VN - Ren'Py - Completed - City of Broken Dreamers [v1.15.0 Ch. 15] [PhillyGames]

Post-finale edit: Yeah, I still don't find Broken Dreamers' story all that interesting to be honest, but once again, this game’s visuals are so good that they more than make up for its uninspired writing, so…

City of Broken Dreamers [v1.14.0 Ch. 14]

Pros:
+ High production value
+ Amazing renders and animation quality
+ Epic worldbuilding and storytelling
+ A strong plot and well driven narrative
+ Great story pacing with a lot of action
+ Some characters have good character development
+ Character interaction and conversations are well written
+ User interface is clean
+ Very immersive experience
+ Adult content fits in well with the story

Cons:
- Some character personalities feel one-dimensional


The game starts out as what most might think of as your typical cyberpunk setting. But even then, it does a good job of creating its own unique story and delivering details and background through a well-written narrative.

There's so much I could write about this game, but if you haven't checked it out yet, I feel you would be better off checking out the game than slogging through reviews.

The game is amazing and there's a little bit of something for everyone. Even if the cyberpunk setting may not be your cup of tea, it's still worth checking out for even a half an hour and who knows, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

Overall Rating: 10/10

City of Broken Dreamers (Final)

Fucking Prime! In a Los Angeles that is far beyond “Hotel California’, corruption is everywhere. Corporations exercise extreme prejudice and power struggles between entities are imminent. While working as a merc for corps, you figure out your life is just another liability. Until one job sets off events that change the face of the city forever. Be cautious of everyone. This world is out to get you.

STORY
City of Broken Dreamers’ story is straightforward. Don’t expect an unusual story angle or twist. With those expectations limited, CoBD goes above and beyond to build a world complementing the Cyberpunk-ish Noir story. Memorable locations, in depth dialog based on what happens in the story and characters who interact with each other. This is a rollercoaster ride from Phillygames, going deeper than 2018’s Depraved Awakening.

In my 30+hr playthrough, I managed to complete the entire game. From chase sequences to stealth missions, sultry dialog to heartfelt emotions - this game runs the distance. You start out questioning what your role in Neo-Los Angeles will be. The Japanese have done a number on Americans and since, life is different. Citizens are living with a disease - and because of it, they’re outlawed to different parts of the city. Corporations prey on the poor as the elite bask in power. It all seems plausible in the wake of corporatism.

Along the way you will meet a questionable cast of agents and outlaws, either harming or helping your quest. It’s a set story mostly, but you get choices that do impact the ending of the game. Not every choice is labeled in a sensible way, which is frustrating - but rerolling saves you time. Save often. You are able to lose out on characters along the way, so be wary of the danger you put those around you in.

The worldbuilding of this game is extensive .Whether civvies are scolding Milchers, youngsters are yelling how ‘fucking prime’ things are or how conflict between Augmented and the Red Moon plays a part in your quest. Phillygames spent years building all these layers that help ground and enhance the main story. By the time you hit the middle part of the story, you instantly recognize locations and phrases because of the consistency. There’s even a special word dialect for one subset of inhabitants. It all helps to build that world.

Jake Murphy (MC) is quite a passive tool in the regular path, but there is character development throughout chapters. People get scarred and those scars will show. It does feels off spending chapters protecting someone who is ultimately stronger than everyone, until you realize this game is about building bridges over becoming stronger. Along the way people can get a change of heart and it definitely creates conflict for your mission. Sacrifices are powerful and if played well, sacrifices must be made. It will make Jake quite a bit darker than the regular path, which might feel unnatural but is interesting to say the least.

Information is everywhere. You want to know about Ghosts? Why are Milchers frowned upon? Why are news channels in this city corrupt? Why AI and VR sextoys change the face of pleasure forever? How drugs are getting flooded into the city? All this narrative is secondary to the main story, but helps sell the world and its characters. Side characters are hit and miss. Some are charismatic and unique, others feel like a jukebox on repeat. Dig deep enough and you’ll find something to explore for each character - even Glenn.There’s even a Glossary to read up on backstories.

The MC might be the blandest part of the writing. He’s never really allowed to develop, often sacrificing his own growth to further others - unless it’s about sexual encounters. By the end he sounds tired, but a far more responsible human than the merc he was at the start. The main antagonist is pretty one-dimensional too, but luckily there are more than enough distractions to make this story interesting. The antagonist might be the weakest part of this story, as you never really understand what happened and what it all meant.

Even so, the world in CoBD is so strongly set that you can’t help but love it. By the time you reach the end the game favors intimate moments over storybuilding and I would warn you to enjoy the ride rather than expect a great ending. Ultimately, the MC just wants to fuck all these women.

PRESENTATION
This game looks impressive. Characters have a doll-like look and it might seem cartoon-ish or anime-like at times, liking it is a matter of preference. The scenery looks as realistic as it could. Bright neon lights, sunny skylines, rain showers over characters, big explosions, futuristic cars - it looks larger than life. It might be the most impressive thing about this game.

You can often tell GDS-infected by their looks. Robots and augments usually lack human facial details. Apartments and clubs are styled appropriately and the supporting cast has so many wardrobe changes it borders a fashion show. Meanwhile we never really see the MC, who has one shoddy look and keeps it throughout the game mostly. This game is not about him, but about the world around him.

Sex scenes are often average in variety, but there are so many - especially near the end chapters. There’s about 10 sex scenes that are really memorable due to what happened in probably over 60 scenes. Animations are good enough for me and often look amazing together with the many renderings these scenes bring. There are definitely a bunch of filler sex scenes, but some kinkier ones if you’re daring to step out of the beaten path. Near the end, the game becomes a fuckfest - so hold out if you’re a fan for that.

Music! Usually sound is an afterthought, but this dev dedicated specific soundtracks for CoBD. It might be a bit repetitive after 15 hours, but it understands the ambiance of the city very well. Small sound design helps sell the action scenes without making it corny or too action-focused.

GAMEPLAY
Story choices let you collect points which in turn lock or unlock small story paths for people. It’s a visual novel and you’re in for the ride, but the way you approach the set pieces does give you a sense of individuality. You will get locked out of content with just one playthrough and because a playthrough is around 15+hrs, it might become a chore replaying to see all scenes. It is worth it though, because some key moments will change giving new insight to the story.

For completionists, there’s a scene and picture gallery - along with a picture puzzle game in some of the scenes. You look at certain scenes where the game tells you about a clue, you find it and you get a picture reward. It’s simple, but adds a layer to the investigative nature of the story.

OVERALL
City of Broken Dreamers is an outstanding visual novel and a feat in Noir Cyberpunk storytelling. It looks great, sounds the part and makes you feel a lot of things. If you can invest time to understand the world the story is set in, you will get the full experience of this novel. A world that is begging for more stories because there’s just so much happening it is easy to get overloaded. Take your time, expect mediocre endings and you will enjoy this giant of a game.

Renders 1000/10 : great renders created by the goat
Himself philly games
Great models Crafted with care

Animations 1000/10 : great animations that can
Make you get hard from seeing them

Story 10/10 great story which ends in a cliffhanger
In chapter, unfortunately it seems to be approaching
The end but as they say all good things
Must come to an end

Characters 10/10 great even the broken ones
Also I love mc who is a badass ghost

Length 10/10 between 20 to 30 hrs to chapter 14
Depends on how long you read

This game is great. I loved every minute of the story. The renders have some of the best lighting effects ever. There are also many paths to take which makes the game even more intriguing. There is a major cliff hanger at the end of the current version so be prepared.

With a cyberpunk aesthetic, of which I am a regular follower, this well-written and interesting story is worthy of being called a "novel" and could well be the script for a movie. The character design is of extremely high quality, with a variety of personalities and visual beauty like I have rarely seen.

