SOUL COVENANT Review | PSVR2

Futuristic technological advancements are fast approaching our daily lives. AI and every day more nimble robots will soon be a reality for us. You know where I am going with this by now. We have all seen enough post-apocalyptic movies to think of the worst that could happen: for robots to gain sentience and decide humans are the problem. SOUL COVENANT depicts the downfall of humanity due to rampaging mechs and its soldiers' action-packed last stand through the vivid lens of virtual reality.

Developed by VR veterans Thirdverse, whose previous work includes the sword-fighting PSVR2 debut title Altair Breaker, there are flashes of substance when you boot up SOUL COVENANT for the first time. Taking advantage of the immersion of the headset, there is a Matrix-like data cascade crossing you over to where the main hub and the game happen to be, and that in and of itself gives an interesting first impression.

 

Humanity is on the brink of extinction, as an AI by the name of Adam achieved singularity and decided the world was better off without us. On the other side of the spectrum, there is a friendly AI on the side of the humans named Eve, that helped create a system to fight the incessant wave after wave of mech-like robots called “Re: In Program”. What this program does is create an indefinite amount of clones, and with the conscience of previous fighters passed down onto these new creations, called Avatari, seek to make the perfect soldier.

From a game hub with Eve as your guide, you start an extensive tutorial mission explaining the background of the game and how the combat works, being granted new weapons and abilities as you progress. Every battle unfolds in an arena-like stage where there really is not much space to move around but there is lore dropped while you are fighting with your enemies.

The last hope for mankind is in a bunker called the Tokyo Ark, where the losing fight to defeat Adam is being planned. Surprisingly, there is a deep lore behind SOUL COVENANT. From the hub, you can access the library with extensive documents about how it all started, when the machines rebelled, and what is your role in this grim scenario.

Every time you are deployed into a combat scenario, be it the Story, Combat, or Free Play, you are always deployed with three other Avatari to make up a 4-team squad. This is where the online cooperative element comes into play. From the hub, it is possible to choose to form your own online group with your specified settings like being in the same story mission, or join an already available platoon looking for recruits.

 

Considering the amount of grinding that is required in order to reach the limit level of 140, replaying story missions or engaging with friends looking for new Monad materials is a breath of fresh air. As all your AI companions in each mission usually just do the bare minimum, having teammates deploy their special attacks and show off their combat abilities is a treat. Reviving, or being revived by, your fellow soldiers can entice friendly competition as to who can do better next round.

An extremely tragic story surrounding all of the main characters, from the leader of the pack, dubbed "Godslayer", or Sarah, who watched all of her friends die before escaping the same harrowing death and being impaled and left for dead herself, if it was not for the recognizable anime art style this narrative would be very nihilistic.

For all its faults, there is a decent amount of SOUL COVENANT making use of the peripherals in use. There is no use of the fantastic Adaptive Triggers but the Haptic Feedback of the VR headset and controller when using the vacuum to attract the Monad left by dead enemies. A veritable criticism would be the missing feature of having to constantly have to hold down a button to use your weapon. To not have the option to Toggle instead of Hold, especially for more than an hour after waggling your Sense controller is exhausting.

There is too much repetition going on, and the combat doesn't feel as weighty. At a turning point spamming attacks and moving your weapon like a tennis racket to try to defeat the boss and chip away his HP as fast as possible seems like the obvious choice. With the help of guarding and dodging all enemy attacks can be easily avoided, and in the case of boss fights, the movements are easily telegraphed to know when to change your position to be in the advantage.

 

The story mainly develops over the course of concise narrations by the characters in Visual Novel-esque images without any sort of facial animations or cutscenes. While sometimes there is the occasional hologram of a soldier fighting one of the mechs to illustrate the situation described, the biggest draw of these exposition dumps is when a bit of lore is dropped and reveals a little bit more of the mystery behind the mech's intentions or advancements in the real world.

Enemies' names such as the Holy Mother of the New Testament are as crystal clear references to Christianity as they can be. A power that accumulates after dying constantly and being resurrected, named Thanatos, the personification of death in Greek mythology, also makes an appearance. Concepts of Buddhism, passing down memories of previous soldiers to Avatari in a sort of Nirvana-like religious overtones are also present.

