Save Your Soul Review (PC)

It feels as if I’m back in ‘08, mourning the hundredth death of a polka dot as it attempts to reincarnate itself time and time again to navigate some of the most complex obstacles in the history of physics-based Flash games. From what I recall, it was during that time, when The Impossible Game was beginning to excavate new portals from the darkest depths of the back catalog of B-list puzzlers, that I found myself worming down a rabbit hole of stupidly high-strung cult classics. Time passed, and I thought I had shaken the trend. But then Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy came along. After that, it was Super Meat Boy. And now, well, it’s The Impossible Game all over again. We’ve come full circle, apparently. Thanks, Save Your Soul.

Save Your Soul doesn’t beat around the bush in its opening moments. It’s so on the nose, in fact, that it openly admits to being unfair—borderline impossible, even. On the surface, it looks and sounds relatively simple: a lost ghost must navigate a seemingly endless purgatory to “escape” a perpetual cycle of relentless traps and other sinister obstacles. With each death here, however, comes darkness—oblivion, as well as a reminder that, no matter how hard you try, the light at the end of the tunnel bends to no mere mortal or entity within the underbelly of limbo. The issue here is that there is no alternate solution, only a long, long corridor of spikes, pits, and barbaric structures to keep you from making progress. Suffice it to say, there are no happy endings down here, friend.

You Are Alone

Save Your Soul drops you into a pitch-black purgatory—a world that’s locked between life and death, and not to mention the home to countless acts of violence and unpleasantness. As a new arrival in this gloomy cesspit, you have the goal of defying the odds that are stacked firmly against you and tackling the layers, piece by piece, scoop by scoop. With all of this comes a rather simple 2D physics-based platforming game—a minimalistic yet mechanically complex experience that relies heavily upon dumb luck and precision to course you through its plateau of charcoal worlds.

Like a lot of sadistic platforming titles of old, Save Your Soul coerces you into believing that things aren’t quite as bad as they seem at face value. The opening portions of this particular endeavor, however, soon provide you with a glimpse of what’s to come in the latter sections of the story, which is a painfully slow and nervous journey that more or less takes great pride in your miniature failures. Here, you die — a lot. You die, not necessarily because you lack the skills to overcome certain challenges, but because the game simply wants you to suffer and make otherwise simple feats incredibly difficult for no reason other than to poke fun at you for its own amusement. That’s a niche idea, and from what time has shown, one that tends to garner more attention with each passing year. Still, it won’t be to everyone’s satisfaction. Go figure.

So…Many…Spikes

Granted, there isn’t a huge difference between the levels and their obstacles here, what with the primary trap being a belt of spikes, or at least, something of a spiky substance. In each of these levels, your goal is to reach the other side and progress to another section of the opaque labyrinth. Nothing particularly exciting about any of this; in fact, it’s a format that has been in rotation since the golden age of arcade gaming. And to be fair, it doesn’t stretch much beyond that, nor does it make an attempt to spruce up a dated blueprint by adding any graphical embellishments or visual effects. To that end, you could say that it’s a little dull—lazy, even. But to give credit where it’s due, it knows what it wants to convey, and it doesn’t necessarily care that it lacks the audiovisual qualities of a modern jewel.

On the plus side of all of these audiovisual downfalls, Save Your Soul does have a sizable collection of mazes to showcase as part of its rather depressing exhibit. It’s a pain in the backside to beat, I’ll admit, no thanks to the harsh precision-based mechanics and the significant lack of handholding that the game has to offer. And yet, with a litter of bite-sized incentives to keep you plugging away, there is just enough here to warrant your attention. It’ll test your patience, but it’ll also give you something to claim bragging rights over just as soon as you mop up the final level. That is, if you can reach it.

Verdict

Save Your Soul is the sort of hair-pulling devil on your shoulder that you just can’t help but love to yank your teeth out to for no reason other than to scratch that one irritating itch. It’s also the sort of game that we, as gamers, tend to foster a love-hate relationship with—the same way we often talk down on mechanically broken B-list indies, but then also wonder how we might have been able to do things differently if we had just spent another hour subjecting ourselves to the same graft. We hate the experience, yet we still find ourselves back at the first hurdle, once again yanking those same teeth out in the hopes that something will be better in the next session. It rarely ever is — but we persist, nonetheless.

Looking from a visual and narrative point, Save Your Soul doesn’t have much going for it. It’s dank and it’s boring, and it doesn’t exactly possess the charming qualities of a compelling side-scrolling IP. That said, it does feature a good selection of bullet-sweltering levels and ludicrously tough obstacle courses to climb, which ought to bode nicely for those who share that undying love of failure and death. Of course, if you happen to fit into that box, then chances are you’ll get a kick out of losing your hair in this depository for the ill fated.