Depraved

About

"Depraved is a single-player strategy game set in the Wild West, where you lead pioneers to build a thriving settlement. Manage resources, resident needs, and protect against dangers in this procedurally generated world. Despite good gameplay, graphics, and soundtrack, be prepared for bugs and grinding."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

+14

62%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,132 reviews

gameplay34 positive mentions

story12 negative mentions

The game has a unique Wild West theme that sets it apart from other city builders.
Gameplay is engaging and offers a mix of city building and survival elements.
The developers are responsive to community feedback and regularly update the game.

The game suffers from balancing issues, making it difficult to progress without running out of resources.
There is a lack of depth and content, leading to repetitive gameplay after a few hours.
The user interface is clunky and not intuitive, making it hard to manage resources and buildings effectively.

gameplay
140 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
69%
7%
The gameplay of this city-building game set in the wild west has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its fun mechanics and engaging theme, reminiscent of titles like "Banished." However, criticisms highlight broken mechanics, lack of depth, and a linear experience that can lead to boredom after a few hours. While some players appreciate the potential for future updates and improvements, many recommend waiting for more content and polish before fully investing in the game.
- “Game may not have the best visuals, but gameplay-wise, it certainly is a fun little city builder with survival elements akin to Banished but set in a wild west setting.”
- “This is a fun game, reminiscent of Settlers 2 in game style, but set in the XIX American West and with more mechanics and better combat when it has to come to.”
- “The mechanics and gameplay of this game are good, and I was really getting into the game.”
- “Cool setting and soundtrack but a huge waste of potential due to lack of gameplay content.”
- “Broken mechanics, illogical gameplay loops, and other things make this one to avoid.”
- “The gameplay's too simplistic at the moment, lacking depth and complexity to hold your attention for long.”
graphics
108 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
54%
15%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the art style and thematic fit for the wild west setting, while others criticize them as outdated and poorly optimized. Many users report performance issues, particularly with graphics settings that do not function as intended, leading to significant frame rate drops. Overall, while the visuals may not be cutting-edge, they are deemed acceptable for the game's price point, with potential for future improvements.
- “The graphics look good for the tier of pricing it sells at.”
- “This game is pleasing to the eye with the art style chosen.”
- “Graphics are spot on and the wild west setting makes it feel much different than playing the same old early day survival games that there are so many of.”
- “It's outdated mechanics and graphics, while the management part of the game is too linear and boring.”
- “The graphics are not great and the coloring and animations are unnatural at best, which would be a bit more excusable if everything else about the game didn't strive for (albeit simplified) realism.”
- “Graphics are very bad in this game, it takes me back to the early 1990's on graphics.”
music
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
38%
10%
The music in the game is generally well-received, with many players appreciating its lively and evocative quality that captures the wild west ambiance. However, several reviews note that the limited number of tracks leads to repetitiveness over time, diminishing its initial appeal. Overall, while the soundtrack is considered one of the game's stronger aspects, it suffers from a lack of variety.
- “The in-game music is wonderfully evocative of the spaghetti westerns of old and is a joy to listen to.”
- “One of the best western city builder games, the soundtrack is one of the best ones ever in my opinion.”
- “The music is awesome.”
- “There isn't even much in the way of sound: after you turn off the instantly annoying music, all that's left is the background noise of your city's laborers, which is probably more useful as a sleep aid.”
- “For the love of god, the same handful of songs have driven me crazy!”
- “No real objective to the game other than to fathom out how to get resources, sell a few horses, hunt some bandits then keep on resourcing... then repeat until you wish to gaffa tape your ears up with the sound of the music stuck in repeat.”
story
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
56%
33%
The game lacks a traditional campaign or storyline, functioning primarily as a sandbox experience with no defined goals or missions, which many players find leaves it feeling unfinished and monotonous. While some enjoy the freedom of a randomly generated map and the casual gameplay, the absence of quests or narrative depth is a significant drawback for those seeking a more structured experience. Overall, the consensus is that the game could greatly benefit from the addition of a campaign or story mode to enhance engagement and provide direction.
- “Game is fun; it's like a wild west version of X-COM in-game battles with a fun story of money making and power.”
- “I enjoyed it; I wish they had a campaign or story to play through.”
- “- A campaign or a storyline would be nice, instead of just a random map.”
- “The lack of a proper story is obvious.”
- “An exceptionally boring city-building sim with no depth, and no quests or story to move things along or give you any guidance as to what to do next.”
- “There's no missions, no goals, no nothing except seeing how long you can survive before going bankrupt.”
stability
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
3%
94%
The game's stability has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant bugs and crashes, particularly during gameplay. While some users experienced smooth performance without glitches, others described the game as feeling unfinished and abandoned, with frequent freezing and shallow gameplay. Overall, the consensus suggests that the game is plagued by stability issues, making it a risky choice for potential buyers.
