Not Going Back

This rating may change but i just got to the party and OMG. Dev if you read this, you have my respect. Usually i hate playing most games because i hate having to play as a white guy in every damn game being black myself but omg. Usually i see a black guy in a game and wish i could be playing as him just to finally be the black mc but after talking to Shawn, I have never ever wanted to switch places with a guy in a game more than here. The entire talk you have with him is SCREAMING to be the actual game. You have a black guy out of his element, judged by old money, black, and trying to keep his family status under wraps. That is a game right there. I'm not saying the mc is garbage or anything but playing the same white model i've pushed through a game countless times doesn't hold a candle to what the game could've been with Shawn as the MC.

Chapter 1-4 Review I'm not sure what to say since this game is a passion project. I'd rather not lay into it like the other devs who have 3 unfinished games, Patreon-exclusive content, and selling their incomplete games for $XX.99 on Steam. So, I'm just going to do what I always do and just give some constructive criticism and just my opinion. Spoiler: PROS Beautiful models. Most of the girls are really pretty and shapely. I recognized a lot of the guy models from... every other game ever (I'm not familiar with what kind of models these are), but I think most of the girls here look pretty unique. But also sexy, I guess that's the important part. Male Friends, thank God! I think the most unrealistic thing a game can do is make all the other male characters either idiots or evil assholes, all to create the illusion that you are the only guy in the world worth pursuing. I love harem games too, but it gets old. My ego and masculinity are not so fragile as to not allow my male friend characters to have a girl that I'm not interested in, or to show me a girl that I can't have. A bit of a tangent but more games need more cool male friends with girlfriends. An End Goal. A lot of AVNs sometimes try to go on for long as possible, and while there's nothing wrong with that, after 4 or so years of development, we tend to expect an ending very soon. I believe it's stated that the game will be 11 chapters? And while the plot isn't the greatest thing ever, I can at least tell that it's going somewhere. And that makes it very easy to keep following along. Spoiler: CONS If I'm being honest, I think I like college AVNs the best. They're fun, chill, reminiscent of the crazy things you do or did with your friends and classmates. Or maybe things you wish you did, if you never got the opportunity. College AVNs are a blank canvas with dozens of different ways you can take the story. Here? It all feels a bit TOO normal. For starters, I think the main issue is the characters and dialogue. It doesn't feel like anyone is saying anything of value. It's dry and bland. The writing is decent. Characters like Alice and Jess have their voice, you can tell how different they are in their speaking and mannerisms. And when the plot eventually gets rolling, it gets a little interesting. But at the same time, a lot of the dialogue can feel like going through the motions. Like, " Hi, how are you? Good, and yourself?" fluff type of dialogue. Luckily, they end right before your eyes roll to the back of your head. For example, there's a scene where Alice, the reserved girl, comes up to your room to study with you and your roommate. Most of the scene is just everyone quietly studying. When she does talk, she mentions Mia used to cheat off her homework. That's it. That's all we learned. There was no purpose for the study session to be in the game. If the intent was help or imply Alice coming out of her shell, I wish that was made more obvious, like Alice speaking up to start a convo during the quiet moments. Or her just outright asking to help her be less shy. And that could've been her story. The second issue I had with the game is how jarring some transitions are and the overall passage of time. Usually, devs do a fade-out to imply an amount of time passing. Or something similar. This game doesn't do that. So, when characters are eating lunch at the cafeteria, talking about having a party tonight, it feels incredibly off when the next scene, it's night and they're at the party. I had a lot of whiplash with this game, but eventually, I got used to it. Doesn't mean it's a good thing though. My third issue is the lack of music or sound at all. I used to not care if a game had music or not, but the lack of any BGM or even ambient sounds, coupled with the bland dialogue made the game that much more of a chore to get through. There were a few points where I felt like I couldn't tell the tone of the moment or game overall. "Is this a chill, quiet moment? Was that a joke? Is this is supposed to be exciting? Am I supposed to be scared? Feel tense?" Sometimes, I had no idea. Or worse, I did know what I was supposed to feel and didn't feel that at all. Another example. The MC is having nightmares and flashbacks of a girl. He later reveals that he has a history of alcohol and drug abuse and is trying to abstain. When his friends Chloe and Lucy are discussing Pharmacology, the mention of drugs causes him to zone out and all he can see is the girl. A chilling or creepy score, or even the loud thumping of a heartbeat would've helped elevate that scene so much. But with no sound at all? Nothing? A girl's eyeball popped up on my screen while two other girls were talking and then the MC said he zoned out... Sound and Music, or the lack thereof, are powerful that way. Lastly, there's the sex scenes. There's no animation. Which is fine, not every game needs animation to be hot or sexy. But most devs still try to simulate movement. This kind of feels like... flashes of sex? I don't know, I can tell the dev is trying, but it's not doing it for me. A lot of people will find this game either a little, or very, boring. ESPECIALLY the first half of Chapter 1. In addition to the aforementioned cons, it's a slow burn, you won't be smashing girls right away. But after a couple hours, towards the middle of Chapter 2, you'll get there. Being a slow burn isn't really a "con", but I'm just letting you know. But after I pushed past all the cons, I found myself interested in learning more about the characters, be it the MC, an LI, or one of the bros. I enjoyed what's here so far. EDIT: There's a review below talking about how the dev forgot an important detail about the MC's drinking, but if they bothered clicking 2 more times, the MC goes on to explain why he lied or omitted the details. You can dislike the fact that he drinks just like any other college MC, but give the dev some credit, and let's please give actual reviews. The MC's substance abuse is a big part of the game's story, and while not perfect, the dev's writing is pretty damn tight. However, "Mundane" is one of the words I think of with this game. Not bad, just normal. There's not enough drama or excitement for my tastes. With a little bit of polish, it could be an 8/10 game down the road. There is something here that I can't quite explain, like a diamond in the rough. But as it is now? "Average" really might be the perfect word for it. 5.5/10

