Soul Scathe

[h1]Experienced on the Oculus Quest 2[/h1] You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/NfyfoRpiE9E Soul Scathe takes obvious inspiration from Dark Souls. Especially starting on the second area of levels, you can see the level design & enemy design inspirations taken from Dark Souls and translated to VR. I am a big Dark Souls fan and would love to have told you that this is like VR Dark Souls. Unfortunately, there is no comparison. This game isn't anywhere near that quality. Combat ends up being very repetitive. The level design is bland. The combat systems are simply too simple. You can basically go either melee or magic based. You do runs to get gold, experience points, & dragon souls. With those currencies you can level up your attributes and get new weapons or spells. You can increase your strength, vitality, intelligence, & spirit. There is a nice variety of spells ranging from fire, ice, & electric, along with very powerful limited use spells that use dragon souls. Melee combat is based on a parry system. This is intriguing at first, but soon devolves into simple rote actions. You can basically duel wield weapons and hold out one weapon with your off-hand to parry most attacks and just constantly swing with your main hand. I often couldn't tell whether I had been hit or not, but this simple tactic would parry most attacks although occasionally you may need to move your weapon to parry a low blow. The stronger you get, the easier it'll be to take on mobs of enemies at the same time. There really isn't much enemy variety. Also, because of the procedurally generated level design, it didn't take long to see levels that were almost identical to what you had already seen before.Also, the first area is very bland looking and soon the other areas start looking bland as well. There are 3 boss fights and they are like the rest of the game: there's some very interesting parts and also some questionable enemy design parts that make the fights feel less than what they could have. Game is running on the Unity Engine. On my RTX 3080, I was getting dropped frame rates from 90 to 70 fps, on medium graphics. You have full locomotion and smooth and snap turning. You can choose your dominant hand. I did experience various bugs during my playtime. The most serious one was when I fell through the gameworld, when I found a dead-end (the exit door wouldn't open and I had defeated all enemies), and teleporting back to the floor level when climbing over a ledge area (I had to quit the level). Overall, while there are some epic moments. I just can't recommend this game. So consider this a neutral recommendation. If you're okay with bland level design, lack of enemy variety, & possibly dealing with several bugs, then there is something to this experience. I think this solo developer had some great ideas and has talent, but the overall execution just didn't hit the mark. [b]Rate 5.5/10. I kind of regret buying this because I felt more frustration than anything else when playing this game, but at the same time, I can see the ambition the developer had when making this game.[/b] [quote]If you enjoyed my review, please consider joining my Steam Curator Group. You can join here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Oculus_WMR [/quote]

