Ember Souls is a brand new hack-and-slash title impressed by Murderer’s Creed and Prince of Persia, and we went hands-on at Gamescom.
Beforehand revealed on the UploadVR Summer time Showcase in June, Ember Souls sees you enjoying because the final Immortal. Tasked with defeating the mysterious Shadow Sultan, this VR journey guarantees parkour, climbing, and environmental puzzles. There’s 20 completely different weapons and you will progressively discover “ember stones” that present magical talents, like harnessing wind or slowing down time.
It isn’t the shift I admittedly anticipated from VirtualAge; the Barcelona studio beforehand developed a VR FPS/RTS hybrid that launched final 12 months, Guardians Frontline. Nonetheless, the announcement had me intrigued, and as somebody who loved each Murderer’s Creed Nexus and Asgard’s Wrath 2, I used to be blissful to leap in on Quest 3 throughout Gamescom 2024.
This demo did not present me a steady gameplay section, and this preview merged three gameplay sections, ranging from the very starting. Guided by your magical falcon, Alshain, Ember Souls introduces the premise effectively as you head for the palace, which is unsurprisingly riddled with enemies and traps. Navigating obstacles like big swinging axes and timed flamethrowers within the partitions feels very cliched, although watching the material tear as you slide down curtains to new areas is a good visible contact.
Fight is entertaining if not particularly authentic, and watching foes evaporate after throwing daggers into them is fairly enjoyable. Nonetheless, merely swinging round a sword alone would not do a lot for me as of late. We have seen hack-and-slash fight so many occasions throughout VR video games, and I get why; it is arguably the simplest methodology of VR fight when utilizing movement controls.
What retains this attention-grabbing is the ember stones. The demo solely showcased your character’s elemental wind powers, and this offers a number of helpful capabilities. For many who’d want to not climb manually, you may as an alternative grip distant objects like the highest of a climbable space for comfort. My favourite use is pushing enemies again throughout fight, and that delivered essentially the most satisfying use of Jedi-esque “drive powers” I’ve seen since Synapse.
I am curious to see how these powers develop as the broader marketing campaign unfolds, and I might like to see what different talents you should utilize. Ember Souls definitely leans into its inspirations and whereas I would not name it essentially the most thrilling VR hack-and-slash that I’ve performed, VirtualAge’s upcoming motion recreation has potential.
Ember Souls will quickly attain the Meta Quest platform and Steam.
