Overall most helpful review

Posted on: June 4, 2022

Doodledibob

Games: 197 Reviews: 7

A diamond in the rough

Souldiers is another one of these metroidvania/dark souls mashups that have been getting popular over the last couple of years. You've got your usual quick & heavy attack, with a cooldown timer on the latter. Positioning is vital, and you have a block and dodge that you will need to use often. There's a heavy emphasis on knowing when to do what, and that classic Dark Souls sense of being punished for "being greedy" is also found here. The game is dragged down in a few areas. First, the melee/archer/mage class choice doesn't really feel balanced. At least early on, I'm getting mired in conflicts where if I don't have ranged options, I'm going to spend a lot of time waiting for certain enemies to get close enough for me to hit. Second, the pacing with the Dragon Statue Fires (this game's version of Dark Souls bonfires) doesn't seem quite right. Third, things like Ammo Shards should just refill when you save/heal at a DSF. The game is already asking you to be cautious and methodical in so many other areas, it doesn't seem reasonable that ammo gathering is something you should have to deal with in addition to the multitude of other resources. I personally don't find it fun to have to keep demonstrating that I have mastered this idea of how to gather ammo shards from trash mobs. Fourth, the game's keyboard controls feel... off. I'm sorry, I don't know how else to put it. Maybe it's down to the layout, and I haven't found something that works for me yet. Maybe it's the relative size of platforms and characters, with everything feeling so cramped. But compared to other entries in the genre, something feels wrong. Maybe it's better when you use a gamepad, I can't say for sure. I want to stress at this point that I do overall like the game. There's clearly a lot of thought and effort at work here. I just wish some areas had had more polish.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: July 26, 2022

Manaflower

Verified owner

Games: 1493 Reviews: 27

Extremely frustrating

Short and sweet: player needs pixel perfect jumping and tolerance for BS, if you have those, this might be for you (I hate pixel perfect jumping myself, and have limited tolerance for BS). SPOILER WARNING Basic gameplay is great, but... ... then you enter these sudden pixel perfect jumping sequences (e.g. the game requires you getting maximum height from jump-airjump-walljump-airdash-walljump sequence several times), unfair fights with bosses that deal third of your health in one hit in 3 hit combo (yes, that's instakill), jumping sequences where you can't see where your next platform is before you're already in air, really inaccurate aiming with analog stick while still demanding almost pinpoint accuracy (bubbles), buggy wall edges that behave inconsistently (I'm as likely to fall off them as jump up as I am to get my double jump off to get as high as the game wants me to). I am also not fan of the elemental matching where you either need to memorize the elements, or keep an item on you that reveals them. Spoilers incoming.... Major FUs in the game: - The wall ledges you need to climb, they just are broken, you succeed at using them by luck. - Royal Scorpion - The steam room fight. - Lava chase Currently I've given up on the the game because of the lava chase, the jumping is just too finicky for me to deal with and my thumb started bruising from the shit the game's been requiring of me. I can forgive the game for the piglet usage, I keep missing them, but that's just me not being observant enough. They're neat, and fortunately not overused. Part of the problem may be that I have old x360 gamepad, but this works great in all other games I've played, so I can't really fault it. I really can't recommend it, and I really doubt these will be changed in patches, so... go as you will.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: May 20, 2023

Solisprii

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 4

An overall good game.

TLDR: Solid Metroidvania. On the earliest version, 1.10.1 or so: Good, difficult bosses, many varied attacks (albeit some were designed a little poorly, like the Royal Scorpion fight). Fun platforming and difficult segments (ya'll cry babies about the lava-escape segment). Minor bugs. On newest versions: Apparently, easier platforming, bosses, easier everything. Metroidvania fans beware. Full: Overall solid platformer, if you discount the version horrors that went on with its launch. While I personally did not experience the discrepancy, it seems like a lot of new comers complained that the game was too hard or unfair, and with each update balanced the game to be severely easier, which came as a horrid surprise to those who actually enjoy difficult Metroidvania type of games, like myself. Those who are on steam, are essentially screwed to remain with the newest, easier version. On gog though, I played on version 1.10.1 or so (available via gog galaxy), and while there were a few minor bugs, I was overall enjoying my experience. Most boss fights, imo, are good. They have varied patterns, and can confuse you at times. I find this a plus that they are not so easily predictable. However, many of the fights can be frustrating due to the high damage output, and being status-resistant. Some platforming "jumps" can be seen as extremely unfair, but I found it to be on par with the genre. The only issue is that the game does not "teach you" these "uncommon" tricks, and expects you to come up with them yourself. At times I felt like I was breaking the game, but in retrospect that was the intended way, and I enjoyed it for being that way. And apropos difficult jumps -- the lava escape segment was most definitely NOT too hard. There are other minor concerns, like useless side-weapons, but overall the game is very much enjoyable, it's worth the 10$ I dropped on it 100%. And if you're not very good at jumping platforms and such...Well, upgrade to the newest version.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: August 12, 2022

ALTernative.MS

Verified owner

Games: 309 Reviews: 2

Beautiful but hard to play

It's a very beautiful game, with great art design, with a lot of small details and hidden fetures. Various gameplay situations and puzzles. Pros : Awesome artdesign and animations. Cons : not hood balance as for me, to hard to play. Solution : use cheats )

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: June 15, 2022

Futsuu

Games: Reviews: 2

Could be better

This review is based on the PS4 version, so I can't comment on keyboard and mouse controls, or PC performance. I'm still relatively early on, but several design decisions detract from the fun factor considerably: - You do not get any healing items that refill on death. Healing potions can be purchased, but they're overpriced and heal very little (20 HP, while the character has 50-70 HP). Each costs 100 gold, and a couple of hours in you'll barely collect a few hundred gold. This will all be spent on equipment upgrades. - When you die, you often restart at a checkpoint rather than at a save point. But, you will not restart at full HP, and chances are, you'll just die again immediately. You can only fully heal at save points. - I tried the soldier and caster classes. The scout (sword fighter) has no ranged attack, making it incredibly frustrating to fight flying enemies. There are some flying axes you can get later on, but they're consumable and don't track their targets. Many of them will miss the mark, and you'll run out. - You must kill certain mobs, or open certain chests, to refill consumable items. These are relatively rare. Consumables run out too quickly, yet many are essential (e.g., flying axes to kill flying enemies, bombs to break down walls, etc.). - The caster, based on the description, was supposed to be powerful and methodical. Instead, it only beats the scout by having a ranged attack but is otherwise weak, and often involves spamming attack. - The level design is inconsistent. I felt like I was playing a very different game (a boring, linear side scroller rather than metroidvania) when I got outdoors. As a positive, you can switch difficulty at any time. I started on soldier (normal), but this was frustratingly difficult, especially for bosses. I switched to explorer (easy), which made the bosses fair, but due to the issues with the scout having no ranged attack, even on this difficulty, the game is frustrating due to the flying enemies.

Is this helpful to you?

Discover CD PROJEKT RED games

Highlights

Featured

Close, but not an exact hit

Souldiers

Other ratings

Add a review

Edit a review

Delete this review?

Report this review

Additional Details (required):

Report this review