Subverse: Almost What We Wanted
When Subverse was announced, it felt like a watershed moment for adult gaming. Here was a game that wasn't hiding in the shadows—it was a AAA-quality production with actual voice acting, a sci-fi universe reminiscent of Mass Effect, and the audacity to be unashamedly adult. Studio FOW raised over $2 million on Kickstarter plus over $13.9 million on Steam , proving there was massive demand for exactly this kind of experience.
And they delivered on some fronts. The voice acting is genuinely a pleasure to listen to—professional quality that you'd expect from any mainstream title. The character designs are memorable, there's a clear love for the sci-fi space opera genre woven throughout and the humor, although excessive in a Deadpool type of way, which can diminish the immersive experience, is nonetheless funny. Traveling around the ship, interacting with your crew of Waifus, it genuinely feels like the adult Mass Effect we'd been craving.
The fall from Promising to todays 55% mixed rating
So then you actually play the game. First of all, the graphics didn't push any boundaries, but being last-gen tech wouldn't matter if the gameplay was good, however this is where the dream starts to crack.
The tactical combat—which was supposed to be one of the pillars of gameplay—ended up being a chore rather than a joy. It's oversimplified to the point where there's no real strategic depth. You go through the motions, clicking through encounters that feel more like obstacles between story beats than engaging gameplay systems. Where's the tension? Where's the optimization puzzle? The most sophisticated part was trying to position your units for a rear attack which dealt extra damage but this wasn't enough for deep gameplay. It became something I slogged through rather than looked forward to.
Now the Space combat, was a simple "Shoot 'em up" style arcade mini-game, which was actually fun, there wasnt much depth to it but there was a minor upgrade's system and depending on your choice of Waifu co-pilot, you'd have different abilities to deal with the baddies. Overall I found it an enjoyable reflex exercise but it's just that, there is no damage to repair between missions, ammo to restock, play performance didn't impact long term game state and you could always skip the mission after 3 retries.
And the adult content? Despite all the marketing around being an unashamed NSFW game, the actual execution is pre-rendered videos. Your only interaction choices was the speed of the video and when to end it by pressing "Cum". This isn't the interactive 3D experience many of us hoped for—the whole game is essentially a click-thru visual novel with some skippable cutscene/mini-game's. Don't get me wrong, the production quality of those scenes is high, but there's a fundamental difference between watching content and participating in it.
The Development Nosedive
Perhaps most disappointing is what happened after the Steam launch. The sales success didn't translate into accelerated development. Updates slowed to a crawl. After months of waiting, amidst the depths of Corona-induced lockdowns, half-baked game systems that felt like they were made by a single employee checking boxes to gain a bonus had arrived. The promise of a Mass Effect like game became distant as those months turned into years, and then one day out of the blue, boom, they slapped the "1.0" label on it and called it a full release, leaving me to wonder where all that money really went?
It's a cautionary tale: even with millions in funding and clear market demand, execution matters. And sustained execution matters even more.
What CSE Learns From This
Subverse proved the market exists. It proved that gamers want serious, well-produced adult content integrated with real gameplay. But it also showed where the pitfalls lie: simplified gameplay that becomes a means to an end, passive adult content instead of interactive systems, and development momentum that cashes out after reaching success.
These are lessons I carry into Cosmic Succubus Evolution. Tactical combat must be genuinely engaging—something you want to master, an optimization rich experience that leads to deep replayability. Adult content that is holistically integrated into the gameplay systems, not bolted on as cutscenes. And development must be sustained by passion, because without it, no amount of funding will matter.
Subverse was almost what we wanted. Almost.
