HTML - Debasing Grounds [v0.4.10] [Rax Lorax]

I would say the game in it's current state (V0.4.8) has a lot of potential, and the dev makes very active updates. And while there's a lot of ways to get yourself fucked both literally and figuratively, there's not actually a whole lot of content to actually do right now.

To be more specific, if you're thinking more than with your dick in terms of where you want your character to be violated, then there's not a whole lot to do, and the game doesn't make you feel very compelled to do it. There's a couple of very small storylines but they don't lead anywhere really. And most of the updates seem focused on just adding more ways to get yourself captured in some way or another. I mean, it is a victim simulator and I like those... But so far, doesn't seem to be a whole lot of updates on adding more things to do or reasons to do them outside of getting fucked.

To give an example of what I mean, if you've played degrees of lewdity, you generally want more money for various things within the game, whether that's better or specific clothing, furniture, dick pills, or to pay your bitch of a landlord, you actually have things to invest into and improve at...In this game, once you get yourself a comfortable place to sleep and a source of easy income which isn't hard to do...why do anything more? You've basically beaten the game at that point.

To summarize, I think the game has potential, updates very frequently, and the writer is clearly pretty good at writing, something very important for a text based game...But, he seems more focused on adding ways to get captured than adding more meaningful gameplay, at least at the moment.

I dont find the text scenes particularly engaging. They are somewhat well written but lacks detail, for example a whole branding scene is maybe 2 lines. Just not worth the time. Its a shame since the game is somewhat intresting with a good character building. Ethos of Darkness still needs a worthy sequel. This game is not it.

Overall it's more like a 4/5 tbh, I am adding the extra point because it is really being updated and improved quite frequently. When I first played it this game was extremely buggy, but this has been improved a lot - although I haven't run into any bugs recently, I can't exactly claim it is bug-free, but certainly nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

It also has constantly added new features. This game is a true sandbox game, even if there are self-contained stories and events you can run into or aim for. This isn't a bad thing in itself, but I do feel like it could do a little better at getting the player into these pockets of story. A lot of the various factions and places that have more to them than they seem can be somewhat opaque to interact with, and can take a while to pay off. The list of important NPCs in-game helps with this but is hardly foolproof.

Hopefully the game continues to be refined and expanded going forward, and the sex mechanics are polished some more - the bugs I do run into are often with interactions during sex, and more variation in sex positions and descriptive text/NPC dialogue is I feel the most natural and obvious way to expand the game for a majority of your audience. I am not gonna complain about adding specific fetish-scenes, some of which are to my tastes and some not, in a vacuum. But I feel like beefing up the random encounters should be priority number one for games like this - I have the same complaint about e.g. Course of Temptation or Degrees of Lewdity, and this game feels a bit worse at it than either of those.

In my opinion it is a good game but never ever be a great one(unless something drastic changes)
Here is why.
It is a text game so the smut text carries the main content... it is barely ok quality.
The dept of story lines are not that deep.
The rest is fine.

A solid roleplaying sandbox / BDSM game with some nice unique touches. No visuals and many NPCs feeling samey, as well as a slightly limited number of places to go and do currently, prevent it being amazing but it's a very, very strong foundation and if it reaches V1 (currently 0.42 public/0.43 backer) gaining as many features and improvements per update as it has so far it'll be a beast.

Very ambitious project, a great setting with tons of interactivity and a nice reputation and social systems. It's constant release of interesting updates is a nice fresh breath of air amidst it's counterparts.

Fun game but it is a buggy mess with a lot of bad coding on it. Played as far as I could with the game breaking or putting me in unescapable loops during it. Solid foundation so far but not worth a play

one of my favorite text base games even with the limited content rn, has massive potential if the creator keeps working on it like they've been doing so far. I'll be checking every update with great interest. loving it

Once again a game where the phrase “It has a lot of potential” is true. What does this sentence even mean?
There is already a lot of content, but it still needs a lot of adjustments or improvements. So in theory there's a lot on offer, but when you delve deeper you notice a lot of loose ends or it plays in such a way that you think: "Hmm, is that it? I kind of expected more."

