I've recently concluded that the shell (har har) of a Soulslike is not nearly as flexible as this industry wants it to be. This is bad timing since this same industry has just crowned the ""genre"" (I will not yield) as the future of AAA productions, and everyone and their mother is scrambling to churn their own one out. Inevitably, then, we'd get games like Another Crab's Treasure. A sixth-gen platforming throwback that inexplicably ties itself to the Souls combat system and format, exclusively to its deficit.
A struggle with reviewing Soulslikes is how quickly they revolve into bullet-point lists of what they get 'right'. "Oh, the healing is too slow, and the roll is wonky, but the changes to shields are really fresh and exciting, but bosses are a mixed bag, and the main weapon is lame blah blah" and so on and so forth. But this seems wrongheaded when looking at a game like ACT. It's a cutesy gimmick platformer that uses the shape of a Souls game to more naturally hook in commentary and break up the flow of the levels. Does it need razor-sharp combat, skillfully designed bosses, or massive game-defining challenges? I'd say no, but this is where the rigidity of Soulslikes come in. What's the point of having this combat system without those things? Why play a 12-hour game of sloppy, slow, imprecise and volatile combat when you can play a better version of the same thing? Especially when the Big Daddy of the style plans to release the most anticipated entry ever in less than two months?
(To be clear, I don't imagine this was an accident. I applaud the decision to release the game just far enough away from Shadow of the Erdtree that people won't disregard it for Elden Ring replays and the like but close enough that people will be itching to play a similar experience. Whoever did the math on that is very clever. Or maybe it's dumb luck, but w/e)
Well, let's investigate. What does Another Crab's Treasure actually offer us that is its own?
The first port of call is the setting. Staging the entire thing underwater gives complete freedom to freshen up the library of enemies and aesthetic tricks used in similar games. While they still include a couple of hallmark classics (poison swamp, sure, but this has the single laziest "I guess we have to have a gank fight somewhere" ever conceived), they do carve out some completely original ideas. Fighting crabs is a nice change of pace! As eye-roll-inducing as the name 'The Sands Between' is, the boss-as-stage-hazard situation is something I've been curious to see in one of these games for a long time, and this is a pretty honourable attempt. And once you get to 'The Unfathom' (equally eye-roll-inducing name), it's lights out. Only a few areas are left, but they take full advantage of the setting and carve some immense atmospheres. In fact, for the first and probably the only time ever in a Soulslike, they environmentally tell you which boss will have a surprise second phase. It's pretty cool, as are the other puzzle boss situations. Even with a mediocre batting average, they make some solid strikes!
It is also, just as crucially, a classic backtrack-heavy, vaguely Sly Cooper adjacent 3D platformer. Everything nice about the aesthetic and setting is doubled operating in this form; it's a really fun hook for one of these games. The literal hook, the one for grappling, is also really fun! But this is where Souls-isms start to bite us in the butt. Why does this game have such a spiky difficulty curve (even if it isn't that hard)? Why do some random enemies and boss attacks one-shot you through a shield? The damage output feels absurd sometimes! Sure, it's nothing new for a Soulslike, but it feels even more out of place here. The two wolves inside this game are incompatible, especially when one is such a sloppy version of itself. Dying in the middle of a cool/unique platforming set piece because you get caught in a net of weird hitboxes, input buffers and attack animations sucks! I know we all go "Fuck Off I Totally Rolled There!!" playing every Souls game, but we all know it's a lie. You can tell you inputted slightly too late or didn't fully push the button down. Not here. Input drops galore. Here I go again! I'm ranting about how this isn't functional as a 'Souls' game when it needn't be one at all! Why chain yourself to this?