As the story develops, several details emerge that describe the world of corporate conspiracies and social conflict typical of the cyberpunk style, adding depth and credibility to the interactions and dialogues between the protagonists. The choices made over the course of the story define the path (through a scoring system) that will lead to romance with one of the heroines, going through a variety of humorous, suspenseful, emotional or dramatic moments.

The erotic scenes are abundant and very well represented, they are very hot! (I really enjoyed Shanlon's and Victoria's scenes). Sometimes you want the animations during sex scenes to last longer. The quality of the renderings is excellent, true works of art.

I generally do not expect much from background music in adult games, but here the soundtrack is perfect with a selection of electronic music tracks and dark subgenres that fits very well in each scene and with the cyberpunk atmosphere of the game in general. My favorite songs are: "Burnin Star" by StrangeZero, "Cyber Twilight" by Hartwigmedia, "Visitors" by Linturaven, "Human Being" by Sublustris Nox, among others. The music fits so well with the scenes and some important moments of the game, adding emotion to them.

Summing up: The renders, The story, The charismatic and lovable characters, The music, all of superlative quality and together make this visual novel a true masterpiece. I have played until chapter 14 and I am looking forward to the outcome of this game of which I already consider myself a fan.

Review of v1.14.0

High production value. That’s the first thing you’ll notice when you start playing City of Broken Dreamers, and it’ll stick with you through the entire game. The effort put into the renders and animations is outstanding. But it goes beyond that; the game is a fully realised sci-fi thriller, convincingly told. So why did I find it so much of a drag?

This is a long game (though it does seem to be reaching the ending). A high production value can only get you through so much; in order to make players stick it out for the longhaul, AVNs need to lean on their story, characters and hot sex. The story is well planned out, but it’s often unfortunately told rather than shown, and it drags with quite a lot filler. Once it gets going, you’re supposed to feel like the characters are constantly in danger, but it was too slow to generate a sense of action. The sex is decent, though too vanilla for me, and strangely I didn’t find as many of the models attractive as I usually do in AVNs. Though perhaps that’s a symptom of the main problem: I just didn’t come to care about any of the characters. I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe it was because of substandard writing. Maybe the mc didn’t do a good job expressing his emotions towards them. Jestur chose to never show his face, which has its pros, but requires stronger writing to establish emotion. Maybe the setting was just too gloomy. Most likely it was all of these factors and more, but the end result was quickly getting bored of the characters and just wanting to get to end. The mc was the worst; he was given next to no personality and little backstory, which is okay in games where you can shape the character into what you want, but in City of Broken Dreamers there almost no choices in which you can express yourself. You start as a blank slate but never have the opportunity to write anything.

A few miscellaneous points:

• At the start the music was impressive, but the looping tracks all sound the same and got annoying fast, so I had to end up muting it.​
• Everything is crammed into a very short time-frame, which always feels odd in a relationship building game.​
• The mc never does anything romantic for his LIs.​
• Why do so many AVNs insist on wisecracks during sex? Leave the comedy outside of the bedroom please.​
• FYI the walkthrough mod annoyingly steers you into a specific route with Victoria, so if you choose to use it I recommend supplementing it with the written wallkthrough. Not the fault of the game, I just wish I knew it going in.​

City of Broken Dreamers is a mark of how increased funding and better hardware has allowed AVNs to achieve production values we could only dream about 8 years ago. But while I don’t know if the game is fundamentally flawed, I do know it wasn’t for me.

Plausible story and I like the MC quite a bit. They even went with genetic engineering type stuff. I do wish there was more male domination play, but Shanlon and company was good.

Overall, solid game, for what it is.

A verry good game, one of the best ones for sure and yes i played a lot of vn's !
The renders are verry good, the story is verry well writen and has a lot of petential ! Dont hesitate a second go for it !

AVN with a mostly linear story and lots of romance options, told in a Noir style with a futuristic setting. The renders and the models are absolutely gorgeous. The story itself is thought-provoking and the characters are very engaging - it is extremely well written. The Dev typically does not write the story to allow for a Harem path, based on his previous work, and it doesn't appear possible as of chapter 14. You can, however, have multiple sexual partners and there are LOTS of high quality sex scenes. No real taboo content here. One of my top 10 AVNs, all time.

