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

TLDR: I can't believe the ratings this game has. Stay away unless you're really into non-consent femdom and murder. The "male dom" path is just an afterthought and you'll still be constantly femdommed. Terrible story, one-dimensional characters. MC is like a side character, most scenes don't include MC. Poor pacing. Outdated models, renders.

Positives:

• Some of the girls are hot despite the outdated assets and rendering. Their bodies are all sexy (well, they're all identical).
• Once in a while you get to dominate a girl a bit. But it's nothing exciting and it's over quickly.
• ... literally nothing else comes to mind. (Unless you love non-consent femdom.)

Negatives:

• I can't recall even one scene that really turned me on.
• Way too many women (25+) to even keep track of, let alone care about at all. They all look and behave the same too.
• 5 years after the initial release and there's only 20 sex scenes (all vaginal) when unlocking all scenes on the male dom path.
• MC feels like just a side character. The majority of the scenes are actually without the MC. Poor story-telling.
• MC gets tortured, kicked hard in the balls, etc. Have to watch women stepping on guys' balls, and worse. Really, WTF?
• Even when consistently choosing the male dom options there's a lot forced femdom. Basically, that's the entire story.
• No real relationships, affection, intimacy.
• I guess it's supposed to be a fuckfest? But there's relatively little fucking.
• Sex scenes are unsatisfying for a variety of reasons. For example, it may be interrupted by having to see another dude get tortured, see his balls stepped on, etc. The male dom sex scenes are also very short, vanilla, and feel "sterile".
• Forced lesbianism. A ridiculous amount of lesbianism in general.
• Almost no animations. Only includes a couple of basic animations starting late in season 1.
• Contrived, unbelievable story. Comic-book villains, over-the-top caricatures of evil. Immature, one-dimensional, lacks nuance.
• Must play as other characters than MC. Suddenly you're playing as the slave Seth. Or MC's sister. Or other people. Really stupid and unimmersive, feels schizophrenic.
• The male dom path is poorly made, isn't integrated properly into the scenes. Just feels like an afterthought. Again, so much femdom on the "male dom" path.
• MC is stupid, weak, insecure, passive.
• MC looks stupid. His body looks weird, like a soft noodle.
• Must watch the girls fuck other men, femdom them, torture, murder, etc. I don't care for all these scenes without MC.
• Poor and outdated character models and environment assets.
• Low render quality (e.g. poor lighting, no depth of field, volumetric fog, proper shadows, etc).
• Terrible pacing. No sex for a long time. Then suddenly you, literally, fuck 7 girls in one day.
• Unskippable cut scenes and forced "hard pauses" of the slides.
• Difficult to understand the consequences of choices. You're mostly just guessing.
• Exclusive paths for the girls. I prefer the _option_ of pursuing all the girls.
• Almost all the girls are already huge sluts at the start. I would prefer corrupting them.
• During sex scenes they keep talking bullshit, interrupting the action.
• Dev teases us with the sister all the time and then, despite all the game variables referring to her as MC's sister, pretends she's actually not his sister after all. No sex with her yet anyway.
• Forced cunnilingus. Many times. And in total there must be something at least 50 cunni scenes.
• Dev confuses "evil" with "disgusting". Warns a choice is evil but it turns out it's actually just super disgusting, making a guy eat MC's cum. Big turn off.
• Characters behaving against your choices. So if you make the sister always be a "good" person she'll still be really evil, torturing, sexual assault, etc.
• If you want to maximize the number of sex scenes you'll have to see plenty of murder, torture, men getting raped. Things like other men getting fucked in the ass by a huge dildo etc. Big turn off for me.
• Girls are almost always riding on top. Very boring, repetitive, and MC isn't in control.
• Every scene (sexual or not) is led by others. MC is just a passenger even when you choose the "dominant" route.
• Dev several times tries to get you to have other men drink MC's cum.

Number of scenes when trying to maximize sex scenes (except a couple scenes requiring seeing men to be dildoed in the ass, etc.)

