Simulakros demo playthrough (Steam Next Fest Oct 2023)
0This game caught my attention while skimming throught the Next Fest front page. Wasn't sure what to expect, but seemed worth a try.
Simulakros looks nice (sort of gives a Warframe-esque vibe) and gunplay can feel satisfying… or it would, if FPS skills were sufficient to carry you through a run. Sadly, this game seems to approach the roguelite genre by zerg-rushing you with more than you have resources to counter. Sound cues (e.g. enemy footsteps) might be able to help, but nearly all audio in the game aside from your own shots and barrel explosions is way too quiet.
You can end up trivially kiting enemies in a huge conga line, Killing-Floor-style, but ultimately something's likely to get the jump on you from the side or behind, or you'll get stuck on geometry somewhere and enemies will catch up. To make matters worse, you're basically screwed once they do, because the roll mechanic doesn’t seem to grant invincibility frames.
I initially forgot to try easy mode on stream, but tried it separately and included it in the last 20 minutes of this video. TL;DR: it effects enemy durability, which does help the game feel a bit more satisfying, as enemies are normally quite tanky when combined with the sheer numbers they can appear in. Easy mode does not seem to affect that number, nor enemy aggressiveness; it allowed me to get further but I ultimately felt just as screwed as before.
I would’ve liked to be able to try more than one character class to see if any others might work better for me, but I’m not sure if others can be unlocked in the demo, and I got tired of trying.
On top of the underwhelming gameplay, I also wonder if Simulakros might be poorly-optimized - I had to keep resolution scaling on to get even 60 FPS on a RTX 3060 (and it couldn't quite achieve 120 even on the max-performance resolution scaling option), and there was always a noticeable hitch after finishing the “hacking” room.
Ultimately, this gets tossed on the ever-growing pile of games that look nice but don't feel terribly satisfying to play. If you want to have a look for yourself, grab the demo on Steam. There's no release window yet, so if anything I hope it's still early enough in development to work on making the gameplay click.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2067160/Simulakros/
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