Subtension

Subtension

WolverineSoft Studio · March 28, 2023 · Simulation, Indie, Strategy, Puzzle, 2D

Subtension is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

PC
Mostly Positive75% · 12
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

Screenshots

Subtension price

Subtension is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About Subtension

✦ AI summary

Subtension is a real-time strategy submarine simulation where you outfit your vessel, command your crew, and navigate treacherous deep-sea missions to save humanity's remnants. Inspired by FTL, it features customizable ship systems, a fully voice-acted story with multiple endings shaped by your choices, and roguelike-style gameplay that rewards different tactical approaches.

Outfit, crew and command your submarine to save what's left of humanity beneath the seas of a ruined earth. Man your sub's systems and take aim in this real-time strategy epic! Inspired by FTL, this subnautic student project serves as our first 2-semester release.

Subtension — game info

Platforms
Windows, macOS
Steam Deck
Playable
Player modes
Single-player
PC Game Pass
Not included
More games like this:Mac games

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

✦ AI summary

Subtension is a free FTL-inspired roguelike about managing a submarine with an interesting story and atmospheric art direction, but players consistently criticize its simplistic gameplay, mediocre graphics, and bland presentation that make it feel unfinished despite solid technical performance. The core point-and-click combat is easy and repetitive, UI elements lack clarity, and the minimal animations and sound design feel disconnected from the action, leaving many feeling the game needs significantly more depth and polish to justify extended playtime.

Recommended Apr 9, 2024
⠀
9 found this helpful
Recommended Mar 30, 2023
I only played for around 20 minutes, but this was a good experience. There are some room for improvement, but we'll get to that later. Story. It's interesting. I got to one of the endings and it was a premature one, based on my choices. As promised by the description, there are interesting twists and turns. (Edit: The story actually doesn't change much, despite your choices. Whether you negotiate or disagree, you will be forced to battle enemies. But it has multiple endings.) Art and Sound. Simple, beautiful and elegant. The color palette succeeds in conveying the grimness of this future. The quietness of the soundtracks complement that feeling of being submerged for a long time. Gameplay. It's fun for the most part, but pretty simple and easy. At its core, you point and click to shoot and fire. Like FTL and Crying Suns. I didn't need to upgrade my ship past the tutorial but again, I only played for 3/4 fights before ending prematurely. I never figured out how to repair the ship though, which seems essential and should be in the tutorial. Speaking of the tutorial, I wish there was a way to skip that. I'm going to try out the game a few more times to see where the story takes m…
4 found this helpful
Not recommended Nov 20, 2024
"Subtension" is an unusual but genuinely made ripoff of FTL but with submarines. I guess it doesn't matter that much because just like FTL, the graphics are really lacklustre and I have a general issue with games that rely on procgen instead of content, but being completely free buys a huge amount of leeway. If you wanted to try FTL but are on a budget, maybe this is a better alternative to get a feel for it. This has some really mediocre looking graphics that will understandably be a turn off for a lot of gamers, and it's a big contributor to the failure of the game to attract gamers despite having no up-front cost. Gaming is a primarly visual medium, and if developers want to succeed, they must understand that it's not an area for compromise. You deserve better than compromises. Not every "free" game really is. There's often MTX, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of things that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game. Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving it away without any remuneration. This is a service to themselves…
3 found this helpful
Recommended Mar 29, 2023
Sawcon, my balls is hot. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam tincidunt ligula et felis sollicitudin laoreet. Proin eget commodo tortor. Nunc vestibulum eros mauris, ut laoreet leo tincidunt ut. Aliquam dictum gravida euismod. Aenean ultrices lorem sit amet purus molestie, at lobortis metus rhoncus. Nunc quis consequat ipsum. Ut vulputate, magna sit amet fringilla vestibulum, diam erat commodo augue, a fringilla arcu ante sit amet est. Ut sed bibendum mauris, quis gravida nunc. Donec id turpis nec lacus consequat ultricies. In convallis arcu vel dignissim volutpat. Sed dignissim tellus a massa volutpat, in pellentesque dui sollicitudin. Phasellus tempor nunc eget elit ullamcorper, in tempus lacus lobortis. Sed semper, lacus sit amet suscipit convallis, ligula est rhoncus risus, in imperdiet diam risus dictum lorem. Morbi ac augue justo. Nam ut nibh et diam porta porta eget et ex. Nulla quis pharetra metus. Morbi id tristique tellus, at malesuada lectus. Nullam tortor est, ornare et metus feugiat, sagittis pretium turpis. Duis interdum, odio nec maximus cursus, purus velit ornare dolor, a sagittis augue lectus at tellus. Proin venenatis lacinia aliquet. …
2 found this helpful
Not recommended Apr 11, 2023
I am always honest with my reviews. This is what I dislike about this game: [list] [*]Text boxes are boring. [*]Captain tells you to drag a weapon onto the submarine and says "This room looks good" The game won't let you place it anywhere other than where he is referring to. There is no immediate way to know which room he is referring to until you hover over them. [*]The game just looks like boxes on top of other boxes. [*]Crew move slowly [*]The animations look like they were made in PowerPoint [*]Gameplay is boring [*]The simple laid back music does not make sense during a submarine fight or literally any type of military or non-military fighting. It would be headache inducing after listening to it for too long [/list]
1 found this helpful
Recommended Apr 2, 2023
[spoiler] note: this is a wolverinesoft copypasta inside joke [/spoiler] Well, it runs fairly smoothly. There's absolutely nothing to it though and if these guys are coding students, I don't know who is teaching them but they seem to have missed the bit where they create a worthwhile FTL-clone. These kids could be leaving university with a steady income if they'd just put a bit more game in their game. I would like to see a sequel with a bit more ultrawide aspect ratios support, some information about the submarines, lift all the good features from FTL-likes (and FTL is NOT a stand out of the genre btw - it's simply one of the least bad ones that's still going), zoom out about 500% because this is to FTL as Duplo is to Lego at the moment. The submarine has 4 room types which is incredibly boring and there's no information about the rooms that are coming etc etc etc. I've no idea what they were learning from this - the only thing I can guess is that perhaps it's about the code in the background? It wasn't lagging even running at speed so maybe they created a hyper efficient code base in comparison to FTL which can really lag when it's got a lot of stuff on screen. Who knows? Subt…
1 found this helpful

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