Souldiers can be a fun and creative exploratory platformer, but the Switch version is bogged down by quite a few intense technical issues and brutal load times. These could be improved going forwards, but for now, they make recommending Souldiers a bit difficult.
Souldiers
Developer: Retro Forge
Price: $20
Platform: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PC
MonsterVine was provided a Switch code for review
I previewed Souldiers a while back on PC, and had a good time with it I was excited to review the full game, as the art and general gameplay stuck out to me as enjoyable. While that’s still mostly the case, the bevy of technical problems that plague the Switch version is a big problem.
The actual experience of playing Souldiers is pretty decent. It feels a tad unbalanced with some enemies’ strength, but most regular enemy encounters and platforming areas are fine. Exploring can be a blast, the different classes play rather uniquely, and the story seems interesting enough. For these reasons, I’d say to see how other versions fare, as Souldiers itself has plenty of good attributes. It’s just this port that takes a beating.
Rather, it’s the insane sensitivity of the control stick that makes playing feel cumbersome. Simply running from side to side can often lead to ducking, making your character stop and start over and over. From what I’ve heard, this is an issue across most platforms at the moment, but it seems like it could be easy enough to fix.
The frame rate tends to be rather rough, stuttering when even just a couple of enemies are on the screen. It varies, but it’s consistently wobbly, and, at its worst, it seems to skip the occasional input that occurs during the stutter. This led to numerous instances of me taking damage from enemies and spike pits, despite not doing anything wrong. Then, each death would be followed by absolutely brutal load times, which made continuing to play feel like more and more of a drag.
I want to emphasize that these critiques are for the Switch version. The PC preview build I played didn’t have many of these issues, so I’m not saying these are banket, widespread problems. They’re egregious for the Switch version, however, which is a real shame. Having a save data-deleting bug is a huge problem, especially for a game about a journey of exploration.
Souldiers still looks excellent, as its pixel art is impeccably done and its animated cutscenes have a cool Saturday morning cartoon style to them. The music and sound effects are crisp and suited to the different moments, so aesthetically, there’s plenty to like about the game.
The Final Word
While other versions seem to fare better, the Switch version of Souldiers is an unfortunate mess. Until it receives some meaningful fixes (which the developer does seem dedicated to doing, judging from their Twitter), you’re better off trying it on another console. It’s a shame, as Souldiers seems like a good fit to play on the go, but the plethora of issues make that currently impossible.
MonsterVine Rating: 2 out of 5 – Poor
