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Soulmask is an ambitious new selection - crafting game that just entered Early Access . When I say the plot is ambitious , I intend it , as Soulmask take in a wealth of inspire figure option and lineament that well tell apart it from other games in the literary genre . While the secret plan certainly has potential and presently has positive reappraisal on Steam , I can safely say it has a bit of study to get done before it leaves former access code .
straight off , Soulmask stands out from other games in the genre with its setting ; Soulmask takes place in an incredibly unique Meso - American Fantasy setting the likes of which I have n’t seen in other games , with others that come near choosing to concentre more on the esthetic of European adventurer .
While the secret plan currently does n’t give too much story , what is presented is that you , the player , have lately escaped an attempted human sacrifice rite . Finding the titular Soul Mask , you are given the mogul to implement your will over your enemies and determine out to establish your own civilization in the imagination - copious hobo camp .
The combat in Soulmask is also fairly telling for its genre . Each weapon system has a unique move set , let in light attacks , heavy attack ( which function more like special moves ) , and abilities such as a bey - blade - esque spinning sword tone-beginning .
The combat prompt me a hatful of Dark Souls , really , both in the weight of onset , the damage you receive , the profound use of engine block and dodging , and the slightly stunt , corpulent - feel animations and attack sounds .
Soulmask ’s main mechanical loop seems to be gather , subduing , and put your enemy to work to make a massive , automatize foot . It ’s something I ’ve seen done in other survival craft title of respect ; Conan Exiles is where I was introduced to the conception , with that game allowing you to pose captured worker on craft bench for a production boost or put them up as guards . son of the Forest inflate on it a scrap by giving you an AI companion so you’re able to give a range of limited commands , allowing him to gather your more basic resourcefulness for crafting .
Soulmask , however , takes the idea to what could perchance be the apex and allows you to assign your workers to every aspect of the game ’s gather and craft . Its emerge order system allows you to post a worker to far - off regions of the function , pile up resources , operate crafting tables , and maintain your base , allow them to do everything in a bike . It ’s moderately telling , and while some micro - managing is involve , you may more or less offload the plot ’s humble tasks to your servants so that you may go off and fry bigger fish .
When you start a game , Soulmask likes to throw a lot of tutorials your means . And I intend , a lot ; It is perhaps the most hired hand - holdy tutorial sequence I have ever seen , and it remain several time of day into the secret plan . Not only are you afford lengthy quest target that go so far as to specify that you have to look at a container to open it , but you are constantly propel to open up up a deep , encyclopedia - style tutorial page for further information . gratefully , this can be shut off , but if you are trying to learn the game , the tutorial can be a frustrative one to get through .
The secret plan struggles to communicate many of its saint due almost alone to its poor localization . Sentences will run on and use idiom that are unclear even in context . For case , your level is called “ Awareness Strength , ” a confusing statistic I thought lend oneself to my Strength stat in the character screen .
For a survival craft title like Soulmask , where floor building plays such an authoritative part in the game , you really need to verify that the car-mechanic for doing so is unstable and comfortable to practice . As it is currently follow up in Soulmask , base building is kind of a frustrating prospect . The organization for snapping one musical composition to another is very glitchy and can make go around a piece a herculean task . The simple labor of filling in a hole in my first construction ’s roof was a chore that take upwardly of five minutes to get the musical composition to align properly .
The base building also make some really strange choices . For case , you have to place your balefire , which is a giant , flame … well , a balefire that clearly belongs out of doors , beneath a highly inflammable thatch roof . Otherwise , the rain will put the fire out and remove your respawn percentage point .
Soulmask ’s UI and HUD are pretty , with thin bloodline and a modern sort of flavour , but that does n’t help distract from how busy and awkward to navigate the whole matter can be . Endless menu chivvy the secret plan ’s pilotage , requiring you to jump back and forth from multiple sections and memorise the biz ’s quick tonality to get through them in a timely manner . The crafting section of the hud has wretched organization ; you have to mightily - penetrate to open up further card to navigate with most of the option in said hud . It ’s heavy to explicate exactly how sluggish and tedious the UI in Soulmask sense , but by experience it yourself , you ’ll certainly catch on to what I think .
On top of this , there ’s just constantly too much entropy on the screen . I mean , just look at this screenshot and tell me it does n’t give you a meek headache .
Overall , I think Soulmask has some near ideas but call for more work , peculiarly on the non - mechanically skillful side of things . The UI , menu sailing , construction , and localization need some improvement before this game can gleam as the challenging survival craft the developer want it to be .
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