I’m seriously impressed by this. I mean I’ve already got bloody 14 hours on it since yesterday somehow, and I’ve been in the studio both days working too =\

I bounced off the original after about five hours because I felt the devs had rather missed the point. They seemed to focus on the combat style and difficulty above all else, missing out on the underlying web of systems that made the Souls games so fascinating.

They’ve addressed that and so much more here. They’ve concocted their own set of systems which work brilliantly, the battery being a brilliant wrinkle to the usual stamina management. They’ve created a surprisingly good version of the Dark Souls messages system which is very much its own thing, and a fun asynchronous hide and seek feature that functions a little like the ghosts in Souls, in a “you are not alone” kind of way.

Getting back to your scrap/Souls is on a timer which extends when you kill a mob, and if you don’t pick it up it heals you while you’re near it making it slightly easier to kill the bugger that got you last time. That in itself is genius, but then you have the refined limb targeting system which allows you to focus on upgrade materials or nabbing a shiny new bit of kit.

Everything feels slicker and snappier; including the evade system which does make it feel a little bit like Bloodborne, although the combat itself is definitely more soulslike.

It took me a while to click with it but honestly, for any soulslike fan, this should be piquing your interest.

Below is a multi mob encounter. I rounded the corner and found these buggers, including a “revenge enemy” which is basically a tougher mob which has killed another player in their game. Huge amount of tactical thinking going on, selecting which enemy to take out first and then trying to get specific body parts and leaving the tough guy til last. It’s really really fun.