Soulless: Ray Of Hope

I can't believe this game only has 35 reviews. I'm not going to write an essay covering each aspect of the plot/controls/audio/ etc, but I will mention them all briefly because they have made a distinct impression on me. I think many people picked up or considered picking up this game because of its side-scrolling nature and apparent similarity to the popular title Limbo (a good game, don't get me wrong - also check out Inside). But this game is different. True it's a side scroller, death can come fast, and checkpoints are frequent. But the similarities mostly end there. What I truly want to point out is the incredicle art style of the game. While Limbo was dreary greyscale from start to finish, this game effortly changes color pallates and showcases a beautifully immersive, artstic art style. All while maintaining an air of creepinesss. Just take a look at the screenshots. The main character controls well and the game is more about quick-ish progression in a linear fasion rather than Limbo's style of challenging/borderline frustrating time-based/backtracking puzzles. Not once did I find myself stuck in this game, which was very refreshing. Not to be mistaken, light puzzling elements are present but they are relatively simple and a joy to solve while taking in each new breathtaking environment. The musical score is also incredible. Turn the volume up, especially during the section where you're traversing the environment without using your feet or wings *attempt to avoid spoiler*. The (few) alternative characters are well- designed and fit within the general art style perfectly. There is also an AWESOME boss fight that is difficult, but I didn't find it frustrating despite dying dozens of times. Not to mention the ominous sections when you are pulled into an alternate demain and forced to quickly escape. The game is incredibly fluid, artistic, and creative. The world of Soulless is aboslutly stunning and deserves to be experienced. The game is on sale for 99c until March 20, 2017. Please pick this up. You will not be disappointed. I will happily take a negative review if you disagree. I earlier stated that Limbo was not the best comparison to this game. I would say it is more akin to something like Badlands or perhaps Ori and the Blind Forest. Seriously, CHECK THIS OUT FOR CHEAP. This is one of my first reviews (w/ over 300 steam games) and I'm writing it because I don't think this game has gotten enough attention. Also - I recommend playing with a controller. FYI - 4.2 hrs and finished the game (not all achievements). There are multiple endings which I did not experience all of. Also one of the steam cards sells currently for $0.17 - sooo that's almost 20% of the price right there :)

Soulless: Ray of Hope is an interesting minimal platformer with light puzzle elements, featuring a black silhouetted world with a bright white protagonist. In concept, this would be great for a linear platformer that has you going from start to finish, and that is something Soulless tries to push you along to do. However, This NOT acceptable when secret passageways to collectables, and ever important switches for various devices in the levels are ALSO painted in the same black silhouette as the environment. Checkpoints are fairly placed, but some areas in the game are buggy if you die, forcing you to restart the last checkpoint you encountered just to get the mechanics of the game working (This was most proment with the actual boss of Act 2). Some dialogue boxes are broken, mostly with the Guide of the story. The time invested you see along with this review was playing the game from start to finish. The game boasts three endings, yet in the time playing, I was only ever able to see two of the three; the third ending requires you to "remain pure", which you have given no indications of messing up the route for this ending until you've basically beaten the game, nor are you given any indication of where you messed up, forcing additional replays of the whole game, rather then being able to make use of the load checkpoint feature on the main menu to simply see the endings back to back (which IS possible to do with the other two endings: complete one, reload checkpoint before the choice, make other choice). I wish I could recommand this game, but unlike Algebra, puzzles require all the pieces to be known and accounted for, otherwise they're not puzzles at all. If you feel bold enough to try it out despite the issues listed above, I encourage acquiring the game while on sale.

I bought this game after seeing it looked like Limbo but the main character had a cool flying mechanic. After a short time in the game our hero loses his wings :( This made me a little sad for him but also now I didn't get to fly about like I'd hoped! The way in which the camera follows Elin (that's his name!) about whilst flying is far from ideal. Most of the time you can't see where you're flying to vertically meaning having to just have faith, sometimes this means impacting with deadly spikes. Sorry Elin.... The game is pretty short and the puzzles are pitched at an enjoyable level. I had to google the solution to one puzzle about two-thirds through and I'm no expert when it comes to solving puzzles! Two of the achievements can possibly add longevity to the game : Complete the game in one sitting and Complete the game without dying. I do enjoy these type of achievements, so may very well attempt them which will add more game-time to the current two hours it takes to complete. The code just about does the job, it doesn't feel at all solid. I'm not sure some people would have an issue with this aspect but it's one of the things that bugs me and Unity is especially guilty of producing games with this feeling. The overall design is a little odd and feels a bit like ideas have simply been bodged together. A boss half-way through the game, no boss at end but some seemingly moralistic questions that alter the achievement you get instead? Although they have managed to pace the stages out well so that none of the ideas become stale and this is probably most important. I bought the game during sale at -75% and at this price I can recommend the game, not sure it's worth the full asking price.

