Slain Back from Hell is the perfect example of community-driven updates! The game was completely revamped using the tips and wishes from their first players. But does this save the game?
Forget driving fast cars, shooting laser guns or flying through the Death Star, THIS IS HELL!
Slain is a very unforgiving platformer reminiscent of Castlevania. These 2D games were instant classics and Slain goes down that same path albeit some stubborn choices. All fueled by a Metal soundtrack.
You start off with a plain simple tutorial after being revived so you can slay the demons from the other side.
You and your humongous whale of a sword are the only hope left to fight back. Oh and there’s Metal music!
The visual style is of course an homage to the games from back then when the genre of bloody hack’n slashing through pixel-corridors had reached its pinnacle. There’s a lot more going on on the screen than back then and this wasn’t a lazy choice by the dev but rather a celebration of the genre and its typical graphical style. if you can’t stand a tiny amount of blood, stay away from this game. If blood is your fetish get ready to never lay it down ever again. Oh and if you like Metal, we should mention there’s a Metal soundtrack.
The enemies are varied and you will need to figure out strategies to defeat them without losing too much precious health. You can use your sword attacks to melee your way through the bodies. The thing I didn’t like is that your character dashes forward when using the main attack even when you do not move the directional inputs. So often you get hit by enemies you were just trying to kill. You can dash backwards to counter this but still I think this is a weird decision just to make the game more difficult. If you time your blocking right, you will be able to parry and counter with a devastating finishing move that makes the enemies spray blood across the rest of the map. Bloody satisfying. After a while you will gather elemental powers to enhance your sword. You’ll have to find out for yourself which foes are weak to which element you can equip. Trail and Error… This isn’t a Super Mario game, please don’t jump on the enemies or you’ll be slain! Did we mention the Metal soundtrack?
If you want to switch things up you can use your magic bar until it depletes of course. The bar procures some special attacks that are semi-melee or pure energy based. These are great to keep foes at a distance and kill them before they get to you. There also an attack that can obliterate any foe on the screen, that’s great when you’re in a pinch and you feel like all hope is sucked out of you looking at the hordes of enemies trying to devour you. Also there’s a Metal soundtrack!
The levels are heavy in one color but that’s how these games were, this is another example of the homage to the genre rather than laziness. There’s a lot moving around in the scenery and even when the game throws hordes of monsters at you the frame rate stays consistent and you won’t be able to blame your death to bad performance. It all runs smoothly and you will see the death screen a lot! It’s just this kind of game. It’s not freakishly hard (only if you choose to play it that way) but sometimes you forget that touching an enemy after unwillingly dashing forward will cost you hit points on your health bar and well that’s one of the only complaints I have… And yes, the Metal music fits the genre correctly and adds to the whole ‘if Iron Maiden would be a game’ feeling.
If Iron Maiden would be a game!
Slain: Back from Hell listened to its fans and the result is a strong yet bloody carnage in hell. Too bad they didn’t fix the forward dashing when no directional input is put in. But apart from this probably deliberate choice to make the game more challenging, this is a good addition to the genre only reigned by legends.
| The Good | The Bad |
| – Easy to master the basics | – Forward dash while attacking |
| – Challenging | – NOT ENOUGH METAL MUSIC! |
| – Metal music | |
Final Score: 4/5
(PS: If you want a perfect track to play along: Organised Chaos – Killed by the Knife)
