Soulstice Reviews
A meaty action game let down by a persistently rubbish camera and a lack of variation in its stages.
Soulstice is a competent action game with creative monsters, but they're doomed to live in a bland setting with tedious level design.
"Opening and closing fields to match the thing you're trying to kill has all the fussiness of a game of Simon Says – in that nothing you do counts unless you've remembered to hit the right button first"
Soulstice makes no secret of what influenced it, both in aesthetics and in gameplay mechanics.
Soulstice is a competent hack and slasher with a solid core concept and an interesting world history that remains somewhat under-explored.
Soulstice is a textbook hack & slash that shows a lack of risk and attachment to certain design patterns that do more good than harm. Its combat system, interesting at base, is displaced by a plot and a progression system that have more prominence than they should. However, if you are missing more battles in your videoludic day to day, its proposal will give you the dopamine demanded through its best confrontations.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A solid game with good intentions, but that falls far short of the greats of the genre. As an appetizer it's fine, but hack and slash lovers probably prefer to wait for Bayonetta 3... or back to Devil May Cry 5.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Soulstice's terrible camera holds back an otherwise ambitious and inspired action game.
A great hack 'n' slash that can stand proudly near the sacred monsters of the genre.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Soulstice is a small, but fun and engaging project with some minor but noticeable shortcomings in later stages.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Soulstice is filled with fast and furious combat that will please fans and newcomers to the genre. It doesn't really innovate the genre but the developers put a nice twist on existing mechanics. Other than a few issues with the camera, Soulstice is a solid title that maybe plays it a bit too safe.
Soulstice is a solid outing that I wanted to love and recommend more. It borrows heavily from games like Bayonetta and Devil May Cry without fully capturing what makes those titles so special. Still for a fairly new developer taking a stab at the genre it is filled with promise and in an era where games are supported I hope a patch can sort out of some the minor issues over time. I had fun with the game and hope they continue to improve on their craft. I am always down for character action games and if you are like me and miss the days when these were a dime a dozen, Soulstice is likely right up your alley.
Combining a well-realized dark fantasy setting inspired by Claymore and Berserk and an engaging story with solid action gameplay inspired by some of the best character action games, Soulstice is a competent action title. Unfortunately, issues like the horrible camera and the mediocre handling of color-coded enemies and mechanics impact the experience, preventing it from being the great character action game it had the potential to be.
Thankfully, abilities and weapons like these become accessible in the mid-game and make later combat encounters much more manageable. Even then, Soulstice manages to maintain a good balance overall and while some hits may feel unfair, no fight ever ends that way. They all feel satisfying and exciting in a way that motivates the player to continue towards the next one. The moments of exploration between fights also encourages players to take in the stunning art design of the world and Briar's armor and weaponry, which look like they're lifted straight from the pages of Berserk; but this only scratches the surface of Soulstice. This is a challenging, beautiful, and engrossing game with a ton to offer and shouldn't be passed over.
It’s nice to play an action game more influenced by Devil May Cry than Dark Souls for a change. Soulstice makes a good case for its combat and its synthesis of two characters with distinct fighting styles. The characters themselves aren’t particularly interesting or sympathetic, and their quips and asides grow annoying. The game’s fixed camera and how it hamstrings enjoyable platforming and exploration are most troubling. Soulstice isn’t as entertaining or polished as the games from which it draws inspiration, but it’s worth checking out for gamers growing tired of the Soulsborne template.
Soulstice etches its own namesake in the hack n' slash genre. While it lacks the same level of combat depth and demand, it focuses more on narrative quality, accessibility, and presentation to reach success.
Soulstice turned out to be a good stylish action game, with a solid combat system embellished with good ideas, able to tell its excellent protagonists, Briar and Lute, both through the battle and with the cutscenes. The story of Ilden's veil torn above the sky is intriguing, with beautiful twists and a well-studied mythology, it is therefore a pity that the setting is not able to sustain this charm, despite the very good basic technique, trapped in a artistic direction that is often too generic and redundant.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Soulstice is a solid, albeit unnecessarily dragged out, hack-and-slash action role playing game that features a great cast of characters and an engaging narrative. There's a ton of replayability and a high skill ceiling to achieve, but the lack of variety in gameplay elements and wonky camera angles keep it from being truly amazing.
Soulstice is a classic hack'n slash, a solid technical section with some bugs, a frantic and dynamic combat and an interesting story. But with an excessive duration.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Despite their inexperience with the stylish action genre, the guys at Reply Game Studio have developed a multifaceted and innovative combat system, which exploits in a very ingenious way the different resources of Briar and Lute.
Review in Italian | Read full review