It’s very short. Less than 3 hours. You move very slowly. You take 3 seconds to pull yourself up a ledge. (WHAT?! WHY?! WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!) Very easy, but the slow movement and slow climbing makes the chase sections very annoying. Bad endings, and it is painful to obtain all of the endings. I was left with the feeling of “That’s it? That’s all there is to the story and ending?!”

This game is fun to play. Once. There are 3 endings but one of the dialogues made so little sense to me as about the good ending. The music is nice everywhere besides the two dark realms where it's actually annoying. There's not much replay value. The game doesn't change but that makes it easier to search for secrets or try getting other endings, since the replays take less time. I beat it twice and it clocked 4 hours but the second playthrough was much shorter for me. I'll take some break and go for the 3rd ending sometime. There's very little lore given as is and in dialogues but if you look around and read between the lines, you can get some hints about what's going on. I can tell the creators put a lot of good effort into making it.

This was a nice surprise. It really is a great game. I don't even barely like platformer games but I really enjoyed this game and wouldn't stop playing. (encouraged by the achievement "No Breaks") The puzzles are nearly all original. The perfect difficulty. You can figure them out on your own but they aren't easy. The control is perfect. The bosses are great. The graphics and music are really nice. The checkpoints are fair and the gameplay is varied. The story doesn't annoy and manages to end with intrigue. And it has multiple endings.

Full disclosure: I'm a puzzler more than a platformer who played a very small amount of this game before swiftly requesting a refund. In the opening scene, when I caught the edge of a bookcase and realised it took my character ~3 seconds to lift itself up onto it, I thought: "Huh. I sure hope this doesn't have one of those speed run sections with moving platforms and something death-inducing right behind you." So I plodded along... some nice intro puzzles, some basic mechanics- boxes, switches, moving platforms with timed saws of death- very nice... 15mins in: "aw man"... 3 mins and ~15 deaths later: "Refund please."

I liked the game and the story. I loved the music. But... 1) The control keys don't match the instructions: It says "X" for action, but the action key was "E" on the keyboard; it says "A" for jump but it was "Spacebar" instead. 2) The Xbox controller is not fully supported. I was able to move the character but I couldn't jump or activate anything: no button was bound to those, so I gave up using a controller with this game. 3) Navigation through the menu is awful. Sometimes I could move through the options with the "WASP" keys, sometimes with the mouse, but I couldn't find out how to "accept" or "cancel" (clicks didn't work). The "Esc" key got me always out of there, sometimes keeping the changes but sometimes not affecting anything at all. 4) The game is too short (2 hours in game and it's over).

Puzzles are too easy, survivals are too hard sometimes. The game looks unbalanced. The plot is weird and boring. LIMBO was cool, this one looks kinda the same but worse.

Unfortunately the game is mildly buggy. Dialogue boxes don't show and the game occasionally gets stuck, but I managed to complete everything in a few hours and 100% all the achievements. The story was worth the mild frustrations, and the multiple endings were a nice touch.

Not a big fan of the game myself, but it's not bad! Just not something I'd usually recommend getting. The game has some cool parkour-ing and discovering can be fun, but the story itself isn't too good or interesting, and you can stuck on places a lot with no going back, which can be VERY annoying, especially to me. Nor is the art style very, what's the word, attractive/pulling. It's not bad but it isn't something that catches your eye when looking at screenshots or game play. If you enjoy difficulty and a lot of challenges in games I definitely recommend it! If you want more story and aesthetic art and calming gameplay with occasional challenges I don't.

Soulles Ray of Hope, frankly I like this game but it still has its shortcomings. The puzzles in the game are good, thought provoking, but one puzzle is meaningless to me. The mechanics of the game are pretty good. His story tried to be beautiful, but unfortunately it was not well told. The episode designs are beautiful and the tempo-changing scenes are set, which makes the game enjoyable. The atmosphere of the game is nice. I can't say it's charming but it's nice. There are times when you're frustrated with the technical parts of the game that haven't been done well. The game is enjoyable, but it doesn't do a good job in terms of story and technique.

I normally try to keep an ideal that atleast when I review something, I better complete it fully, even if I hate the game. This isn't one I could keep it up for, sadly. The game moves at sluggish pacing, making me sleepier than giving me any sense of immersion. Having played Ori before this didn't help. After getting used to that kind of speed, this just makes me want to quit. The story... I didn't finish it, but what I did do, wasn't terrible, but was pretty average. The puzzles for the most part don't feel interesting, the gravity mechanic in particular was just annoying. And above all... the checkpoints. Some of them are placed badly, and it is possible to, with some effort, reach an area without finishing a puzzle. And that is exactly what I did, when the game saved. I can't figure out what to do on the next puzzle without using a boulder from a set of previous puzzles, and even though I solve the puzzle and reach the checkpoint, it won't save my new progress. Result? Take even more effort to backtrack through a place I shouldn't have gotten to, solve all the puzzles with this slow character for about 5 minutes, fail the current one, die, and do it again.4 times later, I'm done with my patience on it either. This simply wasn't a fun game.

