2023-11-01 20:08:51
For a first production, Jukai Studios is tackling survival horror with Stray Souls. A lot of Alan Wake-like, but really much less good.
Imagine. Your grandmother dies at a more than honorable age and you inherit her house. On your first night, you meet a strange neighbor on a dating site who seems to know more than you do regarding the house where strange paranormal phenomena occur. For the average person, the first logical reaction would be to run away and abandon the house. But Daniel wants to find the origin of the evil that torments his house and what really happened to his grandmother.
This is the initial premise of Stray Souls, the first production from the Poles of Jukai Studios, an independent team “founded by industry veterans who have helped develop critically acclaimed games with a specialization in the horror genre. Their mission is to spark the next evolution of horror media”explains the website.
In its gameplay and its approach to the style of survival horror, Stray Souls directly reminds us of a certain Alan Wake. You progress through natural, dark and hostile environments, populated by evil creatures who want your skin. Equipped with a flashlight (useless here, except for lighting) and a pistol with catastrophic handling, your character fights for his survival.
Stray Souls has a great atmosphere and universe, although a little intriguing at times.
If we will come back to the gameplay later, let us still point out the excellent atmosphere in which the game lulls us. This is probably the only strong point of the game, and it is rather particularly important. From the start, with a strong, disturbing but intriguing introductory cinematic, Stray Souls lays the foundations for a disturbing storyline and a completely crazy universe. We never really feel at ease in the face of this atmosphere imbued with Satanism and horror. However, by wanting to scare players, the developers may have pushed the jumpscares cursor a little too far. They clearly overdid it, some even becoming predictable and laughable. We are therefore cradled in this stressful environment, even if we sometimes laugh at the nonsense of certain details.
An excellent atmosphere, helped by musical compositions created by Mr. Akira Yamaoka, legendary composer of Silent Hill. And for good reason, throughout our adventure, we were captivated by the accuracy and quality of the melodies. On the other hand, the title is not dubbed in French at all, leaving us with sad French subtitles…
The level design is catastrophic. Let’s take for example the passage towards the cemetery when we find ourselves alone in a wood facing these strange creatures. If we except the fact that we can’t see anything more than three meters away, the construction of the wood is completely unsuccessful. We wander for more than ten minutes without really knowing where, in levels which give the impression of being completely open and which all resemble each other. This is also the case for cutscenes. These drag on unnecessarily long, with extended dialogues which have little interest when it might go faster and help speed up the pace.
The handling of the gun and our hero, Daniel.
In terms of gameplay, Stray Souls puts us in the shoes of Daniel, armed with a pistol to defend himself once morest the strange creatures who might be following you. Impossible for the young man, who celebrates his eighteenth birthday during the adventure, to defend himself with a kick or other, the only gestures he can make being a roll by dodging or running. Honestly, there is nothing positive to highlight in the gameplay.
Daniel’s movements are very heavy and extremely unpleasant. Absolutely not fluid, they are very complicated to coordinate when you have to avoid attacks from an enemy or a boss. The worst is probably drawing the weapon, which can only be done by performing a key combination. We regularly forget to draw before starting to aim, making us totally vulnerable to the enemy. The hitboxes are also risky, since even if you shoot next to an enemy, they are hit…
We were just talking regarding bosses. These are completely uninteresting. Like a big bad guy, you just have to avoid them and fire shots in their direction. They simply have a larger health bar than smaller enemies, but that’s it. Their punch pattern is completely empty, just rushing towards us and attacking us. Our only mission is to avoid and then shoot these meaningless enemies.
Visually, certain panoramas and settings are truly successful.
Empty is the adjective we will use to define Stray Souls. The numerous enigmas put on our path are quite well researched, although often far-fetched and without logic. They are even in English, which is not always easy for those who do not master the language of Shakespeare. Moreover, the game is entirely in English, with French subtitles.
It’s quite simple, Jukai’s production looks more like a demo or early access game rather than a finished and marketed title. Still sold for €30 at full price, it only completes in less than five hours and is strewn with bugs of all kinds that terribly disrupt immersion. Characters jumping around in the middle of a cutscene, a camera problem trembling in cramped spaces… A real big patch from the developers coming to correct these bugs is more than welcome, even if we doubt it will ever exist.
Visually, finally, Stray Souls gets an honorable mention. Thanks to Unreal Engine 5 and Epic’s MetaHuman technology which offers quality faces and facial animations, Stray Souls is honestly very successful at this level. If there is always better elsewhere, for a small independent production, the game from Jukai Studios is (almost) flawless at this level.
Conclusion
By wanting to revolutionize the survival horror genre, as so many other games have done before it, Jukai Studios is completely wallowing. Full of good intentions, Stray Souls fails in many ways. Despite a very successful atmosphere, visuals and soundtrack, Stray Souls gives the impression of being a title in development, like a demo, rather than a complete marketed game. Full of bugs whether during cutscenes or during gameplay, Stray Souls abuses jumpscares in low moments. Even the more rhythmic passages are disturbed by cutscenes which drag on and which irremediably break the rhythm which the developers try (very rarely despite everything) to impose. On the other hand, we had nothing to reproach with the title’s soundtrack, composed by the legendary artist who worked on Silent Hill, and bringing enormously to the atmosphere of the title. Sold for €30 and finished in less than five hours, Stray Souls is a survival horror that sorely lacks ambition in its gameplay and struggles to convince at all levels.
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Stray Souls
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On aime :
Pretty nice visually
A truly successful atmosphere
A high quality soundtrack
We like less:
Too many jumpscares kill jumpscares
Far too many bugs disturbing immersion
A bit of the feeling of playing a demo of a game in development
Numerous passages which drag on
Little interest in boss fights
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#Test #Stray #Souls #atrociously #poor #survival #horror
