I’m exhausted after taking part in The First Berserker: Khazan over the previous week and a half. My arms ache, my mind is fried, and I’ve typically needed to step away in frustration. It’s a brutally troublesome recreation, one typically anticipating near-perfection in its hardest encounters. I’m slowly working my means by means of this Soulslike extension of developer Neople’s Dungeon & Fighter universe, and it’s an understatement to say it’s given me hassle – which is a part of why I nonetheless have a bit extra to go earlier than I’m capable of name this overview completed. However like a brand new army recruit, it’s damaged me down and, over time, constructed me right into a deadly weapon that’s ready to tackle no matter hellish nightmares wait forward. Despite the fact that I’ve hit seemingly insurmountable roadblocks for hours at a time, I’ve by some means discovered myself having fun with and reveling within the battles that take me to the brink of my talents.
The First Berserker: Khazan is a basic revenge story. Khazan, a celebrated normal, is betrayed by his empire and labeled a traitor. After being gravely injured whereas apprehended, he’s revived and possessed by a melded legion of vicious warrior spirits who antagonize him into doing their bidding. The Blade Phantom, because the ethereal symbiote is understood, is extra involved with advancing the goals of the underworld from which it hails, whereas Khazan is out for the blood of those that wronged him. The setup supplies lots to construct on, tying grounded medieval politics to the occult forces leeching their means into the world, however the story after has principally been skinny and underwhelming past that.
Khazan meets numerous characters as he ventures forth into the world, however moreover including some minor connective tissue to the continued plot, they don’t contribute to the story in a means that makes me care about actually something that’s occurring. Distressed villagers, otherworldly advisors, former army cohorts, and extra begin to fill out a sparse hub space often known as The Crevice. Outdoors of being visually attention-grabbing as a floating stone sanctuary with mysterious damaged staircases and far-off platforms that I’d prefer to get to and discover, there’s not rather a lot to do in The Crevice other than managing my stock infrequently or urgent onto the following mission space. There’s shockingly little to glean from the better world regardless of being the proper place to sluggish issues down and foster an atmosphere for additional taste. As an alternative, it’s extra a mechanical necessity to select up elective quests or craft, improve, and increase gear for Khazan than an space to discover and improve the general story.
Being a well-honed instrument of battle, Khazan has a handful of instruments at his disposal to slaughter his enemies – though it took a very long time earlier than I felt like I used to be on his perceived stage of functionality. An early mission launched me to The First Berserker’s three varieties of weaponry: You may select to make use of the highly effective however sluggish and defensive greatsword, a nimble stamina-draining spear, or the whirling assault of the twin blades. I get pleasure from how distinctive every weapon kind is from the others, providing transformative transfer units starting from defensive and methodical to all-out aggressive.
Every weapon is additional expanded with a full ability tree that enhances Khazan’s effectiveness in battle. Nodes on these timber modify your primary assaults, like altering how your charged Potent Blow (or heavy assault) works, altering the stamina depletion for actions like dodging and blocking, or offering new strikes solely by spending a useful resource referred to as Spirit Factors in fight. My Khazan at the moment feels means totally different to play than he did at first roughly 40 hours in the past. There are a number of choices to package out Khazan with as you stage him up, and it’s been slightly enjoyable to determine which strikes and perks contour greatest to my playstyle to assist me slice my means out of its hardening conflicts.
The First Berserker allows you to swap between your three weapons freely, however with little overlap between their numerous talents, what’s usually a fast swap is definitely a dramatic change and a problem. As an example, in Darkish Souls, most weapons boil right down to having gentle and heavy assaults, with perhaps a particular capacity out there when switching to a two-handed grip. Weapons in The First Berserker, however, enable for as much as six of the beforehand talked about Spirit assaults and additional optimization of the ability tree. It’s rather a lot to cope with when equipping what is actually a bespoke class. That’s why I’ve devoted myself to the twin blades throughout my playthrough, which I’m nonetheless tweaking and studying about with each huge struggle I choose. Fortunately, If I ever wished to make the massive bounce to the greatsword or spear, you possibly can reallocate ability factors freely. Nevertheless, the method is simply obtuse and annoying sufficient to do on the fly that I’ve caught with one sort of weapon all through.
