VN - Ren'Py - Completed - LustyVerse: Shackbang [Final] [Inceton Games]

Version Reviewed: Final

This is the first game I have played where I felt the need to leave a review. I should probably do it for others but this one practically requires it. If I had to summarize it in one sentence it would be "very strong start, but wasted potential".

Story
The start of this story had me absolutely hooked. Hooked enough I played it in a single sitting, even though I really should have been doing other things. Most engrossed with an adult VN I have ever been. I can count on one hand the number that come even remotely close despite having played close to 200 at this point. Including this dev's other games.

However, they completely failed to stick the landing. The story goes off the rails, feels rushed, and the actions of certain characters at the end seem completely out of, well, character. It's like they had intended to slowly demonstrate this character heading in that direction or letting their facade slip, but then rushed things out and never got that chance. It completely ruins the all the buildup they had spent in the first part of the game. which now that I think about it, that's kind of this dev's MO. But this is easily the worst ending of all their games I have played.

Additionally, the entire base premise of the game falls apart. It's set up as a sort of complex mystery detective plot where the MC (as the player stand-in) starts in the dark and slowly gains information. But he has to deal with all the other characters lying to him, each with their own incomplete understanding of events, biases, skewed perspectives, and goals. It's up to you the player to sort these out. In other words, it was a really fucking good basic premise.

But then they do three really stupid things. Firstly, they don't give you enough control. This kind of detective plot relies on the MC either being a simple stand-in for the player or the second coming of Lieutenant Columbo. For a game that isn't a kinetic novel (though it is close), the former is probably better. Instead, when there is seemingly a chance to learn important things the MC opens his idiot mouth and starts interrupting people giving him what you both want. Or if you just want to do something intelligent, nope. Your only choices are stupid option #1, stupid option #2, or stupid option #3.

Secondly, they ignore all the "each character has their own version of events" they have been building up to instead just give you a big lore dump from all 4 that presents essentially one truth that they somehow now all agree on. This lore dump is where the game starts to feel very rushed. Not where it starts to go off the rails though, I would say that starts when a certain character from earlier in the game shows up again.

And the final major stupid decision, those different perspectives and goals can only be obtained through multiple playthroughs unless you use a mod. So a core part of the setup, that each "suspect" has a different story, only works if you mod the game or play through it multiple times. That's really stupid and a huge mistake on the dev's part. The branches should only be layering on top of that and providing different sex scenes, not withholding things critical to making the core of the game work.

And then the endings. I'll be blunt: they all suck. There are no good endings, literally and figuratively. If you like stories with feel-good, cathartic endings, do not play this game. If you like endings where you get to be the hero and save the day, do not play this game. If you like endings that make sense, do not play this game. If you like endings that let you feel in control instead of the MC just doing what he wants, do not play this game. If you see a bunch of hot, crazy ladies and think "I can fix them", do not play this game (okay that part is probably the most realistic part of the game). I cannot overstate how bad the endings all are (there are 3). I haven't seen an ending this bad since I read the last Maze Runner book.

Honestly, had the game been abandoned before the crypt section I probably would have given it a 4 or maybe even 4.5.

Writing Quality
The MC is a moron. Somehow even dumber than the usual moronic MCs you encounter in a lot of games. Like yeah, he's being lied to and kept in the dark but he can't seem to piece together even the simplest pieces of information he actually is given. Speaking of being lied to, holy shit was that annoying. Everyone is lying and no one is answering anything. Never have I ever wanted the MC to just slap a few bitches so much as this game. And yes, that is the correct term for all 4 women in this game. You will understand if you play it. He really should have tied them all up and slapped the crap out of them until someone started talking. I would have enjoyed that more than the sex scenes. I almost quit playing it was so annoying. But that's not all! Even when they actually do start finally telling him things, the fucking idiot keeps interrupting them with pointless comments. Shut the fuck up and let them explain dude!

Oh, and the characters all act like they're in a porn game if that matters to you. I personally don't care. I want to watch them get fucked so I'm not overly concerned that they are totally cool with a guy they have never been with before just walking in on them when they're naked. But I know that is a big deal to some.

Their personalities are decently fleshed out at least. More so than most games. Each one feels unique, complete with a different feel to their individual dialogs. A lot of writers end up with characters that all sound the same but here they talk differently enough to give the impression of living characters. Yeah, they lean into some personality stereotypes but not so much that I found it to be a bad thing. But they're also not the best written ones I have encountered and more one-dimensional than necessary.

English
The English is good. Inceton is one of the few devs that actually writes decent English and proofreads so you won't find many instances of grammar or spelling mistakes that take you out of the game. So many VNs are from non-native speakers whose grasp of English is so poor you can barely understand what they're trying to say or their grammar is so bad as to be distracting.

