Soul Stalker

Played on the main branch and the beta branch 1.4. Finished 3 runs on normal, ascension 1, and ascension 2 with full hp. This review is technically a "mid" but I'm marking it "thumbs down" because it's personally not for me. [h1] TL;DR: [/h1] Soul Stalkers is a bullet-heaven game similar to Vampire Survivors, Soulstone Survivors, Spellbook Demonslayers, Brotato, etc.. but conflicting design decisions and poor weapon balance/enemy variety sprinkled with a tad of Early Access jank make the gameplay not as "fun" as many of its genre competitors. It's cheap and fine, and clearly a demo for systems coming in future games but that's not good enough for me. Good luck to dev. [h1] The Good [/h1] [list] [*]The art is well done. The game wears its paper mario inspiration on it's sleeve and looks good doing it. Good job, no notes. [*] The soundtrack is serviceable. Interesting enough to not be repetitive, and not complex enough to distract from the gameplay. [*] The sound design is fine. Melee weapons make swinging sounds, explosions sound big but not overpowering. There's a little "click" when your dash recharges that's satisfying. [/list] [h1] The Bad [/h1] [h2] Audio Bugs Hotfixed by Dev shortly after my review becausue he cares[/h2] [h2] The Balance [/h2] This section is going to be split into more parts because the game's different systems feel a little "off" and are not currently supporting a cohesive experience. The problem is more that these systems are "out of sync" with each other, not that any individual system is failing the experience. My core problem with soul stalkers is that I'm not sure if it's trying to make me feel [b] powerful [/b], through strong weapon/upgrade/trinket options or [b] skillful [/b] with strong strategic/reflexive options and the ambiguity leaves the game feeling like it has an identity crisis. [h3] The Weapons [/h3] In Soul Stalkers, you pick one weapon to start the run and can hold up to 4 total by the end (If you want to pick up different weapons from the first 4, you can sell them at any of the shops to replace them with different ones). There are two ways to strengthen weapons: [olist] [*] Upgrade them at a [b] weapon [/b] shop [*] Evolve them at a rest stop/campfire [/olist] [b] Weapon Upgrades [/b] Let's say you want to get stronger by upgrading your weapons... There are very few opportunities to upgrade weapons (because you can get one upgrade per weapon per weapon shop). Weapons have a max. level of 4 by default, but in the 3 runs I've played, I've never found enough weapon shops to upgrade a single weapon to max level. The upgrades do not feel meaningful (minor stat changes like +20% crit damage or +20 base damage) compared to the other encounters. Why would I upgrade one weapon once when I can spend the gold I've accumulated over 3 encounters to flood my build with trinkets. [b] If this game is trying to make me feel powerful [/b], why is it so difficult to upgrade my weapons to their highest level? This system could be fine in a different game where the weapon upgrades costed gold, but you could do as many as you want or in some different, third game where the upgrades were more like the evolutions that happen at rest stops, but in its current form, it feels like a wasted avenue of progression. [b] If the game is trying to make me feel skillful [/b] this limitation incentivizes me to be strategic with my limited upgrades and ensure that I'm getting "good enough value" per encounter. Which would be good, except that once you reveal the choice of upgrades for a particular weapon, you can't reroll them (with gold or hp) OR try and select a different weapon to upgrade. You're locked into accepting a (potentially subpar) upgrade ON TOP OF using your weapon shop encounter. In a different game with more flexibility in the upgrade choices (EX: pick weapon to upgrade and stat buff independently so you can mix/match freely), or more potential tradeoffs for using the upgrade service (gold/hp/dash charges/ other stats), this system would be good, but in this game it's not quite doing enough... [b] Weapon Evolution [/b] As a system, it's fine. Sure, some of the weapons' evolutions are uninspired (your projectile moves faster, you get 2 projectiles instead of one), but at least it's on the same power level as the weapon shop and the tradeoff is you can't heal. The problem is, if you weren't taking damage or have healing your build (which almost every build can side-spec into), because of the large number of forced rest stop nodes on the map, [i] you can very quickly run out of weapons to evolve [/i]. [b] If this game is trying to make me feel powerful, [/b] Why I can only evolve the weapons once? Is there some way to tie the weapon evolution/upgrade systems together? (By making weapon upgrades also available at rest stops?). Choosing heal automatically because I'm fully evolved weapons in act 2 (/out of 3) and full hp, does not make me feel strong... [b] If the game is trying to make me feel skillful [/b], why am I being forced to miss an encounter because I chose to rush evolutions or didn't take damage? The game is literally punishing me for playing well. [h3] Enemy Variety/Attack Patterns [/h3] You take damage in Soul Stalkers when you make contact with an enemy, or when you get by an enemy projectile. The vast majority of enemies do not have projectiles and are of similar movement speed. The threat is [i] supposed to be [/i] that large swarms of enemies make it harder to avoid contact, however this system overall fails to support either of the previously identified player fantasies. [b] If I'm supposed to feel powerful, [/b] the act 2 elites and act 3 enemies overall have too much hp for how much damage my fully evolved/highly upgraded weapon & 25+ trinket build is doing. Running into a brick wall of enemies that will inevitably die without pressuring me at all reveals the insignificance of all of the upgrades leading up to this point (the minor stat changes/effects from trinkets, the weapon evolutions not changing enough, and the weapon upgrade system mentioned above). Even in the case that (somehow) my build's power was primarily in defensive utility (they'll never kill me so I'll never die) that's boring... [b] If I'm supposed to feel skillful, [/b] the attack patterns are too simple to pressure me into difficult decision points and there is no significant increase in attack pattern complexity over the course of a run. In other bullet-heaven games, the attack complexity is more directly proportional to the number of enemies on the screen, but Soul Stalkers fails to increase the challenge in a similar way for three reasons: [olist] [*] Enemies that fire projectiles have very low attack speed [*] Enemies that can dash have very long delays before they charge [*] Later acts decide to artificially limit the stage size with fences/boundaries [/olist] While limiting the area the player can move does technically increase the difficulty, it doesn't actually make hordes of enemies more threatening because all melee weapons hit all enemies in range AND clear projectiles (stuffing enemies that run at you), and all ranged weapons can easily spec into pierce/bounce (eventually dealing with enemies that want to throw projectiles). Even in act 3, with even more enemies on the screen, the most dangerous part of enemies is accidentally walking into them as they spawn... I could go on, but the steam review character limit approaches...

