Soulstice
What to Know
Average Score
- September 20, 2022
- Reply Game Studio
- Action, RPG
Critics Consensus
- September 20, 2022
- Action, RPG
Critics Consensus
# Reviews: 33
Soulstice is a competent hack and slasher, but it's horrible camera and lack of gameplay variety a keep it from being something special.
Rate and Review
Critic Reviews for Soulstice
Critic Reviews
Distribution
33
Reviews
Soulstice’s terrible camera holds back an otherwise ambitious and inspired action game.
Soulstice etches its own namesake in the hack n’ slash genre. While it lacks the same level of combat depth and demand, it focuses more on narrative quality, accessibility, and presentation to reach success.
Opening and closing fields to match the thing you’re trying to kill has all the fussiness of a game of Simon Says – in that nothing you do counts unless you’ve remembered to hit the right button first.
Tomas Franzese (Digital Trends)
3.5/5 stars - (Read Review)
Soulstice’s terrible camera holds back an otherwise ambitious and inspired action game.
Timothy Nunes (PlayStation Universe)
7.5/10 - (Read Review)
Soulstice etches its own namesake in the hack n’ slash genre. While it lacks the same level of combat depth and demand, it focuses more on narrative quality, accessibility, and presentation to reach success.
Jon Bailes (GamesRadar+)
2/5 stars - (Read Review)
Opening and closing fields to match the thing you’re trying to kill has all the fussiness of a game of Simon Says – in that nothing you do counts unless you’ve remembered to hit the right button first.
Outlet | Author | Score | Date | Quote | Read |
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33bits | Fernando Sánchez | 90 / 100 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice has surprised us with its ability to approach a known formula and know how to leave its own identity. More polish would be appreciated but this is a medium production game with a lot of ambition. With sensations very similar to the greats of the genre and a sensational setting, Soulstice is a highly recommended title and, above all, satisfactory. | Read review |
ACG | Jeremy Penter | Recommended | 09-19-2022 | Video Review | Read review |
Checkpoint Gaming | Tom Quirk | 8 / 10 | 09-19-2022 | Soulstice is a truly great action game, which despite taking many cues from stylish action titles of the past, carves out enough of an identity to stand out on its own. The system of controlling both sisters and maintaining auras while slashing through foes is intuitive and simple to master. Although the plot leaves many threads hanging, the development of the central sibling relationship and setting were enough to draw me into Soulstice's world and want to see more. If you're a fan of challenging action games and can forgive a slightly annoying camera, Soulstice is definitely worth checking out. | Read review |
COGconnected | Mark Steighner | 72 / 100 | 09-20-2022 | 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. | Read review |
Cultured Vultures | Thorne Stone | 5.5 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice is a game with some great aesthetic choices, but is completely marred by poor gameplay design that takes control away from the player during the times they'll need it the most. | Read review |
Digital Trends | Tomas Franzese | 3.5 / 5 stars | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice's terrible camera holds back an otherwise ambitious and inspired action game. | Read review |
Digitally Downloaded | Matt Sainsbury | 3.5 / 5 stars | 09-21-2022 | 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. | Read review |
Everyeye.it | Antonello Bello | 7 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | 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. | Read review |
FingerGuns | Toby Andersen | 7 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | 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. | Read review |
GameGrin | Mike Crewe | 8.5 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Full of style and substance, Soulstice is a joy to play, with tight, fast-paced combat and slick controls that make this an easy recommendation to anyone interested in a new hack and slash title. | Read review |
Gamer Escape | Justin Mercer | 8 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice absolutely works as a love letter to action games of the bygone PlayStation 2 era. Vitally, however, it does so without losing a clear identity of its own. Its combat system is unique in the way it asks players to actively monitor mechanics while also avoiding enemy attacks and dishing out flashy combos in true character action game fashion. Its boss battles leave quite a bit to be desired, and the level design may be a bit too narrow at points, but Read review |
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GameSkinny | Hayes Madsen | 7 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | 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. | Read review |
GameSpew | Richard Seagrave | 7 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | 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. | Read review |
GamesRadar+ | Jon Bailes | 2 / 5 stars | 09-20-2022 | "Opening and closing fields to match the thing you're trying to kill has all the fussiness of a game of Simon Says – in that nothing you do counts unless you've remembered to hit the right button first" | Read review |
Gaming Nexus | Henry Yu | 7.4 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | 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. | Read review |
GamingBolt | John Cantees | 8 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | While the characters and story don't do enough to push it over the top, Soulstice delivers a great action game that just about anybody can enjoy. | Read review |
GamingTrend | Ben Lombardo | 85 / 100 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice does an exceptional job of keeping the player engaged throughout its entirety. The amount of content just within the combat is jaw-dropping, so much so that it feels like Reply Game Studios aren't saving anything for a sequel. There's a lot to discover (and a lot to master) as you slowly trek through its massive world and uncover one of the most enjoyable detective-style stories that I've come to experience. | Read review |
God is a Geek | Mick Fraser | 7 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice is a competent hack and slasher with a solid core concept and an interesting world history that remains somewhat under-explored. | Read review |
