VN - Ren'Py - Karlsson's Gambit [v0.8.2A Final] [Grym Gudinna Games]

I'd like to give my 2 cents on a very particular perspective I haven't seen anyone else mentioning yet.

I'm male and a Dom and more than anyone else I'd have every single reason to put this game on ignore without thinking twice but I ended up deciding to give it a try in the end after reading some positive comments praising its story building in another thread

Now I'm glad I did so because this was a very interesting and unique experience to me to say the least:

There is this one singular route where you basically tapdance over 10 laser-beans in a whole universe whose only purpose is to make the male MC its bitch both literally and figuratively and it was very refreshing to see that not only it can actually be done if you choose intelligently but it was also built in such a way that it makes sense in the context of the lore with the whole "rare worthy male" concept going on and I can't stress it enough that this path would most probably not even be necessary for the purpose of satisfying the vast majority of the demographics this game focuses on, but Tess decided to include it anyway.

The male MC can never hope to become a proper Dom in this universe but the fact that he *can* act in such a way to resist such crushing pressure without getting abused or demeaned adds a lot to the quality of this game and the challenge becomes all the more meaningful because of it, as does the enjoyment of those few that, like me, are not much into the core fetish this game caters

Incredible game.
The story is intriguing, the choices are presented in a very descriptive, clear manner, and the characters are enjoyable. I love the three protagonist dynamic, very cool implementation not seen in too many games. I hope to see more of the brother, but the protagonist and his sister are more than enough to drive this wonderful story. The music is also very good, and well implemented given any particular scene. I'm looking forward to seeing where my choices will drive the story, because there are quite a few directions. I'm impressed that the creator is able to maintain quality storytelling with the different branches.
Lastly, Alessandra is my queen. I might be wrong, because hey I'm not the creator, but I think she's the true power player in all this, and I intend to do everything in my power to make sure she realizes her ambitions. Please keep up this wonderful game

This review contains a bit of spoilers
Okay so first of all this game is one of the best games I have played on this site.
It has so much potential and the dev has put so much work building each route and the implementing the consequences of your choices so hats off to dev for that.
This game is heavily based femdom, if you don't like that then stay away. With that being said there are choices in which you can avoid femdom but not completely.
I ,personally, love femdom so I love this game. I love soft femdom , pegging and maybe humiliation
Although some routes contain hardcore femdom and degradation which is not for me. So I took the route where you become K6.
The renders are top notch no complaints about that.
As for the Mistresses , every girl has her own unique charm however Patricia ,Chanel, Olivia(MC's sister) and Veronica seem really great . I hope there would be a love route or maybe a softdom type slave route with them.
The story is quite big and intriguing , its hard to see such a good plot now a days .
I am quite forward to play the new updates.
To sum it up -
Story - 9.5/10
Renders - 9/10
Mistresses/Girls - 10/10
Overall - 9.5/10

While this VN is not a drastic failure, it delivers a very specific content that not everyone will find appealing (it's 100% fetish oriented).

First of all, I don't like the way choices are being presented - honestly, it's just riddiculous: big walls of text covering whole screen which reminds old text-based games.
Secondly, I couldn't help but feel that game has more text content then visual one.

Personally I got bored very quickly, therefore it's hard for me to recommend this VN.

Good:
Great renders, scores of good looking girls, interesting story line, good writing

Meh:
The femdom stuff doesn't do it for me but I am pleased they allowed other paths.

Lots of potential story arcs to go down if the dev chooses to expand on it.

Ok, where should i start, because this game is so so so AMAZING . I mean i have played many femdom games (which i obviously like them) but this game happened to be the best of the best, also this is not only my opinion, but it is also many and many others opinions as well. And let me start with the game itself, this game has a gorgeous graphics especially after the v0.1 and there is v0.4 came out now and i am so excited. Also this game has the dom route and the sub route and so so many branches on each route that interest many players who will play this game, and every player will enjoy each branch or the ones he likes the most . really thumps up to this game and hope to see more of it in the near future

First off, if you want hardcore/extreme femdom in a 'realistic' and 'serious' setting, ignore the harsh criticism that follows in later text blocks and just play it because to my (limited) knowledge there is nothing else featuring that specific genre to this extent. Both in terms of h-scenes and story/worldbuilding/etc if you're into that. You can't get better than this because there are no competitors!

