This past week, we were invited for a sneak preview of Soulstice from developer Replay Game Studios. It was toted as an action fighter that had a sprinkle of Dark Souls with a healthy chunk of Devil May Cry gameplay. While the story certainly had a Dark Souls bleak feel to it from beginning to the end of the demo, it was driven by pure action that required you to think on your toes and do the impossible – multi-task. There are certainly a lot of strategic ways to juggle this game with all the elements it gives you.
Let’s get into this preview.
The story
Soulstice revolves around two sisters, Briar and Lute, who are reborn as a chimera, a dual-brand warrior. Lute is a soul that is bound to her sister and helps protect her, as well as take care of supernatural issues that may come up on their journey. Briar is the brute that does all the sword-swinging and taking care of business. Their journey, at least in this preview, was to take back a wraith-filled city and discover where everything had gone wrong.
While the demo only gave us a taste of the story, as it should, it certainly set the direction of where it was all going. The first part of the demo threw us into the crux of Briar’s problem as she is a powerful chimera trying not to go completely to the wraith side of the equation. Her sister and her sanity keep her from trailing off and turning into something awful. I suspect that the rest of the story is going to have this first incident reoccur and gradually become controlling of Briar’s state. This worked for Metal Gear Solid 4 when nanobots were taking over Snake’s body, so this isn’t a bad way to get engaged with the main character and want to save her from a terrible fate…whatever that might be.
Beyond Briar’s physical and mental fight to stay ‘her’, the castle in the demo was crawling with wraiths and other horrible creatures that have occupied and taken over the once peaceful castle. The cause? Not completely sure, but we did get a sliver of indication with a mysterious carriage carrying something awful into the area. I’m still not completely sure what was presented, but I’m positive it was sinister and probably fits nicely into the above synopsis. Regardless, this was a great start when putting together a good adventure. Having said that, Replay Game told us that the action dictated the story of the game. This means that they developed the gameplay first and built the story around it. While I doubt many other developers take this route, it was interesting to see what came out of the story from the action, and honestly, it made sense, especially when the gameplay design is very expansive.
Let’s talk about that now.
Gameplay that leads the story
For a simple action game, the backend and skills tree could be gloriously complicated with strategy leading the decision-making process. Briar and Lute each have trees to work with, each considerably different from the other. Briar is a brute, so it’s no surprise that she carries a more offensive skills tree set that can be upgraded through red crystals acquired from fallen enemies. On the defensive side, the game goes with Lute, who upgrades her skills tree with blue crystals from supernatural crystals laying around waiting to be broken.
Lute’s skills tree has a more protective and defensive feel to it, though offensive skills are available for her. She mainly protects Briar from enemies that her sister can’t see as she is sword-swinging like a crazy person. For example, during the demo, Briar and Lute were attacked by multiple wraiths in a courtyard, while a mini-boss was firing arrows, and Briar could not get to everyone at the same time. Occasionally, during fights enemies will have a ‘B’ icon come up that tells the player to push the ‘B’ button (or whatever controller you might be using). If pushed in time, the reaction will cause Lute to turn in that direction and to that enemy and block/delay the attack. It’s quite clever and the player must juggle attacking and activating Lute when necessary, as well as dodging when it calls for it. It’s cognitively engaging to strategize the best way to go into an enemy attack and block, and each character serves a purpose when it comes to planning how to handle a large group of baddies. It gives you a high-sensation value gaming experience that will make you forget that you’re going to get your ass handed to you a few times.
On the control side of the equation, I love the smooth attack and defense that the game brings. The balancing act between Briar and Lute’s function in the gameplay design is clever when all hell is breaking loose. It’s very comparable to DMC, as chaos makes the moment so much sweeter. And don’t worry, there is plenty of chaos in Soulstice.
My only complaint about the gameplay design during this preview was that the camera is locked. There were more than a few times that I wanted to swing the camera around towards oncoming enemies, but the camera is simply locked with limited movement available. I’m not sure why it is locked, especially when your characters are being attacked from all sides, but it’s locked. Is this manageable? Well, in the demo it was fine, but unless it’s a system resource issue, where your system gets a high number of graphics to juggle at once and can’t swing around to new areas in time to load them, then it needs to be unlocked. That’s my only negative takeaway from the demo.
Overall, the gameplay featured in the demo showed off how well it is to have Briar and Lute play together, and the goal of gathering crystals to upgrade both characters. It’s a fun game and it’s going to set off those DMC vibes as soon as you get into the scrum.
Other Odds and Ends
Graphically, this is one of the better-looking action games that I have had the pleasure of playing on the PC. Most of what I saw in the demo was a decaying castle on fire, it was very similar to the first level in Demon Souls. The environments were huge, lively for a destroyed environment, and visually appealing, especially when the ray-tracing kicked in. The characters fit visually perfectly into the story, environments, and the badassery that the game oozed. I want to see more of everything.
Audibly, loved the acting and enjoyed the music. I felt like the music had a lot to give for a demo. It brought the drama and sold the world and its atmosphere. I wanted to hear more of the music and acting as the demo concluded. I think both are going to be special.
Conclusion
While our demo was limited, the preview we were given put Soulstice on the list for must-haves when it’s finished. I can’t wait to see the rest of this world when it’s done. Until then, stay tuned.
