do not think that this would be a problem because the cheats would be available immediately to new players, while the bonuses for the achievements would only be available after playing for a while (and the $40 patrons would unlock all achievements anyway). These bonuses would provide a good incentive to replay the game, because each new achievement would make future replays easier and faster.
If you have not played it yet, I suggest trying the game "Just One More Chance" by Lotrum. It may not have a fancy user interface like Back to Freedom, but that game is designed around the idea that you must replay the same loop multiple times. Each loop becomes progressively easier because at the end of each run you can unlock a selection of bonuses that make the future loops easier and allow you to do things that were out of reach in your first runs.
Well, my rant was much longer than expected. Congratulations if you read this far.
Oh, and a minor typo in v0.39: in the passage "mcliving" when "Angela, Gina, and Megan are here" there is a button labeled "Talk to then" instead of "Talk to them"