Soulstone Survivors - Vampire Survivors style game but really pretty. Honest guv

[Flub]

So unlike my last try at a game like this (Nomad Survival) this one actually seems good. It's what you expect. Move around, autofire your weapons (Some directed with the right stick), earn stuff to level up permenant upgrades and unlocks.

 

This time (At least on the first level) you have to summon five bosses and kill them. You have a dodge move (Also upgradeable). I just managed to beat the first level with the fire mage in under 20 minutes (For a cheevo). It's giving me similar dopamine hits that VS does but Nomad Survival didn't. There's shed loads of mobs on screen at once that you're cutting through. Still in early access but there seems to be plenty of content already.

 

It also looks and feels great to play. Very smooth

 

The music is quite good too

 

Currently £8.99 on steam. Works fine on Deck

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2066020/Soulstone_Survivors/

[Stejay]

Bought on your recommendation. I’ll give it a blast on the Deck tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up, @Flub.

[Flub]

I had a great couple of runs this lunchtime on the deck. Unlocked two more characters and managed to get the cheevo for doing a run in less than 15 minutes on one of the levels. It also looks like that as well as each character having a different starting weapons each class can also be offered different weapons as upgrades. The ranger with a gun guy I just played with had loads of weapons the mage and warrior didn't have available.

 

I'm really having a good time with this one.

[Wiper]

What's the game:skinner-box ratio like on this one? I enjoy a gradual, permanent unlock structure in a game, and I like top-down-shooter-esque mob management, but Vampire Survivors left me cold thanks to having virtually nothing to its gameplay bar the unlocks. Also, thirty-minute levels where the last twenty minutes can be played while unconscious made things feel a bit like the pacing was off.

 

This having a degree of aiming(!) and active dodging(!!) sounds like it could be significantly more engaging, but it all depends on how integral those aspects are!

[Flub]

There's a big mix of weapons you need to aim and weapons that fire randomly. If you weren't dodging you'd probably have a really hard time killing the bosses. I've upgraded to a double dodge by default and there's a per run upgrade that adds an extra one.

 

That being said I've only had like 6 or 7 games of this. I've got four basic levels unlocked and I believed there are difficulty tiers later for the levels.

[idespair]

Once you complete each of the levels you open up the chance to do it again, but with a selection of available modifiers (with more added with every successful run). Early examples see the occasional flaming meteor head your way, but after a couple of runs you can find yourself facing multiple bosses at the same time.

 

As Flub says, most runs are done in 20 minutes or less.

[Flub]

1 hour ago, idespair said:

Once you complete each of the levels you open up the chance to do it again, but with a selection of available modifiers (with more added with every successful run). Early examples see the occasional flaming meteor head your way, but after a couple of runs you can find yourself facing multiple bosses at the same time.

 

As Flub says, most runs are done in 20 minutes or less.

 

Oh excellent. I was hoping for something like that. That last two levels I did back to back in one go each so increasing the risk/reward sounds perfect.

[Flub]

I appear to have unlocked an endless mode. Ended up backing out due to lack of time with this as my skills. I was a wee bit strong

 

 

Stuff had loads of health at this point. I can only image what it's going to be like when I start cranking up the difficulty. Loving it.

[Flub]

Just did a run on the first level with the first set of difficulty curses active. Still easy but I definitely had to pay more attention. Don't sleep on this one chums. It's a banger. Devs do lots of updates and do good patchnotes too.

[Flub]

This is the run I mentioned above. Not my most efficient but it got the job done.

 

 

[Flub]

Just did a run. 4 curses. Finished with ease. Then move onto an endless run instead of exiting, clip the edge of a poison zone at the first boss and lose my composure. This is an example of high multishot and area size.

 

 

 

It's definitely not the case of ramp up your power and go into autopilot mode.

[Flub]

The nice thing about this game is once you have 6 active skills you can skill get offered different weapon choices and can swap them out for ones you already have. The new ones will take into account any buffs you have for that class of weapon so you're not likely starting again at level 1 with a fresh weapon. Lets you change things up if something is working how you want. If you don't want to change a weapon just hit LB and get offered a selection of power ups instead.

[Flub]

This guy on Youtube plays all these autoshooter type games. He also plays this one. There's a video of him doing a specific build. It's a good example of how skill based the game is. I picked a random time stamp where he's quite far into his run. Spawning five bosses at once.

 

 

Ignore the click bait.

[spork]

I've played a few rounds of this. On my third go I beat the 5 bosses and three portals opened up. No idea what they were but I walked into a purple one with an infinity sign and it started a new level with all of my skills and levels intact.

 

The second time I beat the 5 bosses only one portal appeared which I walked into and it took me to the main menu.

 

🤷‍♂️

[Flub]

There's lots of cool weapons

 

[MrCarrot]

54 minutes ago, spork said:

I've played a few rounds of this. On my third go I beat the 5 bosses and three portals opened up. No idea what they were but I walked into a purple one with an infinity sign and it started a new level with all of my skills and levels intact.

 

The second time I beat the 5 bosses only one portal appeared which I walked into and it took me to the main menu.

 

🤷‍♂️

As far as I’ve figured out, the blue portal always ends the game. The purple one starts Endless mode, and the red one starts Overlord mode. I’m not really sure what either of those means exactly, except that Overlord mode seems to be like playing with a higher curse level? I think which portals appear depends on how how quickly you finish the level, but I’m not really sure and it doesn’t seem to explain any of this anywhere.

[Flub]

I think endless mode ended for spork because he'd never finished a non-endless version of the level he'd moved onto. It does the same when you start adding curses into the mix too.