While the game does have an overarching femdom theme (eg, most of the elites in the game world seem to be women who can and will order you around at least a bit), it also features choice-based gameplay forks that lead to very different scenes. Since I consulted the walkthrough while playing, which the dev herself very helpfully posted on this thread, I know that there are 4 paths: evil-dom, evil-sub, good-dom, good-sub. There's a little bit of everything here but, again, it caters to a hardcore femdom crowd.

Basically, the matrix of these 'paths' acts as an h-scene navigator/customiser. So far it's the typical design philosophy of adult VNs, displayed fetishes align with how you roleplay. Which is fine. The problems start with the fact that there are 2 paths too many, specifically the good and evil ones (I'll explain why later). This 4-quadrant personality spectrum bullshit makes the choice aspect a bloated, frustrating mess. I don't want choices in a fap game to 'matter' so much that I'll effectively shut myself out of h-scenes for no other reason than not thinking too hard about what the relentless series of dialogue forks I have to slog through to get there mean in terms of what I'm supposed to be roleplaying as.

Further headaches in tracking the direction of choices are caused by the dual povs (1 male 1 female). Not only is there an overcomplicated personality spectrum, there are two characters that have to roleplayed using that spectrum. I'm fine with the dual pov itself, but not the way it's implemented wrt to the branching paths.

Moving on to why the paths/branches are over-engineered: the good vs evil fork seems to be the dev's way of trying to fit what is, again, an h-scene customiser (in this game, determining how 'extreme' you like your sex, especially femdom) into a 'deep' narrative of power dynamics, human nature and the like. It's about as profound or engaging as you'd expect from a porno gaem, adding nothing to... in fact detracting from, a game already overburdened with choices and characters. Basically it caters to the sexual fantasy of having power and exploiting others (or being exploited) while treating the 'extremeness' of that fantasy as a serious moral issue. So torturing a slave for pleasure is supposed to be 'good', but torturing and then killing them is 'bad'. It's an odd, incoherent view of morality, and it ruins the immersion of the fantasies themselves.

Restricting the personality choices to dom and sub would be a massive improvement to the game design. The vanilla/hardcore stuff can easily be mediated via the player choosing to have a relationship/alliance with some female npcs and not others at their respective forks. Simplicity is not a bad thing!

As for the story, it's your generic YA dystopian universe with feted, depraved elites and non-specific 'oppressed masses', while the heroes reconfigure reality through their "moral" choices. Still, it's a very good setting for a power fantasy. However that potential is wasted, primarily due to the story taking itself waaaay too seriously.

The dialogue sounds like passive-aggressive rec room small talk between middle-managers, even when they're torturing people to their deaths in a dungeon. It's very anodyne, and doesn't really convey the sense of a post-apocalyptic world run by an evil corp.

Renders are decent enough but nothing special, but judging by other femdom games I've played they're at or near the top for this genre. H-scenes - the 'good' route is mostly standard femdom, while the 'evil' route has the really kinky scenes. Yet even those aren't very extreme considering the dystopian scenario. Being a top executive of an evil corp with unlimited power should provide better opportunities for sexual delinquency than bullying and then killing two random dudes in an abandoned alley somewhere. Or making underlings give you blowjobs.

Judging solely by the gfx and sex scenes (and the absence of animations) I'd give this a 3. That's my most objective rating. Feel free to confidently assert that it should be a 10/5 if you're a fan of extreme femdom, which this game successfully caters to. However, the overall experience is less enjoyable than it could be due to the byzantine choice-odyssey and overwrought story.

PS- in lieu of a yet-to-be-updated walkthrough+gallery mod, I highly recommend playing the game with the pdf wt as a constant companion.

