Subverse: Studio FOW's TBT/Shmup/Handholding Simulator

Urabrask Revealed

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Thirdly, if you notice who the devs decides to team up for that first look, you can probably guess what sort of controversy has naturally emerged.
Yeah, I already saw a vid from him about that topic. The MSM scum decided to screech and force an apologie out of the developers. Bad idea imo. Now they will never stop demanding concessions. I say it time and again: Never apologize, attack them hard and fast, bring up whatever missdeeds they confessed to, smear them with their own shit.
 

Battlegrinder

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Archie? I guess it was done intentionally, so the shitlibs would give them free publicity.

I doubt it was intentionally, because they issued a paniced apology as soon the complaints rolled in, then unaplogized when Arch fans (which they have a bunch of in the community, because arch advertised the game a bunch during the kickstarter) complained and counterattacked, and then issued a general apology for handling the community communication badly.

If this was planned, it was exceedingly brilliant of them to plan thier response to look nearly indistinguishable to a badly planned panic reaction.
 

Battlegrinder

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In any case, regarding the game as shown, I've got mixed thoughts. The Shmup bits look fine, but it's a shump. You'd have to be trying to screw up a shmup.

It's mostly the ground combat that I have reservations about. What they currently have looks fine, but there's a lot of things I would except to see in turn based combat that's not there. The models don't seem to have animations for moving between locations, and the grid combat has no variation beyond holes in the ground, there's not even cover. They said it would be basic, yes, but I've played mobile games that do better.
 

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Final trailer is out, and launch date is set for the 26th. I gotta say, I'm liking admiral hardass russianameivanovch or whatever her actual name is.
 

Battlegrinder

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Hard pass after the way they stabbed Arch in the back.

They didn't stab him the back. Someone running PR panicked and issued a standard corporate apology, but once the actual decision makers got involved they sided with Arch.

And frankly, Arch doesn't really have a lot of room to complain here. If you run out to go fight in the trenches of the culture war, you don't get to complain about the odd bit of friendly fire.
 

Battlegrinder

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So, it's out in early access, and I've got a couple hours of play time under my belt. My impression is that it's fine. Mostly, anyway, and the biggest issues are things that will get sorted out in time.

Pros:
Everything works, no crashes, technical hicups, obvious bugs, etc. This isn't much of a bonus, but given that AAA games sometimes fail to work properly on launch, it's worth noting.

The game's got a really solid sense of humor, but it's not just "hahaha, penises", there's actual jokes. And also "hahaha, penises". It's still a porn game.

The "taking potshots from the peanut gallery" humor in the trailers has carried through into the game, so far they've lampooned Randy Pitchford, The Last Jedi, lootboxes, themselves, and probably a bunch of other stuff I've not found or overlooked. And also Tim Pool (I guess FOW is still irked about those legal threats).

On the actual game side, the SHMUP element is very well made, there's 3 main factions and they all feel fairly different from one another just based on how they behave and what weapons and ships they have available.

Ground combat is fine, I'm not very good at it yet but the basic mechanics feel solid, I just need to learn them a bit more. The adrenaline system is a nice twist (units build up a meter by dealing or taking damage, and once full can activate a powerful ability), it encourage you to quickly knock out enemies before they build up a full gauge, but also punishes spamming weaker attacks or trying to take on an target with something they're resistant to, as it just lets them build up thier gauge faster, and encourages you to not play it too safe. You want ranged units a bit closer, so enemy ranged units can shoot at them and build up your adrenaline meter.

Cons:
The biggest issue has been limited waifu variety, right now there's 3 in the game, but only two can fight in ground/space combat, Demi is just there for plot stuff and lewds. Subverse has a decent sized enemy roster, but it's got it's limits, and particularly for the space side, constantly having only two choices of co-pilot was getting dull.

The second biggest issue has been aformentioned lewd scenes, which are mostly opitional save for (so far) a single mandatory one with each waifu. I'd rather the sex stuff be totally optional, as I think they're a turn off to people that might like the rest of the game but would rather not engage with the sexual elements.




I'm not sure if I'd recommend the game. I wouldn't suggest you avoid it, but I suspect for many people, there's not really a good hook that will mean they'll like it. The jokes are good, when they show up, and if they're to your taste, but is it worth going through all the SHMUP and ground stuff just for them? The actual gameplay is fine, but there's nothing really great about it, it't just ok. If you're actually a fan of either genre, I think you'll be better off spending money elsewhere.
 

ParadiseLost

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I'm not sure if I'd recommend the game. I wouldn't suggest you avoid it, but I suspect for many people, there's not really a good hook that will mean they'll like it. The jokes are good, when they show up, and if they're to your taste, but is it worth going through all the SHMUP and ground stuff just for them? The actual gameplay is fine, but there's nothing really great about it, it't just ok. If you're actually a fan of either genre, I think you'll be better off spending money elsewhere.

I've never played the game and I could've told you that.

Games where sex is the main draw almost always have mediocre gameplay at best.
 

Battlegrinder

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I've never played the game and I could've told you that.

Games where sex is the main draw almost always have mediocre gameplay at best.

I woyld actually disagree with this after what I've seen in the past few hours.

Subverse's normal, semi random missions are merely serviceable. The boss fights, however, have been great.

So far there have been 2 (3 counting the tutorial, which I'm not). The first one was against a pirate battleship, and was more along the lines of a side stroller shmup, and was fairly demanding at points as you had to dodge through obstacles under fire. Took several tries to clear it.

The other one was against the Huntress, a bounty hunter. It was easier and harder than the first one. She had a bunch of tricks (decoy ships, attacks that can one hit you if the whole salvo lands, generates AOE damage obstacles on the field, etc) and the first time she springs on you, it can easily be fatal. However, once you know what she's doing, those tricks usually won't work again, as they're telegraphed well enough you can avoid them. I think I preferred that fight to the pirate one, it felt a lot more like you were actually fighting am enemy rather than navigating an obstacle course that happened to be shooting at you.

My only issues with both fights is that bosses felt a bit tanky, and you were limited in what copilot weapon you could bring. For the pirate, you're stuck with killi for story reasons, but Lily's sniper shot would be much more effective at letting you wear the boss down from range (though killison's shotgun has its uses). vs the huntress, you get neither, instead you have a missile launcher that was last used in the tutorial, and trying to get the hang of an unfamiliar weapon is an additional and honestly unneeded bit of challenge for the fight.

A third, nitpick issue is that as the Huntress is an aquatic species that resembles and octopus, she of course had the usual "throw up a obscuring cloud and dissappear only to pop up again later" trick that all cephalopod-like video game enemies are obligated to use, because cephalopods. I don't necessarily mind that trick, it's not OP or anything, but it's a well-worn video cliche and it's the only one of the huntress's trucks I saw coming and countered immediately, precisely because it's a cliche.
 

Battlegrinder

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New update dropped, adding two new monsters, a new waifu, a bunch of new planets, and the next little bit of the story. Story content was a bit short, but it was fine.

They've reworked the ground combat a bit, there's explosive barrels on maps new so positioning requires a bit more thought in order to best exploit the extra damage. Luckily the enemies don't seem to be smart enough to set them off. The one issue I have is that while your ranged units can safety detonate the barrels, melee units cannot, they take damage from the blast. Which is expected, but it'd be nice if they could shove the barrel into an adject square to set it off, or jump back a space after striking it. They've also added enemies dropping health packets that provide a team heal, so that you have reason to pick a character other than Lily, plus one of the new monsters self heals. As a result, the ground combat is much more engaging and I'm making an effort to actually learn the system now.
 

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