First-person shooters, as a genre, are a long-standing favourite of mine, and I don’t mind admitting that I’ve been playing them since the very beginning, back in the era of Doom and its many clones. I guess they’d be call doomlikes, these days… anyway, I digress.
There are loads of really good games out there, including the likes of Gunfire Reborn, Mortal Sin, and Roboquest but, in my humble opinion, there’s no one title that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Soulslinger: Envoy of Death is the next contender to enter the ring.
This macabre FPS first caught my eye when it launched into Early Access late last year, mostly thanks to its strong western theme and polished-looking visuals. Publisher Headup and developer Elder Games were kind enough to fire over access upon request, however once I’d learned about the game’s proposed roadmap, it made sense to wait for the most recent content update.
What is Soulslinger?
This particular first-person shooter casts you in the role of a newly deceased Envoy of Death. Literally: you’re Death’s assistant, a so-called Envoy and a gunslinger performing a service to the lord of the dead, representing him out in Limbo. There, in this half-space between life and death, the Envoy – that’s you, Dear Reader – must shoot bad things to rescue souls, and grab upgrades along the way.
Soulslinger might be a doomlike, but it’s also a roguelite. This means that things start off hard-as-nails, and you slowly have to claw your way into the game via lessons learned and hard-earned progress. It’s not immediately challenging, however. The first few encounters aren’t that tough, and that’s coming from a notoriously mediocre gamer.
There are difficulty spikes, however, in the form of the bullet-sponge bosses. I nearly always stumbled at these hurdles, and I guess I’m just going to have to continue levelling up my character’s meta-side to get further in the campaign. I’m not complaining; such is the way of the action-roguelite. Perhaps it felt more obvious here because of the lack of content.
Gunplay 2.0
I’m writing this feature hot on the heels of the new Gunplay 2.0 update, which landed in mid-January as part of the first wave of corrections made based on player feedback. It seems that a lot of people wanted more impactful gunplay, and that is what Elder Games has aimed for with the new 0.422 patch.
I did notice a bit of a difference; it felt a bit more impactful. However, it wasn’t a radical overhaul because the original wasn’t at all broken. Soulslinger is far from finished, but I think it’s built on solid foundations and the basics are already being refined further.
The addition of damage numbers pinging above your enemies does remove some of the mystery and atmosphere, there’s no doubt about it. However, it’s also super useful if you’re trying to refine a build and I’m glad it has been added.
My biggest grumble about pre-patch Soulslinger was the enemy AI. I’m not saying it’s perfect now, but I did notice fewer enemies getting snagged on the scenery. It might be my imagination, but it also feels like this little tweak speeds up the pace of combat encounters, as enemies must get to you slightly faster.
The guns are better, but what about the bullets?
The environments are western themed, and your enemies are undead minions out to get you on behalf of the cartel. You must dispatch these foes using a selection of weapons that you can upgrade over time. However, your guns use ammo that you must specialise and enhance during the course of a single run.
After completing a combat gauntlet, you’ll be presented with a couple of options. Go left and you might be able to unlock new passive fire-based abilities, while taking the right hand option could get you toxic bullets mapped to one of three ability slots. Each level has different portals that act as exits, with the rewards indicated on each one.
Your path through the game defines the way you construct your build for that run, as you mix and match abilities to supplement your standard attacks. There are already a few fun powers to choose from, but this feels like an area of the game where Elder Games can show the true extent of its creativity.
At the moment it feels like there’s a solid base to build on, and I look forward to returning to my role as an Envoy at the end of the Early Access process. In the meantime, I want the developers to have fun with it, maybe take a couple of risks – not just in terms of the gameplay mechanics, but also with regards to how the narrative is delivered. Soulslinger looks great and is already starting to feel better. Now it’s time for Elder Games to really show us what they can do.
