I cannot believe I like a Souls-esque game. I cannot believe it. Ben Sheene could hardly believe it when I told him. And yet, I do—what a weird year.
The First Berserker: Khazan from developer Neople is a strangely fun, and difficult, action role-playing game that gives you a huge dose of Souls-type structure while reminding you of its RPG underbelly. A lot is going on with Khazan and you’ll find that out quickly from the moment you launch it. While it has a great amount of chaos and confusion, it brings a heavy dose of familiarity along the way.
So, sit back, relax, and let me possess you with this review.
Story of Khazan
This is a story of pure vengeance. You play as Khazan, a fallen general, who is revived from a possession from an evil spirit that helps him cheat death. The sinister spirit has his agenda but pulls Khazan along through our hero’s desire to get back at the enemies that defeated him. Khazan’s goals are to take down those who drove him and his soldiers to the grave, while somehow trying to find a way to extract the evil that has taken him over.
The story of The First Berserker: Khazan is quick and to the point. It’s like almost every other revenge tale and one that isn’t detoured by this fact. I enjoy games like these, especially basing their story on vengeance. It hooks the players and keeps them motivated, even after multiple defeats. You just want Khazan to go out and bring down the whole damn enemy army. It’s very John Wick and his puppy sort of moment.
In addition, since you start at Khazan’s ending and a new beginning, the story pieces together what happened to him on the battlefield through various boss fights and general acknowledgments here and there. In other words, it’s simple, yet brings some complication, and pays off the way it needs to as you progress.
Again, I like this type of tale. It feels mean, raw, and just what the doctor ordered with storytelling.
Gameplay that is Berserk
I had to fit in a pun here. It was too tempting.
Anyway, the gameplay of The First Berserker: Khazan is every bit of what you heard by now (or experienced) – it is tough as nails. While it isn’t as purposely unforgiving as a Souls game, which certainly enjoys your demise, it forces you to be precise as you play. I found that aspect fascinating, even when I died multiple times.
The preciseness comes through patience. The game wants to know how methodical you’ll be when you approach a fight. Will you go in axe/sword swinging haphazardly, or will you go in cautiously and try to out-strategize the enemy? The latter truly is what this game is about. It wants you to slowly approach big fights, be aware of what you can and can’t handle, and determine when it’s right to fall back or to swing away. I know that most Dark Souls fans love the chaotic challenge of their Souls game and will go into fights headfirst at times. The First Berserker: Khazan doesn’t want any of that for you, rather it would prefer that you just estimate what is happening during a big fight and figure out the best approach. Because of this, and its need for your patience that is sometimes tough to maintain as a gamer, this feels like a richer and better experience than Dark Souls, at least for me.
The First Berserker: Khazan never seemed inaccessible and never drove me bonkers during my review session. When I played the Souls series, it was overwhelming when I was defeated, as getting eaten by a chest or not seeing an enemy around the corner about to swing at me felt unfair. Souls games always felt like an uphill battle to progress and quite frankly felt unbeatable. For The First Berserker: Khazan, the enemies bring their patterns to the fight, even when they’re overpowered and at times unblockable. Paying attention in the game and seeing these patterns helped lick the wounds of repeated defeat. I was pleasantly surprised by how it handled fights and how many cards bosses showed through their movements and precise numerical strikes. The hints of how to defeat them were obvious and winning never seemed out of reach.
Because of all of this, the game honestly caught me off guard with how easily I could get into the groove of it. I could see all the markings of an impossible gameplay hill to climb but never felt frustration with repeatedly dying. It was astonishing. I truly was blown away by how much I enjoyed this game. I shouldn’t have enjoyed it, but I did.
Also, before we move on, I must give big kudos to the boss designs and gameplay progression. The bosses especially helped keep me interested in the face of defeat. They helped.
The bosses were tough, yet creative in their looks and purpose, and came in a variety of well-executed designs. You’ll see this in the first boss, which is a huge snow creature, where it looks cool and brings a large variety of ways to attack you. Then you’ll see the bosses start to vary in size, strength, and attack styles. The fights are tough and fun, which bodes well for a game that is made for you to fail.
Of course, there are ways for you to avoid failure.
