Ember Souls Evaluation: 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 accomplished. Does Ember Souls hit the identical mark, although? Learn on for our full overview.

Ember Souls is an action-adventure with a heavy concentrate on 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 looking for historic 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 stability between what you may leisurely ascend and surfaces that require extra warning. Early on you are taught that leaping from point-to-point is a serious facet of Ember Souls’ platforming – and shortly you may 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 manner. Ideally with out even stopping, if in any respect potential.

As you progress via the 6+ hour marketing campaign, you may achieve entry to new skills as you get hold of new Ember Stones. These begin off pretty easy – the Wind Stone grants the power to tug your self towards grapple factors from a distance, additionally giving entry to the power to push and pull objects within the surroundings. The Water Stone helps you to momentarily freeze working water, which the sport makes nice use of throughout puzzle-solving.

Ember Souls is at its finest when you may really feel your self ease into the platforming, and stage design is usually strong via the expertise with only some exceptions. So far as parkour is worried, that is additionally the place the sport’s controls are essentially the most constant, and the sport’s design – in addition to the Ember Stone skills – tie into the expertise in the perfect of the way. There have been a couple of 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 difficulty I had with the sport’s controls.

Sadly, Ember Souls feels prefer it begins to crumble in the case of every little thing in addition to the platforming. It is not only one or two essential points, however reasonably a bunch of complaints that coalesce with me nearly dreading every time I entered a fight encounter. First off; whereas the sport is playable on Quest 2 and Quest 3, at the least on the sport’s default settings it steadily suffers from efficiency points, significantly throughout fight on Quest 3. The sport itself would 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 reasonably prolonged shader compilation course of, which leaves me questioning precisely what was going fallacious in-game.

Efficiency is not at all times a problem however controls are persistently a ache. Platforming works effectively 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 reasonably severe misfires with the sport’s menuing. Your melee weapons relaxation at your hips, however the recreation 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 once I wanted to concentrate to my environment essentially the most. When you can place the stock nearer to your physique, it is under no circumstances an ideal answer, and requires some fiddling. Selecting up objects, alternatively, is a frequent downside; even when sure puzzles require you to shuffle round physics objects for strain plates, or to present your self sufficient top to achieve a platform, it by no means actually seems 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 purported to activate water pillars which you then lead the Hydra to, so you may freeze it in place – however the precise act of kiting it whereas staying shut sufficient that you just will not eat its hearth breath was annoying. What actually irks me is if you happen to handle to freeze it in the course of an assault animation, you may’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 energetic, that means I’ve to attend for a number of seconds earlier than possibly having a second likelihood to freeze it once more. Different boss fights are equally irritating.

It is little moments like this that proceed to harass me. Ember Souls has some reasonably intuitive and attention-grabbing puzzles to resolve, although fight at all times feels prefer it’s attempting to pressure me to play by its guidelines, even when it made no sense. Early on you are advised that you could throw knives to deal injury; so afterward I discovered myself proper behind an enemy that was sporting a helmet, but their again was fully uncovered. So, I threw my knife instantly 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 totally. If I had stabbed them via the again with my sword as a substitute, I’d’ve been proper on my manner none the wiser. Sure Ember Stone skills – such because the Wind Stone’s Pressure Push – are additionally inconsistent. Generally activating on the slightest motion of my palms, and different instances refusing to budge even with adequate Vitality in my reserves.

With a couple of small tweaks and a few additional polish, it will be a lot simpler to advocate Ember Souls. Nonetheless, it is presently laborious 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 can too sort out randomly-generated challenges in Raids. If the fight does converse to you, you may put your self to the check towards waves of your selecting within the Sandbox. The story, whereas nothing particular is ok and does its job effectively sufficient. Although it is value noting that the voice performing was distractingly unhealthy, particularly for anybody that wasn’t a essential character.

Ember Souls – Closing Verdict

There is a good recreation hidden someplace in Ember Souls, even when the present model makes it laborious 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 recreation design that maintain the entire expertise again.

Perhaps with a couple of patches the sport can attain a degree the place it may be really helpful, however within the present state it is laborious to take action. Ember Souls’ coronary heart is in the suitable place, however the execution is irritating and promising in equal measure.

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