Doing the same attack on the boss's weak spot over a hundred times in one mission can over time feel unrewarding. Especially if the repetition of their movements, designs, and attacks does not change at any moment. When the enemy has only three moves and can down you in one hit, the question of whether the game was tested for player feedback begins to arise.

SOUL COVENANT's mission-based structure can be a turn-off for some because there is not much variety in them. Being called a newbie and a dumbass by the captain of the squad for an infinite amount of time does become tiring after a while. Just like the game wears you down after the first couple of missions. And it commits the cardinal sin of throwing at you two identical bosses when the lack of enemy variety is one of the main issues SOUL COVENANT has in the long run.

 

And not just enemy variety but also enemy designs and types of attacks. Robots with strange baby-like faces and awkwardly moving towards you, there is virtually no weight to feeling how the impact of the attacks or not. As there is no sort of indicator of where the attacks are coming from, and even then they feel unfair and unbalanced, most of the time you are downed, it feels cheap and not earned by any means. Thankfully, one of your squadmates can revive you, when they realize you are begging for your life on the floor.

The AI is hit or miss. Sometimes you could be lying on the floor waiting to be revived and they could just go run off and attack enemies, or just stand there, instead of trying to aid you. And in combat, their help does not amount to much as it seems that they get one hit in for every ten you make. It is likely this design was made in favor of trying to play with others, and hopefully, that is the case because it would be inexcusable otherwise as to why they would act in that way.

Being killed in one hit is never fun unless you are a fan of those types of experiences. But in the case of SOUL COVENANT, where there are no difficulty settings and the only other way to level up your stats is to painfully repeat the same levels and uninspired enemies over and over again, it is truly a tall order to try to grind for those materials needed to level up, especially when they are given at random, and you could be stuck trying to loot for plenty of time without getting what you are looking for.

As death is a continuing motif of the game, it can be seen in many aspects of it. All of the weapons used by your Avatari are made from the corpses of fellow soldiers, and this can be appreciated by the design of some of them. Rib Cages, skulls, or bone-like designs can be seen in each of the weapons.

 

"I'll pick up your bones" is a phrase repeatedly thrown around in SOUL COVENANT, meaning that when each of the Avatari dies, which as stated is something constantly happening to these characters, their "Re-In" device containing all of their memories and combat experience must be rescued from their corpses to pass on to the next clone to continue the endless fight against the mechs.

It must be said that there are a few cinematic, albeit gruesome, moments where the game takes full advantage of the full immersion a VR headset offers. At times, when fighting against the bosses and watching your fellow teammates one by one die at the hands of the mechs, these situations, like being swallowed whole by a monster or being picked up and thrown from quite a high distance, while not for the faint of heart show that there's a willingness of the developers to break the mold from the very strict confines SOUL COVENANT is set in.

It is true that all games are based in one way or another on repetition, but the never-ending cycle of death and rebirth in SOUL COVENANT, paired with the same three levels over six chapters with almost nonexistent changes to the enemies and their attacks can leave you disheartened. There is not much more to see beyond the first hour. Only the prospect of online multiplayer seems to be what could be this game's saving grace.

What seemed like a promising beginning akin to the motivated soldiers fighting for humanity until their last breath, ended up being tedious and unsatisfying. The relentless repetition, lack of levels, enemy variety, and story told through extensive expositional narrations that slow down the game to a halt leave SOUL COVENANT with much-unfulfilled potential. Marketed as a narrative JRPG, it feels more like a disjointed action adventure.

 

PSVR2 users have been clamoring for a true JRPG such as what SOUL COVENANT looked to be on the outside. But this is not it. This game’s shine wears off rather quickly with its light RPG elements, focus on unwieldy combat absence of real substance, and variations in the gameplay to keep you going back. After the first hour of gameplay, it feels like you have seen everything it has to offer. Which is not bad, but it could have been so much more.
 

Luis Aviles (@AndresPlays93)
Editor, NoobFeed