Soulslinger: Envoy of Death Review
Deal death in the fantasy wild west setting of Soulslinger: Envoy of Death, a roguelite FPS from Elder Games and Headup Games.
Soulslinger: Envoy of Death. Elder Games / Headup Games
Soulslinger: Envoy of Death is a roguelite FPS from developer Elder Games and publisher Headup Games. The full game is available now, hitting 1.0 last month after its original Steam Early Access release in December 2023. Featuring blazing-fast gunplay and a supernatural wild west setting, Soulslinger is a great game for fans of roguelites and boomer shooters.
In Souslinger, you are an Envoy of Death, a gunslinger who made a deal with Death to help eliminate the Cartel, a crime ring in Limbo, conspiring to break free of the afterlife by harvesting souls. In exchange, Death will release your partner’s soul. If you die, Death brings your soul back to Haven, where you can upgrade and gear up to try again. The game throws you into the narrative with little explanation, letting the details manifest as the story unfolds. I found the story, writing, and voice performances underwhelming, but the game’s action and visuals make up for it.
Soulslinger: Envoy of Death. Elder Games / Headup Games
The FPS action is blazing fast. Standing still means death as demons encroach from all sides, so I was constantly running around. Emptying your revolver as quickly as possible to take out a bunch of ghouls is incredibly satisfying, but the timed reload mechanic doesn’t feel as good. It would have been nice to get more sensory feedback if you timed the button press correctly; at the same time, the penalty for missing the timing felt too steep, as the regular reload feels like it takes forever. On the flipside, ammunition is unlimited, so that’s nice. You also have other tools at your disposal, such as elementally charged bullets, spells, and more, governed by a cooldown timer.
Each level is an arena; once you clear it of enemies, multiple exits will open up. Like in Hades, the game reveals the type of reward behind each door, so you have some control over your run’s trajectory. These can be currency, equippable abilities, character buffs, and more, not that different from what you might expect from most roguelites with this kind of structure. When you die, you’ll only keep your upgrade currencies, which you can spend on weapon upgrades, a skill tree, and a linear set of character upgrades in the Haven hub.
Soulslinger looks great. Limbo's fantasy western design is very cool, and its environments are detailed and well-lit. Smoke, explosions, and other particle effects bring the action to life, and along with the sound design, give blasting enemies a satisfying crunch. As a bonus, the game ran quite smoothly with medium and high graphics settings on my Steam Deck. The only downside visually is that the game’s common enemies are blandly designed, especially when compared to the protagonist, Death, NPCs, and bosses. However, I did appreciate that enemies are given glowing outlines to be easily spotted, even though it breaks immersion—gameplay comes first.
Soulslinger: Envoy of Death. Elder Games / Headup Games
Though I haven’t yet finished Soulslinger: Envoy of Death, I’m having a great time with it so far. I prefer a third-person camera for arena shooters; still, I think this game and last year’s Vampire Hunters both do an admirable job of making the chaos work in an FPS. It might be a tall order, but I’d love to play this in co-op with a friend.
Soulslinger: Envoy of Death is available now on Steam.
Overall Score: 7/10
Played on: Steam Deck
