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

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, interaction was nice but the story and it's 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.

I can only give an average rating on this.

The characters look good enough, as do the renders and animation do.
The story is a bit odd, but that's fairly normal from this dev

The click to progress some sex scene is the usual pointless annoying garbage, and is unfortunately still present in the game.

What really is a big issue however, is the lack of facial expressions in every renders outside of the sex scenes. Having proper expressions shown would increase the game's overall quality. Right now, you'll be staring at expressionless faces throughout the vast majority of the story. They don't really smile, they don't frown, they just keep the same blank expression virtually all the time during the dialogues.

As such, the game is not bad, but it's not good either.

This story is still very early on, but it has all of what I am looking for. Interesting story, hot characters, some spicy scenes, good animation, beautiful renders. Giving it 5 stars for potential. Given that this is a dev who is experienced and knows what they are doing, I am expecting great things.

Edited after playing the complete version.
Let me start with telling you, the endings suck, all three of them.
The story becomes an incoherent mess, all the big build up ends with basically the big threat being nothing but a lie from Maxine.
The sweetest of the girls becomes a deranged psycho, Maxine already is a psycho, considering she actually lied to their friends, solely because she wanted to preserve her family name.

IDK, to me, it feels as if they ran out of energy and just wanted to end the story, because a lot of it makes no sense considering part one and even most of part two.
This game was trying to do something different, but due to the miserable endings it failed, and so I have to correct my rating downwards.
I am so close to giving the game 2 stars, but I like the visual look of the games and the sex scenes are well-made and extensive and until it all falls apart, I was entertained and even intrigued to an extent, so I'll stick with a three-star-rating.
My original review can stay as it is, for the first part, but this ends my thoughts on the game as a whole.


I swear, I will never understand the way reviews here come together.
You get games with barely comprehensible English and with horrible, monstrous character models, which barely have any story, that have five - star after five-star review.
Why? How?
And then you have a game like this one, and it has barely 3 stars.

This game has a story, this game has great renders of beautiful girls, which actually look different.
Yes, the choices so far don't change much, but there are choices and at least one that offers you significant information.

Also, this is like the first version of the game, and yet it offers hours of content.
Where is the rationale to rate this with one or two stars?
I just don't understand it.

Anyway, this game is something different again from Inceton.
His last game offered us what started out as a Ground hog's day like Ren'py gameplay, which then turned into an apocalyptic SF story.

This one starts out like a B-grade slasher film, but then turns into a whodunnit.
Basically, the MC by accident gets stuck in a lonely, isolated cabin, with the four girls (his sister and three of their friends) he just drove there.

After a night of drunk debauchery with his sister, of all people, the MC slowly realizes that this is more than just a reunion of high school friends.
Not only are there conflicts, secrets and hidden relationships, no, the MCs best friend disappeared five years ago, when he was with his girlfriend at the same cabin, something that the other three girls know, but no one else.
Because they hid any evidence and claimed their friend was with them the whole time, and never left with her boyfriend.

From there, we follow the MC on the path to find out what happened five years ago, what is happening now, and how he can survive it, while at the same time dealing with constantly lusting after his sister (and she after him) and also re-kindling a love-hate relationship with one of their other friends, who also has a huge secret of her own.

Honestly, as the story went on (and it is a huge amount of game already), I went from being completely uninterested in the crime plot and only trying to get the sex scenes, to really being interested in solving this puzzle.

It's not a flawless story, not a flawless game, there are many scenes that only set-up atmosphere but aren't really necessary, there are also definitely scenes where all curiosity and suspense are lost, and they just seem like filler, but the game always found a way to get me into it again and at the end of part 1 I was seriously annoyed, because I wanted to know how this continued and of course how it will end.

This is a game that mostly tells a story, through this the actual changes from your decisions are mostly cosmetical (at least as far as we know now), but otoh, that story is also what made the game interesting for me.

I think that Inceton games get rated unfairly, some of the criticism is valid, but both here and with his other games I've read horrible reviews, where I honestly thought the reviewer and I were playing a different game.
Part of it is due to people not understanding that player's choice and agenda are not always the main point of a game, Inceton actually tries to do more than just pure porn games at times, with one of his previous games he not only tried an innovative story, but also an innovative gameplay for a Ren'py game, with Shackbang he tries to tell a story and so far the player choice is secondary to that.

And people need to get it in their head that this doesn't make either of the two a bad game. It might not be a game that plays to your taste, but that's just subjective, not an objective reason to rate a game low.


TL,DR: This is at first a murder mystery, a story that inceton and his team are telling, it's a porn game only secondly and your choices also aren't the most important factor (so far).
The renders are great, the girls are beautiful, and again, they are different types, even if not really original characters. The sex is there, and it is done well, but it is not the main focus. In my play-through the MC had sex with his sister several times, also with his frenemy, I chose to watch lesbian sex twice and worked towards being part of a three-way (hopefully) in the future. There is also quite a bit of nudity unrelated to the sex.

So while I agree with some of the complaints here I also really appreciate someone doing something new and different. I appreciate it when having sex is something that happens.. as opposed to being the entire goal of the VN.

I do wish it was a little less KN and the MC had more of a backbone but how can you not appreciate a game where your best LI long-term is the

I saw some people bashing on this game here on F95, so I decided to write my own review. Why is there so many negative comments? The story is interesting, there is a lot of content (about 3 hrs of gameplay) and the girls are hot. If high-quality visuals and animations are a must for you, and you like mysterious stories, try playing this game.
I will be reviewing the game in the following three sections:
1) The content
You end up in a cabin with 3 of your, well, let's say friends, and one character that can be your sister/girlfriend, whatever you want because you can choose the relationship with her. Even though you weren't planning on staying for the whole trip, someone messes with your car, and you suddenly realise that there is a dark secret hidden somewhere in or around the cabin. The girls are keeping it to themselves, but things start to unravel. The plot twists are great, and it was very interesting to follow.
2) The visuals
This game has high-quality visuals and animations. The models are beautiful, but the only thing I kind of disliked was the fact that their expressions don't seem to change much. The MC looks quite young, but as it typically is in these games, he is pretty endowed.
3) The playability
This is a visual novel where you mostly follow the story. You don't have many choices, and they don't really influence the progress of the story. I didn't mind that, because the story is interesting enough.