Start game, first 5 mins, MC says he doesn't like to drink due to a family history of alcoholism. Fair, good to know, could be interesting with a college story for a change.....aaaand literally the next party he's blackout drunk in a dancing/party montage. The author either forgot a rather important character feature in literally 10 minutes, or worse, doesn't care about it and the story doesn't matter. Either way, not a great start.

Great update. I'm enjoying the leisurely pace of the story development. None of the girls seem disposable; they all have personalities. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to seeing some group action in the future!

Some things I noticed: - graphic is ok, but also very ... basic is probably the best word to describe it, characters are fine but everything that goes beyond that like expressions, positioning, lighting, backgrounds etc. Really isn't good, same can be said for the sex scenes - story is ok, it's a college themed game, I didn't expect much and that's fine - writing: the good: it's not too verbose and the grammar is fine; the bad: everything else, it's robotic, unnatural and boring to read, characters don't feel like actual people, more like vehicles to deliver information. - all LIs more or less have the same body, there's a severe lack of variety - personalities are ok. I've seen a lot worse on this site, but again nothing that stands out and I pretty much forgot about all of them after I closed the game. The lackluster writing mentioned before really isn't helping. TLDR; If you have time and are looking for a college AVN, give it a try, but don't expect too much. Three stars, but IMO it's closer to two than four stars. It's maybe worth mentioning that although I did play the current Version (0.4) I quit pretty soon because I was bored, so if any of the above improved later, I wouldn't know.

I loved my college years, so I love AVNs about young age and cute girls. There are plenty of those in Not Going Back . They are sexy and have lovely, interesting personalities. Renders are of high quality, with good posing etc. Writing is very solid, and the story is engaging. ★★★★★ Characters ★★★★★ Models ★★★★★ Renders ★★★★★ Writing Nice! [Ch.3.1] PS. OK, I agree with berny 's review: facial expressions there could often use more work. When they are just neutral, like a character is just staring at you with eyes wide open, that sometimes doesn't feel 100% right. But that's the only problem of this game, and it's not like in every scene. Dialogs, perhaps, not super brilliant, but still not bad, especially compared to so many other VNs. So it's quite alright here. Still 5 stars.

It's impossible to beat a game like beingadik. But for a college game, this is definitely better than the vast majority of them. I might place it at the same level as intertwined (honestly every other college game I would rank below this game, beingadik and intertwined). Dialog is good, more options would always be nice. If you somehow manage to use AI to generate scenes you'd be golden. I would normally give this a 4 - 4.5 but since there are not many ratings as of now, I give it a 5 (so as not to lower the overall ratings).

