The Chess Scandal of the year ? CHESS SOX?!
CHESS🎃WEEN !
Disclaimer : The following blog is for adul readers.
Discretion is advised. Explicit content - Parental advisory.
Miss Direction : "Welcome to the HⒶLLOW33N themed blog of the month! "
This week we will discover a dark aesthetics chess game for the October festivities while discusing a relatively unknown chess scandall. Which one? The desolation of the R-Rated videogame "S3X CHESS". Only censored content will be displayed. Suggestive imagery will be blurrd and covered. There will be horrific content and censored "pieces" in this blog. Completely NSFW game but a Chess.com friendly blog nonetheless believe me!
Table of contents
1.1 Disclaimer
1.2 Intro
1.3 Table des matieres
2. Halloween Chess Themed Video Game Review
2.1 What is S3X CHESS ?
2.2 Evil Lying Overlord
2.3 Original Rules?
2.4 Playing Without Spells
2.5 Is the gameplay fun ?
3. Evaluating this wild offering
Darkest CH3SS variant ever
3.1 Intentions lost in translation
3.2 The score that it deserves
4. Conclusion : What scandal?
5. References
2. Halloween Chess Themed Video Game Review
There was an adage in the olden days that was used to talk about banned subjects : "the work of the devil." S3X CHESS can be touted as one of its proudest offerings.
2.1 What is S3X CHESS ?
In this 2022 Russian developped and published game, the player follows the story of an angel fighting against the minions of darkness. The adventure takes place in a hellish environments playing chess variants using spells to inflict various effects not normally employed in our noble art.
The game's intent to be extreme is not occulted to the buyer. You will have to activate the "Mature" games display mode to be able to see this release on the Steam store front. So be warned, once more, don't go any further is you are not ready for the gory and perverted design of this videogame.
2.2 Hellish visions
Amidst the depravity of the acts perpetrated by anthropomorphic angels & devils pieces on the board, the player is advised to either play the 3D explicit version for adults only, or change the mode to the 2D safer for adults graphical interface. The cut scenes though not overtly graphic at first will soon become nightmare inducing, akin to Z-series Horror flicks of the 1990s with above Diablo 1 graphical quality. There won't be legions of images of the actual gameplay featured in the blog here, but you will be able to get an idea of the game's aesthetics.
2.3 Evil Lying Overlord
The protagonist is an angel reaching the miasma ridden regions at the entry of the Kingdom of Lucifer the fallen. He starts off by challenging the evil one to a war for the freedom of those condemned to hell. Satan retorts that they should rather play a game of chess.More than once the Lord of Darkness will mention that they have previously played chess once upon a time in the Heavens alongside the High Father. That being said, from here on out, you better keep in mind that the Devil is a cheater.
He uses spells to summon armies of pawns on the chess board during the course of a normal game, tansforming the play in an abusive variant if you are not going to play to the Devil's level.
2.4 Original Rules? Spells?
Indeed, the Devil is in the details. The evil spirit will be using spells to get the best of you.
Their effects will be presented in a future blog,
the resume is as follow :
* Pawn Army: adds a pawn, can be used more than 1x
* Clone : duplicates a major piece
* Mine : set a mine on the board, occupied spot or not
* Deep freeze : cannot be moved for more than a turn
* Destruction : removes a piece by disintegration
* Stop : stops a piece for a move
You have been warned!
2.5 Playing Without Spells
Being a clean player means I prefer to not cheat as a player. In real life, Over the board, while playing online chess. Ethical play is the only way. Don't expect the Dark Entity at work on the other side of the table to play fair. Videogames are sacred to me so I play them competitively the same way as chess : without cheats. What happens when our opponent refuses to put cheats aside? It gets a little tougher. But even if the Devil uses spells we can work to beat him with solid lines and a tactical mind. Let's see how a game ended without a single affront to the rules of Classical chess :
2.5 Is the gameplay fun ?
The games can be challenging because of the trickster anagonist. If you know your chess basics, you should emerge triumphant soon enough. Fun fact : The checkmate rules were not part of those considered necessary in the infernal rulebook! In S3X CHESS you can capture the enemy king on the turn following a check if the opponent opts to go for a spell or to make a move that doesn't stop the check on their king.
