Soulslinger is a 2D retro pixel (sigh) hybrid shooter/brawler and endless runner. Gameplay consists of running endlessly to the right, smashing barricades and shooting things. There's an upgrade system, and despite many basic features that gamers expect from a game being absent here, apparently the developers had time for a hat shop. Well, we can't expect everyone to understand gamers, although that would be a nice thing for game developers to consider before making games.
From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result.
The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers.
The game features no proper level design or game/story flow/plot, as they opted to try to use samey repetitive procgen algorithms as a substitute for adding such content to the game, to avoid doing the important job of level/map design. As a result, the game doesn't actually have any content worth mentioning, just endless, boring, repetitive, soulless algorithmically generated sameyness. Developers must learn that procedural generation is not an acceptable substitute for content.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
The poor quality of this game is reflected in the general public reception. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the game only ever reached a peak player count of only three players. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam, the overwhelming lack of interest in the game is remarkable, but also to be expected. This complete and utter rejection of the game from gamers should be a keen information point for anyone considering buying shovelware like this. Gamers just didn't take this seriously, and for good reason.
Soulslinger is relatively cheap at $3 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend.
[quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says:
[quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote]
The first thing the developer wants everyone to know is that they are THE MAIN CHARACTER. You, as a gamer, don't matter. They breach Valve guidelines for developers just to complain about a fully accurate and informative review (with facts their ego doesn't like). It's evident from their attitude that they never created this product with gamers in mind. They did so to stroke their own ego. When developers, especially failed ones who would never be able to get a professional job in the industry, put themselves before gamers, we end up with garbage products like this. That explains how this trash ended up on Steam, but it doesn't excuse it. At least we finally got to meet THE MAIN CHARACTER.
If the developer of this trashware wasn't so full of themselves, they might understand that game reviews aren't here to instruct and teach developers how to make games. They should know this before they publish badly made garbage on Steam that nobody wants. Game reviews are here to inform gamers about which products are of high quality, professionally made, and worth spending their hard earned money on. But the developer is so arrogant, it's all about them, so what's good for gamers is something that never crossed their mind.
The developer makes the rather serious claim that my review is inaccurate/contains information which isn't factually evident. In their words, "based on false assumptions". But this simply isn't true... the facts of my review can easily be verified with just a glance at this godawfully crap product.
We know that if there was any glaring inaccuracy in my review the developer would have jumped on them and pointed them out right away... but they can't even cite one single example. Because [i]they know my review is accurate[/i]. They just don't like being presented with the facts.
So they make up these false accusations of inaccuracy to soothe their ego. Anything but facing up to the truth. But why is this intellectual dishonesty good for gamers? It isn't.
Weirdly, the developer uses their breach of Valve guidelines in this pointless response to heavily advertise their Youtube channel (Don't bother liking or subscribing, it's garbage, the guy has no followers, just like his crap games)... you can see their presence on Steam has nothing to do with gamers and everything to do with being a marketing exercise. When developers put themselves before gamers and before the gaming industry, this is the kind of disservice to gamers that we see.
Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this game to anyone.