It's the classic formula of dude goes into freshman year and hooks up with a bunch of hotties. Models are great, scenes are hot, and it does the genre well. Main girl is a little boring but Tegan and Bobbie are GOATed. Also leaves some mystery to the other girls so there's something to look forward to. Great job

I'm afraid this one is a miss for me, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. The main reason for it is the story: to be honest, there are too many games here about the university full of tropes that just repeat themselves. First few scenes: go to the dorms, get bullied by the rich kid, meet some hotties, play bottle... It just has been done way too many times to keep any interest for me. May be different for you though. Choices do matter which is great. Render quality is really good to be honest, and the character models are great and really hot with diverse bodytypes and so. No animations though, not even for the sex scenes, which is currently below standards in the genre. Sound is not present at all except for the main menu song (an atrocious version of a marvelous song, btw). And at least in my playthrough I found no bugs. So, all in all, if it had a different story with a different take or something the grade would be higher for me, and it may be higher for you if you are not saturated by this tropes being done again and again in the same way. Since I am, for me it lands somewhere in the middle.

Genuinely enjoyed playing this today. Usually I delete a game as soon as the scenes are like slideshows as I much prefer animated but in my opinion it's obvious that this game is being made with passion. I like the MC, not a pushover nor a dick, at least, I played the honest/open up route and I think it's good. The MC felt quite relatable to me on that path.

Alright replayed again, changing to 5 stars really liked a lot of the LI's and that is honestly what changed my scoring here I feel they are more complex than I originally thought they were minus Imogen which I already knew she was complex. Dev also is super nice and interacts well with the community, bonus points there Original Too Many characters In my opinion, too much going on here seems like a branching nightmare. Alex seems like a toolbag of a roommate. Kai looks like a douche Its decent but its kind of boring even though there is a lot going on if that somehow makes sense. Lots to play through for branching purposes but dev cycle is gonna hit that branching hard Lauren is ugly as sin too BTW

Exellent little college game! There are a lot of college games in this in the nsfw-game world, but this one truly stands out. This is one of those games where the writing really carries the load. The renders are good, the girls look great, but there are unfortunatley no animations. The game is not perfect, but the author is fairly new, and has huge potential. So if you place story, characters and good writing at the top of your list for playing games, give this game a try!

PROS - Nonlinear, your choices matter. Its nice to know that there are many paths instead of everything being thrown into one harem route. - The characters are interesting enough to pull you in for more. Idk where the line between main & side girls is yet as there are a lot of girls. - So the plot has something to do with MC's past as the game would constantly tease you about it but not reveal too much yet, I'm guessing its something tragic. Otherwise, its the usual college AVN with the party and frat lifestyle. - In most AVNS, the MC and his female LIs are central to the storyline while the vast majority of male characters are just extras or background noise besides a few token males (your dad or the guy you cuck or the overly goofy college bestfriend). I like that the male NPCs feature a bit more and play a bigger role here outside of the usual tropes, I appreciate the efforts of making this game seem realistic. CONS - Lack of diversity. So idc that all the LIs are white girls. My issue is with the body proportions. Almost all of the girls are thicc and curvy. Which is a weird critique cause thats actually my personal preference lol. But too much of the same thing is always bad. It kinda feels like everyone has the same body with a different face. - The sex scenes can seem a bit 'transactional' and lacking a bit of passion/spice. Lemme figure out a way to describe this. Imagine your watching porn, and the cameraman zooms in on a specific body part. And then he pans away and zooms into another part of the body. My guy, can you please step further away or at ZOOM OUT. I'd like to see more angles capturing the entire body and more interaction between the characters.

Ch.3 It is college drama. MC does try to fuck everything and that is pretty much the plot. Conversation options do have a meaning and that makes the story somewhat interesting. Writing has too much meaningless and useless chit-chatting. College games feel boring, unless you get exited about possibility of seeing random tits. There are a million characters, so don't expect much depth in character development or anything like that. But conversations do feel authentic. Visuals are ok. Graphics quality (tits and ass) and artistic style make the game visually pretty boring. Too many zoomed in pictures. Sex scenes are bunch of random pictures from random angles. Best part is that girls have pretty faces and big asses.

Well i just finished the first 2 chapters in one sitting, i dont usually rate games this early but this game is very good indeed. It has vibes of another great game but it also has some intrigue (one bit freaks me out is the eye render popping up out of nowhere). Models are seriously smoking hot all different personalities etc. excellent renders as well There is only one thing it is missing and that is animations i mean this game would be a page 1 top rated game if it had them in it. However i wont knock a star off for that as i still got engrossed in the game so well done DEV.