I will repeat it, for the surprise it caused me was massive : You can capture your opponent's king! Old school rules! So once the threat goes un-neutralized, take on that King : Shah mat, dude! The first time I realized those rules were in place was after trying to drop a bishop to get my king to safety. Hadn't seen the check but then tried to move that king aside... imagine my shock when the bishop got to the square I clicked!It was not dropped and the game moved it, instead of my king, to the desired spot. The next move saw my opponent's Queen capture my King. DEFEAT! Here is how the incorrect display of a chess game looks like in this videogame :
3. Darkest CH3SS variant ever ? Evaluating this wild offering
3.1 Intentions lost in translation
The developper/publisher being russian, some elements of the storyline are probably lost in translation but it seems to follow the philosophical themes of "Paradise Lost" and "Dante's Inferno".
The dark side of the game is fed by the BDSM aesthetics, we cannot deny it. Moreso in the nightmarish hellish imagery displayed later in the game's cut scenes. The "gallery mode" being the closest thing to the title's if we care about the definition it elicits in our minds. The galleries though got zero chess content and are not gonna be covered in this blog for the sake of the current R rating. There was also a scandal with the development team leaving the lead designer after the game was released and he was looking for new programmers to work with for a sequel. See the community post on the game's feed on Steam. I won't be delving into further details : being adults you can google search it and find out between sugar rushes!
3.2 The score that it deserves
Considering the originality of the concepts - some would call it "sick novelty" , even blasphemy - I think this game could be worth your time. The basic game display in 3D characters are quite graphic, with pawns and pieces designed to really be focused on the erotico-gothic and dark BDSM aesthetics that are on the featured art of the game in press material. The high detail settings are displayed without much problem on a 10 years old PC. For a laptop, it might be better to go with medium settings, as for SteamDecks I cannot say since I've never tried this kind of console. What I recommend for an experience like an old school Chess Master : skip the S3X animations, cut the BDSM, limit the spell options by playing the single game mode with 0 of each spell to nullify those, and voilà! You got an "extreme chess master" !
Overall : Rate it a 5.69 in graphics, a 6 in gameplay if you enjoy the mature themed work of twisted blasphemy. I.e. : if Hellraiser franchise and other horror movies are your cup of tea, evidently! There is some delay in movement when playing in 2D, and less prevalent with the 3D animations. So 6/10. The A.i. ain't that bright for Lucifer, maybe a 650ELO. Use the game to practice weird chess openings, you could have fun. The spells can make it really tough. So the difficulty can be rewarding winning legitimately with the full cheats allowed for the Devil's arsenal. The game intelligence would get a 4.5/10 maybe, but difficulty gets a 5.5/10 for those pesky spells. Not even a gory 6/10 ! Just don't look at what the TV display when the devil shows it to you after a game. Nightmarish!
4. Conclusion : What scandal?
As much as this clickbait title was used to censor the explicit nature of the game that is featured within my bag of surprises for this week, it evidently was also to make a joke on the takes many would be thinking of featuring in their latest blog with the new chess scandal! But que neni! This was all a bait and switch, to get you to click and read about this weirdly interesting chess game for consenting adults. Take it or leave it, you won't be hurt not playing it.
So all in all take this title with a grain of salt ( or alt in the wound if you enjoy that ).If the price fits what you'd invest: go for it. Remember that it's for adults only and that the devil cannot hurt you in real life as he does not exist. Hell is not real, you are safe.
This was all just a Chess-O-Ween adventure blog!
Chris de Burgh : "Oh lord,... don't let him win!"
5. References
See in comments later !
