Usurper: Soulbound

Rogue lite action RPGs that have souls like combat are all the rage these days, but Usurper: Soulbound is one of the more interesting games to take a stab at it. This is a game that at first, I was kind of “meh” on, but there was something that kept grabbing my attention and I think it is petty damn neat. This is an early access game so I have been following it through development and I think that they have something pretty cool here and I hope that it makes its planned November release.

The Return Of The Usurper King!

I cannot go into a ton of detail about what the plot in Usurper: Soulbound exactly is, but I do think that there is a very interesting premise at play here.

There was a king who ruled in a less than noble way and his evil ways caused his soul to refuse to move on! He took the bodies of the living and used them to still dish out his rule, but he was eventually sealed away, but now he is back! It is pretty cool and dark stuff and I am very interesting to see how it all plays out.

Out Of Body Combat!

The combat in Usurper: Soulbound is a great deal of fun and really the meat and potatoes of what this game is all about. You are a bodyless entity that fights various enemies as you progress through areas in the game. The gimmick here is that once you defeat an enemy you can take their body and now you can use what they have, but this is also how you learn new abilities as you progress through the game.

The combat is very challenging and their claims of Dark Souls like combat are evident quite early on. This means that the combat is challenging, but I do like how they have tried very hard to make sure that the combat is also fun and fair. Sure, it will take a while to get good at it, but that makes it a more rewarding experience overall.

Planning Your Path!

One of the things I like about the game design of Usurper: Soulbound is that the levels are a nice mixture of thought out areas that are designed very well and also randomly generated ones too. I like this as it keeps you on your toes, but there is also a bit of structure to the environments as well.

The game has a look that at first I will admit is not all that remarkable, but the more I think about it, the more I think it looks like what a Souls game may have looked like had it been released on the PlayStation 2 back in the day.

Pros:

• I love the whole premise behind the king in this game
• The combat feels great
• I like how you can learn new abilities by possessing bodies
• There is also going to be multiplayer here

Cons:

• Many people have said that the frame rate can drop a bit during combat
• It is the kind of game that will take a while to get good at