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

I loved this game!
I was always fond of detective stories, games with a PI in the main role - this game gave me just that experience.
Main plot and storytelling was awesome, investigation was exciting, I found no logical bumps during gameplay. Background music suits the genre, it's awesome! Characters and also action renders are beautiful, I enjoyed every second of playing this game.

This game offers imho one of the most captivating storylines ever. The game makes you feel involved into the storyline, because your decisions affect the on-going of the story. The Graphics and animations are also very good.

Pros

• Decent model variety
• Plot is fairly simple, but the narrative doesn't push too deep or go too far.
• Characters are reasonably distinct.
• It's very in-line with rather classical movie plots of good people vs bad people and carries that with it.
• Sex scenes are somewhat cool.
• There's a few ending variations and two paths (as I understand it?)

Cons

• The characters aren't particularly interesting on their own merits, any attraction you have for most of them is visual at best.
• The writing revolves heavily around you fucking a lot out of being horny, which takes out a lot of any emotional weight or sexual tension that you might otherwise find.
• The bad guys feel very shallow and a lot of their deaths are written to make it so they fully deserved it.
• The women also are always written to be empathetic in some way, but also so you're always justified by whatever you choose to do with them even if it should invoke different emotions.
• Both of the previous things are an attempt to make you feel less guilty about the things you do, a common thing for self-inserts to do, but ultimately makes every decision made of it less than it could've been.

Summary
I started skipping dialogue at points, though every time I felt like I was missing out, I went back and checked only to find it more repetitive exposition. I'd always voted for games based on their relative value on this website, giving more 'complete' experiences a higher score, but this game may just convince me to do more objective scoring.

It's complete and a fairly simple pseudo-harem title with a equally straightforward writing. I have no complaints, but summarily, no glowing praise, either. It's very mediocre an experience. It's polished, but generic.
Every conflict feels safely resolved, in fact there are almost no real conflicts outside of the one that drives the plot and it's between good guys you fuck and bad guys you pretty much never interact with much.

In short, it's dull. If I'd rated this game back in 2017 when it released, I'd be harsher still. That said, if you're into straightforward stories with a somewhat compelling tale and aren't expecting much depth, this is easily a 4* instead. Enjoy.

This VN was honestly fucking great. Like top tier movie great. The first chapters were very slow but when we reached the halfway point, man.... guns blazing, drama, adrenaline, everything on the line.

One of the best on this site. The visuals still holds up in 2025 and so does the story. It also has some serious babes in this. Great story, hot women, engaging, dramatic, action filled with some mystery and choices

The story moved a bit too fast for me to really enjoy it or the mystery, and overall I just couldn't get that invested in the characters. There's definitely something here that the right person could enjoy, but that person is unfortunately not me.

Outside of that, there is a fair bit of sexual content, but it's nothing to write home about. The animations in particular are very choppy and show the age of the game.

Since this game has neither compelling story nor great sexual content, I can't say I recommend it.

I get that this is a porn game, but man... I don't know. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what this has been so far. It dives right into sex which, being a porn game, isn't inherently bad... However, the inner monologues and actions of the MC feel quite off-putting from the start. Your daughter appears, to which the MC has an initially negative reaction due to a bad past due to MC's ex-wife, but then it miraculously gets brushed off and you're suddenly grabbing her ass because you apparently have no self restraint.

It wasn't really getting much, if any, better from that point. I might give it another shot trying to get deeper in the future, but man has this just felt disappointing. It doesn't help that the sex scenes are fairly standard and with pretty lame writing, tho that's just a general issue with lots of AVNs which is no real fault of this game.

Was expecting alot more but story is bland and boring, MC is just a dick to be used by everyone so its a mindless fuckfest wth close to no choice in who you fuck, theres way to much porn logic which leads to not having any real story or emotions or build-ups.

Its supposed to be a detective story but if it had been about a male gigolo story would have been better and made more sense.

As for the girls i liked maybe one...rest had a pretty ugly face or where just bimbos and since your foced to fuck girls you hate its becomes nothing but a turn-off and shitty AVN.

Animations are nothing special and they feel emotionless and pointless.

Choices in game means close to nothing, sure you can skip a scene or two but some times like knowing the password to enter a club means nothing get it worng you fuck the girl inside, get it right you fuck the girl inside....its just more pointless shit.

How this is rated as highly as it is i dont get, either everyone just click skip untill sex scenes and trow in 5 stars or maybe everyone likes this type of kinetic novel, but im just not one of those types.

This is akin to jumping straight into a doujinshi that had a nice cover but is only about 20 pages long, maybe 21 if there is an ending card with a funny scanlator picture.