• Vaginal: 20 (Of these, scenes without MC: 2)
• Anal: 0
• DP: 0

(Version played: v0.8.2B Final)

this game is awful

despite having 2 protagonist game still show you perspectives of other characters and their sex scenes

game have no real intimacy, affection or even sex
its just foot fetish and some stupid cages or face sitting
there is no penetration scenes or anything cool

even if you score high with lady they just handle you from hand to hand with nothing going on

game don't rl let you decide in most cases it feels more like cutscene selector with additional scenes of other people you didn't asked for

i think game should focus way more on player characters or at least show player only scenes their characters can see/know off

Some of the attributes like Good and Dom are underutilized
game often switch and give you evil points instead of dom points

i don't recommend it, i also don't wanna bother with save import for more of the same

Honestly, if you are a person that enjoys specifically femdom then you're likely going to get a bit pissed off given that this is mainly just a non-consent dystopian alt-reality.
Femdom or maledom is based in consensual agreement, it has safewords and safeguards for the individuals involved, this has anything but.
Are the females dominant in this game? Sure, but that's where any comparison to specifically femdom ends.

If you're into a cruelty simulator specifically designed as a wish-fullfilment for the dev then by all means go for it. If you want to try out the non-sub route.. it ain't much. It's pretty clear what this game is meant to revolve around, and if you stray from that (even if it's by design), it just ends up feeling disappointing in a lot of ways.

If you want an actual femdom game then you should probably just jog on. There are far better apocalypse/dystopia simulators out there, and there are far better games involving femdom out there.

Version 0.7 Final

Karlsson's Gambit features a unique post-apocalyptic cum femdom story world that somehow offers so many story branches that you can actually forge a path to play as a normal non-submissive MC without feeling misaligned.

Story
MC is a downtrodden guy living a miserable life in jail when he gets an offer from the Karlsson Group to join a management trainee program in return for sentence reduction. Though the story supposedly takes place in a post apocalyptic world, you don't actually see any of it as events take place in a secret facility located on a private island.

Gambit's world is built around the concept of femdom where the female executives of the Group go about dominating and abusing male and occasionally female slaves for their pleasure. Interestingly, players are able to steer MC towards either being a beta sub or slight alpha (game says dom points, but the general feel is neutral to light maledom).

Much of the story takes place through the eyes of MC as a program participant and occasionally as Olivier, where you can (hopefully) make the right choices to advance MC's job rank. There is also an overarching mystery on the Karlsson family as well as the role MC, his sister and brother, Olivier and Seth, play in the grand scheme of things.

There is also a lot of political intrigue between various Karlsson daughters, board members and rival companies as they vie for control of the company after the elder patriarch's death.

Game Mechanic
One of the games with the most meaningful choices I have ever played in a visual novel. The number of variables tracked as the game progresses is phenomenal and they will alter your experience in each single play through significantly.

Besides the usual stuff like relationship points, good / evil, dom / sub, there are dozens of other variables that change depending on your choices and will lead to different scenes and dialogue. The challenge is sometimes there is no way to tell the consequence of your choices and you might inadvertently veer off into a path that you don't like.

I highly recommend you play with Sancho's walkthrough mod so that you can make informed choices.

Background / Character Renders
Background is decent Daz3D stuff featuring mostly modern indoor venues in the training facility. Character designs are unique and highly distinguishable, something of great importance in Gambit due to the large cast of characters.

LI's can be a mixed bunch from stale models gotten from Daz marketplace to some pretty unique ones. MC is decent looking while other male models are usually weak and ugly as expected for a femdom themed game.

Character Development
You do get significant agency to shape MC's and Olivia's character development so the experience is immersive as a player. As for other major LIs like the four Karlsson sisters, Katsumi and Kiyomi, each have their own distinct personality traits and not just the usual two-dimensional femdom mistresses.

The depth and nature of MC's relationship with the major LIs will also to a large extent be shaped by the choices you make, so playthroughs will differ significantly.

Sex Scenes
The quantity is certainly there, but the earlier ones are mostly mediocre featuring a limited number of still renders and minimal dialogue. A lot of similar male abuse stuff becomes numbingly repetitive after a while and will only appeal to hardcore femdom fetish lovers.