"Soul Scathe", ein Dungeon Crawler in VR, und er hat alles was man von so einem Spiel erwartet. Angefangen bei prozedural generierten Verliesen mit mehreren Stufen, furchterregende Skelette und andere Abscheulichkeiten aus der Hölle, ja und selbst die fiesen menschenfressenden Mimic-Truhen haben es in dieses Spiel geschafft. Grafisch kommt "Soul Scathe" zwar nur mittelmässig daher, punktet aber mit seinem dreckigen Look, welcher sehr an das erste "Diablo" erinnert. Das Spiel läuft meistens butterweich, und gerade der Soundtrack gefällt mir sehr gut. Auf Dauer würde ich mir aber mehr musikalische Abwechslung wünschen, da es nur zwei (sehr gute) Tracks gibt. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2232207775 Was bei "Diablo" das Dorf "Tristram" ist, ist bei "Soul Scathe" eine unterirdische Höhle/Festung. Einziger Wegbegleiter ist hier ein seltsames fliegendes Auge, welches uns mit Rat und Tat Beiseite steht/schwebt. In unserem Hub haben wir alles was das Herz begehrt. Hier wären die Shops für Waffen, Tränke und Zauberbücher, welche aber leider ohne Verkäufer daher kommen. Wir erwerben die Gegenstände einfach per Kauf-Button an einer Vitrine. Dann haben wir den Trainingsraum, in welchem wir auch über unendlich Mana verfügen und so neue Zauber trainieren können. In der Haupthalle haben wir im übrigen auch Zugriff auf unseren Charakterbaum in Form einer Magischen Seelenkugel. Hier können wir unsere Punkte nach Levelaufstieg in vier verschiedene Fähigkeiten investieren. Und zu guter Letzt erreichen wir von hier natürlich auch den Dungeon, in welchen wir auf Dämonenjagd gehen, um uns zu verbessern um schlussendlich den "Gatekeeper" zu besiegen. Diesen können wir übrigens jederzeit konfrontieren, da er über eine Tür der Höhle zu erreichen ist. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2220803618 In jedem Dungeon gibt es einen Zwischenraum mit einem Kristal. Wenn wir diesen zerstören, verlängern wir den aktuellen Durchlauf um eine Ebene, bekommen dafür aber auch zusätzliche Seelen wenn wir es in den letzten Raum, den Seelenraum, schaffen. Das ist sehr motivierend und eine tolle Idee. Auch erscheint ab und an nach beseitigen aller Gegner ein fliegender Käfer, welchen wir suchen und fangen müssen. Haben wir ihn erwischt bevor er wieder verschwindet gibt er uns einen Vor,- aber auch einen Nachteil. Wir können selbst entscheiden ob wir ihn nutzen wollen. Die Waffenphysik ist leider nicht so perfekt wie in "Blade & Sorcerer" oder "Hellsplit", da die Waffen durch Gegner und Gegenstände hindurchgehen, jedoch ist trotzdem ein parieren möglich. Im Grunde ist das etwas schade, da ich gerne die eigenen Waffen aneinander schlage. Des Weiteren verfügt das Spiel über ein Zaubersystem, welches ähnlich komplex wie in "The Wizard" ist. Wir können hier mit ein oder zwei Händen unsere Zauber wirken, und diese sogar fusionieren. Wenn wir zum Beispiel zwei Feuerbälle zusammenführen, entfaltet sich daraus ein mächtiger Phönix der auf die Gegner zu rast. Und wenn das noch nicht schon genug wäre, verfügt das Spiel auch noch über ein cooles Fallensystem. Das heißt, wir können zum Teil mit unserer Umgebung interagieren um Gegner in Tödliche Fallen zu locken, oder wir nutzen den Telekinese Zauber um Dinge auf die Köpfe unserer Wiedersacher poltern zu lassen. Die VR Steuerung funktioniert allgemein sehr zuverlässig. Das kämpfen fühlt sich sehr gut an, auch wenn hier noch an der Physik gearbeitet werden muß. Das klettern klappt wunderbar, und auch das auswählen der Zauber ist recht instutiv und gelingt reibungslos. Schade ist das unsere Zauberzuweisungen nicht gespeichert werden, und nach jedem Spielstart zurückgesetzt werden. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2234534674 Trotz einiger Schwächen ist "Soul Scathe" für mich der bisher beste VR Dungeon Crawler, welcher diesen Namen auch verdient. Der Entwickler ist hier mit Herzblut dabei, und reagiert auf Meldungen von Bugs und Vorschlägen im Diskussionsforum sehr schnell. Auch behebt er umgehend diese Fehler. Wem die sonstigen Dungeon Crawler zu Bunt und Comichaft sind sollte unbedingt mal einen Blick auf dieses Spiel werfen.

The development team seems quite small, but the game is very fun albeit with numerous bugs. The slow release cycle has lead to reviews from other players such as "Game is dead, and the dev won't work on it anymore, don't bother." The release of Chapter 2 a few days ago obviously negates that. However, go into this expecting bugs to not be fixed in a timely manner, or perhaps even never. I am looking forward to experiencing Ch 2 and will update my review once I have done so.

