Soulstice (PC) - Preview | Phenixx Gaming

With the recent boom in Souls-like games, I had a good feeling that Soulstice would follow suit. It’s not just in the name, its first screenshots showed a bleak, drab setting. Color me surprised when I got my hands on it and found that it’s a Devil May Cry-style game, backed with a strong premise, some smart mechanics, and world-building deep enough for any new player to get immersed. Now with the demo out for everyone to experience it ahead of Soulstice‘s September 20th release, how does it stack up?

As you sail into a dilapidated, dreary setting, you’re greeted by two characters: Briar and Lute. These sisters are who you control throughout Soulstice. Your first combat encounter shows that the fighting is heavily combo-based and packed with counters, launchers, and an incentive for variety. Prioritizing enemies comes about quickly, as ranged and armored baddies enter the fray in the first and second chapters.

The battles in Soulstice feel tight and rewarding; you not only control Briar’s sword-swinging and dodging, but Lute automatically makes ranged attacks, lets you reflect projectiles, and avoid incoming melee damage with well-timed button presses. I did find this tough to get used to, as the X/Y buttons used for attacking alongside Lute’s B button presses made it difficult to navigate controller presses. Once I got a handle on this, though, the combat was fluid and a joy to experiment with.

Aside from its mechanics, Soulstice nails its performance as well. It’s a gorgeous game that performs well on modest PCs, and in my test on the Steam Deck, the game was playable after turning down some graphics settings. To see a game requiring an NVIDIA 1070 on minimum settings really pushes the boundaries for graphics, and an action game necessitates a high framerate to have its best experience. Thankfully, this is a perfectly-playable game at this point. Other than stutters on the Steam Deck and some screen-blinking whilst switching camera angles, there wasn’t a second of the gameplay where I lost immersion.

To further honor its DmC source material, Soulstice also cranks up the high-pace electronic tracks during your combat encounters. The atmosphere is palpable without the music as you traverse the broken-down, depressing town, learning more about Briar and Lute as they interact with each other. It’s evident even in the brief demo that Briar is fighting some kind of corruption, but Lute is there to support her pursuit every step of the way. Tension between the two and the order they must follow leads the player to feel for the two and push them forward through each level.

With a high skill ceiling and an engaging presentation, Soulstice could be a sleeper hit of 2022. There’s anticipation from the Devil May Cry crowd, and the protagonist sparks thoughts of Claymore and Berserk from fans yearning of more. At this point, the game is nicely-polished and has tons of potential. While not usually my type of game, I found myself positively wanting to continue past the first 2 acts that were provided in my preview.

A PC copy of Soulstice was provided by Modus Games for the purposes of this preview.