For $6 (CAD), a completely fine Vampire Survivors take, mixed with a very small amount of decision making akin to Slay the Spire - albeit one that feels a little aimless at the core. Certainly a good time for the price, at least! In Soul Stalker, you begin in a hub world, where to progress further in the world and unlock characters/weapons, you must complete runs and clear tasks inside them. Choose your character, weapon, and beginning perk - and in either the short Job mode or the large Journey mode, you continue along a path of miniature bullet heaven challenge rooms that typically last about 30 seconds, mixed with campfires, upgrade spots, and shops. I spent most of my time playing the testing branch for the final release. The Good: Visuals are charming, and you can reasonably run 60 FPS locked on pretty light hardware. Soundtrack is dynamic and catchy, and a whole lot of characters and open world content are hidden away to unlock. The Job game mode adds a fun, random mini run feature, which gives a bite sized experience that forces you to work with what you've got - a far shorter experience than most VS-type games and a very charming one. The Mid/Bad: A core feature of the "main" Journey game is the ability to buy, unlock, and choose your own starting perk and weapon - this creates an incredibly easy way to find strong/optimal starts for most characters at the beginning, and well into the rest of the run. Apart from the initial run of "how does this work?", I haven't found much challenge in the game. I also found several collision exploits rather easily (clipping into walls in the overworld, enemies being unable to make contact when walking against walls, projectiles immediately expiring on spawn from collision issues). For the price, I can't really judge the game for being too easy. I've also not given it a lot of time, so I have no idea how far ascensions change the overall difficulty of the game (although there are definitely characters and builds that I feel I could run to Ascension 10 with.)