I enjoyed my time with this for what it was, the characters were attractive and we got into the meat of it pretty fast, but I can't say I wasn't a little bit let down by the story sprinting by me while I was just settling down into it. Nothing wrong with a story getting to the juicy bits and having no time for the foofoo surrounding it but I can imagine a more memorable experience taking place here with these characters if everything could have just slowed down a little. The taboo is nice, I did enjoy what characterization I got out of most of these girls and I did get a kick out of the ending wrap-up segments once all was said and done, even got some loose ends neatly wrapped up that I wasn't expecting so good on ya.

So for anyone looking for some guilty pleasure cheese, well here you go. If you want a bit more foreplay then perhaps keep this one for a rainy day when time is running away from you. I hope any future titles give themselves a little more time to breath and expand.

The story is enjoyable and does a good job of keeping you engaged. However, unlike other well-written stories, I found myself less intrigued by the characters. This lack of connection reduced my overall appreciation for the second half of the game.

The scenes are visually compelling, providing a strong foundation for the narrative. Unfortunately, as mentioned, the characters didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I only found the storylines of two girls to be fully enjoyable. The love interests often felt one-dimensional, serving more as tools for advancing the story and romance rather than as relatable characters with meaningful impact.

Overall, it’s a solid visual novel and worth experiencing, even if the character depth leaves something to be desired.

as far as I'm concerned, it's just not there. story completely absent. ridiculous characters. bad dialogue. I have given bad marks for much less. I don't like it at all. I'm very surprised this game has such a high rating

I have very mixed feeling for this game, the story overall is good, but I think it had way bigger potential. Never a big fan of incest and I had to put effort to avoid incest. some characters could use some more attention to their story. If not for the effort I had to put to avoid incest I would rated it higher.

I love a good story, and this had a really good story. Philly Games needs to produce more stuff like this and City of Broken Dreamers. Beautiful characters, intelligent dialogue, cool plot twist. Everything I need to escape...

Watch the Ugly face by Ed Bassmaster and you'll have a good idea about facial animations in this game.

The game itself is not bad, I like the noir atmosphere and music, dialogues are not bad either, but how am I supposed to take the characters seriously when then look like imbeciles during conversations and even worse during H scenes?

*Sound of rain through the window*

Like all the bad things in my life, it started with the death of a woman. I couldn't save her.

*drinks all the bourbon in one gulp, puts on his trench coat and walks into the jaws of destiny*

Was this "Detective Noir" enough? Lets find out.

Story: 4 Solid Bananas out of 5
You play a private detective who finds himself entangled in a plot that is more complex than it might seem at first. Yes, it sounds cliché and it certainly is, but it does not fail to entertain if you like this genre.
While the Detective Noir genre has been exploited a lot in the media to the point of being considered a cliché, some talent is still required to make it work and not sound too pretentious for its own good. Fortunately, this is not the case of Depraved Awakening.
There is no better exponent of this genre currently, congrats to the Dev for achieving this on his first project.
But you might have already noticed that the score in this department is 4 out of 5, and this is due to a very important aspect of the detective genre: the villains must be truly threatening, and although we are clearly told that they are dangerous, the story fails to make them seem that way in a convincing way.
In short, they are too good people to be villains, they lack evil.

Characters: 5 Adamant-Hard Bananas out of 5
All the heroines are easy on the eye, even if their models look a bit dated when compared to what's on the market, which can be crazy.
Carli, Christina and Judy can have a bit of development depending on who you decide to pursue, but nothing crazy...But they all have their background, and that makes 'em feel real.
MC is not your typical Gary Stu: He is a man nearing his twilight years, with a failed marriage on his back and a pension that is not enough for him to live the rest of his days drinking pina coladas in some Caribbean country, no, so here lies a man that drinks bourbon to numb the pain that September 2 causes on his soul.

Mechanics: 5 Adamant-Hard Bananas out of 5
No minigames or puzzles *Chef Kiss*

Content: 5 Adamant-Hard Bananas out of 5
Renders look good and there's plenty of scenes to enjoy but they are not that abundant to transform this story into a fuckfest.

Ending: 4 Solid Bananas out of 5
The endings are good overall, but they suffer from the same problem as the main plot: I understand that the idea is to be the good guy, but letting yourself be corrupted doesn't really feel rewarding.
I think it would have been awesome to be able to change the destiny of one of the main heroines even if that means having to give something in return, so you could say "I am depraved one awakened, indeed"

If you enjoy reading, Depraved Awakening is The Detective Noir-Visual Novel you didnt knew you were looking for.
It aint perfect, but is good and keeps its plot in the ground, far away from mixing up with another genres like supernatural nonesess and what not...

PhillyGames did a great job here, and I cant wait to see his next work...And neither should you.

(Placeholder for full review later)

4-4.5 stars. Entertaining, but not without it's flaws. It's also worth considering that many of it's 'flaws' can be forgiven with it's relative age compared to the newer kids on the block. Still highly recommend despite all of that.

