Slain: Back from Hell

Released for the Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2017 by Wolf Brew Games, Slain: Back from Hell features both brutally violent and difficult 2D platforming action.

Back in 2016, Slain's Kickstarter announcement and early artwork garnered some excitement. The pixel-art graphics looked incredible, and the game's over-the-top, bloody, medieval hack-n-slash style was gruesomely beautiful. With this aesthetic and promised gnarly metal soundtrack, this game looked to be THE MOST METAL game released. Then, it was released...

 

What could possibly go wrong?

Players and reviewers lamented the game's poor controls, inconsistent frame rate, and the general impossiblity of making any progress into Slain, due to an almost inconcievable difficulty. Thankfully, the development team went back to the drawing board, and released an update that corrected nearly all of the control, balancem, and framerate issues. However, this update went both largely unnoticed and unappreciated--case in point, Nintendolife, likely the most popular Nintendo Switch review site, gave this updated Slain, retitled Slain: Back From Hell, a 4/10. The main complaint seemed to be that the game was still just too hard? But is that even a fair complaint?

 

Wait, you're telling me I actually have to try in this game? Forget it, I'm just gonna jump in this blood fountain.

Slain is a side-scrolling action game. Your weapon is an enormous sword. Tap the sword button once, and you'll swing once--but your sword is huge, and swinging it takes a moment, creating an opening for enemies if you've timed your swing wrong. If you tap the button three times, you can do a simple three hit combo. You've also got a back-dash dodge move, as well as a block, which if executed at just the moment your enemy is about to make contact with you, results in stunning them, and creating an opening for your sword slash to land a devastating blow. As you progress through the game, you gain the ability to augment your sword with ice and fire. You can also launch projectiles, which uses mana energy. Hold that launch button down long enough, and you can fire an enormous projectile (altered by whichever sword augmentation you're using). There's also a charged attack, though you must tap the sword button just as the charging is at its peak, or you'll do nothing.

 

Looks like I timed that right.

These are simple mechanics that take skill and practice to master. You can't jump into Slain expecting to just jam buttons to quick victory. You've got to get a feel for the controls, including the way your character, the long-haired and bearded, Bathyoryn, jumps. These are not broken mechanics. They're just mechanics that take a bit of time to get used to. And yes...the game is brutal.

 

Just like middle school.

Slain: Back From Hell is a very difficult game. Stages are full of traps, devastating enemies, and highly-powered bosses and mini-bosses. I'm fairly confident your average player could not beat this game. But does an overarching difficulty make Slain: Back from Hell a bad game? I don't think so, and I don't think that judgement is fair. 

I beat Slain: Back from Hell. Are 2D platformers my bread and butter? Well, yes. Admittedly, I am better at this genre of video games than most people. I made mince-meat out of Cuphead and Hollow Knight last year. I blasted through Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair earlier this year. I generally play this kind of game in an aggressive, swarming style, where I die often, but progress quickly, rushing forward and quickly picking up muscle memory through trial-and-error. I understand that may not be everybody's cup of tea. This play-style doesn't work great on NES games with limited lives and no save files, either. However, since the 16-bit era, when save files and more prominenet save points became a thing, I've been beating the hell out of these games. Just ask K. Rool.

 

Bitch, I said just ask K. Rool.

Slain: Back from Hell features a prominent amount of save points throughout its stages. I only counted two moments in this 14-level game where I thought the save points were frustratingly far apart. You have unlimited lives, so you have unlimited chances to fail and eventually succeed in progressing from one save point to the next. Yes, some of the bosses are very difficult. One took me nearly two hours to beat because I was overlooking a simple element in their pattern (like most games in this genre, bosses either follow strict patterns, or have major tells as to what their next moves will be). However, outside of those two level moments, and that one boss fight, I never felt like I was hopelessly stuck in this game. I didn't even feel hopeless in those three moments, just frustrated.

 

Okay, sounds good!

Why shouldn't there be games made for players like me? Does every game have to be for everyone? Granted, I don't want every game I play to be this hard, but sometimes I need to face a great gaming challenge. So many modern games hold players' hands from start to finish. I like how Slain is both punishing in its difficulty, yet forgiving in the fact that you don't have to start the whole thing over, even after you've died a thousand times (there are no "lives," you just infinitely get sent back to the previous save point until you survive to the next one). It doesn't hurt that the production values are excellent. That gruesome, bloody pixel art really is incredible. The Halloween-vibed, horror movie-on steroids game world, full of metal iconography, is unique to the this game and just my cup of tea. Likewise the brutal, symphonic metal soundtrack throughout. Are the controls as tight and perfectly tuned as say, Super Mario Bros.? No, but they're not game breaking, and it's quite possible to adapt to them.

 

Just like your body is about to "adapt" to the shape of this ax. Wait, bad metaphor.

At about 10-15 hours, Slain: Back from Hell is just the right length for this type of game. Sure, it appeals to a narrow demographic: you've got to both be into gruesome gore and a heavy metal aesthetic, as well as ultra-difficult, 2D action-platformers. But if you are, and boy am I, Slain: Back from Hell is far more treat than trick. Just look at how badass this sequence is!

 

Killing an enormous demonic, yet noble henchmen compelled to fight me to the death who craves the freedom from his curse that only death can bring is my life's dream!

I got Slain: Back from Hell on the eShop as a part of the Pixel Art Bundle Vol. 1, which includes two other games I hear are solid, for $1.99! What a deal!

SCORE: 7.2/10