And with this comment I have likely doomed myself to having committed such a mistake somewhere in this review.

Models, Animations, Renders, and Audio
It's an Inceton game so their usual quality in this department applies. All of these three things are in the top 5% of devs for every game they release. Their models are practically a class of their own. Always have a few super hot ones. I think even after around 200 games Inceton still has all 10 of my top 10 models. Maxine from this game is probably #1 out of every VN model I have ever seen. Honestly it's a bit weird because so many of them, including Inceton, are using off the shelf DAZ models but Inceton's customization and rendering just looks so much better than almost everyone else's.

And their animations are always very good. The way they put them together isn't always the best, but the actual animations of various sex acts are still the best I have seen. No women lifelessly bobbing their heads up and down on a cock. Instead their heads will be moving (mostly) realistically, changing angle with their neck as they move or as they vary their movements.

Sex Scenes
The sex scenes themselves are a bit vanilla for my taste. I can't really knock them for that, but if you're someone who wants more than some basic blowjobs and light vaginal sex this game isn't for you. There are only a few scenes with the patented and annoying Inceton "Lust Time" rather than almost every scene like usual, but that also means if you want any control over the scene you are out of luck. It's pretty rare for games to have any meaningful sex scene control though so once again, not knocking them for it.

Audio
Audio is pretty good. Pretty standard for Inceton if you have played any of their other games. There's some background music that isn't super annoying like most games and the occasional sound effect to enhance specific scenes. No sex sounds for sex scenes unfortunately.

No VAs either. I personally consider that a pro for everything except sex scenes, but some might consider it a con. I just have never seen it work well, even with the best VAs in the business providing talent. It doesn't fit VNs very well, better left for animated films.

Story to Sex Scene Ratio
I usually play adult VNs for the sex more than the plot since, let's be honest, the story is almost always terrible. Kind of like porn. Don't get me wrong, I actually really want an adult game with great plot and some adult scenes to "enhance" it, but I have yet to actually find that. This was almost it.

If that's you too, this game isn't going to offer you much. There are very few sex scenes and a lot of dialog between them. If they had kept up the story quality that the first part of the game this would have been one of the few games I was not only okay with having very few sex scenes in but actually liked it that way, but alas. Instead you get like 30 minutes of dialog that essentially consists of the MC asking questions about things that don't make sense and getting all manner of vague non-answers and "trust us" (despite having given the MC many reasons not to trust them already. It makes you want to pull your hair out since the MC is such a loser he doesn't do anything about it.

Conclusion
This game is very much a mixed bag. What it gets right, it gets really right. But then the stuff it fails at it fails HARD at. So much wasted potential. This could have been in the top 10 games I have played. Instead, it's middling at best. I enjoyed it overall and would recommend it for someone who doesn't have a big backlog of VN games to work through, but it's not going to win any awards. Well, except for Maxine's character model. That should win some awards.

VN - Ren'Py - Completed - LustyVerse: Shackbang [Final] [Inceton]

I must say, it's refreshing to see that there's an actual story here. Too many VN suffer from the fact that they have no significant story to speak of. It's nothing that has never been told before, but I believe we can all look past that knowing that we usually have nothing but sex scenes.

Now graphically, this VN is also pretty decent. Way too often VN's are ugly as hell, either due to compression or other things that I probably have no idea about. The game leaves it at that; though the scenes look nice, the animations are mid at best.

I did have one problem though: after beating the game, the gallery didn't work. Other than that, I'd say this game is absolutely worth a try. Overall, definitely one of the better VN experiences!

The story
The game has a story and that's actually a major achievement, too many games just shuffle from sex scene to sex scene. It's not the best one, though, with most of the secrets uncovered in a single massive infodump scene. Still, I can't blame them for trying to write a mystery story even if they didn't know how.

The graphics
It's a very typical Inceton game in this regard: very attractive models, underwhelming animations.

Overall story is just really poorly written and when you add all the other flaws its just not really worth your time.

It feels more like a kinetic novel then a VN since there are very few choices, you cant even controle MC in any way, meaning all girls are forced and personaly im just not into the mindless fuckfest type games and also no choice to be faithfull, this is a pure porn game nothing else.

It dosent help that MC is just brainless none stop and having no controle of anything he says or do, adds alot to the game really being unplayable.

Theres also forced lesbian shit, not that i mind it but its without MC and even after seeing it your still forced to fuck them later in game, at one point your forced to watch lesbians go at it without having a choice to just leave them alone, it really is idiotic and will never understand what devs think they gain from forceing shit on players if they dont want to see it or be with someone, it sure dosent help to gain more support, but lose it instend.

Endings are very short and almost pointless.

