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Action takes place in a fantasy world divided into a series of different locations connected by a network called Stream. Another feature similar to the Dark Souls series is the in-game world design.The game tells the story of a living weapon, a human-like creature that was long ago locked in an eternal prison where it must remain until the end of time. But the world stands on the brink of destruction due to the impending flood, which can only be stopped by the main protagonist.
The player enters and progresses through the story by exploring and interacting with the characters they encounter, much like in the Dark Souls games. Immortal: Unchained is a challenging game. Unlike other souls-like productions, the game emphasizes the use of firearms rather than melee weapons such as swords or axes. Combat revolves around medium and short-range battles, and the key to success lies in the player's mobility, character positioning and perfectly executed dodges. The game requires you to prove your reflexes.
Similar to the Dark Souls series, your character will die very often during the adventure. To soften the consequences of failure, the developers from Toadman Interactive have implemented a solution that is almost identical to the one featured in the games created by From Software. Most importantly, with each death the player learns a new lesson, allowing him to fight better against certain opponents, and he can learn by memorizing enemies' moves, attacks, etc. What's more, when you die your character loses all your items, but once a player reaches the place where their character died, the items can be retrieved again, provided they don't die on the way. The game offers an average of 20 hours of gameplay.
The player enters and progresses through the story by exploring and interacting with the characters they encounter, much like in the Dark Souls games. Immortal: Unchained is a challenging game. Unlike other souls-like productions, the game emphasizes the use of firearms rather than melee weapons such as swords or axes. Combat revolves around medium and short-range battles, and the key to success lies in the player's mobility, character positioning and perfectly executed dodges. The game requires you to prove your reflexes.
Similar to the Dark Souls series, your character will die very often during the adventure. To soften the consequences of failure, the developers from Toadman Interactive have implemented a solution that is almost identical to the one featured in the games created by From Software. Most importantly, with each death the player learns a new lesson, allowing him to fight better against certain opponents, and he can learn by memorizing enemies' moves, attacks, etc. What's more, when you die your character loses all your items, but once a player reaches the place where their character died, the items can be retrieved again, provided they don't die on the way. The game offers an average of 20 hours of gameplay.
I somewhat enjoyed my time with this game, the ranged combat meant approaching fights in a way I wasn't used to, and the setting definitely is unique.
However, there are many cuestionable design choices and issues, for example invisible enemies that spawn in front of you out of thin air, throw a sticky grenade at you and disappear again before you can react. They result in specific areas being more trial-and-error instead of being able to observe the situation and develop a strategy on how to approach those sections.
I finished the game 7 times (NG up to NG++++, then twice more to get all curses in "The Mask of Pain" DLC), and I never saw anything that would make NG+ cycles worthwhile.
The DLCs did nothing to improve the game.
However, there are many cuestionable design choices and issues, for example invisible enemies that spawn in front of you out of thin air, throw a sticky grenade at you and disappear again before you can react. They result in specific areas being more trial-and-error instead of being able to observe the situation and develop a strategy on how to approach those sections.
I finished the game 7 times (NG up to NG++++, then twice more to get all curses in "The Mask of Pain" DLC), and I never saw anything that would make NG+ cycles worthwhile.
The DLCs did nothing to improve the game.
Narratively and tonally, this is a straight ripoff of Dark Souls, but I nevertheless appreciated the ideas the devs implemented here to transpose traditional Souls mechanics onto a third person shooter. For substantial portions of the game, it really works - the dodging and shooting feel just as wonderfully methodical and deliberate as the melee battles of the early Souls titles. That may seem like hyperbole, but I’d recommend trying it out - I really did walk away from this thinking about shooters and their viability in the Souls genre in a much more flattering light, which says a lot about the how the devs landed on something ineffable with the combat mechanics.
Beyond the combat, there’s unfortunately little to recommend here. The game looks pretty bad - the character models seem weirdly misshapen, the enemy and boss designs are repetitive, and the environments largely break down into monochrome hallways with few distinguishing environmental features. The first half of the game is well-balanced and appropriately challenging, but the second half is an infuriating slog with an over-abundance of copy-and-paste enemy layouts.
As I mentioned at the top, the tone and story structure of this game are so similar to Dark Souls that the devs at From Software should really consider suing. The one unique narrative element is the ending, an attempt at a meta twist that feels largely unearned, especially given the vague nature of the game’s lore. The more Soulslikes I play, the more I become convinced that attempting to emulate the elliptical storytelling of the original Souls games is a fool’s errand. There are very few games that have managed to capture that potent mixture of melancholy atmosphere and tantalizing lore hints, and Immortal: Unchained is definitely not one of them.
Still, there is potential here. I will be intrigued to see what these devs do next, particularly if they cast off their slavish devotion to imitating the best work of other studios.
Beyond the combat, there’s unfortunately little to recommend here. The game looks pretty bad - the character models seem weirdly misshapen, the enemy and boss designs are repetitive, and the environments largely break down into monochrome hallways with few distinguishing environmental features. The first half of the game is well-balanced and appropriately challenging, but the second half is an infuriating slog with an over-abundance of copy-and-paste enemy layouts.
As I mentioned at the top, the tone and story structure of this game are so similar to Dark Souls that the devs at From Software should really consider suing. The one unique narrative element is the ending, an attempt at a meta twist that feels largely unearned, especially given the vague nature of the game’s lore. The more Soulslikes I play, the more I become convinced that attempting to emulate the elliptical storytelling of the original Souls games is a fool’s errand. There are very few games that have managed to capture that potent mixture of melancholy atmosphere and tantalizing lore hints, and Immortal: Unchained is definitely not one of them.
Still, there is potential here. I will be intrigued to see what these devs do next, particularly if they cast off their slavish devotion to imitating the best work of other studios.
The absolute worst Soulslike I've played the only good thing about it are the aesthetics which remind me of Too Human, but the gameplay is the most artificial difficulty unfun I've ever had in one of these types of games. Gun souls sounds cool on paper, but not when snipers can just instantly lock onto your head and one-shot you. It still amazes me to this day that I managed to actually beat this game.