Honestly, this game without the visuals and some amazing sex scenes would be average at the most... It's a quite inmersive game too, to enjoy at night with lights turn off.

Leaving those virtues aside, there is a certain battle, where someone dies, early on, after that the story starts sinking. So I found myself just skipping text to reach new hot scenes...

Our MC becomes useless, so much blah blah blah Ghost duh duh.. but after all even the servant AI is more important for the story.

Story gets repetitive: we running, meet problem, meet new girl, new girl save our ass, we running again.

Antagonists are laughable.. the most "powerful" one just have a cool armor and stops fighting us after a few words, because some "honorable" shet..

The super duper dangerous mechs and super dangerous some places are laughable too...

So this is that kind of story where characters talk so so so much about something, but in the end that something is the opposite thing.

But still,checking this VN is a must do. It has hot girls and a nice cyberpunk setup.

Very high quality AVN. Here are some of my impressions:

-Story: It was interesting, intriguing, immerssive and engaging (couldn't stop playing it xD). Just fucking great. Only one complain with one plot "The PIT" because everyone mentions "hey, don't go there" "you're gonna die if you go there" but in the end it was just a freaking nightclub so It was dissapointing...
-Characters: MC and the girls are very well written, so, no complains here.
-Renders: Some of the best renders I've seen. Girls designs are fantastic. Once again, only one complain, I prefer AVNs that shows the MC's face I believe this way we can connect a bit better, but as I said this is just a personal preference. Luckily here the MC is pretty well written.
-Animations: Most of them are great but a few of them were a bit clumsy.
-Music: Excellent music. I've added a couple of songs to my playlist.

Overall I'd give it a 9.5/10 so far. Phylligames sure knows his stuff when it comes to this type of AVNs. This is a great job. Definitely, It's worth trying for everyone.

Accidentally came across this game while browsing and gave it a shot. I am truly shocked at how much I love this game.

The Renders are top notch, truly well done with enough animations to keep everything interesting and fun. The character models are attractive and vary greatly from the tattooed skinny model to the curvy models all are unique and attractive. There is even one Futa, it's not my jam but it is easily skippable but for those that are into it, it's there.

All characters have well written dialogue all things considered. Each character has a different personality that comes through in the writing. I did not notice any grammatical or spelling errors during my play through, they may be there but if so I didn't notice them.

The game has a great CyberPunk feel to it and if you like Bladerunner or CyberPunk 2077 you will feel right at home. The story feels like it is coming to and end but I hope it gets a spinoff if it does. The world and the characters are impressive and I would love to spend some more time with them.

Easy 5 stars, this is what all adult VN developers should try to go for when they make a game.

Characters: Gorgeous characters, Victoria is above all... But every single one of the girls is hot.

Story: It's the only thing that could get some polishing, it's not bad don't get me wrong it just needs a little something I can't identify.

Graphics: Probably in the top 10 of all the games here.

Keep going and give us more, I love it.

I really tried to like this game, but in the end I guess it just wasn't for me.

First of all, the renders are gorgeous. Some of the best I've seen and they really manage to capture a dystopian cyberpunk world

But unfortunately, because of the high quality renders, my expectations were raised for all other aspects of the game as well. I was hoping the production quality would spread over the rest of the game.

I'm not sure what it is but I didn't feel like I could get close to any of the girls, it feels like most of them lack any meaningful character development and depth. A lot of the sex scenes have zero build up. Appearances mostly range from average to fine.

Animations are... fine, I guess. Very average

Best wishes to those who do enjoy it, this wasn't for me.