- “Pretty much no glitches and everything runs smoothly.”
- “Abandoned and buggy game, give it a pass.”
- “Brought the game on Steam, but had to get a refund as the game just keeps crashing, just after you start building your lumber yard and sawmill, it just freezes.”
- “Game is very buggy; I started a new game and cannot move around for more than 3 seconds before the game freezes due to high power consumption, which is not ideal if you want to actually play the game!”
optimization
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
71%
13%
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including sluggishness on mid-range computers and overheating on laptops. Users have noted major memory leaks and a lack of support for multi-core CPUs and SLI graphics cards, indicating a pressing need for better coding and optimization. While the game shows potential, it is currently hindered by these performance problems, which developers are expected to address in future updates.
- “Just a little more optimization; aside from that, it's lots of fun to play.”
- “When they have fixed all the bugs and optimized the FPS, this game is definitely worth picking up. Its potential is to become a bit better than Banished, due to there being more going on, but not quite at the level of RimWorld. However, it definitely has the potential to become a solid game.”
- “As many indie games, it is very poorly optimized and programmed: despite its dated (but nice) graphics, a mid-range computer will run it very sluggishly. If you run it on a laptop, it will overheat to frying pan level.”
- “There are some major memory leaks going on or some dire need for optimization and better coding.”
- “Game is good and one to buy in the future, but this game needs a lot of optimization. For instance, build and walk speed is slow; the fastest mode is normal mode in other games.”
replayability
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
68%
14%
Overall, the game has limited replayability, with many players noting that once the balance becomes intuitive, there isn't much incentive to play again. While some appreciate the random map generation, it fails to provide significant depth or variety, leading to a repetitive experience. Players suggest that future updates could enhance its replay value, but currently, it may only occupy players for a short time.
- “There is always replayability in city-builders.”
- “+ random map generation, so it makes for high replayability.”
- “You won't get too many hours out of it for replay value, but the western theme is visually stunning and I've played it more than once.”
- “The random map generation and random placement doesn't provide the replayability that the other reviews say it does.”
- “So all in all, it isn't bad, but if you're looking for any sort of depth or replayability, you won't find it here.”
- “There's not a ton of replay value - if I tried to build a second city, it would end up being just like the first.”
grinding
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and unfulfilling, with a barebones tutorial that leaves them relying on external resources for basic mechanics. Many feel that once initial setups like cattle and farming are established, there is little incentive to engage with other game elements, leading to a sense of stagnation. The repetitive tasks, such as resetting work areas and the lack of meaningful achievements, contribute to the perception of the game as overly grindy and lacking in content.
- “Achievements are a joke; it's just grinding, and the 25 years achievement involves spending half a day building up a sustainable town and leaving it on for 2 or 3 real-life days while time passes in-game.”
- “Feels like an incomplete early access game; the potential was there but it's too grindy, too buggy, and just generally lacking in content.”
- “You are constantly having to reset work areas, which is tedious. The AI is iffy, and honestly, the controls are not super responsive.”
atmosphere
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
25%
25%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its fantastic music and immersive elements that evoke a strong "wild west" feel, enhanced by detailed graphics and ambient sounds. However, the enjoyment is marred by frustrating AI and tedious micromanagement, which detracts from the overall experience.
- “All the glowing lights on the buildings, the campfires of the homeless, the night sounds of crickets, etc. all aspects add up to create a wonderful atmosphere of the old west.”
- “With detailed graphics, I could feel more of the 'wild west' atmosphere here.”
- “Super atmosphere, created with game soul.”
- “The music is fantastic, the atmosphere is great, but the game's terrible AI kills the fun. Hunters only hunt in a tiny area, and you have to manually set the same for loggers. It gets old real fast having to do endless micromanagement that the devs should just program better. Unless the devs stop being lazy, you don't have to be bored. Avoid this game.”
- “With detailed graphics, I could feel a more 'wild west' atmosphere here.”
monetization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization of the game is widely criticized as a cash grab, with many users feeling it resembles an overpriced demo rather than a fully developed product. There are concerns about the developers' intentions, questioning whether this release is a strategy to secure funding for further development or a final attempt to profit before potentially abandoning the project.
- “The lack of testing is not that bad and the game is still playable, but seriously it's a cash grab, or just an overpriced demo.”
- “But hey, that was a nice little cash grab the devs were able to pull off.”
- “So, now the question is, did the developers release this now to raise more capital to continue development, or is this a final cash grab before they disappear?”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is highlighted through its amusing anti-piracy measures, which have garnered attention from players. However, the gameplay experience is marred by frustrating navigation issues, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the humor.
- “I stumbled upon this game because of a report on its funny anti-piracy measures.”