Soulstice is an explosion from the past

If you think about it, the classic saucers went into oblivion with the seventh generation of consoles. In fact, on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from the genre, only Devil May Cry 5. And Bayonette's pretty girl looked at Wii U. Other or rested or, like Kratos, radically changed the image. Or it's Devil\s Hund, but we're not gonna be sad.

As you know, history goes in a circle, and much new is a well-forgotten old one. Soulstice from Italian Reply Game Studios resembles the golden classic of PlayStation 2.

♪ The city is empty ♪

The city of Ilden, once beautiful, has now been destroyed and flooded by monsters. In its heart, the Temple of Triarchy, there is a Brace that breaks the Curtain, which divides the worlds of the living and the spirits.

The role of such a pair is ours. The sisters of Briar and Luth are sailing on an old boat to the port area of Ilden. The eyes are opening up an exciting sight of a huge city, extending from the river bank to the mountain summit. From the first soulstice, you can clearly see how close you are to Bresha.

The exciting scenario has never been a distinctive feature of the Sledgers -- it is also soulstice -- but even an unintentional story can be told in such a way that it will be interesting to follow, and the Italians have succeeded here. A simple mission to rid the city of monsters turns out to be a bunch of secrets from the past sisters and a conspiracy at the top of the Order. The characters are not very deep, but they have billboards and skeletons in the closet.

It's got a very clever mix of finds here with references to famous fantasy works. In history, inspiration was clearly drawn from anime like "Berserk" and "Claymore." Stilistics give more to European fantasy, and the light effect of kel-shading makes the picture comic, but in the pitch, the perspective and the direction is clearly the spirit of eastern animation.

♪ Red and blue

The game process also refers to very specific works. First of all, of course, to the first Devil May Cry. Briar lejo waves a huge sword with the name "The Ash Protector," can make a sneaking fall forward and buzz with enemies in the air. True, the combination of blows is smaller than that of Dante or Cratos. The variety of fights in Soulstice is due to the combination of different weapons in the same chain.

Besides the sword, there's a hammer in the chimera arsenal, and over time, there's a whip, onions, stylons, and even sticks with built-in cannons. You can switch between them on a fly, for which the crucifix is responsible on the gamepad. On the one hand, the idea is that you don't have to climb on a menu of equipment. On the other hand, it's easy to forget that to pick daggers you have to press left twice. But if you want to do a very impressive pirouette, you can do a very impressive pirouette: pull up the enemy of the whip, send a hammer into the air and wash it, drop down the hails of stytes and, when you go back to the hammer, impress the enemy into the ground.

At first, Soulstice seems like a pretty simple game, even at the highest level of complexity. As in the first God of War, you can just keep pushing the punch button, and Briar will be nice to throw out the obsessive, and it's desirable to remember that a particular weapon is useful in certain situations: a hammer hits the armor well, an onion lands perfectly the flying creatures, and so on.

In order to avoid damage, you can avoid it, or you can use Lut's help. If you press the right key in time, Lute will repel the attack, freeze for a few seconds a particularly powerful blow, or hit the enemy. The system is a little bit like Batman: Arkham, but it's both more diverse and more limited.

You can't use the spirit defense without interruption. If you're attacked by a few opponents at the same time, you probably won't be able to repel all the attacks. The button was pressed at the wrong time, and for a couple of seconds it was basically impossible to intercept the blows. But as you're driving, Lit reflects the attacks, not only will it save the damage, but it will also give additional bonuses: freeze a few enemies at a time, leave exploding traps in the arena, increase the speed of Briar, and so on.

With a successful series of blows and no damage, the sisters build up unity -- once a certain level of final impact is reached, a combination becomes a particularly powerful move. And you can complete the chain of falls with all the weapons on which the pursuit will depend. For example, the sword causes an explosive wave in the arc, and the whip cuts everything in a straight line. The main thing is to change the weapon over the summer.

The further the nuances have to be taken into account, there are new types of opponents on the arenas that require a particular approach and weapons. The different combinations of monsters make it possible to think about the order in which they are best to destroy them. Lute learns to use fields of transformation and expulsion. If it's easier to create a blue or red sphere around Briar that can destroy the obsessive of a certain color. For example, in the blue field, you can only hit the naked spirits, and in the red crystals only.