Love the complexity and continuous intrigue going on in this VN. Though the sadism for the extreme evil choices are not to my tastes, I do appreciate the presentation of an entire range of how the MC may end up as depending on the choices that he has made long time back and the character evolution as a result of those choices. Keep up the good work and hope to see the next episode ASAP as the suspense is hard to get rid of from this one.

It's about time to give a rating to this as I think it's been around enough time to give a solid opinion.

It would be wrong to say this is a femdom game, while it is a game with that fetish at its core. That doesn't make much sense so I will try to explain. Many devs who do femdom (or maledom) focus on the shallow aspects of the D/s fetish. Slap some footlicking, include some cruel bitches and a hopelessly pathetic MC and you have a femdom game. Or a rapey, macho dude with a big dick who fucks all chicks into submission. Thankfully, this one doesn't go that route.

It's a game that focuses a lot on the mental aspect of power plays. And while it has its share of brute force scenes, it always has that underlying aura of manipulation and mindfuckery. And it also avoids the tired trope of locking the player into playing a wimpy MC, simply because femdom.

It also avoids the trope of a male MC turning the tables on the cruel bitches through the power of...his big dick. In this setting you'll have to be cunning, calculating and pick your battles in order to eventually gain the upper hand. It's a nuanced approach that highlights the game's best feature (writing). Navigating through the harsh setting of the Karlsson facility comes with its own set of moral dilemmas. Yes, you want that power but what are you willing to give for it? Because your MC's big dick just won't cut it.

This game's writing shines through its use of dual protags too. Many games go for that but fail miserably in the delivery, with protags far too removed from each other that it's practically like playing different games. Here, your time with the second MC is used to fill blanks in the story so the player can start putting puzzle pieces gathered from both perspectives together. Which to me, is the best way to go about dual protag (a tag I usually avoid).

The visuals are nice. You will see some familiar DAZ faces but at this point, it's unavoidable. The environments are also well done.

My only worry playing this, was dev's ability to provide payoff for all the different choices you have in game. But from her posts on here, it seems there is a carefully planned storyboard already and that's always a good sign.

In the end, no matter if you like its main fetish or not, this game has an interesting story to tell. And enough agency for the player to navigate through it. It may sound simple but very few wegs manage to do it on a high level.

Karlsson's Gambit is a great game with potential.
PROS:
-Girls in this game are attractive but as dev herself said they all have different personalities and beliefs so they could become more than just attractive renders surely.In general it was nice i liked some of them more than others but dont have hatred towards any of them.
-My choices really mattered so its a big plus. I didnt use any walkthrough because i was curious if my choices could or couldnt make any difference and i can say it certainly did. For example i made it to K6 but my choices to be merciful/affectionate showed itself as well so my path was dominant/good which i believe accurate and close to my rl self.
-The musics/melodies were matching i especially tried to look a few of them too! I believe music is important in any kind of games and this one is doing a great job in it so far.
-The story is interesting and my choices being matter makes it kinda more interesting. I didnt notice any typos/bugs either so here is another plus.
-I can see the dev really caring about her game when i visited the patreon page/what i saw from threads so far.I decided to mention this because a dev need to care about his/her game first so can expect the same from others.
- I liked to be able to control 2 protagonists making choices with one of them affects the other (as i saw so far)
-The UI and game menu looks nice too.
- I have a favourite already! It s Dominique.
CONS:
-Maybe the renders could use more improvement and there could be more animations but like i said it s doing great as it is rn too.

Disclaimer: This review is opinion-based and not a technical review.

So, this game is good, very good it is a game that is food good(sorry was probably hungry while typing) no matter the path you choose to follow, the characters are very much shaped by the player and that is a plus for me, the renders are good, and the story is super interesting, actually, for me, the story is one of the best on this site so far, it is unique, it is intriguing and it keeps you guessing at what is happening in a good way, the characters are also very interesting and obviously shaped by the game world which makes them very unique in many ways, that is basically it, Excellent story, Excellent characters, Very good renders, Very good passing, really Tess is doing an absolutely bang-up job so far.

One of the most incredible games I've ever played, and one I really do look forward to keep playing! The renders, the story, the Sadism and FemDom.. The amount of options and directions you can take... it's all just absurdly amazing!

