izigame.me

If you're reading this review, then that might mean you are hesitating to buy and play this game due to the negative reviews. So let me answer that and set things straight.
Most of the reviews that are negative comes from two things: Fixed Camera, a supposed “lack” of depth.
I am here to say address those. Let me explain.
---- First of all, the fixed camera served two major purposes. The first one is gameplay. In this game, enemies always attack regardless of whether they are visible in the screen or not. So having a standard action camera would limit your vision. In DMC for example, enemies don’t attack when they’re not in your vision. And in here, the fixed camera in combat tends to be pulled far back and more wide. Allowing you to have a better view of everything as it is not always at your back; and at the same time, camera during combat can be rotated. So you can look at where you want, but of course, the specific “angle” stays as it is fixed after all. Just keep an open mind honestly. Don’t get triggered at the first sign of inconvenience, allow the game to take you in its own ride, and you will adapt. If you’re one of those people who advocates devs become artistic and creative instead of following triple A formulaic slop, but shouts at the clouds when an indie dev’s artistic and creative choices inconveniences you, we will never get anywhere. Learn to bear bumpy rides.
---- The second purpose is the presentation. This game looks and feels like a playable concept art book. The visuals is so good, and so is the atmosphere. But what truly elevates it is the fixed camera. Everything is pretty much perfectly composed and angles go hand in hand with it, giving it this god-tier atmosphere. If you put DMC5 camera in this game, it would strip Soulstice of its identity and its own feel. As that would devoid Soulstice of its presentation. It’s like translating Lovecraft into middle-school English. That specific framing is what creates the soul and the energy of his works, and that same thing applies here.
---- But of course, with its advantages comes it disadvantages. There are indeed those problematic platforming segments. But worry not. 90% of the platforming in this game works perfectly fine with the fixed camera. However, there are those few segments that does get a bit annoying so keep that in mind. But I’d say it’s more than worth it. The amount of things fixed camera added to this game severely outweighs the bad by a ton.

The lack of depth claim is complete slander. The people who say those are mostly the DMC fans with severe brainrot who thinks that your character having 100 moves is what determines the depth of the game. Soulstice is quite deep. But it’s depth does not come from you having a million moves and having the ability to go “Combo MAD” at enemies. It’s all about enemy design, level design and your interactions with enemies here. Enemies have specific purpose in combat, some are easy to kill but are always running around, prepared to interrupt you at any moment with unparryable attacks whenever you stand still for too long. Some are long range, almost invisible and untouchable that can interrupt you as you’re comboing with air, unless you affect them with the proper field and deal with them. Some are meant to be tanky that summons barriers and hazards, serving as a more imminent threat, and some are ultra tanky but super immobile, meant to pose as a looming threat you while you run around and eliminate everything so you can 1v1 it. Every enemy are strong and weak to a specific kind of weapon in your arsenal. So your incentive to change weapons during your offense is not just for arbitrary and ultimately useless points, but serves actual purpose, so you can be more efficient in dealing with them. And there’s a lot of enemies here, with each and every one of them serving a purpose which varies up each encounter. Which paired with the level design itself gives you a very deep gameplay. So yeah, Soulstice is quite deep. And is honestly already one of my top games of all time. The most similar game I can compare this to is DOOM Eternal, as they are both action games but with spontaneous chess elements at its core with how each and every enemy forces you to make a move.

With that said. You may just not like this game, not because of its qualities, but simply because of what it is. And with reading this, I hope I have set your expectation straight with what kind of game to expect. That this is not a DMC wannabe game, Soulstice is its own thing. If you’re really more into the ultra combo mad games, this is really not for you. I highly recommend Devil May Cry 5. However I still recommend this game. Because this game is an amazing gem. Just please keep an open mind when you do play it if you’re coming from that mindset.