Summary
Bleak Faith: Forsaken is a game of contrasts. Its stunning visual design and atmospheric world-building are offset by awful design choices, technical issues, and unpolished gameplay mechanics. Yes it’s a bit better than it was when it was released a year and a half ago, but it still needs more time to cook. The game’s potential is undeniable, but it has yet to fully realize it.
Developer – Archangel Studios
Publisher – Perp Games
Platforms – PC, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Review copy given by publisher
I’m a sucker for anything Souls-like, but it seems like the gaming market is oversaturated with too many copycats that don’t do anything to pay homage to their inspirations. Bleak Faith: Forsaken, developed by Archangel Studios, is an indie game that ambitiously ventures into the aforementioned genre and I’ve been following its development for years now. From the developer’s screenshots and B-rolls alone, it looks amazing, but sadly the product does not deliver. Released back in March 2023 on PC, it received major criticism for being a complete mess of a game, but the developers never gave up on their project. After almost a year and a half of patches and updates, Bleak Faith: Forsaken is also releasing for the first time on consoles, so how does it fare now?
After a nonsensical introduction cutscene that overstays its welcome, you’re dropped into a dark and dreary apocalyptic world. You’d think the developers would have tweaked it a bit for the PS5 release, but nope, it’s still the same awful intro sequence. The narrative of Bleak Faith: Forsaken is both its strength and its weakness. Set in the dystopian world of the Omnistructure, the game offers a rich, albeit cryptic, lore. The story is delivered in a minimalist fashion, with sparse dialogue and environmental storytelling taking center stage, much like the Dark Souls games. However, the lack of clear direction and context leads to confusion and frustration. Quite frankly, I have no idea what’s going on in the story, and many times I have no clue if I’m headed in the right direction.
This is a Souls-like game, so gameplay makes or breaks the flow. As with most indie Souls-likes nowadays, the execution falls short in several areas. The combat mechanics feel clunky and unresponsive, with inconsistent enemy attack patterns leading to unpredictable and often frustrating encounters. The dodge provides no i-frames and is extremely janky, the jump feels extremely floaty and there isn’t even a jump attack. Of course, you do barely any damage to enemies whereas they kill you in 2 hits. It’s the classic “let’s make a game hard and frustrating just to call it a Souls-like” formula. The overall combat design is extremely uninspiring, and not only doesn’t reinvent the wheel but can’t even do the basics correctly. The enemy AI and boss designs are very basic and cycle through the same few moves.
That being said, there are some cool builds to theory craft and interesting weapons to acquire. And I respect the developers for trying something new to break up the monotony of copying FromSoftware’s combat as Bleak Faith: Forsaken implements a sort of Shadow of the Colossus-style mechanic where you must climb onto giants to defeat them.
From a technical standpoint, Bleak Faith: Forsaken has faced significant hurdles. Upon its initial PC release, players reported numerous bugs and performance issues, ranging from frame rate drops to game-breaking glitches. The PS5 version isn’t as bad as the game was when it was initially released, but it’s not good either. For starters, it takes over 20 seconds to load into the game, which is almost unheard of for any PS5 native game nowadays. That being said, it only takes up 6.46 GB on your console, so it is quite tiny. In regards to frame rates and performance, the game runs at a solid 60 frames per second for the most part but suffers from some big drops during combat or in open areas. There are plenty of pop-ins and visual glitches, so keep that in mind.
The audio is what needs some significant overhaul. Gameplay sound effects are virtually nonexistent and the background music is blasting way too loud. You can barely hear your footsteps or attacks. These can be changed in the settings but it doesn’t really improve much. Speaking of settings, the user interface is an absolute chore to navigate, with minuscule text elements that make it nearly impossible to read without squinting. Certain areas are also too dark to see, even with the brightness turned up. At least there’s a controller mapping schema, but keys can’t be rebound.
The world is huge and beautiful, don’t get me wrong. The overall atmosphere, music, and art design are incredible. But the level design, while intricate, sometimes lacks the coherence and polish seen in more established titles within the genre. You’re often left with long stretches of nothing in this open world and all you’re doing is running from point A to point B. Exploration feels unsatisfying and unfulfilling since many places lead to dead ends with absolutely nothing to discover. At least the developers made it so that you don’t spend any stamina when sprinting out of combat! There’s an incredible amount of size to the game, but I’d rather have a scaled-down game that’s more polished than a larger one that’s full of junk.
Bleak Faith: Forsaken is a game of contrasts. Its stunning visual design and atmospheric world-building are offset by awful design choices, technical issues, and unpolished gameplay mechanics. Yes, it’s a bit better than it was when it was released a year and a half ago, but it still needs more time to cook. The game’s potential is undeniable, but it has yet to be fully realized.
