Slain - Brutally Rewarding

Hard Game is Hard

Hard men come in all shapes, some cylindrical with pull tabs. I'm something of a tough guy myself, tough enough to take my groceries to the house in one trip. I'm actually so fearless that instead of dodge-rolling to the fridge, I just walk there and tank any damage along the way. When it comes time to open a jar of pickles, I'm not afraid...to ask for help. I'm no different when it comes to the world of gaming, most get beaten on the third-to-hardest difficulty with minimal retries. I'm the kind of gamer that doesn't use a walkthrough until I can't find a doorway. Few games take me more than 70 hours to win, speedrunners, hold your applause. Leave it to the man shaped like a can to beat Wolf Brews first game, Slain. For those of you who still have Slain sitting in your backlogs, it's one of those ultra-difficult 2d slashers, a 'Metroidvenia' as the young folks say. Slain brings the pain with a level of difficulty more fitting the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis era, back when Handick was a wee lad who's crowning achievements were beating games on a 2nd hand gamepad that had seen more action than the left-click on most peoples mice. The closest thing I've played to Slain is the Revenge of the Shinobi on an actual Sega Genesis, so let's see if this metal game is harder than a blogger named Handick. stick around and find out, or don't I'm not your boss. 

Theme and Setting: Metal

From the start-screen onwards, Slain makes lives up to the reputation of being a very metal experience. For those who never watched Metalocalypse on Adult Swim, 'metal' used as an adjective means someone or something is dystopian, violent, brutal, awesome, or all of the above. Read more about it in my new book, the Handictionary. I digress, Slain earns it's metal rank with not only its difficulty and themes, but the soundtrack also. The game begins with Bathoryn, our protagonist, woken from the kind of slumber that all my pet goldfish never wake up from. After being goaded back into action by some annoying ghosts, Bathoryns journey to rid the lands of evil corruption begins. Thus begins the tale of a boomer so distraught that he must return from the grave to kick a bunch of demon kids off his lawn, timeless.

The first few steps into the world of Slain had me hooked on the brutal, dirty, metal look to the world. The pixels themselves have this jagged, aliased look to them. This is not only backs the retro theme of Slain, but also gives everything a rough, unfriendly appearance. Blood and slime decorate the games environments. There's moody red and green lighting, particle effects like snow or embers float down the screen to further boost gothic tones of terror and brutality. The atmosphere and looks hammer home the message that Slain ain't playin', you are. Speaking of 'you' Bathoryn and all his enemies are well animated and equally metal looking. There's a level of animation detail that ranges from the subtle idle animations, to the violent attacks or deaths that actually tie into the gameplay, I'll cover that later. Now we have to ask; does Slain sound as metal as it looks?

Music and Sound: Metal

Playing a game that's essentially metal album cover-art in motion only works if the game sounds like said metal album, Thankfully Slain delivers brutal atmospheric tunes that trudge alongside Bathoryn, setting the tone and pace of the action. The score swells during epic bossfights with some dips into more epic or power metal sounding elements. The music overall is a really grim, dark, foreboding dive into a world that's far from friendly. Even the little music clip that plays on activating a checkpoint is a thematically fitting little tune that features some sort of war-horn or trumpet, still somber. Care and attention to detail extend into the audio as well. Thick meaty thuds and splats of the game never got old and that's a good thing considering there's not huge library of sounds to hear in this game. Hey, we're supposed to be pretending that this would run on a SNES cart, right? Unique sounds like a successful parry and riposte got etched into my brain, there's a sense of desperate elation associated with them that will haunt me for a while, I'm sure. There's an option to headbang after every bossfight, It's a well deserved salute to the game's music.

Brutally Difficult

It's no mystery, Slain is hard. How hard you ask? The game should take about six hours and took me a little under 9. There's no steep learning curve or confusing gameplay elements, just a cold hard slap in the face for not paying attention, or any other reason the game sees fit. Just like in real life, Bathoryn has a health bar instead of several hearts/lives, so it's possible to vary the amount damage dealt by the monsters of Slain. A little poke from a skeleton? no worries, A power-attack from a bigboy skeleton? That's a near-death experience. Some things like traps or falling are an instant gib, fair enough. All the enemies in Slain have their own attacks and weaknesses. 

Every enemy, even the bosses, can be parried and riposted to deal more damage. Early on this may be optional, but late game monsters can tank more damage than a Nokia flip-phone. A perfectly timed block causes the vulnerable stun-state needed for the riposte, whereas a badly timed block results in having a bad time. Projectile attacks turn to a violent game of pingpong, as batting them back at monsters and boss-monsters is generally a recipe for success. This is vital for certain bosses too, so practicing on the various green and fire orbs careening across the levels serves as good practice for the storm to come. 

Brutally Rewarding

Throughout my nine hour run of Slain I died a lot, maybe too many times. I'm far from the sub 1 hour speedruns online, but I didn't retire the game outright, a common fate according to Howlongtobeat.com. Of all the deaths I suffered, I never felt cheated, just ill prepared. Reflexes only go so far in Slain, it's more a matter of memorizing enemy placements and attack patterns, maybe a little luck. Bosses will have their own attack patterns, some of them multi-stage. Thankfully there's carefully placed checkpoints throughout the game and before every boss. Overall, Slain is pretty fair with the challenge, though if someone complains that the game is too hard they're also right. There's an adrenaline high that comes from defeating the final boss with a sliver of health left, it feels primal and satisfying. Slain may be an entry point to harder Castlevenia types, but I'm no expert on the genre. What I am is an expert in buying games and I don't regret buying this one. 

An entire post without using the term "Souls-like" do I get head-pats? Stay optimistic, Comrades!