Stray Souls

This is it. The absolute peak of mediocrity come to feast on your soul. A game that makes Bloober's worst horror game seem like Naughty Dog's most important work.
Stray Souls is a strong argument for never democratizing technology. Sometimes the power is simply too great and the responsibility too weighty to wield by those of us who would see harm done to others. Nonetheless, there's something so shockingly awful about it that you cannot help to turn the pages on this absolute turd exploder of digital entertainment.
If an AI could build a game in a halfway satisfactory way, it would put out something like Stray Souls. Laced with silly, ineffectual scares and bizarre dialogue, there's some part of me that wants to say this is Videogame's "The Room" -- something so bad, you simply cannot help yourself as you poke around inside the playground of awful. Early on, it almost threatens to be a good game: what with it's above average UE5 powered visuals. But as you continue to play, the Potemkin village of Stray Souls break's down around you like a reverse Silent Hill otherworlding, and you're sucked into the world of store bought assets, uncanny valley character models, hideously acted lines and the never-ending abyss of the only thing UE5 seems like it can do so far: render trees. So many trees.
Might I recommend, for your money, Bloober's Blair Witch game?
Some part of me wants to continue, because I know it will get worse and reader, I am an absolute glutton for punishment. There's generally no well I won't reach the bottom of if I'm promised ample doses of pain and suffering for my struggles, but I fear, truly, there's nothing at the end of the abyss this game has conjured. It goes on and on and on, wraps around onto itself and creates some kind of hyper plane of suck.
Since I'm not a vindictive person, I'll leave this game a thumbs up. But if you're the reading kind, then read this: that thumb is pointing to you virtually any other game you can get right now. You can randomly select any hentai title on this store and walk away happier.

It's complicated... I think I'm going to be one of the few to give it a positive vote. It's survival horror as if some enthusiastic Silent Hill fans without much idea of ​​making games made one. This game shows you why it is important to have a level designer, a combat designer, etc... Also, when the demo came out it was very cutting edge graphically but by the time the launch arrived everyone had already gotten used to Unreal 5 so theres that too. Then there is the controversy that they used some assets from the Unreal market for the creatures and so on, but that is precisely what they are for.
Somehow they got Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka to do some of the soundtrack tracks (although he is not the main composer), so that's pretty good for this style of game.
For the right price I still recommend it if you are looking for a not very long indie survival horror, knowing that it is quite rough around the edges, has stiff animations and still sports some annoying minor bugs.

Please do not let your eyes glaze over the recommend label...
This game SUCKS and is not worth buying at it's full price. It has many bugs that have yet to be addressed and the gameplay can become aggravating and tedious... But at the same time, the way that it sucks is absolutely mesmerizing. It is very clearly trying to be something it cannot, with its models appearing to be from an asset library, mashed into a game resulting in everything clashing together. The combat and camera are atrocious and the story is a little hard to follow (do not worry, there is a handy segment in the game where you will learn all you need to know about the game and characters, lol).
But despite all that, I found myself really enjoying how unfinished and corny this whole game turned out to be. It's more enjoyable if you have a few friends to sit down with. The music is also very enjoyable and I recommend checking out the soundtrack 😊

First of all, what the actual ♥♥♥♥ is this game?
A sincerely incredible soundtrack featuring the legendary composer Akira Yamaoka and lovely Silent Hill inspired atmosphere highlight this absolutely bizarre, incoherent, and bug ridden mess of a video game. I want to state that 'it's so bad it's good', but it's just... not.
Why do I recommend this game then do you ask?
In actuality there is really nothing else like it. In some sense it seems like an immense amount of passion went into this title, yet simultaneously it seems like every possible corner was cut. Aiming, movement, facial animations, all of these aspects of the game and more absolutely blow. The lead protagonist is painfully unlikable, what the Hell is up with bro's outfit - seriously? Did he borrow it from his sister who was initially his online love interest? Yeah, I am not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you. The technical faults and limitations could honestly be overlooked if the story wasn't so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ strange and cringe-worthy. I mean really, who the ♥♥♥♥ writes this ♥♥♥♥? They certainly can't be from the planet earth.
Yet, I believe this is something every connoisseur of survival horror should play for themselves. Stray Souls is a strange novelty that I can't even say is akin to B movies, because it is that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ absurd. Please do NOT pay the list price for this though, it isn't generously worth $10, let alone the blasphemous asking price on Steam.

