Succubus Prologue Is A Hellish Experience For The Right Reasons

Succubus Prologue is currently available to play for free on Steam. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Each time I read the title, I’m doing it to the tune of Mudhoney’s Suck You Dry. Try it, it’s fun.

Anyway, Succubus Prologue is a hellish first-person title that draws inspiration from games such as Doom, Clive Barker’s Jericho and the classic, Hexen. Only, it stands on its own two feet (unless crawling).

Betrayed by your brethren, the Succubus of the title goes a little postal, destroying practically everything in sight; either by slashing with demonic blades or casting spells that put any necromancer to shame.

Hell’s a pretty toasty place, so she tends to walk around in nothing but her birthday suit, but as a first-person romp, you don’t get to see much – that is, unless you climb some rocks or bathe in the pools of Satan, rubbing unidentified bugs all over her wobbly bits.

The path is a simple one: wipe out anything in your path through death and destruction. In Succubus Prologue you can slash with your blades, kick martyrs into spikes and perform an execution move that firmly secures your place in the ‘Most Likely To Succeed’ Hell yearbook.

Launching flames from her palms, she sets the minions alight, as well as tentacles that rise from the floor stopping your progress. Her hometown is very much the spectacle, and despite the harsh environment, Succubus Prologue is a gorgeous looking game.

I’m not one for first-person melee. It’s a nice bonus, like when playing Killzone 2 and knifing everything up close, but falling back on the guns. As a primary source for combat, it gets a bit clumsy.

With the number of enemies that attack all in one go, it does get messy both literally and figuratively, and I did get a little confused what was going on, to the point I was button mashing. When the game gets hectic, it lives up to the name, but when enemies aren’t about, I found myself twiddling about with the depth of field settings (you have to try it!) and awkwardly looking at the sinners boning each other or having their tallywhackers on display. I want to be all high and mighty and say I turned a blind eye, but the deviant on me end up slaughtering everyone in sight as if my job were part of the cleanup crew.

Before writing this up, I got an update notification that Madmind Studio had already put in place some improvements based on feedback. Ignoring the flesh on display, the combat and fluidity in Succubus Prologue was an enjoyable experience.

My only issue was the source for restoring health which involved beating a pregnant sinner and ripping out the unborn child from her hoo-ha. We all have our lines, and mine is often distant, but this one carved it firmly in the rock. Each to their own, but not for me.

As for the game, it’s pretty cool from my brief time playing it and based on the available difficulty settings; this will keep even hardcore fans occupied for some time. Best of all for people like me, there’s a customisation option which could be the hook I need to seal the deal.

There’s no release date yet, but play the Succubus Prologue and make up your own mind, adding it to your Steam wishlist in the process. Or she’ll get you.