Animations are introduced from Chapter 6 onwards and the sex scenes only become fully erotic from Chapter 7 with a variety of interesting scenarios, good animations and spicy dialogue.

BGM and Sound Effects
Diverse BGMs that mostly fit the story though there were the occasional upbeat modern vibe ones which felt out of place as the environment as a whole is supposed to be oppressive and heavy no matter which routes you choose.

There are no / minimal sound effects.

Conclusion
I'm not a fan of femdom so wasn't too keen to try out a game centred around this fetish, but gave it a try as multiple reviews mentioned its elaborate world building and choices. The reviews are right on both counts and I'm glad to have given this a go.

If you are not into femdom, then the light maledom route would likely fit well. If you dislike and find femdom intolerable, then Gambit is not for you as there is no shortage of females abusing males throughout the game no matter your choices.

Completely one-dimensional. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as people who like femdom should have games that appeal to that kink. But Karlsson's Gambit is a masterclass in constructing the perfect apathy generator.

It's a guarantee that even the most patient player will lose all immersion and interest in a short period. How do I know that?
- Introducing 25-30 characters (no, i am NOT exaggerating) in the first 30 minutes of the game. Who the fuck are all of these people?
- Unclear protagonist. One would think that since I got to name the male MC, he is the.... well, the MC. WRONG! There's also MC's sister, MC's brother, random women, other prisoners, all of whom you get to make decisions for! Whoopty-doo!!! There's definitely no way that you won't just pick random shit because who-the-fuck-are-these-people-anyway!
- Bad graphics. I guess because this came out like, 5 years ago? Either way, very unimpressive visually.
- No bad ending options. It'd be satisfying, and enough for a 5-star rating, if I could have a game-ending decisions to strangle the sadistic women, given they are weak and nowhere near capable of defending themselves, and it's demonstrated over and over that the prisoners have nothing to lose. But nope! Even the most 'maledom' character still bends over and spreads his cheeks to take it like a b****.


This may as well be a kinetic novel. Nothing seems to change whatsoever.

Was referred to this game from another thread as a good maledom game, and I want some of whatever that poster was smoking. Because this ain't it.

Mediocre graphics. Amateurish writing. A clearly inexperienced developer who quickly got in over their head with way too much branching and then didn't know how to recover without just hacking and slashing.

Be aware that the dev's kinks are all about femdom instead and the game reflects that. The maledom route is horrendously underbaked, weirdly vanilla, the MC will still be subservient (and an idiot) with most of the prominent women, you're going to be locked out of a ton of content, and half the time you're going to be watching femdom with the two other main story characters no matter what anyway.

And that's before the dev decided to axe even more of the maledom route, LIs, and endings recently. Wish I'd seen those posts before I started.

If you like femdom as much as the developer and can deal with the above glaring limitations, more power to you.

After deliberating for quite some time I've decided to give this game a go and see what's up, mostly because I've seen people praise it so it got me somewhat curious. There will be some minor spoilers ahead I guess, so be advised.

Just to be clear I've only played the good DOM path and only played the game once, I don't like femdom, especially if there's humiliation involved, so my review is about the DOM content and hopefully will be useful to people who are interested in that part of the game.


Before the DOM route review let me just say something about Olivia a.k.a the female protagonist.
For some reason it feels like that Olivia is the MC, I can't put my finger on it why I feel this way, but the MC seems like a secondary character and I wasn't aware how big of a role this second protagonist will play in the game before playing.
Sure we are making a lot of decisions for Kane but we are also shaping Olivia and somehow her impact seems much bigger in the game right now.
It is understandable to a point, she is important for the story, especially after some revelations, however I was expecting a male protagonist game as stated in the overview - 'you play as a male protagonist' and there's no mention about a secondary female protagonist.
I know that MC will probably have an important role later on (mostly his sperm though..), but that doesn't change the way I feel about their impact right now.