Complicated Underbelly
While sword and axe swinging are a hoot of a time, and attacking/blocking is so well done and tight in this game, the depth of this game came with leveling up and constantly upgrading equipment. The RPG elements of The First Berserker: Khazan brought a nicely laid out skills tree to the table. You can work on your power, and swinging, and bring in new tricks to improve Khazan along the way. It’s what you would expect from an action RPG structure and this game delivered it perfectly.
In addition to the skills tree, there was also a leveling mechanism for Khazan’s basic attributes. As you take out enemies, you gather their souls. The more you gather, the more you can level Khazan’s attributes. The attributes are familiar categories like strength, endurance, and/or intelligence. The more enemies you take care of, the easier it becomes to make Khazan more powerful. It was an additional motivating factor to keep pushing through a rather difficult game. You need that motivation, especially if you’re easily frustrated by a purposely difficult game.
Beyond attributes, skills, and such, you also gather and find equipment in the game that helps make the push easier. This includes defeating enemies and picking up new armor, amulets, or weapons. The game does a good job of keeping this portion of the game going and making finding such things constant. It’s just another part of the game that encourages you to keep going.
Now, in the spirit of progression, to level up Khazan he must make it to glow-y sword checkpoints throughout his journey. This is akin to the swords and rest areas of Dark Souls, which are spaced out enough to keep you on your toes. The same goes for The First Berserker: Khazan, you will find these checkpoints quite a way away from each other, which means you are constantly put on alert or you run the risk of having to journey down the same dangerous path again with the same enemies impeding your progress.
By touching the glow-y sword a few things happen. As previously stated, they act as a checkpoint which allows you to breathe a little before going again to the next one. The checkpoint also cures you and refills your HP and the potions you carry. You’re being reset and restocked, which is a nice feeling.
Okay, now for the downer. By touching said sword you also reset any enemies you have defeated to this point. This means for those who are a ‘save at any given chance’ type of gamer, you’re stripped of that pleasure. I’m that type of player and I found the decision to touch that sword was a heavier decision when it came to strategy.
Having all those above decisions weighing on your strategy and shaping it means you’re limited in how you can play the game. While I realize this is purely to up the difficulty of the game and get players a constant kick of anxiety as they move through, it’s still unnerving to the point where you have no other choice but to play cautiously. It’s effective in its intentions but does slow the game down quite a bit.
Now, should you choose to play the game a little faster and looser, there is a saving grace to your irresponsibility going against the game’s grain. Should you kill a lot of enemies and then get beaten somewhere down the line, the game leaves your soul (and the rewards you reap) at the spot of your demise. This action gives you a chance to recover what you lost in the initial defeat but erases that chance if you’re defeated again along the way to recover said souls. I’m glad it gives you a chance to not lose everything in a single go around. At least, in a way, the game wants you to learn from your mistakes and feel a bit braver about your approach. And this single aspect of the game makes upgrading/leveling not seem out of reach.
Overall, the gameplay is interesting with how it gives you a little, takes back a lot, and then throws the possibility of success and redemption into the mix. Again, nothing feels impossible, even when you keep getting beaten down. It’s all unsteady but that unsteadiness resides on a rock-solid foundation.
Visuals and audio
The First Berserker: Khazan is simply gorgeous. While I was fearful that it was going to be a typical cel-shaded presentation, I was pleasantly surprised with character model details, such as flowing hair and body movements, and I was especially impressed with the environment designs. The levels were outstanding, even if they were linear.
The acting and music were also equally impressive. I enjoyed the passion and delivery Khazan’s actor brought, as well as the delivery from enemies and the evil spirit. They all sold the story and the coolness of the characters. The devs also did a great job of delivering the evil spirit’s lines as a separate entity through the PlayStation’s controller speaker. I didn’t expect that when it happened, and that voice actor scared the bejesus out of me.
Finally, the music was just as raw and beautifully gnarly as the main character. I would listen to this regularly if it hit vinyl. Just saying. It was a hard, heavy, and purposeful rock.
On that note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
The First Berserker: Khazan from developer Neople is a different and more accessible take on the action role-playing game Souls blueprint. It’s difficult most of the time but brings a good story, great enemies, and a hefty and well-executed backend system. While mostly a great game, its downside is that it is a linear journey that will test a gamer’s frustration limits.
