Soul is a new XBOX Live Indie Game by Kydos Studios, in which you guide the eponymous “Soul” through a series of mazes. It sounds basic enough really – the left stick floats you around the screen and you avoid the walls in an effort to make it through the rooms that are presented. Oh, and there are hideous, in the “Black is the New Black” indie style, monsters that attempt to eat you small, floating ball of necroplasm. Those are the good parts anyway.
The story, such as it is, involves leading your little soul to Heaven, by avoiding the beasties of Hell. It’s pretty basic stuff, but really takes a back seat to the art direction, which is subtle, and yet unnerving, a true case of less being more. Layered on top of that is real time lighting, which gives the graphical presentation the extra kick to really give players something nice to look at.
Oh, until the first shock scare happens. You’ll be controlling your little glowing ball around a corner, over one of the minions of the underworld and then, Bam, you’re sideswiped by a crazy image of a half dead looking woman and scared half out of your wits by the insane noise that was somehow produced by your stereo. The quick shock of it is more than enough to startle you, certainly, the first time. I quickly found that I could concentrate far better with the sound down, which had the unfortunate side effect of making the serene background music moot.
Which brings me to the gameplay. The core conceit of using precise movements to move through the levels is solid, and the levels are constructed in a way to demand dexterity bordering on perfect. But touch anything and the level will reset and place you back at the beginning wondering what happened. The difficulty, is brutal honestly, mostly due to the juxtaposition of elements here. One moment, you’re piloting your soul around staring intently at the screen in an attempt to avoid the doom that surrounds you. The next, you’re terrified and your heart is made to race through the subtle application of hateful noise and nightmare inducing visual.
Which is the problem really. The gameplay reminds me of R-Type, where a single touch on anything ends the game and drinks your milkshake, but those bloody screamers basically spoil it. One cannot perform fine motor function when the game is willfully trying to give you the shakes.
In conclusion, Soul has several good ideas that didn’t quite come together. Although since you can get the entire game for like, a dollar, it’s hard not to give it a try anyway. Or download the demo, make your friends play it, and film their reactions for YouTube.
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