Soulslinger: Envoy of Death
Review
Stuck in Limbo
by Quinn Levandoski
reviewed on PC
Stuck in Limbo
Sometimes a game's big draw is a gameplay mechanic or narrative, and sometimes it's just a super cool vibe. For Soulslinger: Envoy of Death, the choice is pretty obvious. A cowboy empowered by Death himself to clear demons out of a Wild-West-inspired limbo? Heck yeah; sign me up. Vibes aren't enough, of course, which begs the question of whether this arena-style FPS rogue-lite (what a mouthful!) has the substance to support its style. Unfortunately, the answer isn't cut and dry.
I was able to preview an early build of Soulslinger back in late 2023, and I was impressed by the stylistic arena designs, cool array of weapons and abilities, and the selection of enemies I was able to battle. The game had a lot of potential, and there were clear hooks for what could be expanded into a complete experience. Now, having played the release version, I'm of mixed opinion - Soulslinger has a lot of cool ideas and some fun mechanics, but it ultimately feels too limited, growing a bit stale earlier than it should and containing some frustrating design decisions.
Death's Beckoning
Like many rogue-like and rogue-lites, the basic gameplay loop in Soulslinger is quite simple. The player character starts with a gun and then plays through a series of contained arenas/stages, taking out enemies and gaining powers, weapons, or currency after each victory. Normal encounters lead into boss battles, and on death, certain currencies can be spent to unlock permanent upgrades. It is classic stuff for the genre, which is popular for a reason - it works, and the hits of dopamine from clearing individual levels and marking long-term progress his well when they happen.
Soulslinger does get credit for wrapping the whole thing up in a story that's pretty cool and justifies the endless re-running of combat. Far from mindless slaughter, the Envoy is a man from modern times who is brought into the service of Death after a vehicle accident that also kills his wife. However, for reasons not immediately made clear, the Envoy is prevented from moving on to the afterlife. Instead, he and another Envoy police Limbo, keeping out nefarious entities looking to encroach on it for souls and power. It's by no means a narrative game, and bits of story are found fairly far between, but it does explain the endless loop of reincarnation and allow for an actual ending.
Wild Wild West
Why does everything look like the Wild West if the game takes place in Limbo and the Envoy is from modern times? Well, one line explains that regions of Limbo morph to reflect the memories or will of the most powerful being there. We hear about other areas of Limbo that look much different, and I'd love to see them in a future game.
The environments are quite nice - the extremely detailed arenas vary in size quite a bit and represent a few different Western archetypes, from regular town blocks with general stores and dirt roads to mines, ruins, and a few combinations of the aforementioned. There's also a separate graveyard area with more formidable enemies that gives off a southern bayou vibe. That said, get ready to see the same maps a lot. I don't have an exact count, but I'd guess there are around 12, not counting boss fight areas, and doing run after run does start to get a bit visually banal, even if the environmental design is objectively well done.
This kind of bleeds into enemy design, too. There simply aren't enough. There's a bit of variety as the game progresses, but it's mostly variations of glowing skeletons and wraith-like creatures, and the few monstrous outliers could have been expanded on to keep things fresh. The nature of this kind of game necessitates making runs over and over and over again in quick succession, so variety is key to prevent burnout. I didn't quite burn out, but I did start wishing for more diverse enemies requiring more diverse play patterns.
Progression and Boss Fights
Given Soulslinger's titular Envoy is backed by death, he's got a nice array of otherworldly weapons and powers to help him battle Limbo's would-be conquerors. After each stage, players get 1-3 choices of which type of reward they want after completing the next stage, and there are also a few bonus locations that randomly appear, offering markets, skill improvements, and power-ups. They're thematically divided between elements, including Fire, Lightning, Poison, Blood, Spectral Essence, and more, each containing a slew of ammunition types, movement effects, passive bonuses, and more that synergize while also promoting mix-and-match experimentation.
It's a cool system, and it feels powerful to shoot out explosive rounds while unleashing spectral clones that explode into toxic clouds, all while dashing with bolts of lightning. However, the system has one big flaw. In addition to currencies like Gold that can be spent in each run, several currencies are used in between runs to unlock new weapons, abilities, passives, etc. A small amount of these permanent resources are earned naturally, but the bulk have to be chosen as they pop up as end-of-arena rewards in place of new abilities for that run. What that means is that, after each stage, players have to choose between powering up their run or earning resources for long-term improvement. The latter is the objectively correct thing to do early, but that means going into runs, intentionally sabotaging oneself, and having to spend real time "buying" stats instead of actually enjoying the game in the present. Permanent currencies absolutely needed to be separated from single-run powers so that players can try their best to win each run while also contributing to overall improvement. Tanking runs by choosing long-term currency rewards that can't be used during a run - and therefore getting no or few powers - felt like working to be able to enjoy the game later. Which isn't good.
The boss fights are the other sore spot. I enjoyed the quick arenas that make up most of the game, but the boss fights waver between way too easy and incredibly punishing. Moreover, the same bosses appear at the same points each run, and it grew quite tiring fighting the same things with the same strategy every single time, winning quite quickly for the early ones and getting absolutely dumpstered for a long time later as I slowly improved. The boss fights feel too bullet-spongey and seem to largely trade strategy for a gear/stat check, and they seem like they all needed a little more time in the oven.
Soulslinger: Evoy of Death is a stylish, fast-paced game that's easy to jump into for some quick action, and there's undeniable fun to be had mixing and matching powers. However, some frustrating design decisions hold it back on the macro level. I do like the world the game sets up, and if developer Elder Games ever makes a follow-up, I'll be there to hopefully check out some new corners of Limbo with some of the rougher edges smoothed out.
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6.0
fun score
Pros
Interesting narrative hook, cool powers and ability interactions, nice artistic direction with the environments
Cons
Lack of environmental and enemy variety becomes tiresome, difficulty spikes seem a bit off, the progression system is poorly designed