General things:
Weird out of nowhere pussy and boobs close-up shots were quite weird for me, I'm not sure what is their purpose but it isn't arousing when you are in the middle of a conversation and then 'BAM here is a close up pussy shot for you'.
What really stood out for me is that the all the women look the same. Everyone has the same body type, no diversity there at all besides some has different skin tone.
The lack of facial expressions were quite jarring, the characters just seem lifeless as they only have one facial expression throughout the game. Sure I'm exaggerating a bit, but I haven't really seen a lot of changing facial expressions.
The lightning and posing feels wrong in a lot of the renders, like the characters were just copied into a background, there's no 'real' feel about the settings, no depth of field if you know what I mean.
Everyone keeping secrets and everyone is scheming around, I know it's somewhat necessary, but I just can't enjoy the 'I can't tell you more now, be patient' narrative anymore in these games, especially if it's drawn out like in this game.
There's way too many characters in the game and way too many branches, I'll admit I'm not a fan of heavy branching but I knew going in that I'm only gonna play it once, so it didn't bother me that I'm going to miss some (most) content.
I can't really comment on the lewd content as I was mostly trying to avoid having sex with these women, but the ones I saw were average, however I didn't find them hot, but that could be just a me problem.


The DOM path:
You are going to see femdom even on the DOM path, the MC gets dominated and humiliated at the beginning, but it's almost non-existent later on, there's some femdom scenes (2 if I remember correctly) that you can skip but it still happens.

Overall the DOM path wasn't really what I was expecting, it feels more like a non-sub path if you will, so far I haven't really seen domination just normal encounters, granted it builds up gradually so maybe later on the MC can actually dominate some women, but as of right now it feels like that the women just let him be an equal instead of dominating him.

Hopefully MC dominating them happens at some point otherwise I'm not really interested in this game, I would say 99% of the LIs are just simply despicable for me and I'm only tagging along so the MC can put them to their place.

I didn't like the fact that a good DOM MC have to treat others badly to gain extra DOM points, especially his friend, but I kinda accepted it as a necessary evil to be able to (hopefully) do good things later, although I'd have liked an option to let Jake know at some point that the MC will be required to do some questionable things.

Also didn't like that we (the players) have to see how the characters are treating Seth (the brother), not to mention seeing him in sexual encounters, I'm not interested in that, same with Olivia to be honest, but that's another matter since she's an LI.

I think this is the first game I ever played over the years where I was actually avoiding lewd scenes and only participated in the ones that got my MC a chance to climb the ladder faster.
I don't find any of these LIs desirable because of how they act, especially after seeing them interact with the other characters.
Olivia is no exception, at the beginning of the game I was hoping that she's not going to turn out like the rest of the board, but that quickly changed and she is in fact no different, just not as cruel as them on the good path.
Even on her good path she's using people for her amusement and for sexual pleasure, which is just a huge turnoff for me in general, not just in her case.
I'm 'collecting' her points right now as it seems some of it is needed for bigger revelations, but I'm hoping I can reject her later and I'm not railroaded into romancing her, I don't like her.

The only LI I'm not disgusted of so far is Junko, mostly because I haven't seen her act like the rest, probably she'd done some questionable things but the MC is not aware, so blissful ignorance. Although I don't like that she's getting used by others, but she's needed for fast tracking the ranks, so I can tolerate that.

Seeing possible LIs in a sexual setting is a huge turnoff for me, implied or shown doesn't matter, so basically 99% of the LIs are just not appealing for me because of that, same with Junko sadly, but as I said she's key to rise faster.

Hopefully there's an ending where there's a revolution and all these people are put to their place and MC can end up alone and he doesn't have to pick someone to be with as I couldn't stomach being with any of the higher-ups and if the MC have to be with someone I'll just stop playing.

Overall I think the DOM path right now is below average, maybe later it gets to actual domination, right now I would rate it below average, but I can't do that with good conscience because of the amount of work put into this game, even tho I've probably seen 25% of it, so I'm rating it average.

It's beyond me how this has such a high rating.

- Writing is ridiculously bad.
- Story and setting full of gaping holes and are just simply idiotic.
- Renders are incredibly poorly composed, framed, lit. They're full of rendering artifacts. Author remembers to use DoF once every 200 renders for some reason.
- Environments are kitbashed together from some of the worst quality assets I've ever seen.
- Character poses and expressions are lifeless and just plain bad.
- 95% of sex scenes are: girl steps on guy / girl makes guy lick heels / girl sits on guy's face.