Girls are alright but without having a choice who to fuck or not makes it to boring and makes relationships pointless and sex scenes feels more like they are just put in for the only reason of just being there, you never feel any emotions for any of them either so a big fail.

Animations are somewhat decent but later in game it changes to the absolutly idiotic click to advance sex scenes, you have to click on up to 18 diffrent icons (yeah not kidding 18....) to get past the scene and when your fucking someone you couldent care less about it gets really annoying not beind able to just fast skip the shit.

As for choices like i said in the start 95% of the game feels kinetic and its really only at the end you have any choices that changes something but even that it kineitc since picking worng choice leads to game over which then gives you to choices "try again yes or yes" so yeah its really shitty.

Awesome game. Greate CG , beautiful girls, kinky, intriguing story. The game where i rarely skip and often fap. I love it,!
And i don't agree with the rating, 3 -I cant even think of any reason why it is so low

The only good part of this game is the visual, the plot is terrible for a "mystery - detective" kind of game.
Everything seem promises in the early game, nice characters model, they have different personality, the mystery is ok-ish. But all of that fall hard when the game start to get into the main part, even though the sex scenes are while hot, it can't save the crumble plot of this game.

A forgatable experience


Story
The story is a bit boring and because I forgot it all together I had to play the game again to recall it. While the first half of the story can be called decent, the second one is a mess with a lot of plotholes to be pointed out.

Gameplay
There is not a lot of action in the game. There are few scenes scattered across the game but nothing to keep you engaged.

Girls
Nice looking, especially Maxime and I liked the relation the MC develops with her.

Came for the porn, stayed for the porn, literally. Game served its purpose as fap material for me. Lewd scenes: 3/5

Plot is okay for the first half then crumbles in the second half. Story: 2/5

TLDR 2 stars overall for this game cause lewd scenes are okay-ish and I loved MC's relationship with Maxine. Shame the relationship wasn't explored further. (But this is meant to be a short game so fair enough.)


Maxine's sexual/romance tension felt more natural than Ariana's. (Hence the rape tag cause that's what I feel when MC fucks with Ariana.)

You need something to fap to? Try this game out. (The redhead is the hottest for me, if you're into redheads it's worth trying.)

You want to experience the plot? Try this game out at your own discretion. Try to turn your brain completely off throughout your gameplay then maybe you'll find it decent.

Confusing, loophole all ovcer the game explained by a new (and out of the context) character, heraldine, that after spilling trhe bean (finally) on what really happened,she goes away with Dumb MC car as a reward...ahahahha.
all the end are really poor made and unsatisying..in a form of trial error ,that made me laugh. ahh..dumbest MC ever. 1\5 sorry Inceton by this was real bad

The renders are good and the plot is kind of interesting at the start but just falls apart about 3/4 through . I think they just got tired near the end and just decide to end it. I got a bad ending and rather then go back and try again I decided to end it also because I was too tired from the crazy plot end.

2 star rating ... all because of a case of an author failing to stick the landing.

What even was that ending? Talk about a fumble. Right up until the last five minutes it was a pretty suspenseful visual novel that had you guessing ... and then it fell flat on its face.

Seems to be the case with so many would-be writers. They can write a decent story up to a point, but they never learn how to end the thing. Far too abrupt, plot threads left dangling, and thoroughly unsatisfying. It felt as though the author got tired of the project and decided to do a lame half-assed ending rather than bring the story to its needed and logical conclusion.

Would have been a solid 4 stars out of 5, but the ending utterly ruined the whole thing.

Going to give it a 4 overall but that 3.5 average it currently has it's probably about right.

The setting of the story is pretty good, the characters have different personalities and look very good.

There often is quite a bit of story (long dialogues too) between the various X scenes which are very well made, both when it comes to the animations and static renders.

Since the game is relying on the story so heavily I feel like the dropped the ball towards the end, I think that's likely the biggest issue. The choices you make have close to no impact aswell (if you care about it).

Overall it's not a bad game and I'd still recommend it, but you'll probably be at least a bit disappointed by how they wrote the last 1/3-ish of the story.

Final Version - No Spoilers

This is just a terrible, mess of a novel. I'm writing this review around 1.5 hours into it with no plans on finishing the story. The foundational parts are great: characters have unique personalities, they're all hot, and their shared backgrounds make them more interesting; the cabin setting is perfect for a thriller; and sex scenes feel properly spaced with the storytelling.

What I can't stand is how the main plot unravels. Our MC is actually fairly bright and asks a lot of questions that we would have. His frustration in his situation is completely understandable. It's irritating beyond belief that the girls hide their motivations and so many details from him. There were several scenes where some information should have been divulged to the MC, yet the girls all turned to 20 IQ and resorted to shallow lies.

The same sort of scenes take place over and over again. After a few of them in a row, I'd had enough. They're poorly written, annoying to sit through, and ruining whatever feelings were established for the girls by making them behave out of character.

