Right off the bat, I want to say that SCP: Permafrost absolutely nails the Soulsborne atmosphere. As someone who considers Elden Ring and the Soulsborne saga in general some of my favorite games of all time, that's probably the biggest compliment I can give it.
The game opens by giving you the barest amount of information you need, while still giving you enough to understand your motivation:
The SCP Foundation has fallen. The Scarlet King has brought about the end of the world, killing over half of the world's population and destroying the sun. Its corpse now hangs dead in the sky, emitting no warmth and leaving the Earth covered in permafrost. SCP-231-7, who is prophesied to give birth to the last and most powerful of the Scarlet King's children, The Prince, is nowhere to be found.
Our character awakens deep within the bowels of an abandoned Foundation facility, wrapped in a blue cloak and wielding a mysterious sword called the Void Blade. They have no memory of what happened before they woke up. They soon encounter the daughter of an ancient and powerful nature goddess called SCP-166, also known as Meri, a kindred of the Scarlet King. She tasks the protagonist with finding SCP-231-7 and saving her and her child, whether that child has already been born or not, from the Scarlet King. Otherwise, the world is doomed.
It's a very simple setup, with understandable motivations. Then you're off. Just like any other Souls game. But what really sells the story is the atmosphere.
So far, most of the game takes place inside a Foundation facility. It's dark, cramped, and filled with instances of SCP-610 corruption (that's the the Flesh That Hates for people who don't want to pull up the wiki just for a steam review). There is almost no music. Everywhere feels oppressive, like something dangerous could be waiting around the next corner. Most importantly, though, the place feels dead.
It feels like this facility used to be something great before some enormous tragedy brought it to its current state. The environment tells you that something existed here before you arrived, and now it's all gone.
Then you enter a saferoom, the only places where you can save, and suddenly there's soft piano music playing. You can even turn the lights on. The saferooms in this really feel... well, safe. That contrast is fantastic and reminds me a lot of how I feel in the saferooms of Resident Evil, which I have no doubt was an influence here.
The game also makes incredible use of color theory. Our mysterious protagonist is associated with purple, black, and blue. 610 instances are associated with red. But Meri is associated with green. In a world that is literally dying, Meri represents life.
Wherever Meri has been, you can see it. Green moss, plants, and other signs of life begin appearing throughout the otherwise dead environment. Even when she's not physically there, you can feel her presence because life has started returning to the world around her. You feel safer just knowing that she has been there.
I cannot stress enough how effective this is. The color design isn't just aesthetically pleasing. It communicates the relationships between characters, enemies, and the world itself without needing dialogue to explain everything. The sound design is similarly excellent at conveying relationships between objects and concepts through audio cues alone.
And then there's the gameplay.
Unlike FromSoftware's Souls games, Permafrost is top-down, but it still manages to feel very much like a Souls game. It has a poise system reminiscent of Dark Souls III. Heavier weapons require more strength, but give you greater resistance to being staggered during attacks. Lighter weapons require more dexterity and attack faster, but leave you more vulnerable to having your attacks interrupted.
The combat feels oppressive, but fair. Your character can move very quickly, you can dash several times before exhausting your stamina, and that stamina comes back quickly. On the other hand, enemies hit hard, and if you aren't careful, you can get punished very quickly or even stunlocked.
That said, I do have some problems with the gameplay, particularly with spellcasting builds.
The game suffers from a problem that some of the earlier Souls games had with magic builds: magic feels overpowered. Here, though, the problem is arguably even more pronounced because of how the Mind Meter works.
Casting projectile spells with magic weapons uses Mind. This is also the resource used for parrying, and it can only be replenished through rare collectibles or at savepoints.
In theory, this should create an interesting resource-management decision. Do I use up my Mind Meter on powerful spells, or save it for parries?
In practice, I never felt like I was going to run out. The spells simply kill things too quickly.
The game lets you equip two weapons, one in each slot. When I played, I had a staff in my primary slot and a flesh arm in my secondary slot. I assumed I would use the flesh arm as a last resort if things got hairy or if enemies got close and I didn't want to waste Mind.
But there was almost no reason to do that.
I could wipe out basically an entire area with my staff, and by the time I reached the next saferoom, I would still have plenty of Mind left over. The staff also hits really hard. I killed the boss of the first area in roughly 15 seconds simply by spamming my staff.
The fact that I was technically "wasting" Void that could have been used for parries didn't even matter because most enemies died before they could get close enough for me to parry them anyway. And ironically, parrying actually appears to cost more Mind than simply spamming spells.
That feels backwards.
I think slightly reducing spell damage while significantly increasing the Mind cost of casting would go a long way toward balancing magic builds. Likewise, I'd also like to see the Mind cost of parrying reduced so that parrying feels like a more viable alternative rather than something you're actively discouraged from doing with your limited resource.
Speaking of parrying, I think the animation could use some work as well. The parry doesn't feel quite as weighty or satisfying as slapping an enemy's weapon away in Dark Souls or blasting someone in the face with a gun in Bloodborne. That's unfortunate, because it's pretty clear that both of those games were major inspirations here. The mechanic itself works, but it doesn't have quite the same visceral impact.
Another minor criticism is the map.
Everything about the world thematically and narratively is fantastic, but the map itself feels somewhat plain and linear. This is the first area, so I'm willing to give it some leeway, especially since I know it has already been expanded based on feedback from the original itch.io version. There have also clearly been attempts to give it that interconnected feeling that Dark Souls is known for.
I would love to see that idea pushed much further in later areas.
More shortcuts, loops, interconnected areas, and places that make you realize you've somehow returned to somewhere you saw hours ago would do wonders for making the world feel more lived-in and memorable.
Overall, I'd give SCP: Permafrost a 7.5/10 in its current state.
The gameplay is solid and only needs a few tweaks, while the worldbuilding, sound design, atmosphere, environmental storytelling, and use of color theory are genuinely fantastic. The game already understands what makes a Soulsborne feel like a Soulsborne, even though it takes the formula into a completely different perspective and setting.
If the developers can iron out the magic balance, make parrying more satisfying, and expand the interconnectedness of the world as the game progresses, I could easily see this becoming an 8, maybe even a 9 if it sticks the landing all the way through.
For an indie Soulslike based on SCP, this is already damn impressive.
I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes!