If your specific kink isn't femdom, and you aren't willing to scrape the bottom of the barrel, don't waste your time.

Great game. The design is very high quality, with numerous angles shown in every conversation. Clearly, a lot of time was spent on this.

I saved the game almost 100 times as there are so many choice to make. I will play again to follow different paths as I know I skipped many scenes.

A game set in dark dystopian world, could be dark for some people, who am I kidding it's definitely dark for some people, but anyone who likes video games with dark fantasy/sci-fi etc, with good plot this is for them

Pros:
A very different story
Impactful choices
Nice art
Not rushed

Cons:
Long update cycle

Preference:
Some will find the plot dark

I am shocked I never reviewed this game, this is one of the best adult visual novels out there, and it 100% is the best in the specific genre this game falls under.

It starts off as a femdom focused game where the MC is forced into doing degrading things to please women to deal with the situation he is in, but as he moves up the ranks, you are given a lot more agency to continue to be dominated by women, or start becoming the dominator yourself, and I think this is amazing. Too many femdom games focus ONLY on femdom, and I think it alienates an audience, players like me, who aren't naturally submissive and find it harder to relate to the main character. In this situation, the MC can be naturally submissive for the people that enjoy it, or he can be submissive only by the environment, and once he is free of it, he can dominate to his hearts content.

The plot, the girls, the scenarios, the events, this game is a near perfect spectacle, and some INCREDIBLY dark shit can happen, and now another layer of the game is revealed, are you good natured, pure evil, or pragmatically neutral? The amount of decisions in this game is staggering. 10/10, play this fucking game.

Another hidden gem!

KG will envelop your attention through genuine mystery. Enough with the boy back to live with stepmom... This one is not only original, but also great.

The amount of assets is astonishing, every scene takes its time to show off all the details we often left to imagine in other games. From the insane buildings to the colored spikes in each and every shoe of the girls.

It also doesn't shy away from a nice build up, meaning scenes displaying affection beyond words in a screen, a true labor of love.

The online downside are the animations, which are lacking most of time, and/or being slow -thus not matching the intensity desired, although at this point you can forgive it given the amount of care everything else received.

Must play.

Well, this game is next level.
Sure, it looks old at the start (I don't care about that personally, but some do) but improves a lot as the game continues (models, backgrounds, animations...). Lots of content, scenes... But not really a game where you want to "skip to the good part.".

The story/worldbuilding is very good. A lot of mystery AND a lot of revels too! Things go forward and are unraveled to you, some blind spots here, some stuff you can predict there... It's not mysteries for the sake of it. It's really, really nicely done on that part.
You'll have to manage your morality (dom/sub and good/evil) but also some stats for your sister, brother, and others (just enough to shape your experience).

I didn't try the sub route (yet), but being able to be "dom" in a Femdom game is great. They have the power, you need to prove that you're worthy to be an equal (not from the start, but you can climb the ranks). I really like femdom where you don't have to be a worthless beta... But being alpha is not enough to have them crawl before you. There's a power dynamic, take nothing for granted... I really like that, and I'm someone who usually likes to be the good guy... So it needs to be done well enough for me to enjoy this kind of thing... And this game is doing that pretty well.
If you can't stand the idea of being less than the ultimate alpha... This game might not be for you. If you enjoy fighting for your life/privileges (or to be a sub, I suppose), this game has a lot to offer!

Can't wait for the next update, can't wait to see the game completed (not too soon, but eventually I'll want to see the full picture).

I going against the grain andf giving it a 3.25 /5 here are the reason;

Femdoma and femakle perspective too much, I would have enjoyed if t were simply femdom, bexcause variety is good, but a huge chunck of the story is dominated the mc's sis, which I don't enjoy.
World is setup excellentkly, so ar ethe locations and writing and variety of locatioon.

