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Slain - A homage to gory hack-&-slash games of the 80's & 90's (Out now on PS4)
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
It's legit. Buy
So I beat the first stage last night, and I like it a lot so far.
There was a lot of trial and error during my session, but as someone who has played the fuck out of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, I think I've gotten used to that style of "rinse and repeat."
Graphically, the game looks really good. I toyed around with the filters, and love the CRT, dotmatrix look. The sprite animation is great, and the game oozes atmosphere. The soundtrack is awesome and very metal, so I dug it. The controls are pretty good. I switched from analog stick to digital pad, because it felt a little more comfortable for me. The jumping can sometimes feel a little floaty, but it's just a little bit. The combat is straight forward hack n' slash, but I like the few systems introduced in that first level. I found parrying and counter-attacking really, really satisfying both in terms of the visual impact of it, and how good it felt to pull off one on a boss or tough enemy. The game can be pretty hard, especially with some sneaky booby-traps and enemies that have ranged attacks that they launch the absolutely moment a fraction of their body is on screen. First impressions are positive, and I'm looking forward to completing another level tonight. The art alone was reason enough to pick it up, but the gameplay underneath is old school and satisfying, and just about as imperfect as those retro games too!
There was a lot of trial and error during my session, but as someone who has played the fuck out of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, I think I've gotten used to that style of "rinse and repeat."
Graphically, the game looks really good. I toyed around with the filters, and love the CRT, dotmatrix look. The sprite animation is great, and the game oozes atmosphere. The soundtrack is awesome and very metal, so I dug it. The controls are pretty good. I switched from analog stick to digital pad, because it felt a little more comfortable for me. The jumping can sometimes feel a little floaty, but it's just a little bit. The combat is straight forward hack n' slash, but I like the few systems introduced in that first level. I found parrying and counter-attacking really, really satisfying both in terms of the visual impact of it, and how good it felt to pull off one on a boss or tough enemy. The game can be pretty hard, especially with some sneaky booby-traps and enemies that have ranged attacks that they launch the absolutely moment a fraction of their body is on screen. First impressions are positive, and I'm looking forward to completing another level tonight. The art alone was reason enough to pick it up, but the gameplay underneath is old school and satisfying, and just about as imperfect as those retro games too!
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Yep, got the same opinion as you, really.
Metroidvanias are awesome, and SOTN is one of my favorite games of all time, but I grew up playing Castlevania on the NES, and this game feels like an homage to that era of the franchise, and is pretty cool. It also feels like its own thing. I thought Axiom Verge was super awesome, but it wore its Metroid influences on its sleeve. I think Slain is clearly inspired by old school Castlevania, but it still feels unique. Visually, it has more of a Bloodborne/Darksouls with a more vibrant color palette thing going on. It's one of those games where I'm eager to see the next stage just to see what beautiful imagery is there. Creature designs are kind of meh, so far, but again, it was just stage 1.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Yeah, outside of bosses the enemies are a bit lackluster. Too many skeletons the whole game (I complained about it in my review). But you're right, each level is a visual feast, like a metal album cover art come to life every time.
Personally I always preferred Metroidvanias too, but as far as linear hack-and-slashes go it's good enough, and I'm glad it controls more smoothly than the stiff NES games.
gunstarhero
Member
Loving this game so far - just got to the
.
Changing the controls to the Dpad was a game changer for me.
Enabling CRT2 effects really up the game visually imo. I was a little turned off by the scan line effect at first, but it looks so natural after playing for a few minutes, I'll likely never turn it off. It gives it a grimmer look as well.
hub world
Changing the controls to the Dpad was a game changer for me.
Enabling CRT2 effects really up the game visually imo. I was a little turned off by the scan line effect at first, but it looks so natural after playing for a few minutes, I'll likely never turn it off. It gives it a grimmer look as well.
Shadowman16
Member
I broke down and grabbed the game this evening for the PS4, I'm really glad I did pick it up as its exactly what I expected it to be. Looks really nice (wonderful sprite work), runs perfectly (solid 60FPS, almost like a treat after another 2D platformers like Mighty No 9 which ran at sub 60FPS most of the time...) and the combat is really satisfying - its fast paced, the counter mechanic is really easy to get down timing wise but is so useful and the other moves so far are really useful as well. I've only finished the first level so far, and I'll probably aim for the platinum which looks nice and challenging so I'll be spending loads of time on this game. Just wondering - is there a way to refight bosses without going through levels?
I really hope the Vita port turns out just as good. Its exactly the type of game I love for the system, and will no doubt sink even more hours into it. Glad to see that this game managed to really turn itself around since its shaky launch, I'm really hyped for the sequel already!
I really hope the Vita port turns out just as good. Its exactly the type of game I love for the system, and will no doubt sink even more hours into it. Glad to see that this game managed to really turn itself around since its shaky launch, I'm really hyped for the sequel already!
Definitely. I don't have my rose tinted glasses on when I boot up Castlevania on my 3DS, and I'm like, "Fuck, Simon, are you 80?! Move!" So many old school games had stiff controls. I think that's why the Mario Bros. games are so revered. They had incredibly smooth, precise, responsive controls on the NES. Castlevania is impressive, but I always hated how Simon and Trevor moved.
