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What an exquisite yr to be a soulslike fan! I’ve loved hours of being crushed to demise in Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty, Lies of P, and Lords of the Fallen. All three have attention-grabbing concepts and customarily strong execution. However additionally they have flaws which might be quick changing into tiresome soulslike staples. So right here’s a wishlist of what these video games ought to hold doing/for-the-love-of-God-stop doing. Come on, soulslike the place you play as a crab, let me provide help to be PC Gamer’s 2024 GOTY!
DO: Set them someplace attention-grabbing
The Surge 2 is considered one of my favorite soulslikes, thanks largely to its novel far-future setting, stuffed with color and mildly psychotic sentient merchandising machines. Lies of P has the Black Seaside, a phenomenal endgame location that’s like wandering the ghost of a seaside, way more placing than its oh-cool-I’ve-played-Bloodborne-too earlier areas. Lords of the Fallen has… anyway, the more energizing your setting, the extra you’re going to face out. One thing to remember earlier than rendering yet one more gloomy fortress. Lies of P is supposed to be a Pinocchio riff, so the place’s my stage set inside a whale?
DON’T: Ship me to a different bloody poison swamp
Oh how we laughed when our lord and saviour Hidetaka Miyazaki stated he couldn’t resist placing yet one more toxic swamp in Elden Ring. We weren’t laughing after trudging by means of one other in Lies of P then one other in Lords of the Fallen. Swamps are beginning to really feel like sewer ranges with worse plumbing. See additionally Victorian-era streets, castles, church buildings… Except you’ve acquired one thing new to say with these areas, you’re simply giving us Souls déjà vu.
DO: Give us correct soar controls
In Lies of P you must click on the precise stick to leap, which is why its protagonist deserves to by no means turn out to be an actual boy. Lords of the Fallen doesn’t fare significantly better, refusing to allow you to soar until you’re already working. Even my beloved Surge 2 has hopping that’s an insult to gravity. If you’re cribbing from Darkish Souls, watch out to not steal its dangerous options too. FromSoftware’s horrible soar controls lastly went extinct when Sekiro invented one thing known as the ‘soar button’. Steal that!
DON’T: Keep grounded
Elden Ring has a beautiful double-jumping horse to hop about on. Why cease there? Give us wings and allow us to fly, assembly all of the horrors you’ll be able to stuff the skies with. Lies of P may have scored within the nineties if Pinocchio had been capable of lie his nostril massive after which use it as a pogo stick with get round, pole vaulting to larger areas. Or how about giving us a automobile? Summoning a double-jumping steed was enjoyable, however I’d love to have the ability to name in a helicopter, a rideable drone, or considered one of my mechs from Armored Core 6 (synergy!). Look me within the eye and inform me {that a} jetpack wouldn’t have improved Lords of the Fallen. You received’t have the ability to look me within the eye, as I’ll be 60 toes airborne, uppercutting a dragon.
DO: Allow us to make our personal weapons
In Lies of P, handles and blades of each melee weapon you discover could be snapped aside and blended and matched. You’ll be able to construct absurd hybrid weapons which might be implausible enjoyable to mess around with, even once they’re hopelessly impractical. Nintendo’s Tears of the Kingdom has an excellent fuse energy that permits you to mix your weapons with principally any merchandise you’ll be able to decide up within the recreation. I’d like to see a soulslike go additional and allow us to fuse our weapons with the environments. Allow us to play with all that stunning structure you’ve constructed! Ornstein and Smough would possibly remorse having these huge golden statues of themselves commissioned if I may cave their heads in with them.
DON’T: Give us probably nice new toys which might be uselessly underleveled
About two thirds into each soulslike, I greet every new sword I discover with a heavy sigh. My present weapon has been levelled up six or seven occasions by now, at appreciable expense and with using a number of finite/uncommon assets. To see if the brand new toy I’ve discovered is perhaps pretty much as good on the similar stage, I’ll should threat losing the identical quantity of assets. It discourages experimentation. Maybe there may very well be a short lived weapon buff that lets me attempt an upgraded model earlier than I purchase? Even Elden Ring will get this incorrect, which is why I’m retroactively knocking 89 factors off its PC Gamer rating till they patch in a repair.
DO: Extra cool, bizarre mechanics like Lords of the Fallen’s umbral lamp
Lords of the Fallen’s greatest new concept is that you’ve a key to a different dimension resting in your hip. The lamp shines a gateway into Umbral, a Lovecraftian nightmare world the place you’re additionally despatched in the event you die (and in the event you die there, recreation over). You need to use the lamp to ship you on a one-way journey or cautiously take a peek. However usually you must decide to coming into Umbral to progress, then desperately hunt down a Vestige that permits you to escape. I really like this! It’s such a good suggestion that I need FromSoftware to steal it for its subsequent recreation. Contemplating how a lot these video games have ‘borrowed’ from Darkish Souls, that appears solely truthful.
DON’T: Make any extra darkish, medieval fantasy
Darkish Souls didn’t invent darkish medieval fantasy. However in the event you’re making a recreation that performs a lot prefer it, is it actually a good suggestion to swipe its setting as nicely? Deck13 realised this, abandoning the spinoff setting of the unique Lords of the Fallen for the far future with The Surge (meh) and The Surge 2 (hooray!). Working by means of a decrepit fortress on this yr’s Lords of the Fallen sequel usually appears to be like precisely like Darkish Souls, besides with much less creativeness and a cheaply recycled bestiary. Flaws which might be way more noticeable as a result of a direct comparability is unavoidable.
DO: Loosen up somewhat
Lies of P was about homicidal puppets slaughtering a metropolis. Lords of the Fallen was in all probability a few kitten bloodbath (I skimmed plenty of the lore). Should it all the time be so bleak? I’d love one thing with a tone extra like, say, Frog Detective. You don’t even should go that far, as Elden Ring felt refreshing for being set in a world that also had plenty of life in it. I’d additionally love considered one of these video games to take the Bioshock Infinite method of getting us be a witness of the apocalyptic occasion as a substitute of all the time arriving after-the-fact to mop up. That’s proper, I’m suggesting you copy the famously easy-to-make-and-beloved-by-all Bioshock Infinite. Good luck!
DON’T: Give us ‘shock’ second phases in boss fights
Lies of P loves this trick, seemingly unaware that it’s solely a ‘shock’ for a boss to have a second part if it doesn’t occur each different bloody time. Minus one other fifty factors for when the second part requires an entire new technique unrelated to the primary. Finally that preliminary part turns into tiresome busywork, the chore you must get by means of for one more go on the combat you really need to concentrate on. Does any problem spike in these video games really feel cheaper?
DO: Hold attempting new issues
Lords of the Fallen was a business hit this yr, and we’ve already been instructed we’re getting a Lies of P sequel (*cough* whale stage this time *cough cough*). I’d love a Lords sequel that’s set in 1960’s Liverpool – or a minimum of not a medieval setting—and that explores that pleasant universe-hopping lamp mechanic additional (some time-travel perhaps? Liverpool 2077?). Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen had been nice beginning factors, proof that the soulslike could also be getting somewhat stale, however has additionally hit a powerful baseline of high quality. Now give me sequels that embrace innovation. Kill me time and again, by all means, however discover enjoyable new methods to do it!
By the way in which, I acquired myself hypnotised earlier than penning this, so now every time I learn the phrases “git gud” I really feel a sensation of unparalleled ecstasy. Simply one thing to remember earlier than you go to the feedback part. Whilst you’re there, inform me what you’d wish to see improved in Soulslikes! Extra mimics? We will by no means be buddies.
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