Soulstice Reviews
Soulstice is a love letter to the PlayStation 2 era of the action genre, with frantic fast-paced combat and its own spin on things. However, it does bring some of that baggage with it and there are some glaring issues with pacing and repetition, especially in the opening hours. Thankfully, Soulstice does recover in the end and for fans of the genre it is absolutely worth checking out.
Soulstice is a melting pot of things Devil May Cry does well and adds interesting demanding combat with two characters and situational countering. However, its predictable somber story and uninteresting world work hard to drain the fun out of things and its camera wants to be more enemy than friend.
Soulstice is an excellent first effort in what must be an enormously difficult genre. Just imagine the work that must go into crafting such big, challenging action set pieces and leave the player feeling satisfied rather than infuriated. Soulstice isn’t perfect, but I hope the development team does stick at this, because they’re on to something special.
Soulstice's fast-paced combat is the star of the show, overshadowed by tropes and lack of variety in an experience heavily inspired by anime like Berserk.
All this is to say that Soulstice is enjoyable for the most part, even though it has its annoyances. Being available on next-gen consoles and PC only, it looks fantastic at times and has a great sense of scale. Its boss fights are exhilarating too, and there are some other hair-raising scenes that try to provide a little variety. Factor in multiple difficulty levels and many secret challenges to be found, and you have an action adventure game that you can really sink your teeth into.
Soulstice does a good job entering the genre from a AA studio but there is some polish that is needed to make it stand out. Regardless, DMC, Bayonetta, or Nier fans can expect a fun time.
It's a chaotic push and pull between ecstatic fun and dull annoyance that honestly drives Soulstice, but it's nonetheless worth checking out.
Soulstice's overwritten story and repetitive second half somewhat dull the catharsis of its glorious throwback hack-and-slash combat, but it's still great fun.
Soulstice makes no secret of what influenced it, both in aesthetics and in gameplay mechanics.
Soulstice isn't looking to reinvent any wheels but it's an incredibly fun hack-and-slash adventure game with decent storytelling. It's only downsides are it's weak visuals and finicky camera.
Despite some gaffes, one of its biggest strengths is that it achieves exactly what many AA titles set out to do by delivering on a somewhat uncommon genre that has largely fallen out of favor. Soulstice may not reach the highest echelons of character-action bliss, but when its art direction, mechanics, and score are in harmony, it scratches an itch that only this brand of stylish spectacle can.
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
Soulstice's terrible camera holds back an otherwise ambitious and inspired action game.
Soulstice is a small, but fun and engaging project with some minor but noticeable shortcomings in later stages.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Strong gameplay and an even stronger story come together to make Soulstice a good character action game, even if issues with weapons, level design, and the camera drag it down.
Soulstice is a competent hack and slasher with a solid core concept and an interesting world history that remains somewhat under-explored.
Overall, Soulstice is very much a mixed bag of a hack-and-slash RPG. While it sports excellent properties like nice visuals and designs, an interesting premise, and excellent voice acting, it still lacks gameplay optimization, which, thankfully, can be fixed with a few patches.
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 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.