When I searched for femdom games I was presented with a list of femdom games. On third places was this precious stone. I tried and downloaded it at the point where the game is.
With beatifull images, a intriguing story about a world where a company ruled by 4 sadistic women rule above all other with sadistic desires and one day they cross the life of Kane (M)c) and his sister Olivia.
I believe that the story has much to say yet, because if we pay attention to the story and not only the images we might imagine how this can be. So a nice plot, with some music to each scene, a nice art work (correct me if I am mistaken but it's her first work so nice work) and we have a nice, addicting game.
The main difference to to other games: the player can bee dominant good or bad or submissive good or bad. This feature is for both Mc character Kane and Olivia because we can play with both of them in diferent parts of the game. So and speaking for me you can make Kane a submissive little bitch or a evil servant and you can do an Olivia evil like hell or evil but in a good way. It's up to you.

Nice work till now. And wait to see how it will be.

Boring, text simulator. Premise is good but the entire thing needs a rework. Renders are pretty average, lack good lighting and poor textures. Models are copy&paste from other games. In sum, it has potential but at it's current state, it's a hard pass.

Just wanted to give the game 5 stars.
Amazing game if you like femdom, you can choose to side with the female doms or get assaulted by the femdoms. Very cruel stuff and I do love it! Lots of favourite characters here too, they are so cruel that it's hard not to love them all
Also you can choose how evil your sister will get, which is crazy good and will possibly also be the most evil character in game, for me anyway, haha..

Anyway 10/10!

Other than maybe Asylum, this could be my favorite femdom game I've played so far. It's a little similar to Estate Dominate but I would say the art here is not as good as that game, but the overall story is more interesting. The best thing about this game to me is that choices really do matter! You don't just get different dialogue but totally different scenes later so you can save scum and try different paths. It even has a male dom path (yuck for me) but it's actually pretty fun to try it too.

I really enjoyed the intro to this game, and the promise of a sandbox scenario intrigued me. Yet i started the actual game and there wasn't a single dialog line that wasn't terminal lame. Every single answer option (an there was a remarkable abundance of them) was just what no one ever would say in his own life. After a little while i was just fed up to choose the (barely) less unlikely dialog line available and i quit the game. I never made it out the interrogation room. Maybe the games gets great after that, i don't know. I wanted to go for one star, but that would have been unfair having played so little, so i'll go for three.

1 star: Very good renders
2 star: BDSM & Sex toys
3 star: Choices in game DO matter. Not like, oh I made a different choice so I got +1 love points instead of +1 dom points and the dialogue changed a bit. No, the choices have much stronger impact.
4 star: Interesting plot, I just wanted to jerk but instead was forced to read the dialogues haha
5 star: You start as a slave, but it also will give you 3 different paths to progress, and my favorite is dominate the female dominas. Just for this point alone I will support the author.
Anyway a must play for all those who love bdsm and want smt new

Version reviewed: 0.3 Final.

Overall: Well deserved of 5 stars.

This AVN will not be to everyone's tastes, There is a warning the Dev has provided so take heed.

Personally I loved the progression, each choice means something allowing you to shape the way the game flows. The mantra save often is true for this. I found myself wanting to go back and try different options to see how they played out.

The Renders themselves are of a very high standard, well lit and a good use of depth of field. I do like to have some 'fan service' shots, and the Dev does deliver!

The story is dark, and depending on your choices can often take you by surprise, however each choice and decision you make is not a 'blind decision', you know what each choice will lead to.

If you are a fan of Femdom (hell, even if you're not) this is worthy of your time.

Kudos to you Tess!

Category: Visual Novel
Version tested: Ch.2 Final
Visual novel/Script: 5
Gaming experience: 3,5 (quite bunch of in game decisions for a visual novel / linear plot adventure)
Graphic quality: 4
Character development: 5
Xcitement: 4

Considerations: The plot is interesting and complex at the same time. Graphics are adequate, though sometimes locations are quite simple compared with the ambitious story. Lot of in game decisions that affects the story somehow. Lewd content is adequate.
Quite green yet but promising, nice.