It actually starts with the start of the game. MC has nothing and knows nothing. So hiking around is the order of the day. You could find a job, you could look for an apartment, you could even be kidnapped and kept as a slave. Each one is possible within the first 5-6 steps of the game.

You don't have an ID, but it takes a long time to find out about it, but you don't find out how to get it.

You have no money, can't rent a room and waste a lot of time trying to find a job. Since you are often not qualified enough, have no ID or find the job too suspicious to accept it, it becomes even more difficult.
Especially since chance encounters don't make things any easier.

You rent a room, but are attacked in it and, in my case, enslaved for 17 days before the 1% chance of escape suddenly became 90% on the seventeenth game day. (Sounds like a mistake to me).

And I could go on like this for a long time.
Yes, the game offers a lot of character customization options, which allows for a completely different gaming experience with each new playthrough, but I personally think that at the moment the point has been reached where new content should not be the developer's goal, but one thing Revision, improvement and logical continuation of the existing content would benefit the game much more.

I therefore fluctuate between 3 and 4 stars. In the end it will be 4 stars because with only 3 stars I feel like I am rating the game too poorly in its category.

Still needs work however is quite fun.

As of v0.36 there are several different jobs you can do each with different activities to do, encounters could use more flavor but they're still okay right now, exhibition is super fun because you can literally walk around with no clothes and shock a few npcs.

This game also has a lot of character customization which is always fun but I really love how the devs put in specific NPC lines based on your characters design, for example I picked ginger hair and my character is referred to "carrot" and "carrot top" by several NPCs and it was just funny and made the game feel more favorful.

It has a lot of kink stuff, stuff most games don't have like verbal degrading kinks and getting beat up in fights kinks so thats pretty different and nice

I'm giving it five stars because it has a ton of potential while still being pretty fun this early in development.

God... There are no words, only emotions. The game is a masterpiece, but too stuffy. Please do something about the stuffy part. The project is excellent, but after three days of trying to play normally, I don’t fall into slavery with any asshole.

It's a solid game similar to DoL, BDCC Course of Temptation etc. It just needs more content, some QoL tweaks and mechanics. Some encounters get rather tedious and you are barely in control of the outcome (example the gang capturing you - you can't really resist or choose how to please them etc., and the event repeats a lot). Or you can play the sub and please others during story parts, thinking you can keep your virginity by just servicing them, but suddenly, they just rape you and your only option is to load because you have no control over the event at all, you can't "fight" or struggle using gameplay options like resisting position switch etc., because there is no gameplay, it's literally just a noninteractive event. Not having control is realistic, but it's not a fun gameplay. I think it would be great to expand the encounters in terms of your choices, giving you the power to struggle and keep playing however you want and not be hard forced into stuff.

Same for sexual gameplay. The foreplay options are fine, but the sex would really benefit from some sort of arousal/lust buildup that leads to orgasm, cause choosing just one of the options that immediately makes them cum is not really a fun interactive gameplay. The games I mentioned work really well thanks to being engaging and the participants being responsive to your actions.

Other than that, the game is really good and one to look forward to if you like these games!

v0.27

An interesting game that seems to aim to be similar to DoL: everyone in town is a rapist and danger lurks around each corner. Tons of stats, a few quests, and repetitive random encounters.

Right now there is very little content, so the initial excitement quickly fades away as you start getting the same scenarios repeated over and over.

The game is text-only, which is one of the main downsides.

The dev is also using some program to turn the code into gibberish - it doesn't prevent cheating, but it makes modding unnecessarily difficult, and unfortunately, with no base art nor the option to make mods to include it, it fails its purpose as an adult game, seeing how you're left with text descriptions that don't give enough for the imagination to compensate for the missing visuals.

TL;DR: Your average unfinished text-based game with a few good ideas, plenty of unfinished aspects, and a general feeling of "Could be better."

+ I like the idea of a game that's -so far- locked entirely within one city where you could explore every nook and cranny.

+ The quests are interesting despite how short and simplistic they are, requiring you to use clues to figure out the next location/step of the quest, feels nice even if it is very easy.

