Ember Souls Review: An Uneven Trek

There are few issues that VR does higher than parkour and sword fight; so it is no shock that Ember Souls makes an attempt to meld the 2 into an action-adventure thriller, a lot as different titles have beforehand finished. Does Ember Souls hit the identical mark, although? Learn on for our full evaluation.

Ember Souls is an action-adventure with a heavy deal with parkour-style platforming, and puzzle-solving. Between leaping from wood beams, dangling chains and sliding down elaborate tapestries, you additionally have interaction with fight towards possessed troopers and hordes of undead as they delve deep right into a sprawling Persian palace searching for historical magical artifacts – the Ember Stones.

Platforming is the place Ember Souls shines the brightest. When you cannot clamber up each wall you see, there is a strong steadiness between what you’ll be able to leisurely ascend and surfaces that require further warning. Early on you are taught that leaping from point-to-point is a significant facet of Ember Souls’ platforming – and shortly you will ease into the rhythm of ascending a wall or a column, going through in the direction of a pole or ledge to leap to, and persevering with in your method. Ideally with out even stopping, if in any respect potential.

As you progress by way of the 6+ hour marketing campaign, you will achieve entry to new talents as you receive new Ember Stones. These begin off pretty easy – the Wind Stone grants the power to drag your self towards grapple factors from a distance, additionally giving entry to the power to push and pull objects within the atmosphere. The Water Stone permits you to momentarily freeze operating water, which the sport makes nice use of throughout puzzle-solving.

Ember Souls is at its greatest when you’ll be able to really feel your self ease into the platforming, and stage design is usually strong by way of the expertise with just a few exceptions. So far as parkour is anxious, that is additionally the place the sport’s controls are probably the most constant, and the sport’s design – in addition to the Ember Stone talents – tie into the expertise in one of the best of how. There have been just a few moments when the “hop” between completely different hanging factors did not appear to work out accurately as I whizzed simply previous the place I used to be supposedly in a position to latch onto. That may be pretty straightforward to forgive if that was the one situation I had with the sport’s controls.

Sadly, Ember Souls feels prefer it begins to disintegrate in terms of every thing moreover the platforming. It is not only one or two predominant points, however moderately a bunch of complaints that coalesce with me virtually dreading at any time when I entered a fight encounter. First off; whereas the sport is playable on Quest 2 and Quest 3, at the very least on the sport’s default settings it ceaselessly suffers from efficiency points, significantly throughout fight on Quest 3. The sport itself does not look significantly spectacular more often than not, so when it begins to stutter and hitch it takes me out of the expertise. Bafflingly, upon first boot the sport begins with a moderately prolonged shader compilation course of, which leaves me questioning precisely what was going unsuitable in-game.

Efficiency is not at all times a difficulty however controls are constantly a ache. Platforming works nicely sufficient, although fight feels prefer it occupies a no-mans-land between feeling too stiff and too free on the identical time. To make issues worse, there’s some moderately critical misfires with the sport’s menuing. Your melee weapons relaxation at your hips, however the sport falters in motion registration a tad; your stock is accessed from the entrance of your hips, alongside the identical top as your weapons.

On a number of events I would seize my melee weapon from my belt just for the stock to open itself up as I unsheathe my sword – obscuring my view of fight after I wanted to concentrate to my environment probably the most. When you can place the stock nearer to your physique, it is certainly not an ideal answer, and requires some fiddling. Selecting up objects, alternatively, is a frequent drawback; even when sure puzzles require you to shuffle round physics objects for stress plates, or to present your self sufficient top to achieve a platform, it by no means actually appears like issues are working fairly as they need to.

Whereas it is by no means a lot of a priority throughout common fight, issues head sideways throughout boss encounters. One midgame struggle towards a Hydra is a very troubling instance; you are alleged to activate water pillars which you then lead the Hydra to, so you’ll be able to freeze it in place – however the precise act of kiting it whereas staying shut sufficient that you simply will not eat its hearth breath was annoying. What actually irks me is in case you handle to freeze it in the midst of an assault animation, you’ll be able to’t even strategy it shut sufficient to start out hacking off its heads. Regardless of being frozen in place, the hitbox for its assault stays lively, which means I’ve to attend for a number of seconds earlier than possibly having a second probability to freeze it once more. Different boss fights are equally irritating.

It is little moments like this that proceed to bother me. Ember Souls has some moderately intuitive and attention-grabbing puzzles to resolve, although fight at all times feels prefer it’s attempting to drive me to play by its guidelines, even when it made no sense. Early on you are informed which you can throw knives to deal harm; so in a while I discovered myself proper behind an enemy that was carrying a helmet, but their again was utterly uncovered. So, I threw my knife immediately at their again – and it magnetically focused their helmet as a substitute, forcing me right into a fight encounter I used to be able to bypass solely. If I had stabbed them by way of the again with my sword as a substitute, I might’ve been proper on my method none the wiser. Sure Ember Stone talents – such because the Wind Stone’s Drive Push – are additionally inconsistent. Typically activating on the slightest motion of my palms, and different occasions refusing to budge even with enough Vitality in my reserves.

With just a few small tweaks and a few further polish, it will be a lot simpler to advocate Ember Souls. Nevertheless, it is at the moment arduous to do when there are such a lot of different VR action-adventure video games providing a extra constant expertise. For what it is value, Ember Souls doesn’t undergo from an absence of content material; past the prolonged marketing campaign, you too can sort out randomly-generated challenges in Raids. If the fight does converse to you, you’ll be able to put your self to the take a look at towards waves of your selecting within the Sandbox. The story, whereas nothing particular is okay and does its job nicely sufficient. Although it is value noting that the voice appearing was distractingly unhealthy, particularly for anybody that wasn’t a predominant character.

Ember Souls – Closing Verdict

There is a good sport hidden someplace in Ember Souls, even when the present model makes it arduous to parse beneath a ton of jank. The core conceit with the sport’s heavy emphasis on parkour platforming, and the distinctive stage design centered round the usage of your Ember Stones feels prefer it ought to work higher than it does – but efficiency and monitoring points collide with uneven sport design that maintain the entire expertise again.

Possibly with just a few patches the sport can attain some extent the place it may be really useful, however within the present state it is arduous to take action. Ember Souls’ coronary heart is in the fitting place, however the execution is irritating and promising in equal measure.

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UploadVR makes use of a 5-Star score system for our sport opinions – you’ll be able to learn a breakdown of every star score in our review guidelines.