Subverse is a lewd shoot-’em-up/turn-based strategy game about overthrowing an empire (and fucking — lots of fucking!)
At-a-glance
(Adult) Content?
(F, FxM) Sexual content.
Censorship?
No. Woot! Woot!
Hours of Gameplay?
Four or five hours.
Modding Support?
No.
Patch Available?
No, not necessary.
Gameplay (3/5★)
Go “pew-pew” in turn-based combat or “pew-pew” with your spaceship (and try to avoid literal space-dicks!) Missions take two forms, “Ground Combat” and “Space Combat”. In Ground Combat, you choose a team of four and defeat your foes turn-by-turn on a small grid. Each character has their own suite of attacks and abilities (including enemies). It’s kind of like XCOM (and just as punishing until you level-up your crew). In Space Combat, you engage waves of enemies in shoot-’em-up-style gameplay. It’s more straight forward than Ground Combat — shoot everything that moves and don’t get hit. In both game modes, you’re able to choose a “waifu” that acts as team-leader. Completing missions will increase your “devotion” with your chosen waifus, which is translated to “Pooty Points” (or “PP”). Pooty Points are used to purchase sexual animations. Barring the animations themselves, Subverse is not a sexual game (but the humor and characters are pretty raunchy).
Sound (5/5★)
The soundtrack is bitchin’! As a matter of fact, I had to insure my “music volume” was turned-up all the way. Some of the music kind of reminds me of KMFDM; it’s fast pasted, electronic, and sometimes industrious. The voice acting is very high-quality, but the choice of voices often broke my immersion. However, the main protagonist’s voice is pretty stellar — considering he’s you, that’s pretty important (and pretty awesome too!) The waifus you drag into combat make tons of commentary — some people may find their comments grating, but I thought they livened-up the game. The sound effects sound premium. It’s a delight to navigate the game and press buttons.
Story (4/5★)
The Captain was “goin legit” as a reputable bounty hunter until he ran into an old friend, Miss Fortune. She’s wants to “overthrow an intergalactic empire” — more specifically, the Imperium — and she needs “a team just crazy and skilled enough to pull it off”. The Captain is the best bounty hunter she knows. The Imperium has imposed a religious tyranny upon the galaxy. Those within the Imperium’s sphere are subjugated to a “strict code of purity and conformity”. Any species that chooses to reject the Imperium are systematically exterminated — genocide. It’s up to the Captain to assemble Fortune’s army, and ultimately overthrow the tyranny (if his rivals don’t catch him first!) Fortune and her crew are not the only ones interested in overthrowing the empire — but their methods and aspirations may create a common enemy.
Visuals (4/5★)
The titlescreen. . . looks bad. It’s graphically good, but the visuals and user-interface don’t impress me. Thankfully, the rest of the game doesn’t look as bad as the titlescreen — on the contrary, it looks awesome! I loved the visual novel sequences. Each character is fully animated, offering a repertoire of animations (kind of like “emotes”) in response their dialogue. I wish they “talked” as the dialogue is voiced — maybe this is a planned update. You may access the “Settings” menu at any time, where you may adjust a wide variety of audio, display, and graphical preferences. You can fully remap the keys (but I found the default control scheme good as-is). I was surprised to see color-blindness accessibility features, but no toggleable subtitles (really Studio FOW?) Overall, the game looks great — almost like a “AAA” game (a mobile “AAA” game). Visible polygons, low-resolution textures, and unconvincing effects cheapened the overall experience (so much for “epic” settings).
The Goods (4/5★)
There are twenty-six sexual animations (but more are planned for the future). Sex-scenes can be accessed in-game from P.A.N.D.O.R.A. (which is located in the “Captain’s Corner”). From P.A.N.D.O.R.A. you may choose a character and queue up to five animations. The models are sexy (as long as you like big boobs and aliens) and the animations are pretty dope. I loved the way each waifu moves — their fatty bodies jiggle with each thrust. Some animations offer adjustable speed and a “Cum” button (which plays a brief climax). Sometimes, the money shots are painted-on. I expect a lot more from a game as high budget as Subverse! The animations don’t offer any sort of customizability or interactivity — they’re just animations, not sex-scenes or minigames. There’s tentacles, aliens and borderline beastiality — but don’t worry, Subverse is all about consent!
Verdict (4/5★)
Keep your pants on (and wait for updates). Subverse is an ambitious game with mediocre gameplay. The gameplay is slow and monotonous, and the grind is kinda real. Once you’ve played a few combat missions, you’ve basically seen everything the game has to offer. I got bored after a few hours. By far, Subverse’s story is one of its biggest strengths. I understand this game was stupidly hyped — quite frankly, I’m not impressed. Subverse has a long way to go before it’s worth the asking price. The game and sexual content look great, but neither play great. If Subverse had no sex-scenes, the game would be virtually unchanged. As they are strictly relegated as purchasable content, they feel like an afterthought. It’s important to note Subverse is only “Early Access” — in other words, it’s just a fraction of what Studio FOW Interactive promised its backers. I have high hopes for Subverse, and I hope it sees regular updates over time.