We are looking good for November 1st. Also should have an extra little surprise in there for the masochists out there for PS4 version around same date (will ship with this on Vita 1.0)
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
You gotta imagine a metal song with those lines as lyrics, and suddenly it works perfectly xD
More like SOTB meets Ghouls n Ghosts meets Actraiser and Castlevania 4 with a touch of Blackthorne.
How long is it?
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
My Steam says 9h, but I died repeatedly and I sucked. Someone far more skilled can probably do it in half that time.
No it's interesting to know the average playtime of someone who's not a super pro skilled gamer. Thanks man!
It really depends on your skill. I barely ever made it from one checkpoint to the next without dying once, but was also never really stuck anywhere for a long time. It was a good 5-6 hours for me, maybe even more.
test_account
XP-39C²
Got the platinum now. Had to use a savegame trick to get the no-death trophy (just overwrite the savegame with an old one every time you die). There is also a typo in one of the trophy description where it says that you have to beat a certain boss within 30 seconds. I think this is suppose to say 60 seconds. I did it in 50 seconds and got the trophy, dont think its possible to do it within 30 seconds. Great game! 
LastCupOfSorrow
Banned
Damn... Been following this for years only to have my soul crushed just now. F'ng bummer, man...
It was even in a Direct...
Got the platinum now. Had to use a savegame trick to get the no-death trophy (just overwrite the savegame with an old one every time you die). There is also a typo in one of the trophy description where it says that you have to beat a certain boss within 30 seconds. I think this is suppose to say 60 seconds. I did it in 50 seconds and got the trophy, dont think its possible to do it within 30 seconds. Great game!
Thanks for feedback, will look into this!
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
Out on Xbox One October 21
It sure is, thought that had already been posted somewhere here. Apologies.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Congrats on the nom, hope you get it. Slain deserves it for its amazing visuals.
Me too. It's pretty hard, I find it generally harder than Souls games, but it's a different kind of hard. Checkpoints are frequent enough at least.
Is there an easy mode? Honestly hate games where I die over and over no patience for that. Looks like a cool game and would love to run through it, been in the mood for something like this since it's Halloween time and just saw it on my Xbox
Bloodporne
Member
Just saw this game in the PS Store for the first time last night just browsing around and noticed there is shit named after Bathory and Celtic Frost in the description...what what what?? Two of my favorite bands
I love the old school Horror side scrollers and please tell me this is worth the price and actually good?
Is there any skill to the combat, any particular moveset or is more along the simple line of one move/one button and so on? Sorry I know there's a lot of into in here but a quick summary would really help due to lack of time on my end.
Would appreciate it.
I love the old school Horror side scrollers and please tell me this is worth the price and actually good?
Is there any skill to the combat, any particular moveset or is more along the simple line of one move/one button and so on? Sorry I know there's a lot of into in here but a quick summary would really help due to lack of time on my end.
Would appreciate it.
Thanks for your support everyone, Slain is out on Xbox One today!
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/slain-back-from-hell/brb2xn908f4k
Enjoy.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/slain-back-from-hell/brb2xn908f4k
Enjoy.
gunstarhero
Member
Yes - there is a lot of timing, parrying and dodging involved - as well as multiple spells and weapons to learn along the way.
It's not a button mash hack n' slash. Play like that and you'll die very quickly.
Bloodporne
Member
Great. Just checked out some recent (after the update I assume) gameplay videos on YouTube and will definitely buy it later on, looks really great.
The only thing I don't like based on the videos is the soundtrack surprisingly enough. The whole 'B-grade' computer program Metal doesn't really gel well with the decrepit/Gothic look of the game overall for me. Will see how I feel when I play it over the weekend.
Definitely looking forward to this, reminds me of Warlock a little bit visually...yeah I really loved that game as a kid...
There's not, but the checkpoint system is more than fair imo.
Kresnik258
Member
Since this seems to be the updates thread, is it still arriving on Vita tomorrow like you mentioned in the blog post?
Triggerhappytel
Member
Oh damn. a Vita version?! Will it be cross-buy with PS4?
Kresnik258
Member
If you check the comments of the Blog post someone from Digerati says:
Yet there hasn't been much of a word about it since.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Awesome. Seems like a perfect title for the Vita.
Doomshroom
Member
How about making a PS4 theme with some headbanging nice metal pixelart. Ill buy that in a sec.
Available for pre order! - https://signatureeditiongames.com/c...in-back-from-hell-developer-signature-edition
We are looking forward to confirming it too, there has been a lot of excitement for the Vita version.
bmcphail2008
Member
Available for pre order! - https://signatureeditiongames.com/c...in-back-from-hell-developer-signature-edition
Is there a reason this company doesn't sell games that are actually "signed" by the developers? My understanding is that this is just an additional box or sleeve with a printed signature. Why bother with the "signature" at all?
not sure what this question even means! BEST!
Ruud_Luiten
Member
Any info about the Vita version?
Shadowman16
Member
Last tease from the Dev team on Twitter is that news is still "coming soon". I'd imagine since they are working on each version one by one, and with the Xbox One version just being completed recently the Vita version is hopefully next in line. I don't mind it taking an extra month or two to get released if it means we get a native res, 60FPS port.
Shadowman16
Member
Ok, the USA Playstation blog lists the release date for Vita Slain as next week (22nd):
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/11/18/the-drop-new-playstation-games-for-11222016/
Not sure how accurate it is, but I sure hope its true.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/11/18/the-drop-new-playstation-games-for-11222016/
Not sure how accurate it is, but I sure hope its true.