Difficult games are becoming more and more popular, thanks to games like Dark Souls, and the idea of a 2D sidescrolling game in that fashion is something many have tried to do. Slain! Back From Hell is a mix of punishment platformer, hack n slash gaming action adventure. But is it a good game? Or is the difficulty more on the side of being unpleasant?
Slain! has been compared to the Castlevania games, but I feel that comparison does not work. Perhaps if it was comparing the game to the original NES Castlevania games I could see it somewhat, but otherwise Slain! Back From Hell is its own entity. It is true that people like punishing and difficult games but something needs to be understood, and that is that some games are enjoyed for their difficulty and punishing nature, because they make you want to continue and persevere. You get a true sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from them. Then there are games that just feel cheap, with controls that don’t respond the way they should, with the difficulty feeling artificial. To me, Slain! falls into the later category and that is a shame because I wanted to enjoy it so much.
What is the issue? Well, its not the music because that is amazing. The metal soundtrack is the highpoint of the game for me and helps set Slain! apart from other games. What brings it down is the actual gameplay, with controls being awkward and sometimes not responding. Certain attacks don’t work sometimes, and I know I am not doing them wrong because they do work some of the time.. This isn’t even mentioning that jumping is just atrocious and ruins part of the experience. I have heard that Slain! plays differently on PS4 and Steam so I will have to compare another time, and perhaps these are issues that can be resolved via a patch to the Switch version. That being said, the game launching with these issues is not a good sign.
Difficult games are not a bad thing, they just need to be perfectly polished or they become unfair which leads to a bad experience. 2D games like this can be done and I have faith that the experience can be a good one. I just do not feel Slain! is the experience gamers may want on the Switch, at least for now anyways. I am willing to take another look at the game should there be a patch, but for now, my view of the game is not positive.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided