Soulstone Survivors (Early Access Preview)
Remember our “Games we found that we really think you should keep an eye on #1”? (you did read it, right?) One of those games can be played right now (well after you read this). Soulstone Survivors entered Early Access on Steam in January and, while Early Access may scare some off, you should grab it today. Side note: Steam has the best refund policy out there. Games in Early Access generally have a road map as to what is in the game and what is to come. If it interests you at all, try it for up to 2 hours before clicking that refund button. Worst-case scenario, you tried it, did not like it, and got your money back. Maybe you kind of like it but want to wait. Get your refund but throw it on your wishlist and help the developer out.
Soulstone Survivors could ship as-is and you may not even notice it is not fully ready. To be fair, AAA titles launch with far less, and good luck getting your money back there. At least Early Access respects the player enough to say “hey, we’re actively working on this but it is playable right now and we hope you enjoy enough to come along on this journey.” With the massive success of Vampire Survivors, twin-stick shooters are everywhere now - console, PC, and every other ad on TikTok and Twitter…Most are just watered-down versions or shameless copies of the bigger ones which definitely muddies the water. I loved Vampire Survivors but if you are just going to throw another game at me that have you choose a character, collect weapons that upgrade over time, and eventually let me just mop the floor with enemies, I might as well stick to the original. So what makes Soulstone Survivors different?
Gameplay is up first because it is rather basic and ending with that would be anti-climatic. At its core, the game is a roguelite, arcade, twin-stick shooter. You move with the left stick and aim with the right stick. Shooting is automatic but honestly, if there is no reload function, it makes little sense to have to hold down a trigger. Attacks are based on the various abilities you pick up as you level up by killing enemies. Players can also dash away from danger. How do you get from this simplistic gameplay to a super addicting loop?
For starters, there are 14 playable classes (eventually - not all are unlocked from the beginning; an additional 7 classes are being added before launch). Each class has its own unique playstyle with different move sets and different starting stats. One of the first classes made available is the Pyromancer (also a good starter for those new to the genre). The pyromancer is a ranged class that specializes in, you got it, fire. Most of those abilities of the AOE variety allow you, the player, to keep your distance from enemies. As such, Pyromancers have a little less starting health and armor.
On the flip side, the Barbarian favors the in-your-face variety of attacking and has more health, and moves a bit faster. The 14 classes all have some combination of positive and negative stats when starting any run spanning health, armor, movement speed, damage modifiers, and AOE modifiers. These are only starting stats though and can be offset by a number of in-game systems the longer you play. By the time you unlock all classes, you can pick the class with the playstyle you like best and completely ignore that starting stat line.
After choosing your class, you can pick from 5 maps to play and let the fun begin. Killing enemies drops experience and eventually levels you up. Every level provides you with three powerups of which you can pick one. One such choice will be active abilities (you can have 6 at a time). These active abilities are based on the class you chose (this can be modified down the road). For example, the Hound Master utilizes Chaos, Nature, Fire, Electric, Projectile, Bomb, and Blast skills while the Chaoswalker’s skills are from the Arcane, Chaos, Ice, Fire, Electric, Shadow, and Holy families. Currently, there are 142 skills in-game (345 planned for launch). After you choose 6 abilities, new ones can still appear allowing you to replace existing skills but then they are gone from that run. Outside of the ability choices, you may get upgrades (dependent on which skills you have chosen), and last but not least, boring old passive choices like movement speed increase, more health, more armor, etc. A nice feature that has been implemented is the ability to skip the ability choices once you have 6. If you feel you have the perfect loadout, you can go right to the passive upgrades which can stack infinitely.
The object of each run is to eliminate the Void Lords. To do so, one must kill a set number of lesser enemies so that they spawn. A match “ends’’ when you eliminate 5 Void Lords. At this point, you can choose to be done or go into Endless Mode or Overlord cycle. Endless mode is similar to a regular match but changes the map. Once beaten, you can go into a portal to continue or a portal to be done. Overlord mode changes one thing but it is a pretty big thing. Instead of fighting one boss after the waves of enemies, you fight two. If you manage to survive all 10 bosses, you can go again but against 3 bosses per set for a total of 15.
While in-game, you will pick up various currencies (each map contains a different kind). This currency goes towards the skill tree which is shared amongst all of your characters and is needed by the blacksmith to craft new weapons. The skill tree provides passive boosts like increased health, armor, movement speed, pickup radius, the ability to reroll ability options when you level, and the ability to banish an ability from appearing during a run. Leveling up costs an increasing amount and will require the various soulstones dropped so multiple runs will be necessary.
The blacksmith can craft new weapons for each class and, similar to the skill tree, requires items that drop on several maps. New weapons you craft provide a new starting ability and also provide various stats that stack on top of the class starting stats. While gathering all the materials may read out as a long grind, it is nice that you have to run a combination of different maps to do so which keeps things fresh.
Speaking of maps, there are currently 5 in-game with a total of 10 on launch. Once a map is beaten, players have the option to apply modifiers which will make a run harder. Presently, a map can go up to Tier VII and you can have 48 curses running. A single curse will increase enemy health by 5% and their damage, attack speed, and movement speed by 1%. With all 48 curses activated, health shoots up to 240%, and 48% for the other stats. It is not just about making enemies harder to kill though. For example, one curse will make random meteors fall from the sky while another summons an unkillable entity that can one-shot you if you are not careful.
Last but not least is the rune system. As you continually play with each class, you are rewarded with new runes that can completely change the playstyle of any class. The Pyromancer unlocks runes that prioritize fire abilities first and the Barbarian has a similar rune for Slam abilities. What happens if you activate the fire rune and play as the Barbarian? A fire-slinging, rampaging melee class, of course.
My favorite thing about all of these “one more run” type games that keep popping up is the variety you experience the next time out. Soulstone Survivors not only innately provides this but also has several in-game systems that let the player completely create a new run to their liking each time out. The developers have been hard at work and already released two updates this year. It has been very exciting watching this game grow and I cannot wait for more people to experience the final product at launch.