+ Plenty of locations within the city to explore, though plenty seem to be placeholders for future content.

- Boring / Lackluster description of NPCs' physical forms beyond skin color, hair color, eye color, and whether they are skinny, chubby, or fit.

- You get accosted constantly by random groups of thugs, failing to get away leads to a bunch of nonsense that, while interesting at first, gets tedious very quickly since it happens every ~5 or so actions even in the main streets which should be guarded by police (The police will also accost you)

- Sexual encounters are boring and not that fun to engage in.

- A lot of stats and progress bars are not explained, leaving the player lost for the a big portion of the game.

- All NPCs act in the same manner, it grows old very quickly.

- Writing is average at best.

I did enjoy myself a little, but the moment things started to get repetitive is when I closed the game and moved on, there's no point in talking to more than 2-3 NPCs since they all use the same lines and the same mannerisms, maybe one every 5 NPCs will be 'rude', but ultimately doesn't change too much from what I've seen.

This review is written based on the latest (free) version, v0.23. TL;DR in the final "Overall" section.

Storytelling/Premise:
The "selling point" of this game is that it's an open-ended/open-world text game where you can go anywhere and do anything. And, at first, this really worked on me. I got really immersed in the setting, started writing my own journal to keep track of quests and occurrences in Notepad, and had a great time exploring the town. This is where the game shines most, in my opinion. I found myself getting to the bottom of a mysterious missing person case, searching for work, and wondering how I was going to survive as a total outsider in this tiny settlement. But as I kept exploring, I quickly noticed a few problems.

NPCs:
For one, NPCs feel very stiff and repetitive. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference between any of the NPCs, and most of my interactions with them went exactly the same: I would greet them, they would randomly start non-consensually making out with me, I would click the "return to chatting" button, and they'd proceed like it never happened. Sometimes, they'd say "aww c'mon but don't you wanna have sex" and I would just be like "no" and they'd walk away. I don't know if it's a bug that caused all of the NPCs to go straight for a kiss in all of my interactions with them, because it even happened with shopkeepers and whatnot, but since I have no way of knowing personally, I'm just going to assume it's intentional.

In later builds of the game, I would like to see basic NPCs have some variance in how they treat the player. It would be nice if, at the very least, some NPCs would be kinder and less cold to you, while other NPCs will be harsher when trying to assault you.

Progression/Gameplay:
Another issue I encountered is the marked lack of progression. I get it, this is a super early build of the game, but I really wish there was at least some kind of objective to work towards. In my first few in-game hours, I already managed to get myself a nice flat to call home for a meager price of like, 15 silvers, just by asking nicely. It really takes away from the "dystopian hellscape" feeling when my life in a game called "Debasing Grounds" is already more successful than my real one.

I would like some more content about really struggling to survive, having to do immoral and undignified things and put yourselves in dangerous situations. Just anything to really hammer in that you're a literal nobody with nothing to their name, while dangling that carrot of a comfortable life in front of you. Some other job content/gameplay loops would also be nice, allowing PCs to put their various skills to work, but I assume this is planned already.

Sexual Content:
Speaking of struggle, I found the non-consensual content really lacking, both as in "it lacks substance" and "the game lacks it". At first, I was playing the game carefully, assuming that since it was self-proclaimed inspired by other popular sandbox text games, I would have to take similar precautions as I would in those. However, as I previously mentioned in the NPC section, NPCs rarely tried to take advantage of me except for to make out with me at random and then just go back to talking like nothing happened, even in the bad parts of town. I had to go to comical lengths to actually be raped, such as going to a gang-affiliated barbershop and asking the barber to shave my pubes in front of the other customers... then refusing to pay. Even stripping entirely naked seems to have no effect aside from people noting it when you begin a conversation with them.

When a non-consensual scene does happen, it's just not very thrilling either. So far, in the scenes I've encountered, there's two sections. The first one, where they're describing what happens before you're assaulted. In this, you get to choose between four options: "eager", "reluctant", "stoic", or "defiant". Then, depending on the option you chose, the scene is described to you over about one or two paragraphs, depending on the option you chose. Afterwards, your character takes a significant stat hit to anxiety, but nothing else really changes as far as I'm aware.

