Challenging Soulslike Games That You Might Want to Check Out

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The Soulslike genre within the gaming community has risen quite rapidly in its popularity over the last few years. The Dark Souls and Demon Souls were such incredible games that they basically started an entire genre of games. Since the release of these two games, the genre has seen the entrance of other gaming studios as well that have created games with a similar concept. There are many new games on the market that boast a familiar level of difficulty that always keeps players on edge. Here’s a look at some of these games.

Code Vein

This is an incredible game for players who enjoy playing cooperatively. Not only does the game opt for a design philosophy that just works better when playing with someone else, but it also helps you progress through the game as boss fights become easier. The game is certainly more difficult than a normal action-adventure but is definitely easier and more approachable for players who are familiar with the Soulslike genre. 

Lords of The Fallen

The developer teams behind Lords of the Fallen are Deck13 Interactive and CI Games and was the first game on the PS4 platform when it first came out. With a completely unique backstory and a protagonist as well, this is one of the first few games that came out after the original Souls games. 

The Surge

What made the Surge really prominent within its community of hundreds of thousands of loyal players was its new fighting and dodging mechanics. Players have the option of dismemberment and take advantage of localized damage as a part of their combat system. These elements really transformed the game completely and set it aside in a league of its own. What made it truly fun was the fact that you had to be very well aware of where you are choosing to strike your enemy. In the position where you actually understand where and how to strategically place your attacks, you can definitely get better and more successful results. One demerit of the game is the fact that even though the Surge is a great game with very fun mechanics, it still has a few massive difficulty spikes that can maybe even sour the experience of someone. 

The Surge 2

This game had quite a robust physics engine with very engaging and fun gameplay. This is perhaps one of the factors that really differentiates it from other similar games. The gameplay itself had a very strong identity and characteristics to it as the dodge and jumping mechanics are quite advanced. Not only are they technically quite impressive but are also quite fun to play with! Compared to its predecessor, surge 2 might be better in almost every single way as it manages to expand upon almost all areas of the game. If we had one gripe with the game it would be the fact that the newer version of the game is easier than its predecessor. However, some old players are quite supportive of this decision as the original had a tendency of being unreasonably difficult in various situations. 

Dark Souls 

This is one of those absolute classics that players have loved through the years since it has been released. Many have started calling it the perfect game as it has the right balance between a few critical elements that are needed to make a great game. This includes excellent combat, atmosphere, enemies, and maps that help players establish a deeper understanding while playing the game. Many of the reviews that you will find online for Dark Souls have actually suggested that the fact that this game gets you so involved is perhaps not a great thing either as you will find yourself spending hours on it daily. If after spending so many hours on the game, if you are killed due to any reason, chances are that you will momentarily lose all your sanity. The storyline and mechanics are so well designed and executed that whenever a character dies, their revival is not a simple respawn but is actually related to the character’s lore.

Remnant: From the Ashes

Remnant gets many of those things right that keep it just in line to be discussed in this list. Even though the game has very similar aspects such as standard dystopian horror and realistic melee combat, it’s just slightly different from a typical Soulslike game. What makes it different is perhaps something that makes it stand out the most as well. Even though seasoned veterans would perhaps never do this, to enhance your fun during a casual play session, do consider using the Remnant from the Ashes cheats which you will be able to use to have a more relaxed and fun play session. The game also introduced quite a unique combat method; guns. Now, this may not be uncommon for new FPS games these years but for a Soulslike game, using guns is quite a novel idea to market the game well which ended up being one of the reasons for their massive success. 

Bloodborne

The best possible description for how this game was conceived and became such a huge success is in the fact that it is a weird concoction that merges the lines in between other cult classic games and ideas such as Dark Souls, Lovecraftian horror, and gothic & Victorian architecture. Bloodborne was actually one of those games that no one had any idea could even exist. Now that it’s seeing so much more success, the developers would really be happy about their decision to go ahead with this project. It’s basically a horror-action RPG that no one anticipated could succeed this well. Apparently, people seem to love it, and can’t get more!

Salt & Sanctuary

This game might be the most versatile entry on this list due to the host of different gameplay enhancements and environments you can play within it. Since the original souls’ games such as Dark Souls launched, Salt & Sanctuary is probably the first game that truly embraces that identity and fully delivers on the promises it made to its customers. What makes the game quite unique is the fact that not only does it maintain the true Soulslike aesthetic but has also kept quite a lot of the elements of the core. Players are free to choose to play in the style that they feel most naturally comfortable with as the game allows players to enhance their skill tree as they play the game. What makes it so successful is that while the developer team is investing heavily in such skill trees, they haven’t compromised even the slightest in terms of the actual gameplay. They paid a lot of attention to the stuff that really truly matters such as a huge variety of weapons to choose from and satisfying gunplay. 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Even though this one might seem a little bit out of place as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looks significantly different from what gamers would sometimes describe as a justifiable Soulslike game. Even though this game doesn’t look like it, it maintains all the elements that gamers love in other series such as force-assisted budgets and awesome gunplay. Even though a stamina meter is not present, that doesn’t seem to take away too much from the core experience of the game. 

Mortal Shell

This game is one of those rare examples when the developer actually makes their Soulslike game easier than the actual Souls games. Even though a few die-hard fans have complained quite a lot about the fact that this game perhaps isn’t as challenging as it could have been. The character modeling is quite cool as the game lets you control a character that possesses the ghosts of different soldiers which can be used with different weapons and facilities. 

Nioh

The mark of an excellent Soulslike game is when the developers manage to crack the code of having just enough similarities in their game with the original Soul games while making sure that the experience doesn’t become stale. Nioh is one such example that perfectly manages to replicate just enough elements from the original soul’s games so that the core experience remains intact. However, once they found a stable foundation, the company actually went in its own direction with how they wanted to proceed with the rest of the game. So in a way, Nioh is one of those really rare games that give you deja vu and constantly remain familiar but are actually new at the same time. 

There is a general consensus on the matter that die-hard fans of this niche aren’t happy about the fact that these games have been dialed down on the scale of difficulty as compared to before. While this could be something positive for new players, older player communities are still very much against the idea of easier games. However, the entire market is happy about the fact that this genre is being paid attention to and new developers are looking into actively making better and better Soulslike games. No matter which segment of the market you belong to, if you are a professional or casual gamer, you will be able to log in hours of fun with the list of games that we have mentioned above for you.