Overall it's pretty good so far. This is a slightly more low-key college AVN. Don't worry you still live that frat star life most people come to these games for, but it's not as boisterous, and with an MC that's a bit more quiet and contemplative (without being a pushover). The renders are nice and there's a good selection of LIs on offer although we're still early on. Honestly the only significant drawback is the lack of animations which I understand is a deal breaker for some, but if you can look past that I think this one of the better college AVNs out there at the moment

So far so good, 5 stars for now because I hope it will continue to get better. There are a lot of characters, so many that I don't know if they're all gonna be relevant to the story later. The dev may want to consider adding character bios so we players can check if we forgot them. Also the option to see if the decision made has major effect on the story or not would be appreciated.

I've been following this thread for ages and finally got around to playing. In the beginning I was worried there were so many names being introduced... but honestly I guess that's what it feels when you start college anyway and it created this really believable atmosphere. I like how each character feels different, not all of them want to jump on the MC immediately, and how there are paths for all types of players to indulge. I can see someone really going all in on Alice or Ellie for instance, whereas I am not that interested in them. It also really felt like choices mattered. There were so many of them and so many different little paths. It reminded me of another famous college-themed AVN except I somehow liked this one better. Kudos to the dev for creating such a believable little environment, for the beautiful models and chill MC. On the constructive side, it would be nice to see more animations but I'm sure those are hard to get right and probably super time consuming. It would also be nice to have a few more wide angle shots or third-person view of some of the scenes. But 5 stars either way!

It's a good game and there's a lot to like about it. Lots of hot and interesting LIs, a story with some mystery and a beastly MC. On the downside, there's a little too much drama for me (e.g. MC's past, PED, evil guys who won't take no for an answer, Chloe/Nathan, etc) and what's up with a LI who expects you to eat her out to orgasm but won't even put your dick in her mouth. Why would this be a problem for a woman in a porn game? This is an AVN right? I was going to give 5 stars despite the excessive drama, but I had to deduct a star for giving Mia such a bullshit phobia and having her cause a scene (it's almost like a porn star that won't give a BJ lol...fail).

Version Chapter 2.1 First of all I want to say I enjoyed the hell out of this game. For me it's a 5 star purely because of how much I enjoyed it but I feel it's still too early to give it a 5 star. positives likeable characters characters have personality and are interesting good looking characters world feel alive so far nothing really feels forced for the sake of adding X hot renders during sex scenes I actually look forward to future interactions with every character instead of a few like other games Things that might be a con to some but not to me no music no animations alot of characters I mentioned there is no animations. While that is true , I thought the renders / sex scenes were hot as hell and don't really need them. But would be welcomed if they ever come in the future. There seems to be some trauma / deeper problems with the MC and some of the other girls in this one. From what ive seen so far all of those issues for the characters just adds to them and makes them real interesting. Unlike some other games were there issues are just there to give character arc's or deveolopment but besides that they never felt like they had personality. Well it's the complete opposite in this game. About the part that there is alot of characters, in this game it only adds to the game's world and makes it feel alive instead of how most games are centered around the 5 - 6 LI or whatever. While not all the characters are main girls or LI , which can be a negative if you really like a certain girl but isn't a main girl. It really isn't that bad either because I haven't found 1 character I didn't like so far. There are plenty of other options when it comes to LI. Also during lewd scenes you can feel the personality or even get a little bit of character deveolopment with these characters. The dialogue during the sex scenes aren't boring. I feel this game is trying and succeeding to make things comes off as natural as possible. So far to me none of the lewd scenes has really felt forced or rushed just for the sake of having a lewd scene. Sure some are quicker than others but I felt what lead up to them felt better than alot of other AVN's that have quick lewds. Here is a bit of my thoughts on the subject I typically not big on LI that are easy to sleep with or this quickly in a game unless it's a harem or something. Yet with all the interactions or character deveolopment we have gotten so far I didn't mind one bit in this game. As the sex scenes felt like they came on pretty naturally and not because they are glued to the MC's dick. As it felt like the LI that did sleep with him had a genuine like of the MC because of who is and his character and not because of the MC. If a game is gonna have early lewd scenes that isn't with a side girl hell even if they are with a side girl this is the way to do it. As I was already invested or liked their character where the lewds were welcomed even if I would personally like to take things a bit slower haha. Not sure how extensive this game will be going forward when it comes to branching but there is some small branching, I missed 2 lewd scenes on my first playthrough because of my choices.