The only reason I am giving irt 3 after so long, as tyo me it seems tghe mc's story is meaning less atthids point,i.e, it feels as if his choices amount to nothing majpor, he have his small narrativbe weigth.

I would have enjoyed it mpre if it were4 simlpy mc or his sis but split perpective causes issues, as you arwe asked to shift perspective rapidly.

other issue is the sex scenes are boring as they seems to be fdrom an era before modern types of renders of animted scenes. which is a bummer, as the scenes are neither interesting nor hot, the piint of AVN.

if you are in for female centerixc story where roles of male and feamle are reverserd fm tarditional avn , you will enjoy it . For me it I can only say it is not for me.

I really like this game I never minded femdom games only extreme femdom games I don't like so I'm glad I can skip the scenes I don't like. I played the dom and k4sub path so far the dom path I have enjoyed playing the k4sub path i enjoyed it a tiny bit less not because of the story the story is great just sometimes wish I can punch one of the women of how the main protagonist is treated lol.Be nice to see if there is a rebellion path' better to die free then live as slave but seeing this is a full on femdom game most likely not.

Either way great game you are making really enjoy it.

Just finished E8S1 and looking back at it, I can say the game is as close to perfection as one can think of. Many options to choose from when it comes to branching. The graphics are amazing tbh. Animnations are good too. And music changing according to your morality choices (getting omnios if you go evil for example) is a very nice touch. And storyline is captivating - I literally spent a couple of nights welcoming dawn with the game without even realizing the time that has passed. This is a true treasire of a game for people who are into BDSM. What more to say than 5/5 star rating from me and full recommendation to try the game. It is very much worth the time. See you on the Dark side.
P.S. So you need more convincing? I will give you two: Veronica and Astrid.
Now begone with you SLAVE! Download and PLAY!

There is no doubt that this AVN is one of the best you will find, Top 3 without a doubt... I see many complain about the NTR or about how the excess of femdom was a feminist propaganda but for starters with the NTR I am not sure that your LI torturing slaves counts as NTR... and femdom although it is not to my liking, in this game It is very well done, it is not feminism because the LI practically do not care about the gender, they only appreciate "power "and respect whoever has potential, if the MC shows pragmatic thinking they will treat him as an equal ... Which seemed curious to me, the Dev does a lot of emphasis on her sadistic side but the game rewards you more for being pragmatic

Can't save/load games, making it completely unplayable. Otherwise, all I could tell is, the UI is a fascinatingly terrible purple and yellow eyesore, MC is horrifyingly ugly, and there doesn't seem to be any gallery.

It's one of the best AVNs, easily top5 for me for sure. Story is interesting, characters are many, varied and pretty well written, girls are hot and scenes are good as well. Currently at version 0.8, can't wait for updates. I'm gonna be sad when it ends, we need tons more such AVNs.
There's a lot of content already and quality seems consistent which is also a feat in itself.
Graphics could be somewhat better, girls are not realistic, so a bit old style, but still manage to be hot, especially with how they are written to beahev and speak.
It's the product that should be on Steam when it's completed and worth paying for which is, let's be honest, fairly rare for AVNs that are usually a quite niche product and made by small / inexperienced teams or individuals even. This is pretty pro and absolutely worth supporting.
I am shocked it doesn't have 10 times the reviews it has.
p.s. I'm not sure why so many reviews say "it's ok if you're into femdom" - i find it somewhat entertaining to some level but not into it and my playthrough is not submissive and there's plenty of content and i enjoy it. So this is not a 'submissive' game it's just the world that has most males kinda shitty (not necessarily MC).

In my opinion, the game has become too dated for 2025, specifically its story!

In addition, there is no noticeable progression in animations, music in the background, the quality of the picture, and simply why all the girls have the same figure and moreover the same holes? They are all the same Barbie dolls, there is no interest.
When every second developer can do at least several times better.

Just because of nostalgia in 2020 when first introduced to this game, the way it surprised, I'll give it 4 stars, but seriously, dev... make at least some girls unique holes and figures, some distinctive features besides their hairstyles and appearance and most importantly remove such huge answers, you are given 4 answer options in each of which are at least 100 letters, they take up the entire screen)