Alright you virgins listen up! Today’s review is going to be for a masterpiece of our time. A game that transcends any kind of interactive medium before it. A game that does something no other game in existence can possibly claim to do. This game promises to GET. YOU. LAID. This is… Super Seducer.

    Okay, all jokes aside, all of the talk around this game is really interesting. Created by pickup artist Richard LaRuina, Super Seducer is a game about, well, picking up women. And ever since its release people have been ragging on it, using terms like sexist, misogynistic, and derogatory.

Now, there’s no issue with the idea of someone giving advice to people looking to learn how to flirt, even if the end goal is sex. Sometimes that’s all that people want and there’s nothing wrong with that. 

The problems only arise when someone won’t back down, uses manipulation or threats to coerce someone, or treats another person as less than human. So with a clear mind, let’s take an objective look and see whether or not all of this internet outrage is justified and it is. It really is.

Before discussing the game’s morality however, let’s take a look at the gameplay itself. Super seducer is a choose your own adventure game, taking the player on a magical journey through 10 scenarios one might face when attempting to pick up a woman. This could include the bar scene, a nightclub, or just finding someone on the street.

    Each scene plays out in exactly the same way. Richard takes the place of the player avatar in a live action sequence that pauses every now and again to ask the player what action to take next. The scene then plays out and one of three possibilities occurs.

    If the player selects the ”best” option, Richard congratulates them and the scene continues. If they select the mediocre option, he explains what they did wrong before moving on. And if they opt into the bad choice, he scolds them and allows them to try again.

    Do you see the issue here from a purely gameplay perspective? There’s little consequence for choosing wrong. Now look, I’m not expecting Detroit Become Human levels of branching paths and story continuity, but just something that indicates player choice matters. And when this is all there is to the gameplay, it’s not really much of a game at all.

In that case, let’s look at this game in a different light. Instead of this being a review in which we analyze the mechanics and how player input affects the outcome, let’s treat this as an interactive class of sorts. A lesson in the art of flirting and holy shit it fails there too.

The menus are buggy, cutscenes sometimes skipped without my input, there’s very few options for adjustable settings, the subtitles are often delayed or just plain wrong, and the game wouldn’t let me use the main menu with the keyboard until I entered my email to be notified about Super Seducer 2. 

And let’s not forget the sheer lack of effort. There are scenes in the game in which Richard trips over his lines or has his shirt wrinkled in a weird way, none of which were removed or reshot as they should have been. 

For fuck’s sake, I used to do comedy sketches and while they weren’t always the best even I knew to do multiple takes when something didn’t look right. And unlike this game, my videos were free! And those are just the issues with basic functionality, how about the lessons themselves?

    First let’s take a look at the acting. It is abysmal. LaRuina never feels natural as the player avatar and usually either looks like a stalker or a serial killer, even in the correct choice scenes. For someone who’s supposed to be tricking women into bed, you’d think he’d be better at putting on a mask.

    Now some might note this as intentional as Richard is trying to show that even the most awkward and uncharismatic of men can still pick up women, as is the case in the dancing scene, but he behaves with such sincerity that I’m forced to assume it’s poor execution rather than an artistic choice.

    And the supporting cast isn’t any better. The girls look disinterested, though I don’t necessarily blame them, and everyone seems like they were tricked into being a part of this whole thing. None of them even look like they’re excited about their paycheck.

    Not only that, but none of the conversations have any chemistry. Each scene is devoid of any kind of charm that might come with meeting a new person. It’s painful to watch as these scenes are just as lifeless and empty as the relationships he’s teaching people to form with women. In fact, the only two people that seem to have a genuine connection in the entire game are Richard and his friend from the wingman portion, but hey, credit where it’s due.

    Speaking of which, the filming locations aren’t bad, the camera work is usually okay, and the audio quality, while having its issues from time to time, is generally acceptable. Again, it’s nothing worthy of praise, but I need to be fair to any game I review so there you go.

    That said, let’s move onto the dialogue. I don’t know if Richard is trying to show that even the least interesting person in the world can meet women, but that’s the only explanation I could think of for these bland, boring conversations I was forced to endure for the couple of hours it took me to beat the game.

    Not only do these sections go on for way too long, leaving me bored out of my mind by the second mission, but he talks about how much he loves playing squash no less than three times in the first half of the game. He may have done more, but by the second half I was skipping as much of the dialogue as I could to preserve my own sanity.

