Depraved Awakening

This right here is a controversial porn game with an amazing amount of content that’s just begging to be fapped to. I bought this game on Steam, knowing that I could refund it if it turned out to be hot garbage, but three hours into the game, I’m still enjoying myself. Granted, that’s three hours, but I’m on my second playthrough. This game’s available on Steam, unlike the developer’s other titles. I suppose this was their first and only attempt at using Steam as a platform to sell their games. Given that they already have a super successful Patreon where they’re making money hand over fist, you could argue they don’t even need Steam. Either way, the game’s up for grabs for 10 bucks, and given how much content hides within, I’m surprised it isn’t even more popular.

The Controversy

I’m going to start off this review hot, diving right into the shady shit. Once this game officially came out, a few Steam user reviews came in praising several aspects of Depraved Awakening. Now, I’ve got a lot to say about the game as well, but I’ll save that for later. I don’t want to cloud your judgment while we observe a bunch of people arguing about porn games on the internet.

Right after the positive reviews came the overwhelmingly negative reviews calling the positive reviewers a bunch of shilling liars. Apparently, if you enjoy a porn game and give it a positive review, you have to also make sure that everyone else thinks it’s the bees’ knees too, or you’ll get ridiculed. I don’t understand the mental gymnastics that these idiots undergo in the morning before they hop onto their computers in order to bad mouth porn games on the web. Still, their reviews are here for us to read and laugh about, so I guess the universe balances out in the end.

I like being impartial, so I’ll just say that even though they’re loud as shit and really fucking annoying, it’s possible they might be right about the reviews being fake or forced. I can’t prove any of this. I’m not a detective like the main character of Depraved Awakening, and I don’t care to play one. I’m just saying; it’s not unheard of for developers to ask people to give their games positive reviews. Hell, you could have your friends buy and review your game, and they’ll give it props simply because they like you. This shit happens in the real world, and we live with it.

Impossible Standards for 3D Smut

One final comment on the negative reviewers though – a few of them legit complained about the game being a cinematic compilation of pre-rendered cutscenes, even though the game literally says “Visual novel” in the genre. It’s kind of like these people see the ultra-high-definition screenshots of actual 3D with raytracing, shadows, and the entire world reflected in a character’s eyeballs and thing: “Yup, looks like GTA 6 with tits, I’ll play it”. And on top of that, the $10 price tag doesn’t have them wondering if maybe they might be expecting a bit too much bang for their buck.

It’s not GTA 6. Today’s computers can’t fucking handle live rendering of the highest possible quality 3D models, while you play the actual game. Of course, it’s pre-rendered. Of course they’re cinematic cutscenes. Don’t be a dumbass. If you want the highest quality graphics on the planet, you have to settle for flat, full-screen art. These people put their sweat, blood, and tears into their game. Show some respect.

My Take on Depraved Awakening

Now that I’m done defending this game from the bullshit opinions of online trolls, it’s time for me to pick it apart with my patented tactful approach to smut. First thing’s first, you can jack off to this game, a lot. I tried it, and I loved it. There are tons of sex scenes that feature that extremely high definition western 3D style that I’ve been in love with since I discovered Lust Epidemic. Except, where in that game the models were a medium-high quality, and the backdrops were a static beige of random furniture, in this game the developers decided to go next-gen.

They must have dumped hundreds of hours in perfecting this game’s models, because every single asset looks better than it would in real life. They literally went out of their way to include eye-reflections, for fuck’s sake. That’s the kind of extremely high quality you don’t even get with 4K porn videos.

Now, I do have a few gripes with it too, but we’re going to need to get very specific to cover those.

Shit I Hate

Firstly, this game doesn’t have any voice acting, and that pisses me off to no end. Sure, they littered the entire game with background music, but it’s all so chill and relaxing that it feels more like meditation music than something I’d like to jack off to. It’s kind of like they expect you to only care about their renders, to the point that all other forms of media in this game are considered pointless.

I know that voice acting requires a lot of money and hard work, but it wouldn’t have been that hard to, at the very least, buy a bunch of generic sexy voice lines and throw them in at random. Imagine a scene in which you climb into a bathtub with a couple of super sexy girls with huge cans. You’re thinking, damn, this is going to be hot.

Except, throughout the entire fucking thing, you have to listen to this loud ass saxophone over a quiet lounge jazz track. Yes, that can work as background music. No, it doesn’t work if it’s the only thing you hear. Even sound effects of water splashing around would have done wonders. But no, you get the music on full blast and literally nothing else, so it’s like you’re wearing your air-pods listening to smooth jazz while you’re in the fucking bathtub. I’d suggest that you mute the game after a while and just put on some random porn video in the background so you can at least pretend that you’re listening to the sex you’re seeing on screen.

Finally, I hate that there’s no bonus section in which you can view the chicks that you’ve “unlocked” like you get in other similar games. Yes, I played the whole game and saw the entire story, and I’m grateful for that. But, what if I just wanna fap afterwards? How about a demo room in which I can see all of the models and fuck around a bit? Nope. None of that.

The World Design

I have to give props to these developers again, because the world they’ve designed is absolutely smuttastic. It’s extremely believable and constantly pulls you forward into the story. And, at every fucking corner, there’s a hot ass bitch to be fucked and that somehow moves the story along even further. I like this balance of characters that are equally concerned about the story and worried about not getting enough anal sex. It’s kind of like how my mind works. Like, today, I have to pay my taxes, pick up my dry cleaning, and anally penetrate a co-ed, not necessarily in that order.

Plus, I mentioned this earlier – the world itself received almost as much love as the models of the actual characters. This makes everything mesh together really well. You’re not just staring at a couple of floating tits against a backdrop. You get a fully fleshed out world that’s very immersive. It’s a believable story, because the world seems to care about it. You don’t have to work very hard to drown in this narrative.

The Story

I’m going to avoid spoilers for this game as it is a mystery detective title, but on the smut side of things, I can comment about how it’s basically a standard noire game with porn elements peppered across every part of it. There are femme fatales as well as submissive chicks, but you get to bang all of them, so that’s great.

There’s intrigue, danger, and all kinds of action, but it’s woven into the story. You never actually have to do anything quickly or solve any kind of puzzles. It’s basically an interactive movie with high-quality assets, emphasis on the ass.

So, in other words, this is a visual novel for western audiences that don’t like hentai. Most visual novels these days or throughout history have been hentai. If you’re looking for something a lot more mature and down to earth, you’ve got Depraved Awakening. And, if you happen to really fall in love with this style and approach to video game storytelling, make sure to check out the developer’s Patreon where you can find links to their other works, which are equally as arousing.