Totally recommended. This was my first VR purchase after getting a headset, and I'm loving it. Of course, being new to VR and being new to VR on Steam - there were a few things I hadn't quite sorted out - and the dev of this game helped me out a ton. Explained a few things about how VR runs on Steam, in addition to questions about gameplay and controllers in game. While I can hardly claim to have mastered this gamae/vr, I'm now having a lot of fun with it. Believe me when I say I will be watching for more!

The game is great on paper, however, in practice: The sense of scale is wildly off, hands are too small for my body, and my body is too small for the environment. Weapons have no heft or weight. "wiggle" combat reigns supreme here, making blocking/lowering enemy poise (and finishing blows) obsolete. Humanoid enemies get way too close to be able to block blows effectively. That was the bad. Now for the good. The atmosphere is on point, I felt genuine adrenaline at times. Sound design is excellent. Mimics are completely terrifying, its terrific. If you listen closely enough you can hear them breathe. With a bit of tweaking this could be an amazing title, but for now it will gather dust.

First impression after an hour in. I died. Often. Getting a feel for the combat takes a moment. I have most of the dungeon crawler VR games (and a number of zombie ones) and this one feels more like a classic dungeon crawl in all the good ways. Voice acting and graphics are sound enough. Some game stuttering, but not much. Sometimes a sword strike will not connect when it seemed obvious that it should. Blocking was a bit hit or miss. Good overall play and functioning. You will feel weak at the start and are a bit squishy, as befits your level 1 status. Lots to like in the game. EXCEPT THE GRIP FOR THE SWORD. So many games have you hold grip to keep things in your hand. This causes a habitual grip action when fighting. Guess what happens. Sword dropped. Dev, please give an option here. Swinging an empty hand is not an effective combat move. I can't count the number of times this happened within the first dungeon. It did contribute significantly to the number of deaths. Would love an option to move the mana/health meter and some adjustments to the belt location, but that would be more quality of like. The weapon grip function is beyond QOL. It is more avoidance of death. Maybe with time, I can train myself to not grip the weapon. While frustrating, this is still not a deal breaker. It is a good game and worth adding to your library. Excited to see where it goes in the future.

I actually did not enjoy this game. The graphics are just OK and not that impressive in my opinion. The maps are randomly generated empty stone hallways with flickering textures and some strange checkered pattern dithering in certain areas on the floor. Doors do not actually open. They just trigger a loading screen. Your character has little baby monkey hands. Teleportation only works when you aim at just the right spot and also tends to cause you to turn side to side. When trying to grab items out of a chest, those items move away from you. Throwing fireballs is extremely inaccurate, awkward, and difficult to conjure. I was also constantly dropping my sword in this game and getting overwhelmed in certain places where more than one enemy was attacking me. The inventory system in front of you also constantly gets in the way and has a tendency to spin when you are trying to add something to it. There is no way to adjust the difficulty and there is also no way to save the game. When you are killed, you are placed back in the main training area often with finding no gold or gaining any skill points. I cannot recommend this game at all.

For a single dev game, Soul Scathe is quite impressive. I started playing this game close to when it first came out and the combat system and over all polish of the game has improved substantially. The game also provides a satisfying upgrade system. You collect gold and continue to level up as you make your way through the dungeons. You can allocate points toward different attributes choosing where to put your strengths. You can buy new weapons, spells, or potions with the gold you collect. As for the negative reviews mentioning the game being dead, the 2nd chapter was just released with new levels, enemies, and a new boss (I assume). The developer is also really responsive and addresses bugs, questions, etc.

This is probably, imo, the best dungeon crawling available on vr right now, as far as variety of enemies, scenery and bosses go. And the combats pretty damn fun to boot

Пока не рекомендую. эффекты понравились, графика оптимизированная, но в раннем доступе - а пол года нет обновлений, хотя игра явно требует исправлений, тем более цена не малая. например появляющийся меч третьим оружием хотя рук две и нельзя выбросить, приходится чередовать. или паданье вниз в начало, когда карабкаешься хотя снизу был пол наступить и т.д. Желаю сил разработчику и завершить интересный продукт.