I didn’t hear about Soulless: Ray of Hope until very close to its date of release, and there’s not that much content online about it either, so I suppose it’s safe to say it’s passed under the radar a little bit. But what attracted me to it initially was its interesting aesthetic and familiar puzzle platforming combination. What appears to be a teddy bear traversing a dark and dangerous world in order to find his friend (a boy), and with Limbo and other indie puzzle platformers springing to mind, it peaked my interest. Unfortunately the game doesn’t quite satisfy in all those respects, however there’s still much to like about it.
In our quest to help this friend, we see our character Elin enter this shadowy world and set off, partially guided by some flying light (which also talks to you). Platforming involves pretty much what you would expect initially – jumping across drops and climbing to higher areas – and the same for puzzling – obligatory box dragging mechanics and so on. For the most part this is all relatively tight and functional, and I enjoy the cute animation of Elin scrambling up ledges. The challenge increases as the game goes on, with hazards being implemented that kill Elin, and even chase sequences which see you running from a wall of hands. There’s nothing particularly special about the platforming gameplay, though I at least felt the pacing of difficulty was fair and I only really took issue with one element regarding this, which I will get into later on.
Puzzling, however, becomes a bit more interesting. Aside from the old move box to create platform routine, Elin will have to use boxes to put pressure on pads, press buttons in sequence, and even engage in some gravity switching (done by jumping through these sort of beams). At its simplest, gravity puzzles involve changing gravity to avoid a hazard (so walking on the ceiling), but as the game moves on you will be expected to change the gravity of objects and even use your momentum through gravity beams to pass over falls. It’s quite a nice touch, honestly, and there are a few really good puzzles throughout the game.
It’s just a shame, however, that there weren’t a few more. Soulless isn’t a very long game. Lasting around 2 hours for one playthrough, it seems things end before they’ve been allowed to start. The gravity bending mechanics seem good enough that there could have been some really creative puzzling to get stuck into, but unfortunately it’s minimal. Similarly, the game has an interesting world and aesthetic, but it all seems rushed and ends before you get to properly experience it – there are strange creatures knocking about that you can talk to, and of course some pretty quirky visual design that could have been explored further. I will credit the game for having multiple endings, but I’m afraid it’s not enough.
On the other hand, there are a few surprises throughout. Aside from the chasing wall of hands that I’ve already mentioned, there’s a short boss fight which sees you dodging attacks and sending objects flying into your attacker with a gravity beam – the fight itself is quite simple, and I did get unnecessarily frustrated, but it’s a cool addition. And probably my favourite bit of the game, a balloon ride which has us flying across the screen, avoiding things that could pop us. They’re little sparks of creativity that beneficially add to the game.
What doesn’t add to the game, at least in my personal opinion, is how the game deals with challenge. As I said originally, the way the challenge is paced is fine – there aren’t any difficulty spikes so to speak (though the game is so short there’s not much chance for them to happen), however I did get a sense of ‘learn from your mistakes’ in a few areas. While not an inherently bad way to design a game’s challenges, it’s something which many people will undoubtedly find frustrating. For example, pulling a lever only to have it trap you, boulders coming out of nowhere and squashing you, that sort of stuff. It didn’t sit well with me. And particularly during chase sequences, where you can’t make a single mistake, the frustration from that is a black mark.
So the game’s a bit of a mixed bag unfortunately. There are a few bugs present at time of review and the game is a tad slow paced for my liking. But the lack of content is probably the main issue here, as despite the game’s flaws there’re still things to like about it, but there being too little to do and not enough evolution of the established mechanics makes the experience feel a bit tepid. It’s not an expensive game (around 7 squids), but if you felt like waiting for a sale before taking the plunge I wouldn’t blame you. A nice effort, but falling a bit short.