If you have an interesting story, you have to tell it. You can't keep it from the readers scene after scene after scene and expect us to still be engaged. I'm done. The writing's too amateur. What a shame with all of these beautiful women.

Horrible story, after the middle part everything was just horribly written, wasted potential. Gorgeous characters, including MC, interactions were nice but the story and its ending especially were a big letdown.

Easily one of the worst "serious" games I've ever seen.

Absolutely terrible writing, not a single likable character, especially that pathetic MC, garbage rushed endings... And the fact that whoever wrote this made sure to do everything in the most pretentious way possible only makes it even more insufferable.

If you're here just for the porn, sure. The renders are pretty good and the characters look great, so go ahead and try it. But for anyone that actually cares abou the story it's a complete weste of time.

LustyVerse: Shackbang [Final] [Inceton]

actually deserves more than 4 stars, but for the surprise it was I decided to give it the maximum

Let's start with the flaws, which are there anyway and for which it would not be a 5-star game by any means.

1. the protagonist, especially in the first part, thinks one thing and then does another, ok, it's a porn game so he has to give in to temptation, but it would have been enough if he had been less convinced in his intentions first, so he looks like a horny monkey
2. too many trivial errors, scenes in which a character's outfit suddenly changes, or scenes in which the name is wrong in the dialogue, it's not a serious fault, but from a studio like Inceton I don't expect such carelessness
3. the 'unhappy' ending is all very well, but in this way the different endings are really too similar and too little in depth, the ending is very important in judging a story

the huge merit, however, is that it has a story, which although not original, in great debt to films like Scream, remains interesting until the end, you always want to go on and understand better what is happening. a huge merit among AVNs, I struggle to think of a game on this level from this point of view

the dynamics between the different characters, although stereotyped, are really well done, the characters are barely introduced to us, but we already know them, and their every action confirms our judgement

Game's story starts interesting, but story really stumbles by the end. There are few inconsistencies when different paths converge and some parts that feel like they are forced for exposition.

Renders for the game are good and models look quite nice. Writing for the characters is mediocre mostly, there are some nice bits of writing here and there, but also lots of things that are inconsistent and frustrating. Like how writing is constantly treating MC as an idiot and isn't afraid for others to constantly deride him for being in the dark and only getting drip fed with hints about the mystery. Yet the writing and those hints conflict with the ultimate reveals.

Game would have been so much better, if they didn't try to be more clever with the story than they had chance to be and instead would have kept things reasonable.

Excellent story. Something different. Not the usual VN stories where you see any girl and fuck her. Story will keep you in the game, which I liked most. You will not be able to skip any dialogue. Good job dev. Best of luck.

I really wanted to like this game... the renders/girls are AMAZING and the animations (when you get them) are top notch... but there is so much unnecessary dialogue that it quickly becomes impossible to actually pay attention to what's being said.

The story (as much as I could pay attention to) is a guy getting stuck in a cabin with 4 supermodel hot women, one of which can be set as your sister. Everyone gets drunk on moonshine and the girls argue like teenagers. I get the feeling that something odd is going to happen... but by the time it started to happen any interest I had in the text was looooong gone and I was clicking as fast as I could to get to the next sex scene.

This game LOOKS amazing, but it's wrecked by insanely long stretches of meaningless dialog, that simply aren't interesting enough. I wish the author had an editor to cut down the script by 50%... maybe I could have made it to the end.

All it takes is a bad ending to ruin a game.

This game had everything going for it. I do wish there was some more actual choices early on. We continually got forced into making absolutely braindead decisions and rolling over every time there was a chance to find something out, but the graphics of the game, the whodunnit aspect and the dynamics with the other characters made up for it.

And then we finally reach a point where we might actually get some answers, and MC might actually stop being a fucking moron for 10 seconds, and it all comes crashing down the moment a new character is introduced. MC is back to being a fucking bitch, no one acts like real humans, and the final reveal of the game (which could have been good if we were able to get there naturally, rather than the hamfisted plot-driven stupidity that all the characters spontaneously suffered) lost all of its effect.

And then finally, at the end of the game, we get to a minigame in which we make some of the only meaningful choices in the game, a tiny ending, and that's it.

Had the game kept progressing in the way it did, had us get close with the LI's so the final revelations were more impactful, had us figure things out, rather than have some random plot-insert character tell us everything instead, had some actual endings, where the characters actually discuss things, this could have been a great game.

A shame this project didn't have more competent writers. Endings are hard, but it's more disappointing when the first 50-60% of the game set things up so well. It's not like the final reveal was even bad, it's just everything that led up to that point, and how little time you get to think/discuss it before the game abruptly ends after a short minigame in which you make random choices and hope for the best.