...is a puzzle - platformer (but mostly platformer) with nice graphics and excellent music,the gameplay lacks imagination and its for the majority of time boring and everything you ve seen before(if you playied a fair ammount of puzzle-platformers).But to be fair overall its a solid game.Reccomend you pick this one on a sale. 6/10

The game is very slow and the gameplay isn't innovative. If you want to play a similar game, I suggest you play Limbo as it is more polished and provides a better experience overall.

A short puzzle platformer game, takes less than 2 hours to beat. While not a bad game I wouldn't say it was that fun. Your character in general just slow, the walk speed, the flying, and goodness the climbing up edges is the worst. This overall just makes the game not very enjoyable when you do puzzles and have to redo them clicking a switch at the wrong time or jump and accidentally hit some spikes. The hardest part of the game is the 'run for your life' chase sections. They're really just trial and error to figure out your plan of action before the thing chasing you gets you. Thankfully this game's check point system is generous and you don't have to redo much when you die. But still it doesn't make the chase sections any less tedious. Other problems with the game being the speed and placement of the screen. Sometimes you can't see below you before you make a jump so you just have to hope it's not a death/spike pit. Then there's the rare times where your character actually moves fast, so fast that the screen can't catch up with you to see what's coming up. I've died to blades that I couldn't see due to that. And then there's the overall look of the game, where almost everything is black except your character. While it does look pretty it can make important items hard to see, like switches for example, this especially happened often to me the chase parts. Also this game does have a story, it's alright, it's kinda just there. Overall, the game isn't that great, while not awful just it has a lot of issues with your movement speed and trial and error at times. If still really want to pick it up wait for a sale.

6/10 nice BGM and Visual, but the climbing up edges is meh. Killed me several times during chase scene. still, i'll give this game thumb up

Could not finish the game due to severe fps drops. Did all the normal stuff like updating drivers and could not find any help online. Really wish i could finish this game. :(

Borders on the line of a recommendation but the level of polish within it is heavily inconsistent to the point that I couldn't imagine myself telling people to check it out unless they were feeling adventurous. I know for its sale price it's a great experience but for full price I couldn't imagine buying it.

Although simple, I can't even tell you how many times I've died in this game, but that's not exactly a bad thing; Soulless managed to keep me interested rather than putting me off, the gameplay offering some challenge for a casual gamer like me. [b]Delightful music[/b] [b]A few beautiful visuals[/b] [b]A short and sweet story[/b] I bought this on sale, so it was definitely worth it to support the creators

Nice looking art and some fun gameplay. Needs about 1.5 times the checkpoints it has and it seems unlikely a player would be able to get through it without dying, as some parts are trial and error. Some minor issues with the camera not staying centered on the player character. I found it a bit frustrating but if you like puzzle platformers it can be had for cheap and youtube has a couple walkthroughs.

It's overall not bad. The art style is different and pleasent and the gameplay is simple yet enjoyable. I have yet to finish the game, but I plan on completing it at least one time. There are a few negatives to this game though. One being the overall unfinished feel to the game mechanics. I doubt that many people notice or care about it, but sometimes there are ledges you get stuck on, spots you can reach that you shouldn't be able to, and overall the animations and movment just doesn't feel as refigned as I would like. The background is also impossible to tell from the forground. I found that many times I would jump and expect to land on an object, only to pass through it and land on the floow, or come across anotehr character and not know if it was anotehr animated object, an enemy, or someone to talk to. If you have ever heard of a PS4 game called Inside, how that game was done is amazing. This game is similar in many aspects to the overall feeling of the game, but it's like a more simple version with a different plot. Anyway, wait for it to go on sale, and then give it a try.

I just really love this game for its art style and music. But the most for the story behind all of your actions.. You have to think about what is really happening and understand the game-story in your own way. (the game can change in a few mins from lovely to scary when u're finding all secrets, i love that too!) I wish this game was more famous. [b] .. 'cause Elin for life! ♥ [/b]

General issues: Controls and overall gameplay feel pretty clunky. The animation when dragging yourself up from an edge is cute, but makes the gameplay even slower. Some level areas where you do nothing but walk are too long. The changing of songs when entering a new area is not fluid/seemless, it's actually kinda distracting. Visual detail and backgrounds are very inconsistent. The level design is very generic with puzzles seen in every 2d sidescroller. (I didn't play for very long tho. I don't know, if it gets better & more creative later on) Bugs: If you lower the audio volume it resets itself whenever a new song starts and gradually goes back to what you set it to. Very annoying. Some sounds like the rain don't seem to be affected at all by lowering the volume. I also just glitched through the map in a level with those white beams that change gravity. Positive aspects: The visuals in some levels can be very pretty although they aren't anything new. The music provides good atmosphere, when it doesn't fuck up. Score: You're probably better off playing other 2D sidecroller puzzle games like INSIDE or Pinstripe of which the former has stellar level design, visuals, music, story & atmosphere.

