Succubus is the most disturbing game I have ever played

The MeinMMO demon Cortyn has dared to play a game called “Succubus.” A disturbing journey and not for the faint of heart.

I have been playing video games for over 20 years now, and those who know me and my articles a little know that I do not shy away from quirky titles. Whether extremely silly, very emotional, or distinctly brutal – I give many games a chance.

But this time I am not sure if it was perhaps a mistake. Because this game has made me set it aside multiple times. “Succubus” pushes boundaries, is dark, extremely brutal, and devoid of any morality.

But before I dive into the details, here’s a warning – and you should heed it, as I’ve never meant it this seriously:

Trigger Warning: Nudity, Torture, Sexual Violence

This article and the game discussed cover some very tough topics. If you do not cope well with themes such as explicit violence, torture, sexualized violence, and nudity, you should definitely not read this article. In order to explain the game in its entirety, we must depict and describe the violence graphically.

A Cruel World Without Morality or Decency

Succubus is set in hell. And I mean hell in the truest sense of the word, as various religions imagine it.

When gamers think of hell and demons, our image of it has been heavily influenced over the last decades. Usually, hell is just a hot place where all the evil demons reside. The demons are often still somehow “cool” or, in the case of succubi, particularly sexy.

Hell is not really that bad in many games, and it’s mostly just the motivations of the demons wanting to destroy the world again. Often, hell even has a certain appeal, and sooner or later, you might empathize with the creatures there.

Say goodbye to that thought. Completely.

The hell in Succubus is cruel, disgusting, and just the thought of having to spend even a minute there as a human is a terrible thought.

You take on the role of Vydija, a succubus who was actually chosen to be the next ruler of hell. A hell that deserves its name.

Let me describe the scene a bit more closely:

The environment consists of rock, bones, and flesh, with streams of blood flowing around. Fires burn everywhere. Teeth and eyes protrude from the misshapen masses of flesh, intestines lie at every corner.

Meanwhile, you see various kinds of abuse happening in the background almost everywhere. Devils, demons in the most disgusting forms, and in between, humans who have been condemned to hell. The humans are being tortured. With blades, with claws, with fire, while the creatures of hell laugh. Demons and devils also prey on each other. There is abuse and rape. Often, it’s not really clear what exactly is happening, and in the distance, sometimes quite close to the path you have to take.

Even the game elements you can interact with are part of this cruelty. Some of the tortured humans are essentially naked and tied to burning bushes. A bush that burns eternally, imposing the torments of eternal burning on the person.

You can “tap into” this fire to pull it to other places and solve little logic puzzles – like setting a flammable wall on fire. This, in turn, fuels the flames on the bush and causes the suffering sinner even more pain.

Already in the first level of the game, it gets even harsher. If you have lost a lot of health points, you can heal yourself. This involves “sinners,” who are usually bound somewhere. And how this plays out might be hard for many to bear:

The first encounter with a bound sinner is a naked woman tied to a stake. At first glance, it is clear that the woman is heavily pregnant. She is apparently trapped in a permanent state of labor in hell, suffering for whatever she has done in life.

As Vydija approaches and you click on “Heal,” the following scene unfolds:

Your character extends her right hand, and with red outlines, you can see the unborn child through the woman’s belly. Then Vydija raises both hands, interlocks her fingers, and clenches them into a large fist above her head before striking down with full force onto the woman’s belly. The child “falls from the woman,” is picked up by the demon, who swings it at the woman’s face, breaking her neck in the process. The child is then turned around, ripped open, and the bone marrow sucked out.

After the scene, I sat in shock in front of the screen. I was disturbed. I didn’t know: Is it allowed? Can you do that in a game? Can you show that in a game? Do I even want to play something like this?

I needed a 30-minute break after that scene. And that is no exaggeration.

Now it would be easy to say “That is quite misogynistic” – but it is not. With male sinners, Vydija handles brutally in a similar manner. The gentlemen also stand around naked and bound at various locations, ready to heal.

The demoness grabs the “best part” of the man and provides him with some pleasant seconds. Just to abruptly rip the body part out of him with a firm tug, clench her fist, and hit him so hard in the face that it tears his entire jaw off, killing him shortly thereafter.

These actions are not “misogynistic” or “misandrist.” They are inhumane. Revolting and unspeakable. And that makes sense – because you are not a human, but a demon from hell, who does not care in the slightest about what morality and decency mean to humans. Sinners are there to be punished. Flesh for you to feed upon.

Oh, and because these acts in their presentation alone might not be cruel enough: You experience all this from the first-person perspective. You control Vydija most of the time in such a way that you mostly see her hands. This makes her actions even more disturbing, creating a strange, perverse form of intimacy and rendering what is shown even darker.

The violence is shown explicitly. There is no “censorship,” except for one case. Genitals and breasts are covered by a pixel filter by default, which is so annoyingly irritating that you turn it off immediately. So there is raw violence and a lot of nudity. Nudity that is not always beautiful.

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Sex Scenes – But Certainly Not How You Know Them

But let’s move on to a more pleasant topic. Sex is nice, isn’t it? Not quite.

Sex scenes have had a special role in video games for quite some time. In most major games, implied or clearly shown sequences of this kind serve as a “reward” for the player or the culmination of a romance. In Mass Effect or Dragon Age, the obligatory sex scene is always at the end of many hours of gameplay and long dialogues. Characters build relationships and eventually have a largely romantic love night.

