As Madmind Studio continues to keep their work focused within the realm of hell, their new title has taken a completely different direction than their first one did. In this new title, Succubus, we play as the demon queen herself! While we have seen plenty of action and adult-only content from the trailers, they have put out their first initial demo to let players have a first taste in this new role. After trying out this game, including the extended section that I was granted access to by the developers, I have to say that it is off to a better start than I expected.
Gameplay
You start off with a section of wall climbing and once they remove the hints from this section, I can see people getting lost on these walls. Unlike most games, you won’t be simply going straight up or sideways, but instead, there will multiple directions to go to, and sometimes you will even need to jump to the next section. In the demo, the guide was always there so I don’t know if they plan to have that fade out further into the game, but I can’t imagine it staying throughout a whole adventure. I have to say this was a nice change though because it takes away from what players are used to and gives an element you would expect from an uneven and destructive world.
When it comes to the combat itself, I like that there are a few options to go with. You have three slots for different weapon types, but I found myself mainly using the dual-wield horn blades. Each weapon type does have its own perk to it with multiple different versions of that weapon to choose from with various stats. For instance, I liked the dual-wield horn blades because you can throw them at a great distance which I used to get the flying enemies as they approached or tried to escape. You have to unlock these weapons with the points you earn from getting kills in each level and it is the same point system used to purchase different armors.
There is a power meter that manages how much of the magical attacks you can use before having to wait for it to recharge. But, you can choose from different magical attacks from a wheel and each can be charged up to do more damage at the cost of more power. Other than this power or using your weapons, you also have the option to kick enemies away from you. While that doesn’t do a lot of damage, you can kick them off cliffs or into traps, such as spikes, that kills them. Getting special kills with power and kick grants you a small piece of health regeneration.
Another way to gain health mid-fight is to perform an execution. You can do this on an enemy once you damage them enough and you start to see a glow around them. During the execution animations, you are invincible and end up gaining a little health from it. These kills and executions also help build up your rage meter and once it is high enough to activate, you can use it to slow down time and increase the strength of your attacks for a short period of time. If you decide to save the rage meter though, you can use it to revive yourself when your health drops.
Other than the fact that most enemies and victims are naked, including yourself, what makes this an adult-only game is the extra content that is both helpful and optional. When you are not in battle, sometimes you will come across a pregnant woman that is tied up. If you choose to torture her you can gain health by killing her baby - it is as messed up as it sounds. Then there are the lustful moments where you could “get your fill,” so to speak, before killing a random victim of hell. I find both of these options to actually be optional, which is good if you ask me because I think that makes those with a slight interest in this game more able to play it.
You can play on a censored version of the game as well if you want, but it honestly doesn’t hide much. The actions are still there, the majority of the content is still there, they just put a blur screen over the highly gory and heavy content segments. I guess this makes it stream-friendly, but I wouldn’t count on it too much.
Expectations
I like that there are ways to heal mid-fight, but I think they need to make some adjustments to the enemy crowds. When there would be a high density of enemies to fight through, I saw some major performance drops and even once had the game crash from simply being overwhelmed. It would be better to have fewer enemies that are a little harder to kill rather than a horde or easy to kill enemies. This would also help make the executions not only more satisfying but keep the animations themselves able to work properly. Performance issues and animation issues seemed pretty common, but mainly when it comes to being in the fight with a bunch of them.
The home area was definitely a nice touch and there were a few areas locked from being access during the demo. I hope that there is going to be a way to expand the area or maybe adjust it so that it is more customized to the player’s preference. I saw that there is going to be a character customization option, so perhaps a layout customization tab would be a good addition for the developers to consider.
A wider range of magic types would be nice to see as well. All the magic options shown in the demo were either fire or magical force-based attacks. I would love to see some more options like time manipulation, strength enhancement (aside from using Rage), or some other creative options they could use. She is a demon after all; no limits!
Conclusion
I was glad to see that a lot of the aspects to Succubus I was a bit concerned about were optional while keeping the focus on the combat itself. Sure, it has some performance issues to work out, but the demo was still fun to play through. I like the direction they are taking this game and am looking forward to seeing the games development continue. But if this demo did only one thing, it reinsures the fact that they are going all out with this title and it is not being made for the faint of heart!