Though I appreciate the departure of this game from the tedious "combat sex" of its contemporaries, it goes way too hard in the other direction by making sex scenes essentially just a blurb. Even in consensual sex scenes, you basically just get the option to pick the position or randomize it. Aside from that, the (short) text for having sex is the same thing every time. A little interactivity, perhaps even tied in with the existing relationship tracking system, could really go a long way here. In its current state, the sexual content feels like an afterthought.

Overall:
Overall, this game has tons of potential to be one of the most original and open-ended text-based games out there. The storytelling and writing is great, and the game keeps you firmly immersed in its world... until you realize there's less to it than you thought. The game struggles with meaningful content, both sexual and non-sexual. Despite the bleak setting, surviving comfortably in the town is surprisingly simple and easy, though you might die of boredom once you realize you have nothing to fill your character's time with. In its current state, I can't recommend that you play this game unless you're someone who is interested in the genre and wants to play an early version of what may become the next big text game. This is definitely one to watch the development of.

It gets a five from me for three main reasons.

1. I'm a long-time fan of DoL so anything that reminds me of it instantly feels like a masterpiece regardless of its quality

2. I feel optimist about how this game is going to turn out in a few months, considering how every recent patch adds quite a lot of depth (and they come out very, very frequently)

3. Cocaine

Text-only sandbox set in a dystopian settlment that is "lawless" in the context of megacorp dystopias where security is often just another kind of gang. It looks like it'll have some interesting mechanics for relationship histories, although getting stats up can be fairly grindy and I save-scummed ALOT because you're frequently moments from a gangbang in a number of areas of town. Combat and sex don't have much interactivity, mostly choosing how you go in and then what the result was based on skill check RNG.

There's still a number of deadends and some not too serious bugs, but it's a decent platform for something.

Edit: I feel it's time for an update since a number of releases have passed.
(v4.5)
There's still some location bugs in the dialog, but it's definitely improved. There's still mostly scripted scenes with story NPCs, but you have some interactive sex options when it's not a story/quest encounter.

They also let you finally adjust the sexes of all the NPCs (including being able to zero-out entire populations). You can also set it so sexes are there, but you won't be approached (outside of scripts) by sexes to which you aren't attracted. Most of the stories/quests are based around submission/slavery (It is "debasing" grounds, afterall), and unfortunately there's still an emphasis on prostitution or getting shared in most storylines (it may be trending to let you avoid it, but as of writing, with those settings turned down it would spawn clones of NPCs and they'd talk to themselves like they were pimping/sharing you), and genderbend/sissification still shows up. You also can't really control NPC orientation without code editting, so unless you zero a sex, you don't have much say in whether you walk in on straight/gay/lesbian etc hookups.

You can also dom/top if you want and enslave NPCs, but that takes a bit more grind as a lot of it requires unlocking a dungeon. Sub's more my thing, so I didn't really look into it much.

All in all, I've got a soft spot for text-based games for the amount of customization they usually offer, and I like rough-sub content. My preferred style is to only have sex with my dom and cuckqueaning so I wasn't thrilled with how limited that was available. Your partner cheating is still mostly limited to RNG of you maybe catching them in a bathroom stall and story NPCs that in past involved them getting topped.

I've enjoyed it quite a bit so far, and it's rare that I'm able to keep coming back to most games consistently every time an update is released. But I've been able to, and I enjoy it just as much as I did the first time.

I look forward to seeing how the game develops from here!

Currently one of my favorites if not the top one. I love non linear games that give the player the chance to explore and get in trouble freely. The menus and stats are at times a bit overwhelming and I'd appreciate a larger font size. What I like the most is the presence of different factions which make it possible to fall into your "enemies" hands, although that part of the game still needs more content. There's seem to be good progress with each update too.

The game is interesting. The lack of art is off puting at the beginning but the freedom and customization make up for it in my opinion. I found some scenes to be quite hot and dark. I personally LOVE those themes so I hope It continues growing with more contento. Good luck with it