[url=https://cthulhuscritiques.com/2018/09/14/video-game-review-soulless-ray-of-hope/]Link to Full Review[/url] [h1]Major Pros:[/h1] [list] [*]Appealing artstyle [*]Basic platforming and puzzles [/list] [b]Minor Pros:[/b] [list] [*]Balance of slow and fast puzzles [*]Secret rooms and collectibles [/list] [h1]Major Cons:[/h1] [list] [*]Story gets dumped on you at the end [*]RNG boss battle [/list] [b]Minor Cons:[/b] [list] [*]Certain objects needed to stand out more [/list]

well. this game seems nice. but the controlles are so slow. you kinda need to place sections of the game over and over, remembering when to jump because if you slip up just a little there is no fixing it. its very unforgiving.

It is nice game and all but it is just 2 houers gameplay. it is kinda wierd too but in a good way you could make a dlc (free one or semi free) cuz lets be honest .....2 h of gp is nthn

It's beautiful game. Some levels really hard. I like this! Thx for Linux version :) Working on Ubuntu 16.04 very good.

Not even worth it when it was a dollar on sale. I loved the art style and the concepts behind it, but the gameplay just isn't good.

GOOD GAME RALLY GOOD GAME I FELL LIKE RUN FROM HELL!! BUT I NEVER PLAY SO COOL AND SO HARD TO PLAY! MUSIC AND GAME LET YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR IN HELL! GREAT GAME IF YOUR PRO YOU NEED TRY THIS HARD GAME!! 8-9+ משחק נהדר הרגשה אמיתית של גהנם .לא קל לברוח מגהנם ומשחק הזה אתה מבין את מלוא המובן!!מפחיד ומעמם רצח!שווה ציון 8-9

Its a challenging game but you must be careful with your moves if you want to check some gameplay check out my walkthrough of the game.. Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejFxlh4bs8U Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqpBw8EgBM0

Difficult controls >< During the entire game I told myself: "please, please be patient.. almost did.. a little bit more.. Oh, COME ON!"

high hopes for darkness... but i get insulted with cuteness - had too vommit after minutes. i hate it

Really fun game, great artwork. Some of the endings seem to be broken at this time for me, but everything else worked fine.

Good game, but not so good as Limbo. A bit too hard for my taste, but I've managed to finish it.

Worth getting in the sale if you like Limbo & Inside, very short but imaginative and enjoyable.

[b]Soulless: Ray of Hope[/b] is a puzzle platformer that is very light on platforming and focusses more on the puzzles, beautiful art and an atmospheric sound track. The game is very short, you’re done well within 2 hours. As said, very light platforming skills required. There are a couple of timed runs in the game, but everything still happens at a snails pace so most people can probably complete these sections in just a single or a couple of tries. There is a single boss fight about three quarters into the game that was already over before it had properly started. There are multiple endings, I got only 2 of them, both a bit confusing and unfulfilling. There are secrets to uncover, so make sure to walk up to every dark corner to check for hidden passages. The puzzles are the most attractive part of the story, and although none of them is actually hard, most of them don’t have instantly obvious solutions either. What I found a bit annoying were the many bugs. Most appeared to have to do with playing on a 4K screen at native resolution. Some dialogue text was too small and placed on top of other white elements so that it was almost unreadable. Near the end the game suddenly only used the center of the screen, and the names of the main creators were projected on screen constantly. Restarting the game did not solve it, but all issues went away when turning the resolution down to full HD. I rate the game 7 out of 10, and recommend it to anyone who likes puzzle games. Because it is so short I would wait for a sale. Perhaps a warning is in place for people who are interested in this game because it is a black&white side scroller – no, it is not like Limbo at all.

i only played an hour of this game, and it is amazing. beautiful/cute graphics, sad story, and good puzzles. so far i really enjoy the game, also the sountrack is amazing as well.

It was a fun platformer, but I'm not entirely sure the story is fully developed.

Its a cute little game, great music too. I did get it on sale.

got it 90% off - terrible game even for free I would never play

An outstanding minimalistic puzzle platformer. I recommend it!

Just play it! It has 3 different endings :) ~~[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44342408-Sanctuary-for-Strange-People/]Check my curator's page![/url]~~

A charming and entertaining platformer game!

Loved the colors, and it's story. Short, but great puzzle game.

Nice little platformer

trivial puzzles and buggy gameplay :(

Cute game with cool design

worst game on steam

Good game!!