You can probably guess: There are no such scenes in Succubus.

Vydija’s body is, at least in the standard setting, a rather attractive woman, but especially her arms make it clear that she is a creature of hell. The forearms are distorted, the muscles twisted, and the fingers long, pointed claws that leave very little of the partner (or partners) intact during lovemaking.

Also, Vydija’s voice is anything but erotic or enticing, as one might expect from other games with succubi. Her voice is guttural, sounds sickly in a certain way, and makes it clear once more: This is not a human.

Sex occurs in your “hub,” which is essentially Vydija’s lair. Here you can simply enjoy yourself with slaves once you have subdued them. Or you can choose a demonic friend with whom Vydija is supposed to share the bed. Even if he is two meters tall and visually outshines any monster from 18+ horror movies.

It’s rough. It’s dark. The whole environment is filled with blood.

It fits tremendously well with the game and with what Vydija is – namely a succubus, a priestess of lust who does not care in the slightest about what others want. It’s her realm and she takes what she wants.

This is not even particularly pleasant to look at, and it shouldn’t be. It just reinforces once again what kind of world you are in.

Other demons also make it clear every now and then what they would love to do with Vydija if they got the chance – and the figures of these demons are anything but attractive men or women, they are monsters from the darkest nightmares.

The Shallower Sides of Succubus

Despite all this cruelty, Succubus manages to be entertaining and even sometimes funny, largely due to Vydija. She comments on a lot of things in such a casual manner that you can even grin when you might have just felt like throwing up moments before.

When approaching a large arena, Vydija simply says, “Ah, it’s been a long time since I longed for a boss fight,” as if she is fully aware that this is just a game – which makes sense given the nature of such a demon, for whom everything is just play and enjoyment.

The dialogues with other demons – whether friendly or hostile – are entertaining. Despite all the cruelty of hell, Vydija is a pretty cool character and for me personally one of the best representations of a succubus I have ever seen in a game.

Also in the “hub,” meaning Vydija’s little palace, things are somewhat lighter, without the game losing its brutal representation. You can customize her lair and choose different designs, each one more disgusting than the last. Should it all be overgrown with red, fleshy tendrils and intestines? Or should teeth and claws grow out of the walls? Or would you prefer violet, blood-stained blades and spikes?

In the hub, you can read comics with Vydija (Yes. Really.), let her take a seat on her throne, where a camera pans over her in all her nudity as she thinks about upcoming plans. Or you can take a refreshing bath in a pool of blood, using a mixture of centipede and crab as a sponge to wash yourself.

This is all so absurd and twisted, yet it creates an experience that no other game offers.

The Gameplay – What Do You Actually Do?

So far, I have touched on pretty much everything in the game – just not the gameplay. And it is telling how “different” a game is when the gameplay is mentioned last.

Most of the time, you slaughter your way through hordes of different creatures in Succubus. It can be a crazy cult of warriors, other demons, or really big bosses that require strategy and planning.

Essentially, the game is a hack & slash from a first-person perspective. 40 different weapons and 20 powers (essentially spells) are available to choose from, providing variety.

Of course, the battles are also full of brutality. Defeated enemies are often torn in half with a finisher, heads separated from shoulders, and limbs permanently flying across the screen.

Lightening things up are smaller puzzles in certain spots or the search for secrets.

The gameplay is quite enjoyable, the fights have their charms, and you notice most strongly here that it is not a AAA title. Sometimes the controls are a bit sluggish, the enemy AI is simply dumb or non-existent, and a bit more variety in enemy types would have benefited the game.

Nevertheless, the battles are fun. It is extremely satisfying to kick enemies in the chest with a charge to slam them against a wall. It feels cool to tear apart advancing hordes of barbaric warriors in seconds and relish in their corpses.

It is not outstanding gameplay, but it serves its purpose and at least provides enough enjoyment for the comparatively short duration of the game not to get boring.

Is Succubus Just a Mindless Excess of Violence?

And now we come to my dilemma: It would be easy to say that Succubus is just an endless string of violent acts. That the game is merely “torture porn” intended to shock and attract attention.

I am sure that to a certain degree that is true as well. Succubus does not just push the limits of what can be shown; it completely shatters them, dancing around laughing madly and making it clear that there are no boundaries and that games can completely function without such limits.

And that was above all refreshing. It was a gaming experience I had not had before. An experience I hadn’t actively sought out but now am glad to have had.

I love it when games emotionally move me and make me think about what they have shown me. When a game can shock me and leave me in disbelief.

Only very few games manage to achieve this. Succubus is one of them, and if I ever write an article about the 5 most stirring gaming experiences of my life, Succubus has earned its place there.

Is this a game for the masses? Certainly not. Succubus is a game for adults who can take a lot. For all who can detach from morality and ethics in the context of a game and deal with massive violence. For all who enjoy the darkest black humor and want to slip into the role of a demoness who is profoundly evil in the purest and unadulterated sense of the word. At least if you measure the game by our human standards – and exactly that the developers did not do.

The game is also quite well received. Succubus has a solid 87% positive reviews on Steam. That would be remarkable even for any other game.

I still don’t know if I am thrilled or horrified. But definitely stirred.

Good job, Succubus Vydija.