The writing has been getting a decent amount of praise, and I can sort of see why. It has a lovely conclusion. I like the climate change hook, and the game does well to pull it into a decently compelling humanist story, even if it drags its feet for a handful of hours to get there. But I'm mixed about the goals here. There are many attempts at 'having something to say,' and the specifics all come across as incoherent. Stopping the accelerationist tech-bro, who will destroy the world in his attempts to save it, was the wrong thing to do because doing so will cause the same outcome? I doubt this is an intended interpretation, but this is what happens, right? I'm 99% sure Sam Altman's sudden disappearance would bring tangible benefits. But that's the risk you run stuffing stock satire together so carelessly. It's also a risk you run by being terrible writers! Sorry to bury the lede so deep here, but my god, the dialogue in this game is bad. It's the worst I've seen this year, all lame arched comedy and po-faced capital-c Commentary. The voice acting is even worse! I want to crush Kril with an anvil. I hate his stupid voice so much! Don't even get me started on Firth! Michael Reeves, get out of my fucking game!
This is a game thrashing around for an identity. If you want nothing more than to swing at people in FromSoft-style melee combat, you could do worse. But I can't muster any enthusiasm for it. As an object of storytelling, it struggles. As a combination of aesthetics, it's winning, if unspecial. As a video game, it distracts from its strengths by needlessly pulling itself into a framework that doesn't fit with the rest of the experience. The game is fine on whole, but what's even left to recommend? I have high hopes that someone somewhere will be able to prove me wrong regarding the Souls formula. I'd really like to see a game that doesn't feel burdened by the difficulty curve and combat system and can make legitimate strides in pushing the level design philosophy forward. I just don't think there's as much room to grow as the money men seem to believe.
A struggle with reviewing Soulslikes is how quickly they revolve into bullet-point lists of what they get 'right'. "Oh, the healing is too slow, and the roll is wonky, but the changes to shields are really fresh and exciting, but bosses are a mixed bag, and the main weapon is lame blah blah" and so on and so forth. But this seems wrongheaded when looking at a game like ACT. It's a cutesy gimmick platformer that uses the shape of a Souls game to more naturally hook in commentary and break up the flow of the levels. Does it need razor-sharp combat, skillfully designed bosses, or massive game-defining challenges? I'd say no, but this is where the rigidity of Soulslikes come in. What's the point of having this combat system without those things? Why play a 12-hour game of sloppy, slow, imprecise and volatile combat when you can play a better version of the same thing? Especially when the Big Daddy of the style plans to release the most anticipated entry ever in less than two months?
(To be clear, I don't imagine this was an accident. I applaud the decision to release the game just far enough away from Shadow of the Erdtree that people won't disregard it for Elden Ring replays and the like but close enough that people will be itching to play a similar experience. Whoever did the math on that is very clever. Or maybe it's dumb luck, but w/e)
Well, let's investigate. What does Another Crab's Treasure actually offer us that is its own?
The first port of call is the setting. Staging the entire thing underwater gives complete freedom to freshen up the library of enemies and aesthetic tricks used in similar games. While they still include a couple of hallmark classics (poison swamp, sure, but this has the single laziest "I guess we have to have a gank fight somewhere" ever conceived), they do carve out some completely original ideas. Fighting crabs is a nice change of pace! As eye-roll-inducing as the name 'The Sands Between' is, the boss-as-stage-hazard situation is something I've been curious to see in one of these games for a long time, and this is a pretty honourable attempt. And once you get to 'The Unfathom' (equally eye-roll-inducing name), it's lights out. Only a few areas are left, but they take full advantage of the setting and carve some immense atmospheres. In fact, for the first and probably the only time ever in a Soulslike, they environmentally tell you which boss will have a surprise second phase. It's pretty cool, as are the other puzzle boss situations. Even with a mediocre batting average, they make some solid strikes!
