With Lute, you can interrupt and counter attacking enemies. She functions similarly to Atreus in God of War. During fights, Lute auto-attacks enemies, but you can also manually attack foes. Lute also serves as your support character. Soulstice puts these obstacles in your way during platforming sections to spice up the gameplay between exploration and combat. Some crystalline structures can only be revealed with the Evocation Field, while others can only be destroyed with the Banishment Field. These fields are also used for solving puzzles. As a result, you must efficiently activate and deactivate the fields during combat to not burn out Lute. The fields only last about 10 seconds each, after which Lute enters a lengthy cooldown before she can summon them again. In Soulstice, you can summon the Evocation Field (blue) or Banishment Field (red) with the LT/L2 and RT/R2 buttons, respectively. To counter this, Lute summons a magic paling around Briar, creating a special field that exposes demons whenever they are inside it. Certain enemy types are intangible or invulnerable under normal circumstances, so Briar’s melee strikes have no effect. Sisterly CooperationĪnother DmC-like mechanic is the Aura system. In fact, Soulstice's overall speed and combat cadence feels similar to DmC's fighting. In addition, you can press jump and attack at the same time to bust out an uppercut, just like in DmC. For example, double-tapping the movement stick while attacking unleashes a thrusting stab. Unique attacks are performed with special inputs. It's unclear how you'll obtain these weapons in the finished game. The ax was unlocked by default, and I automatically acquired the whip midway through the demo. However, I used a snappy bladed whip and a slow great ax in a Soultice pre-release demo build. Your base weapon is a massive, double-edged greatsword. Enemy monsters telegraph their attacks, so you can easily weave evasion into your offense.
Briar has responsive movement, and the action always feels fair. You do this by switching between various weapons on the fly using the D-pad. You string together as many melee attacks as possible to quickly and effectively dispatch enemies.
Like DmC, Soulstice has combo-centric combat. Despite being panned by the fanbase for its deviations, DmC had clever ideas and engaging action that could have easily earned it higher praise, had it not been beholden to the Devil May Cry branding and damaged by bad PR prior to release. However, the game most closely resembles iDmC: Devil May Cry, the western reboot of the iconic, demon-slaying 3D beat ‘em up. Soulstice takes inspiration from across the action game genre, including Darksiders and the recent God of War reboot. Developer Reply Game Studios could remedy this by reducing the amount of banter, so you can soak in the game's ambience and figure things out on your own.
Sometimes puzzle solutions are explained much too plainly, in a way that feels a little patronizing. This is especially true during combat, as both Briar and Lute quip about everything. At times, there is a bit too much chatter between the sisters, which detracts from Soultice's moodiness. That said, it gets a bit verbose at times, revealing through dialogue and banter what you can plainly see through observation (or infer through context). This works to the game’s advantage, as Soulstice presents a macabre, ruined fantasy world that's overrun by ghoulish undead, horrific mutants, and murderous revenants. Soulstice has a dark, edgy tone that feels like it was pulled straight out of the early 2000s. Your mission is to infiltrate Keidas, and save whoever you find. You play as a pair of Chimera sisters conjoined by a soul chain: Briar (an armored, brutishly powerful warrior) and Lute (a ghostly apparition). The resulting warrior is supernaturally powerful and magically inclined, but also highly unstable. As a response, super-soldiers called Chimera were created to counter the Wraith threat, but the process forces two souls to live as one. The evil beings corrupt and possess the living, wreaking havoc across the realm. Return to GrimdarkĪ calamity has struck the Holy Kingdom of Keidas, unleashing hordes of Wraiths into the world. The $49.99 PC game, which is scheduled for a September 20 launch, features a dark-and-edgy, early 2000s vibe, and a wealth of clever combat mechanics from across the genre. A fresh genre entry is a welcome addition, and the upcoming Soulstice aims to deliver that action-focused gameplay. Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, and Metal Gear Rising: Vengeance left lasting impressions long after their debuts, but games of their ilk are few and far between.