TL;DR: The game offers a fun time but you will quickly find out what works and what doesn't, then simply be able to autopilot for most of the experience afterwards. Character gimmicks are samey and don't give incentive to play any differently than other character choices besides maybe favoring a different colored status effect or DoT. The game doesn't often require 100% brain power so it's a nice little thing to throw on while you and your friends are shootin the ♥♥♥♥ on call.
It's a very comfortable game. I'm not entirely sure that I mean that as wholly positive if I'm being honest; but the main point I'm trying to get at is that once the mechanics *click* for you (which probably won't take very long), you can guarantee a victory in almost every run. This isn't to say that the game is no fun, but it does become largely unchallenging the more time you invest.
Characters come with innate effects of various levels of usefulness. These effects range from woefully useless to a monstrous powerhouse, with some room for customization of each character with a couple different craftable weapons they have (albeit in most cases there is a clear best option). Character gimmicks are admittedly very samey between each member of the cast; however the visual effects were quite pleasant so although not very mechanically diverse they do offer some pretty colors to enjoy during the chaos of the rest of your run.
The skill tree and it's associated mechanics are very by the books. You earn *minor soulstones* from killing all types of enemy, whilst only being able to obtain *major* soul stones by defeating bosses. After each run you will then be able to spend these soulstones to increase parameters of each respective character or even occasionally unlocking a rune which can be used to further diversify how you play each character. This rune system is what I believe to be the most complex/interesting choice a player can make to further enrich their experience, as there are quite a few to pick from and you're afforded multiple different loadout slots to make presets for each character. Whilst I do appreciate the addition of this system to the game, I cannot sing it's praises without also mentioning that there are also a non-negligible amount of runes that are almost exclusively useful on one character and none else.
Overall, Soulstone Survivors is a fun game that is tragically too low in it's skill ceiling for it's own good, eventually leading to runs feeling like more of a chore than a challenging or exciting endeavor.