It is also, just as crucially, a classic backtrack-heavy, vaguely Sly Cooper adjacent 3D platformer. Everything nice about the aesthetic and setting is doubled operating in this form; it's a really fun hook for one of these games. The literal hook, the one for grappling, is also really fun! But this is where Souls-isms start to bite us in the butt. Why does this game have such a spiky difficulty curve (even if it isn't that hard)? Why do some random enemies and boss attacks one-shot you through a shield? The damage output feels absurd sometimes! Sure, it's nothing new for a Soulslike, but it feels even more out of place here. The two wolves inside this game are incompatible, especially when one is such a sloppy version of itself. Dying in the middle of a cool/unique platforming set piece because you get caught in a net of weird hitboxes, input buffers and attack animations sucks! I know we all go "Fuck Off I Totally Rolled There!!" playing every Souls game, but we all know it's a lie. You can tell you inputted slightly too late or didn't fully push the button down. Not here. Input drops galore. Here I go again! I'm ranting about how this isn't functional as a 'Souls' game when it needn't be one at all! Why chain yourself to this?
The writing has been getting a decent amount of praise, and I can sort of see why. It has a lovely conclusion. I like the climate change hook, and the game does well to pull it into a decently compelling humanist story, even if it drags its feet for a handful of hours to get there. But I'm mixed about the goals here. There are many attempts at 'having something to say,' and the specifics all come across as incoherent. Stopping the accelerationist tech-bro, who will destroy the world in his attempts to save it, was the wrong thing to do because doing so will cause the same outcome? I doubt this is an intended interpretation, but this is what happens, right? I'm 99% sure Sam Altman's sudden disappearance would bring tangible benefits. But that's the risk you run stuffing stock satire together so carelessly. It's also a risk you run by being terrible writers! Sorry to bury the lede so deep here, but my god, the dialogue in this game is bad. It's the worst I've seen this year, all lame arched comedy and po-faced capital-c Commentary. The voice acting is even worse! I want to crush Kril with an anvil. I hate his stupid voice so much! Don't even get me started on Firth! Michael Reeves, get out of my fucking game!
This is a game thrashing around for an identity. If you want nothing more than to swing at people in FromSoft-style melee combat, you could do worse. But I can't muster any enthusiasm for it. As an object of storytelling, it struggles. As a combination of aesthetics, it's winning, if unspecial. As a video game, it distracts from its strengths by needlessly pulling itself into a framework that doesn't fit with the rest of the experience. The game is fine on whole, but what's even left to recommend? I have high hopes that someone somewhere will be able to prove me wrong regarding the Souls formula. I'd really like to see a game that doesn't feel burdened by the difficulty curve and combat system and can make legitimate strides in pushing the level design philosophy forward. I just don't think there's as much room to grow as the money men seem to believe.
3 Comments
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@isaiaheverin I think there's definitely truth to the fact that the actual platforming does fall to the wayside in favour of stock souls level design in a lot of areas. However, for me, there's a clear intention with the platforming sections and setpieces (e.g. the version of a poison swamp here, the underwater section before the gank fight, the factory) that feel as though this game, at the very least, believes itself to be a platformer. I recognise I'm responding more to (perceived) intention than what's actually on paper (which is definitely informed by my massive love towards 3D platformers), but the game reads, to me, less like a Soulslike dressed up as a platformer than a platformer that has had to constantly compromise to accommodate the level design and enemy placements of a souls game. At the end of the day, you're unquestionably right that the platforming is infrequent and a little shallow. As for if people would still call it a platformer without the aesthetic, I agree it's unlikely. People aren't exactly rushing to discuss Sekiro through the lens of 3D platformers, but it kind of is one, and ACT is, in my opinion, even more so.
Regardless, thanks for reading!
Regardless, thanks for reading!
Even though I didn't get much past the first boss, you've articulated how I felt about ACT perfectly. The fun aesthetic of the game gives the impression of a more casual/forgiving experience throughout when, in fact, the combat is just as "soulslike punishing" when it comes to mistakes or inexperience. It feels like too many games lately are trying to be "Dark Souls but with x gimmick" rather than their own thing with some ideas borrowed from the format.
isaiaheverin
25 days ago