Fire in the Beastlands

This will be the 20th review for this game near 4 years after release, stuck on 'positive' for review aggregates because it doesn't have the numbers to even hit 'mostly positive'. Per steamDB, it has had a maximum concurrent player count of *four*, around the time of first release. Fire in the Beastlands is easily the most obscure game I have in my library. As of this review, it is also my favourite. In brief, Beastlands is a soulslike metroidvania with a Conan the Caveman setting. It works hard to capture two things: the melancholy of the first Dark Souls game, and the sweeping breadth of a grand metroidvania. Somewhere in the execution of these two goals, Beastlands carves an identity of its own. Often vague, verbose, perhaps slightly lopsided, but also lush, engrossing, and brimming with a love for the craft that you feel from that first hit of the main menu music. This is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for that Salt and Sanctuary hit of a 2D soulslike, for any one into the more retro style of metroidvania, and especially for anyone into prehistoric inspired settings. There are simply not enough caveman games of this calibre out there. But critically, this i…

This is a top-tier indie offering, and I enjoyed every minute of my playthrough. I'm genuinely sad to see it has so few reviews. IMO it deserves the success of something like Salt and Sanctuary. The game does includes some adult themes / images. The game is a Soulslike / Metroidvania hybrid, and it excels at both combat and exploration. The art and animation might seem a bit odd in the store pics, but I found it quite appealing (even beautiful) in-game. The combat is tight. Health and damage balancing feels perfectly tuned throughout the game. Movesets are varied, enemy attacks are well choreographed, and dodging i-frames are fairly generous. (I didn't mess with blocking too much, so I can't comment on that.) Sometimes enemy attacks can feel overbearing, and some bosses may seem impossible first try, but I always felt like there was a way to overcome the challenges the game offered. All the armor, weapons, spells, consumables, key items, and world traversal abilities feel unique and rewarding to find / use. Character build really matters, but the game does allow for stat point respecs. (Not for the consumable upgrade skulls, however. I think you're stuck with your choices on …

Highly, highly recommend this game. Haven't finished as of writing this review, but thoroughly enjoying my time so far. (Edit: Plays great on steam deck, no changes needed. Another review mentions they had to refund due to a steam deck controller issue, but either this has already been fixed or I just never ran into it) It’s a 2D action-adventure/exploration game set in this absolutely huge, cursed Paleolithic-type fantasy world, with bone shamans, giant spirit beasts, and all kinds of bizarre stuff. The map design is very Dark Souls-inspired, except instead of labyrinthine gothic castles, it’s this bizarre prehistoric natural world. Honestly, as someone who has always bounced off Dark Souls combat because I’m terrible at it, this game’s similarly punishing 2D combat just feels way more fun to me. The combat is tough but rewarding, but the real highlight is the exploration. It’s so good. You never know what kind of secret you’re going to stumble across, and basically every region has hidden paths, shortcuts, and connections to other areas. You get that feeling of actually discovering a strange world instead of just following a checklist of objectives. The sense of wonder you ge…

Do it...

Unga Bunga Souls que no para de darte patadas en los cojones pero entonces desarrollas un kink de CBT.

I really dug what I played of fires in the beast land and want to play more. Unfortunately I had to refund because there was an issue with steam deck where I couldn’t change what equipment was equipped on my character ( pretty big deal for a soulslike) Hopefully this gets fixed and I can finish it because I love this style of 2d souls