    At first I tried to pick all of the incorrect options to get some comedy value out of the game, but after a while I just wanted it to be over with and tried to channel my inner scumbag and pick the option the game wanted. Playing this game alone was pure torture.

    There is a bright side however. The comedic possibilities of this are fantastic. The negative choices, terrible effects, cheesy porn music, and general terrible quality make this game perfect for throwing up on the TV to make into a drinking game. Does that make it worth the purchase? Fuck no, but I paid for this thing so I might as well get some enjoyment out of it.

    That said, the game does have some choices that are meant to be comedic. Obviously incorrect options that no one in their right mind would choose such as sneaking up behind someone in a club or peeking up a girl’s skirt result in some genuinely funny scenes, if only because we get to see women react appropriately to Richard’s advances for once.

    Even still, the way Richard reacts to many of these clearly inappropriate choices and plays it straight makes things really awkward and implies that he sees these options as things men would want to do without societal rules rather than clearly disgusting actions that no one in their right mind would select. So congratulations Richard, you’ve managed to insult men as well as women.

    Then we have the crux of the game- the pickup artist techniques. Everyone has been harping on Richard since release that his techniques are vile, degrading, and downright inappropriate, but they failed to ask the most important question- do they work? ...Nope.

    Yeah, it’s pretty hard to defend the game here. Not only do many of his techniques involve things that would probably make a girl uncomfortable, such as approaching her on the street head on to prevent her from continuing on her path, but a lot of them are just downright cringey.

    That said, I do think LaRuina gets a bit too much hate for what this game is. With all of the people online saying how it promotes rape culture and teaches players to treat women as less than human, I don’t really see that as the case. Now don’t get me wrong. The game is still deplorable and should be criticized heavily for its themes and lessons, I just want to be fair and say that it’s not as bad as I expected.

    Lying, having games prepared that open a woman up to being touched, it’s all fake and disingenuous. However, inappropriately touching a woman before she’s given consent or making inappropriate comments or advances are treated as incorrect and while that’s about as low as the bar can be set for standards, the game does manage at least that much. However, I’m a guy and understand I have a limited perspective on the issue.

The worst part is that in between these moments of cringe, there is some genuinely good advice- make sure you’re passionate about what you enjoy, maintain eye contact, wingmanning should be about building up your friend, these are all genuinely good lessons, but that only serves to validate the unacceptable actions in the minds of more impressionable players.

I mentioned at the beginning of the review that there’s nothing wrong with talking to someone with the intention of having sex and nothing more. That’s just what some people are into. The issue comes with entitlement and thinking that you’re owed sex simply for executing Richard’s lessons. 

He never prepares players for rejection, never mentions that a girl may simply not be into you, and even encourages awful practices like hitting on a girl with a boyfriend. In other words, while the game does warn against being outwardly creepy and staying within the limits of the law in terms of sexual assault, the practices used are still deplorable and encourage players to manipulate or trick women rather than just getting to know them.

However, in the wake of all of this negativity I would like to mention that it’s important to focus on the elements of the game that are actually troubling. For example, the inclusion of creepy and sometimes criminal actions in the dialogue options may seem bad, but anything in this category is almost always revealed to be the incorrect choice and is discouraged.

I’m not saying this to spark debate or say LaRuina doesn’t deserve criticism for his portrayal of women, and I’m sure I’ve made that clear. There’s plenty wrong with Richard’s approach and attitude towards women without these claims that the game encourages harassment.

Instead I just want to make sure we focus exclusively on the elements of the game that deserve condemnation to ensure that the red pillers and neckbeards of the world can’t contradict the criticism of a game that so desperately needs it.

    So is Super Seducer the worst example of misogyny in all of gaming? Nope. That title still decidedly belongs to Custer’s Revenge. That said, it’s still a deplorable game that I hope never gets into the hands of an impressionable person only looking to learn about starting natural conversations with others.

    Even still the game is buggy, boring, and lacks any sort of creativity or originality, but in the spirit of objectivity I have to admit it functioned without giving my computer a virus, which is why Super Seducer for the PC gets a 1.5 out of 10. 

If something positive has come out of this game, it’s getting Richard’s face plastered all over the internet with a warning to stay away. I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did, be sure to like and subscribe to see more mighty reviews and other gaming content. And as always, have a mighty nifty day today!