Upon embarking on The First Berserker’s mainline missions, the construction is extraordinarily just like what’s anticipated in a soulslike. Every stage entails slaying harmful enemies patrolling the world, determining the best way to survive with restricted therapeutic gadgets, amassing spoils of the lifeless, and utilizing them to stage up at this recreation’s model of a bonfire, referred to as a Blade Nexus. It’s a very acquainted method that’s definitely inoffensive in its design, with ranges well constructed to weave again to prior respites by way of shortcuts. The First Berserker sadly doesn’t add something that you just haven’t already seen in FromSoftware’s video games, nevertheless it recreates that loop nicely sufficient.
Capping off every mission is a tooth-and-nail struggle with that space’s boss, every of which represents a probably substantial roadblock earlier than you possibly can proceed to get pleasure from The First Berserker, however these encounters have begun to win me over. The first huge encounter I struggled with was the top boss of Mission 2, a manifestation of souls like those inhabiting our newly possessed hero. Its aggressive melee assaults would shortly kill me, and after a number of unsuccessful makes an attempt and unexpected weapon swaps from my adversary, I wanted to attempt one other technique to lastly break by means of. One other early boss, a bipedal goat demon wielding a flaming spike and hammer, prompted loads of grief by hitting laborious and sometimes, often lighting the battlefield ablaze with a carpet of flames. At first, I attempted to grind weaker enemies across the stage to gather Khazan’s model of souls, referred to as Lacrima, to spice up my stats and provides myself a greater probability of residing. It helped, however in the end didn’t do sufficient to tip the scales. I then took a detailed take a look at my gear and opted for a tankier construct. Nonetheless no cube.
Khazan’s bosses are simply painfully robust, and the early ones are like a brick wall. A few of the smaller enemies main as much as a boss will considerably educate you the best way to cope with sure facets of them, however there’s little to ramp you into what’s frequently requested of you transferring ahead. There’s no simple solution to smash your means by means of these partitions in The First Berserker, like discovering an overpowered merchandise or excessively juicing your stats. Even in a brutal recreation like Elden Ring, a infamous early boss like Margit may be overcome extra simply for those who spend a while getting stronger within the areas earlier than him, however that’s probably not an choice right here. In flip, this quick issue spike genuinely made me need to cease taking part in after the primary few ranges – however I’m glad I caught with it.
The means of studying every oppressive bosses’ strikes and tells, determining when it’s best to dodge or block, is additional essential in The First Berserker. It’s how I in the end discovered the best way to benefit from the expertise within the face of overwhelming odds. Honing these talents was mind-numbing and shredded my will to play early on. There’s no means round the necessity to execute well-timed injury blocks or rolls after which strike again at opportune moments. Some bosses within the first half of the marketing campaign burned upwards of 5 hours of my time alone, typically leaving me questioning if perhaps I ought to simply think about dropping down from the default Regular issue to Simple to save lots of myself the stress. These enemies examined my endurance, however after overcoming that preliminary barrier, constructing the inspiration of my response choices, and adapting my plan of assault, I grew to become rather more profitable at determining those that adopted.
What was as soon as a peak level of frustration has grow to be my favourite a part of The First Berserker; the bosses are in the end what make it value taking part in. Whereas they’re extremely laborious to take down, each one can finally be learn like a e-book, telegraphing the strikes they’re about to make and predictable methods they’ll use all through the struggle. Each loss of life that was as soon as met with confusion and irritation has grow to be a studying expertise I sit up for absorbing. Each restart is a renewed probability to land my assaults and survive with newfound information. Sure, there are many low cost assaults, one-hit kills, and groan-inducing errors, however I’ve been having fun with finding out every huge boss I come throughout as a lot because the catharsis of lastly taking them down.