Hardcore Gamer | Chris Shive | 3.5 / 5 stars | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice makes no secret of what influenced it, both in aesthetics and in gameplay mechanics. | Read review |
Hobby Consolas | Álvaro Alonso | 67 / 100 | 09-20-2022 | A solid game with good intentions, but that falls far short of the greats of the genre. As an appetizer it's fine, but hack and slash lovers probably prefer to wait for Bayonetta 3... or back to Devil May Cry 5. | Read review |
IGN Italy | Alessandra Borgonovo | 9 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | A great hack 'n' slash that can stand proudly near the sacred monsters of the genre. | Read review |
IGN Spain | David Oña | 5 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice is a textbook hack & slash that shows a lack of risk and attachment to certain design patterns that do more good than harm. Its combat system, interesting at base, is displaced by a plot and a progression system that have more prominence than they should. However, if you are missing more battles in your videoludic day to day, its proposal will give you the dopamine demanded through its best confrontations. | Read review |
Marooners' Rock | Roberto Nieves | 9.4 / 10 | 09-21-2022 | Soulstice is a dark and action-packed thrill ride with a strong story of sisterhood, and a bevy of options for every type of player. | Read review |
New Game Network | Alex Varankou | 63 / 100 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice features decent combat with a few unique tricks, but it grows repetitive. With a dull story and lackluster presentation, it might mostly be of interest to DMC fans on a budget. | Read review |
PlayStation Universe | Timothy Nunes | 7.5 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice etches its own namesake in the hack n' slash genre. While it lacks the same level of combat depth and demand, it focuses more on narrative quality, accessibility, and presentation to reach success. | Read review |
Rice Digital | Lilia Hellal | Recommended | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice celebrates the great things about its biggest inspirations while being memorable in its own right. The presence of Sir Donovan as a capable male Chimera fills a void from Claymore, and how the game explores and shows memories reminiscent of the Vestige fragments in Code Vein makes for a nice interlude after countless battle segments and heavy plot reveals. | Read review |
Screen Rant | Jacob Zeranko | 4.5 / 5 stars | 09-20-2022 | Thankfully, abilities and weapons like these become accessible in the mid-game and make later combat encounters much more manageable. Even then, Soulstice manages to maintain a good balance overall and while some hits may feel unfair, no fight ever ends that way. They all feel satisfying and exciting in a way that motivates the player to continue towards the next one. The moments of exploration between fights also encourages players to take in the stunning art design of the world and Briar's armor and weaponry, which look like they're lifted straight from the pages of Berserk; but this only scratches the surface of Soulstice. This is a challenging, beautiful, and engrossing game with a ton to offer and shouldn't be passed over. | Read review |
SpazioGames | Marcello Paolillo | 7.6 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice gives a good challenge to veterans of the genre and is a good choice for beginners, in a mix between Devil May Cry and Berserk. | Read review |
TechRaptor | Joseph Allen | 7 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | 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. | Read review |
The Games Machine | Stefano Calzati | 7.5 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Soulstice turned out to be a good stylish action game, with a solid combat system embellished with good ideas, able to tell its excellent protagonists, Briar and Lute, both through the battle and with the cutscenes. The story of Ilden's veil torn above the sky is intriguing, with beautiful twists and a well-studied mythology, it is therefore a pity that the setting is not able to sustain this charm, despite the very good basic technique, trapped in a artistic direction that is often too generic and redundant. | Read review |
WayTooManyGames | Kyle Nicol | 7 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | 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. | Read review |
Wccftech | Francesco De Meo | 7.5 / 10 | 09-20-2022 | Combining a well-realized dark fantasy setting inspired by Claymore and Berserk and an engaging story with solid action gameplay inspired by some of the best character action games, Soulstice is a competent action title. Unfortunately, issues like the horrible camera and the mediocre handling of color-coded enemies and mechanics impact the experience, preventing it from being the great character action game it had the potential to be. | Read review |
WellPlayed | Harrison Tabulo | 7 / 10 | 09-21-2022 | It's a chaotic push and pull between ecstatic fun and dull annoyance that honestly drives Soulstice, but it's nonetheless worth checking out. | Read review |
Game Info
The balance of the Holy Kingdom of Keidas is compromised when powerful, feral creatures known as “Wraiths” invade from the other side of the Veil, threatening to consume the living. Wraiths corrupt their victims and can even possess their bodies, turning into unstoppable monsters that prey upon the common folk. The “Chimeras”, hybrid warriors born of the union of two souls, are the only ones who can protect humankind. Briar and Lute are two sisters who have been reborn as a Chimera. The transformation has granted Briar superhuman strength and resilience, while Lute, who was sacrificed in order to bind her soul to her sister’s, has become a ghost with mystical powers. Voiced by Stefanie Joosten (Metal Gear Solid 5), Briar and Lute are sent on a mission to reclaim a city in ruins that has been ravaged by the Wraiths, only to discover that the Order they belong to has a far more complex plan in mind.
RELEASE DATES:
DEVELOPER(S):
- Reply Game Studio
PUBLISHER(S):
- Modus Games
GENRES:
- Action, RPG
SERIES/FRANCHISE:
- n/a
GAME MODES:
- Single player
GAME ENGINE:
- Unreal Engine 4
DLC:
- -
BUNDLED IN:
- -
DIRECTOR(S):
- -
PRODUCER(S):
- -
DESIGNER(S):
- -
PROGRAMMER(S):
- -
ARTIST(S):
- -
WRITER(S):
- -
COMPOSER(S):
- -
GAME MODES:
- Single player
GAME ENGINE:
- Unreal Engine 4
DLC:
- n/a
BUNDLED IN:
- n/a
DIRECTOR(S):
- n/a
PRODUCER(S):
- n/a
DESIGNER(S):
- n/a
PROGRAMMER(S):
- n/a
ARTIST(S):
- n/a
WRITER(S):
- n/a
COMPOSER(S):
- n/a
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