Slain: Back from Hell (2016)

This is a review of Slain: Back from Hell, not to be confused with the original release of Slain which was apparently a buggy unplayable mess. It's a wonderful sight to see, the developer accepted all the bad reviews and criticism and overhauled the entire game. I never played the original but I've read that it feels and looks like a completely new game. The "Back from Hell" subtitle is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the poor quality of the original release.

Slain is a challenging horror-themed 2D platformer with an emphasis on combat. The levels are mostly linear and you move from left-to-right (with some levels moving upwards) and overcome obstacles and defeat enemies. Unlike many games in the genre, you don't collect keys or treasure and there isn't any puzzle-solving. The central mechanic of the game is the combat which has several layers. You can do light/heavy swings of your weapon, you can dodge, you an parry and riposte and there's also various magic attacks and a mana bar. The combat fells great and visceral, you can feel every hit with the sword and you hear the squelch of steel against demon guts. As you progress you unlock different weapons and spells which you can use to take advantage of enemy weaknesses (e.g. an ice ogre thing will be weak to a fire weapon or fire magic). The combat is challenging but fair and really satisfying once you get the hang of it. As you get to the later stages, precision and parry/riposte become key and many enemies can kill you in one or two shots. You have infinite lives/respawns and the levels are peppered with checkpoints to allow/encourage multiple attempts of each section. In many ways the gameplay feels a bit like Shovel Knight.

The story of the game is basically you're this long-haired death metal-looking guy with a big sword. Evil has crept across the land and it's your job to journey into the bowels of hell and kill all the bad guys. The game is split up into around 10 large levels and you have some control over the order in which you complete them, choosing your options from a kind of hub world. Each level has its own theme (like the sewers, snow-themed, haunted castle, wolf caves, creepy witch woods etc.). Apart from the combat, the visuals of this game are truly stunning. Everything is drawn with pixel art, but with a highly detailed horror/gore aesthetic, reminiscent of old classics like Splatterhouse. The art is absolutely gorgeous with all kinds of demons, monsters, ghosts and horrible creatures lurking around these environments, all beautifully animated. The world is alive with movement, weather effects, parallax scrolling and some of these scenes are jaw-dropping, especially if you like the gory/horror aesthetic.

The gameplay is accompanied by death metal instrumentals which fit the atmosphere perfectly. I don't generally listen to that kind of music but I found myself enjoying the soundtrack. Otherwise the sound is great, everything from squelches, sword blows and the croaks and cries of skeletons and demons. Dialogue is given in text boxes (no voice acting is better than bad voice acting). Despite the dark/horror themes, the tone of the game is actually quite silly and lighthearted. The game is very self-aware and realises that it's quite over-the-top. In particular the sections of dialogue between the protagonist and various bosses/creatures are hilarious.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this game, I didn't expect to enjoy it this much. The balancing and difficulty curve of the game are perfect. The bosses are all very hard but fair (except the sewer boss, which was harder than anything in the game). Checkpoints seem to appear just when you need them or directly before bosses, so I never felt frustrated or had to play huge sections over and over. This is easily the best 2D game I've played since Salt and Sanctuary and I highly recommend it. Although the game was long, my only complaint is that I still wanted more: after completing I hoped for NewGame+ or perhaps an unlockable Hard Mode, but none such exists. However the game did end in "to be continued" so perhaps we'll eventually see a sequel.