Soulmask Early Access Review — Potentially The Upcoming Standard

No matter how many survival craft games I have played, I always had one remark about them all: There’s still room for improvement. For me, it’s either the worn-off combat dynamics or pale world design that have remained a major concern. Yet, Soulmask might be an exceptional case as I believe its inquisitive world design and action-peaked combat mechanics can reshape the survival craft genre to a whole new level.

Gameplay

At first glance, it would appear that Soulmask might have etched the same basic gameplay design from survival craft games already in existence. It is true to some extent, as the game’s start-off scenario does not contradict even a little from ARK: Survival Evolved. 

Initially, you will spend the first few minutes of your gameplay wandering around, gathering sticks and stones lying on the ground, bathing in the sunlight. From then onwards, you will be able to craft tools to gather more valuable resources essential for further progress.

To fully unlock your character’s potential, you must venture far into the wilderness and explore what surprises the woods hold for you to unravel.

Regarding your advancement to a higher level, I appreciated that the game made exploration a vital aspect. To fully unlock your character’s potential, you must venture far into the wilderness and explore what surprises the woods hold for you to unravel.

Explicitly, there are Ruins all across the map that unlock new abilities of the mask. Having them unlocked opens many more striking gameplay features, such as Control. This trait enables you to recruit new tribe men or even play as other NPCs.

Soulmask offers a basic and quite gripping setting for its crafting feature.

This is undeniably an appealing game design as it does not revolve around camping in a specified region and building your base to strengthen up. However, crafting is necessary for gear improvement, and many fundamental features are only unlocked through crafting and building structures.

Soulmask offers a basic and quite gripping setting for its crafting feature. The game’s tutorial also thoroughly explains all the ins and outs of crafting.

Combat Might Feel Irrelevant, But It’s Enticing All The Same

The fight dynamics of the game are so well-tuned for PvP scenarios. There are tons of gear to equip for combat, and each category has its unique power attack.

Over time, survival craft games have severely lacked the thrill of enticing combat. Still, Soulmask appears to aim to reshape that perception for this genre with its innovative close combat mechanics.

Moreover, the plenty of animations given to each weapon is an all-out commendable trait for a survival craft game.

The combat is perfectly balanced between hack-and-slash and hit-and-run tactics. Although it might appear farther from the point that tribal men execute jaw-dropping aerial combos, the overall perspective of the game to focus on close combat does make sense to have fast-paced fighting mechanics.

Moreover, the plenty of animations given to each weapon is an all-out commendable trait for a survival craft game. Due to its intriguing combat, I believe that Soulmask has the potential to be a standard for upcoming survival craft games.

Visuals And Performance

Soulmask is no exception, being a perfect visual overhaul in the survival craft genre. The ambient occlusion and vegetation remain highly detailed assets due to their importance in resource gathering. The lighting also plays an important role: darkness portrays the danger lurking around you, and the glimmer of the light indicates a soothing and calm environment.

Apart from the visuals, I wanted to appreciate the staggering animation of the characters in Soulmask. The running, jumping, attacking, and even going idle, where the characters start dancing around the Bornfire, is fun to witness.

The lighting also plays an important role where darkness portrays the danger lurking around you and the glimmer of the light indicates a soothing and calm environment.

The performance factor might not be enjoyable in most aspects as the game is still developing. But before I dive into the performance factor, I just want to clarify that I launched the game on DirectX 12 (other options are DirectX 11 and Safe Mode.)

The solo play has no performance issues or bugs. I did play on maximum graphics settings on a high-end PC. However, FPS drops may tend to happen in cutscenes, but the game has negligible cinematics.

The multiplayer option is something that I would highly recommend avoiding. The unstable pings and inevitable lags will ruin your experience. I find the game ever more engaging in solo mode, where exploration is the key. Overall, the game has splendid visuals and a fantastic playthrough experience for solo players.

Verdict

Soulmask has top-notch fight dynamics along with comprehensive and extensive crafting mechanics, and the game is visually captivating. The performance issues will only bother you if you play multiplayer. Hopefully, the game will not counter these issues on its official release, as I believe this is the only concern of the game.

This has been my review of Soulmask Early Access. While you’re here, consider checking out some of our other reviews:

• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Review
• Destiny 2: The Final Shape Review
• League of Legends Review
• Raft The Final Chapter