Overall I thought it was ok. There some bugs here and there but you could still play the game at least. The start dragged a bit, but it picked up. I thought it was an odd game but in a good way. Story line had an interesting twist with a multiple ending.

The game just released today and it's riddled with bugs,
I had to quit and start the game a few times because the camera kept getting stuck in the ceiling.
It feels poorly optimized and stiff, in addition, there are many triggers that feel quite scripted.
The jumpscares in the house feel scripted and happen way too often losing all meaning and impact.
The game does run on the Steam Deck, however, you'll be playing at 30+ FPS indoors and in medium settings,
However, whenever you're outdoors the FPS count drops to the low 20's even on low settings at the lowest resolution.
The game does not offer any advanced settings for you to fiddle with and upon that it does not offer FSR.
The controls are quite odd and stiff. In addition, the aim button is buggy and won't aim after you reload, you have to press the button again to aim.
I had a problem at the first boss fight where the character simply wouldn't aim at all after picking up ammo and it would only aim again after getting hit by the boss.
Other than that, the story doesn't feel natural and many of the characters' actions and decisions feel unjustified and arbitrary.
Don't get me wrong, though!
It must be a tough challenge to tackle to make an indie game, especially in Unreal Engine 5.
It's quite good especially for the price.
Get it now with the discount,
And let's hope for a patch soon.

I really enjoyed this game so much. More then I expected. The sound designer doing the music with Akira Yamaoka created the atmosphere that I look for in horror games. The voice acting was also immensely enjoyable. I loved the campy dialogue that was delivered with enthusiasm I wasn't expecting from a small game.
The controversies behind the game and the developer are unfortunate. I did look more into it to find out what's going on. I did find the developer spoke out on twitter with a 20 minute apology video to make amends and he has been actively trying to respond to people who call him out. There is potential to change and make better decisions.
The Unreal Engine marketplace assets didn't bother me. That's what the market is for when you don't have time or resources to spend on creating wholly unique and original designs. Seeing as other popular indie games made with Unreal Engine and marketplace assets get positive reviews, I don't think this is as big an as people make it out to be.
I have not looked too deeply into what was generated with AI, but have read a lot of speculation and a lot of it tends to direct their assumptions on everything that is deemed low quality. This included the voice acting, writing, and even the animations. I did see update notes that the actors were called back to do more motion capture for better face rigging. There may have been AI used for some of the writing. A lot of the in-world signs showed odd choices of words and there was little consistency in what the local bar was called. The bar had about 4 different names and titles of how it addressed itself. I can see hints of AI throughout the game, but not nearly as much as people shame it for.I doubt AI was using for the animations. I don't think we're at that stage yet. If they were pre-rendered cutscenes, maybe, but that would still require the developers to train the AI with all their input to create something out of it. And I'm pretty sure the voice actors weren't AI, as you can find their credits and the patch notes. They have worked on other projects if you look for them.
There are more controversies behind the developer, but I think a lot is still exaggerated for the sake of finding something to hate about work they've done.
There are other people who worked on the game, much like a David Cage project.
I found it easy to separate the artist from the art and enjoy the game for what it is.
The gameplay has its flaws and bugs, but it shows how much it takes to develop a game. They don't need to be on the same level of knowledge or expertise as the popular one-man games out there. There is a huge market of independent games from small studios that don't make it as big as other small team games and it shows how much they are learning and how much they are destroyed by the community to give up and care less.
I didn't find this story to be entirely unique or genre-changing. I loved all the tropes and homages to the horror genre. I only wish there was more background development on the lore of everything we see in the game.
It's a flawed and tropey game, but I enjoyed still.
The performance issues from using Unreal Engine 5 are obvious and you can feel it throughout the game. Had they had the time and patience of their customers, we probably could have seen improvements over time.
A friend gifted this to me, and I'm thankful.