I wanted to love Bleak Faith: Forsaken. The combination of Soulslike, the small team and the unique aesthetics all combine to make for an alluring picture, but get closer, and you'll see that this a game that may be beyond saving. While a full-3D Soulslike from a three-person team sounds impressive on paper, it feels more like a student told a teacher they would write a novel for their next English assignment but only turned in one finished chapter and a plot outline. It is admirable to attempt the feat, but there is a reason so many smaller devs opt for 2D games like Hollow Knight or simplified 3D games like Dusk; there is a lot more space for iteration and optimization, something Bleak Faith sorely needs. 

The Good

Bleak Faith has moments where you see what the developers at Archangel Studios were trying to achieve. Still, nearly every one is immediately interrupted by some bizarre glitch or janky animation. The music choices are downright inspired, and they help the atmosphere immensely. The atmosphere of the Omnistructure (the game's central location) is the best part of Bleak Faith. Exploring and taking in the sights is the most exciting part of the game, and the world is surreal and creepy in ways you rarely see other Soulslikes go. Combat and gear have some unique ideas, but both feel half-baked, and bad animations and glitches hamstring the fights with elevation and character movement. 

The Bad 

Where to start? Bleak Faith's movement speed is affected by the game's framerate, so without prior knowledge, anyone above 60 FPS will run into slippery character movement and physics issues. Even with this, the movement still feels floaty, and combat is unresponsive. Hitboxes are all over the place, and some enemy attacks that show a clearly telegraphed area of effect will hit you well outside of that. The game is full of moves that will kill you instantly with almost no warning, and the sound is so sparse that you can't rely on cues to save you. I don't know if there is ambient sound in the game. Stand still between the moments the soundtrack isn't blaring, and you won't hear the wind or leaves rustling—just silence. 

Combat is based on parrying and the typical stamina management that souls are known for, but the stamina depletes so quickly and restores so slowly that every fight feels like a flailing chore. Each element of Bleak Faith feels completely unfinished; environments are empty, exploring the nooks and crannies of the Omnistructure is unsatisfying, and enemies tend to bounce around and clip through the environment. This game would have benefited from an Early Access launch and a year or two of support; launching as is feels more like a proof-of-concept than a finished game. 

What Surprised Me

Bleak Faith better captures the intangible elements that many other Soulslike titles fail to do, like the atmosphere. When the music hits right, and you are exploring the narrow walkways and labyrinth megastructures, Bleak Faith can be tense and terrifying. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between and are constantly interrupted as soon as you run into another janky enemy encounter, get stuck on stairs, or fall to your death by accidentally accessing an out-of-bounds area. 

Bleak Faith also does a few exciting things with gear and combat. In combat, timed clicks make for better combos, and there can be a satisfying rhythm to parrying and attacking. The first boss, in particular, is a fun fight, if a little uneven, but subsequent bosses fare worse. Your level is dictated by gear, not XP, so you don't have to worry about frequently dying. This is a good thing because the amount you will die that feels entirely out of your control will be a lot in Bleak Faith. 

What Was Predictable 

I expected some level of jank from Bleak Faith, but the degree to which it hampers every level of the game is astounding. It feels as if the game is shaking apart at any given time, from your weapons violently bouncing around on your back to how enemies quickly teleport into view when you come around a corner. Everything feels like it is rushing to try and work for the player but falling on its face anyway. 

Bottom Line

On the most basic level, there is an appeal to Bleak Faith. The enemies have creepy, science-fiction-inspired designs, the world is intriguing, and some truly inspired ideas from Archangel Studios support the whole thing. But every element feels half-baked or borderline broken. Movement and combat are floaty and clunky, exploration is unsatisfying, the visuals are hit or miss, music tracks repeat too often, and the story is indecipherable. 

Visuals: 3

Bleak Faith has some excellent aesthetic choices, but most feel ripped from better source material like Warhammer 40k, Evangelion, or directly from FromSoftware themselves. The visuals are full of glitches, misplaced geometry, garish lighting, and unfinished-looking effects. 

Sound: 2

The music is interesting, but the tracks repeat far too often. Weapons and enemies do their job, but I found multiple enemy types, from living creatures to cyborgs, had the same death grunts. The lack of variance permeates every part of the sound design, and the missing ambient sound leaves me thinking the game needs more time in the oven. 

Playability: 2

There are glimmers of exciting ideas in Bleak Faith's gameplay, but they have yet to coalesce into anything worthwhile. In an oversaturated genre, nothing short of perfect combat is an option, and Bleak Faith fails to make even the most basic interactions with the world fun. 

Story: 1

Bleak Faith feels like a facsimile of what FromSoftware has achieved with its storytelling but with none of the magic that makes the Souls games excellent. There are cryptic characters, a mysterious world, and esoteric lore, but they are all so threadbare and underutilized that before you even get an idea of what is happening or your role in the world, the game ends. 

Replay Value: 2

You could get twenty hours out of Bleak Faith, but that would be better spent playing one of the million other Soulslike games currently saturating the market. Without a few years’ worth of updates and severe polishing, Bleak Faith is impossible to recommend in its current state. 

Overall Grade: 2