I don´t like this game, it looks like high production value, but there are some things like the short animations that are not good enough to put them there. For me it feels pretentious, it looks "good" but it is actually not that good, and the things that are good, or more than decent are stained by weird decisions, for instance having a 3some with Gloria, who was not built up at all in my opinion, and still, it happened to be a "dream about the past". If Gloria was properly built up, the decent sex scene would be better, but it lacked meaning. And then you get a vanilla scene later with her, but again, It happened pretty much after the previous one and I didnt see enough build up. I don't know if its a problem with the routes or what.
For build up I dont mean the fact that she is pretty much the first character in the game and you can barely touch her for 60% of the game which gives her a higher "trophy" value. I mean that the story has established that she is a love interest and a full fledged character that you are interested in" and also the story has established a meaningful conection between her and the Mc, being her a main character.

That is my main concern, since the game tries to be something, but in the end doesn´t live up to the promise.

Visually the game looks good, good renders, but besides that and some hints of decent cinematography, the tools meaning DAZ , at least for the characters, seem to show just the same you would see in any game from 2015 onwards, but its not the best thing created with DAZ you can find.

The game has a lot of girls, way too many for my taste, its too distracting, and maybe that is the reason why main characters lack buildup, cause you also need to account for the "awesome cyberpunk plot" (not really but enough for a porn game) that is also burning word count.
I believe the game tries to be too much at everything, but in the end I only see the aspect, an illusion of greatness, but the core feels like any other game of any production value.

If you have the time and you are less sensitive to these flaws, im sure the game will feel a masterpiece to you, specially if you haven't played many. Play it for Katie, and Henry, and the visuals if you are not picky.
there will be some blueballing though

A cyberpunk themed, very generic and linear Visual Novel with boring click-to-see-next-slide gameplay (a.k.a powerpoint presentation) and no dialogue options.
This VN is really no fun. It takes itself far too serious (not a single joke) and is not as interesting as the dev thinks it is. Writing is bad, pacing is off with constant change of viewpoints and the time it takes to actually start off. As most effort was put into graphics, somehow none of the characters are really attractive (same plastic and "too cute to be true" faces), memorable (no personality) or attention grabbing.
Sex scenes are badly written, stiff and robotic (lacking in buildup, teasing, seduction, exposition and payoff). Implementation of the routes is really bad as it's designed to make you miss things (excluding choices where chosing one girl locks you out of another and you must load old saves and complete entire VN again to see content for more than just one girl).
Story-wise this MC is supposed to be a bad-ass super-agent but barely does anyting at all and the contrast between what people are saying about him and how utterly unprepared he acts (when he finally decides to do something) completely kills any immersion. If there even was one, come on, you play as a super-badass agent James Bond - how is that original, unique, in-depth or immersive story?
The whole game is linear and predictable, there are no dialogue options and very few choices (no branching story lines or multiple endings) that serve no purpose other than locking you out of sex scenes - if you chose badly (without a walkthrough) you will simply miss the sex scene (won't score enough love/lust points) which is really riddiculous (you will not only be locked out of other girls but also won't get a sex scene with a girl you have chosen.) Sex scenes could also be implemented much better (are all about clicking back and forth, selecting mechanically from "missionary", "cowgirl", "doggy" and "cum".)
Some people think that -good graphics=good adult game, while the best graphics are in real adult movies. Adult games should be all about creating anticipation, sexual tension and presenting a fantastic payoff.
And this VN is really far from it.

This game is just on another level.

Everything is such a high quality.

Great renders and animations with amazing looking women, also very different models which i really like.

Intriguing interesting story and it is placed in a very well thought out world.

Wish there was a show/movie in this world, i think it would be awesome if well done.

This is the pinnacle of VN gaming. The writing is immense, the characters are real and believable, but the world in which you inhabit is a cyberpunk vision of an Orwellian future.
The game is more story than sex [as it should be] ...it will suck you into it's depths, and make you genuinely care for those around you.
Beautiful...

Great graphics and renders. The women are quite the hotties! Really enjoying the storyline of this game. Well thought out and easy to follow. Really like the amount of choices that the gamer is given as well. Can't wait until this game is complete and I get to finally finish the storyline.