Very boring standart game.

The story is predictable and not interesting.

The characters are very flat and not memorable.

The models look meh, the faces look even bad sometimes.

The music is generic.

The dialogue is very bad, it often feels like it wants to sound more extrem or sexy but just sounds like what vanilla people think extrem is.

The scenes are very boring and get repetitive quickly nothing interesting, the animations are bad and robotic.

Also the from bottom to top camera on girls, is used way too often.


Wouldn´t recommend, unless you want a generic porn game.

Overall - 6/10
Hscenes + renders - main reason to play the game is for this
Everything else kinda falls flat
Story - 3/10
MC detective - delve into death of dude -> sex cult - dark mysterious adventure themes
Story / writing- didn't really feel like a detective - going around fucking every girl - flow of story is interrupted so heavily - points for multiple endings
Characters - 4/10
Never really learn them to a deeper meaning - meet -> talk -> sex -> more sex
Animations - 5/10
Sometimes decently smooth, other times 4 fps gif animation.
Renders - 10/10
Models feel similar to being a diks models - they are the best piece of this game
Sound - 7/10
Most of the game is a classic detective BGM - fits to the theme
Playability - 7/10
Hscenes carry this game hard - a lot of it and there is plenty of actions to do whilst in the Hscenes
Multiple endings
No lag

You are a private eye in Free City. Your latest client has found himself dead. As for how, many suspect suicide, though your smarter than that. But poking around may get you in some hot water. But then again why would you be a private eye if you weren't looking to face the heat.

Content: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Graphics: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Script: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Enjoy:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Total: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Depraved Awakening is a nice exception. Remarkable in absolutely all its sections, but it doesn't reach the maximum greatness due to being the debut of PhillyGames.

Some will say it's because it makes beginner's mistakes, but Philly has created, in the first try, a better work than 90% of the works of this kind.

I am sure that “City of Broken Dreamers”, his next work (and taking into account the current reviews) will get 5 stars from me.

Depraved Awakening really managed to nail the noir private eye niche it was going for. From the music to some of the dialogue to the plot it was all well done in that regard. All that was missing was a lot more rain; liquor and the right voice for the role. The plot was entertaining and kept me interested. I wish the main villain had some more backstory to him. I also wish that the character of "The Dragon" had more time as she was my favorite. There is a good amount of choices to be made and I felt like I could take the story where I wanted to more or less. The music wasn't just well done but fit the scenes it was used in well. There is a scene later in the game where it is cutting from a funeral to a police chase back and forth and it is intertwined nicely. Those who just want an erotic game will get their fill but those who want a bit more have something to be offered as well. The game could have used a bit more backstory on the organization you're going up against. Overall this is a solid game. Whether you just want a lewd game or are a fan of visual novels as a whole there is something here for you.

Probably more a 3.5, but I'm rounding up rather than down as I had fun with Depraved Awakening.

This game didn't leave the best first impression ; it's getting on a bit and looks rough at times. Renders can look nice but, early on at least, are average at best. They have a tendency to pull some odd faces, and the "animation" is distractingly bad to the point that still images must have been a better choice. Both aspects, renders and animation, improve as the game progresses and by the end it's much more attractive than when it started.

A noirish detective story, Depraved Awakening is a nice change from the common college/slice of life genres that constitute a large proportion of AVNs. It's not perfect but the dev spins a fairly compelling detective yarn involving mysterious deaths and lots of sex. Nothing mind-blowing but it remains interesting until one of the many ends. The main character, of course, gets to partake in a lot of the old in-out-in-out, some unfortunately happening rather abruptly and ending almost as swiftly. Still, there are many good scenes with some attractive women, and there is a reason the MC is so insatiably horny for much of the story. Technically, the writing is on the better end of AVNs. There are some typos and such but the dialogue is generally well written and believable.

Being a relatively short game, there isn't too much scope for character development, but I did like all of the potential love interests. Christina is probably my favorite, a red-haired firecracker with sky high libido, followed closely by Carli, a sexy escort with a sky-high libido. I wasn't too convinced by Judy, the main character's step-daughter (actual daughter with a patch, but for me that doesn't ring true given some of the MC's behaviour towards her), though she undoubtedly gets some of the hottest scenes. Other characters left less of an impression but I was interested enough to get their scenes and endings.

On which note, playing through Depraved Awakening blindly is likely to result in a lot of scenes being missed. Each love interest has a visible love/lust stat, and often some combination of this and an invisibIe depravity stat for the MC is required to unlock options and scenes. I went blind for my first run and, though happy with my ending, I didn't want to leave it there. Evidently some seemingly innocuous choices lock the player out of scenes, paths, and endings. I recommend at least one blind playthrough as for me a lot of the fun was working out how to get scenes with various characters, but there are walkthroughs and a mod if it's too much hassle.