There should be a new genre created with this game, like survival cozy, cause it gives me those vibes... and it just feels great

Pro: + cute art style + good music + interesting builds with overall decent variety + relatively forgiving hitboxes Contra: - a few useless weapons and characters - certain enemies (and all bosses) are damage sponges - annoying projectile-spitting enemies - unreasonably hard at A3 and above (you need to clear A10 to unlock the last character) Overall, I can recommend this game for a few rounds of short-lived fun. Can't really complain at this price point.

[h1]Описание:[/h1] Bullet Hell (хотя автор почему то указал что heaven :D). Игра очень скучная и состоит из очееень коротких уровней между каждым из них магазин. Реально загрузка уровня и переход на другой занимает меньше времени чем сам уровень. Графика в виде стикеров. Русский не завезли (хотя завезли куеву тучу других языков). Такое себе... Даже второй заход не захотелось делать. [h1]Оценка: 2/10[/h1] [h1]Послесловие:[/h1] Если вам понравился этот обзор добро пожаловать в группу http://steamcommunity.com/groups/uojer - тут вы сможете увидеть рекомендованные мною игры, другие обзоры, а также просто пообщаться в хорошей компании.

This game is an easier one of the genre in my opinion - which is not a bad thing. I like the art style and the build possibilities. had a chill time with it. nice little palate cleanser.

I don't know how I found this game but this was very boring. My advice is to give me more weapons faster. That blue slash puts me to sleep. I've seen better vampire survivor clones.

ヴァンサバ系の中でもなかなかの出来。 〈良い点〉 （１）武器とアクセサリの選択の幅。一気に四つの武器を購入でき、序盤から強くなれる。 （２）キャラクターの個性化。一定数あり、アンロック条件も段階的でわりと優しめ。 （３）コンボシナジーの爽快感。出血＋回復など、はまればその場で動かず倒せる、など。 〈悪い点〉 （１）フレームレートを最大の240で画質高に設定すると、急にPCの音がすごいことに。 （２）デフォルトの音量がやや小さい。 （３）まだそれほどやっていないが、ストーリー性は薄いか。日本語表示は問題ない。 当方、RTX4070、i7-13700Fだが、悪い点（１）（２）はPC環境の影響かもしれない。 過度な期待は禁物だが、総合的におすすめ！

Soul Stalker feels like a bite sized Vampire Survivor with some roguelike elements in the form of temporary progression and some lite meta progression. Each run has three acts, each one ending on a boss fight. There are regular fights that don’t usually last more than 30 seconds, elite fights that are longer, different type of shops and a rest area where you get to pick one option. The hub area can be expanded by completing objectives to unlock gates, you can unlock pets to help you during fights and there are shorter runs found on a board if you don’t have a lot of time. Normal runs are not that long either btw, they should last around 25 minutes. The game looks cute, unlocking characters and having them tied to steam achievements is pretty addictive, the weapon combinations are fun, you get to play quickly, the way progress is made is good enough, the perspective of the camera when playing makes the game feel a bit different compared to other games in the genre, I like that unlocking 10 difficulties and completing them is not punishingly hard, I like that the runs are not long and the game is pretty polished with no bugs experienced. That said, the game doesn’t really add anything new to the genre. It doesn’t leave a long lasting impression. Even so, the game surprised me by being better than expected. It’s a good game to have some mindless fun on. I got 9 hours out of it for all the achievements. It’s a decent time that doesn’t overstay its welcome and the normal price of €5 is appropriate with that in mind. The achievements are varied that include specific conditions during runs, open gates and complete difficulty 10. They’re fun to get. If you’re looking for something like Soul Stalker that will keep you busy for a bit, then it’s a fine purchase. It doesn’t do anything wrong even if it doesn’t scream to be bought. I like it, enough to look into the dev’s other games.

A great small scale roguelite that has a decent variety of weapons, characters and trinkets for it's price. The game as a whole lets you pretty much choose how you want to play it due to being really lenient and most options being viable with a few notable exceptions.