In the second half of the course, it begins to feel that developers have tried too hard to diversify 10 to 15 hours of battle. At one point, there are traps on the arenas that detonate or, on the contrary, freeze within a given field.

♪ I should've stopped in time ♪

The problems that are easy to ignore at first, in situations like this, are all the more acute. Of course, the main scourge of all the sledgers is a naughty camera stuck in the walls. It becomes sad when in a small room you are forced to fight a huge mutant, and in an attempt to escape an attack, you end up in a corner where the operator suddenly goes crazy and loses sight of both the superstat and the protagonist, and he always takes a pretty big plan, which causes unexpected blows to the back, and all right, just arrows and spears barely scratching the chimera, you can suddenly escape the monster and take out half your health.

The purpose is to make life easier, but sometimes the opposite is true. A particularly powerful obsessive person needs to get out of the way, and then the spirits come out of the carcasses that have to be finished, and then you have to pick them out of the dozens of goals that are going on the arena, while the virtual operator is beating in an epilepsy attack, it's pretty hard. As long as you get what you want, the spirit is gonna have to relive the flesh, and you're gonna have to mutate the fat villain for a few more minutes. And that's not only an unnecessary risk, but it's also a deterioration of the result in the fight.

After each battle, the game gives you rank, from iron to diamond. The higher the total rank per chapter, the more points you get. So if you don't play well, you get less resources to improve Briar and Lute, which makes it a little worse in the next chapter and makes it harder for you to show a better result.

It's a good thing that most of the crystals required to acquire new skills are still found in the process of exploring the environment. It's vital to climb into every corner of the map -- the resources are hidden across all of Ilden's halls.

Soulstice's main problem is that it's a long-term thing to emphasize the other ones. It's about 15 hours per classic sledher, especially when the mechanics aren't so much, and you have to combine them in the most insane way, which sometimes creates complicated and vilely unfair situations. The game was easy to cut by a third, without sacrificing anything: sometimes the gap without a new weapon is too long, sometimes the landscape gets a lot to eat, and there's an hour of places without any story events. Another reminder that it's important to put a dot in time.

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But despite my grumbling about elements, balance, and procrastination, Soulstice is a complete game that reminds me of the fact that the genre of the Sledgers is now being forgotten. It's easy to get a great deal of pleasure from passing through the sights of battles, a pleasant image of reminiscent style, and a surprisingly intrigued story.

Dignity:

• A dynamic combat system with many nuances; the city of Ilden, as the main place of action, is well developed both visually and historically; interesting battles with bosses...

Disadvantages:

• ...which is too small; the length of time creates balance problems; the in-use chamber.

Graphics

It's a nice picture with a good style, and the bugs are masked with kel-shading technology.

Sound

A dynamic soundtrack, seemingly invisible on its own, but successfully supplementing adrenaline contractions.

Solitary game

Classic sleuther with all his ideas, a fixed camera, a crowd of enemies, and an arsenal of spectacular techniques to wipe them out.

Estimated passing time

It took 17 hours to make the first journey on the most difficult, looking for all kinds of secrets and carrying out the tasks found.

Collective game

No provision.

Overall impression

Surprising welcome from the past: Soulstice is a return to zero, but against the background of the power of the "mental" projects, the surveillance is very fresh.

Graphics

It's a nice picture with a good style, and the bugs are masked with kel-shading technology.

Sound

A dynamic soundtrack, seemingly invisible on its own, but successfully supplementing adrenaline contractions.

Solitary game

Classic sleuther with all his ideas, a fixed camera, a crowd of enemies, and an arsenal of spectacular techniques to wipe them out.

Estimated passing time

It took 17 hours to make the first journey on the most difficult, looking for all kinds of secrets and carrying out the tasks found.

Collective game

No provision.

Overall impression

Surprising welcome from the past: Soulstice is a return to zero, but against the background of the power of the "mental" projects, the surveillance is very fresh.

Evaluation: 7.5/10

Further details on the evaluation system

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