In regular life, I’d like to think that being 33 means I’m still pretty young. But videogame culture ages like dogs – with so many new releases, seasons, updates, and constantly evolving technology, anything from five or six years ago may as well have come from the Bronze Age. Point being, I’m old and barnacled enough to remember when demos came on discs and lasted all of 20 minutes each, but now it’s a brave new world. With Steam Next Fest right around the corner, a huge new survival game, with flashes of The Forest, Far Cry, Valheim, and maybe a little Ark or Assassin’s Creed, has launched what is technically called a demo, but is basically the length of an entire game. Clocking in at 40 hours, if we’re talking value for money, this is pretty unbeatable.
Soulmask is a gigantic, extremely colorful new survival game set in the wilderness of a mystical and ancient land. Your job, as you might expect it, is to stay alive and gradually overcome the myriad dangers of the – admittedly beautiful – outdoor world. You begin with nothing. But over the course of Soulmask, you’ll build weapons, shelters, and equipment, and develop dozens of new skills to help maximize your chances at remaining above ground. You can even raise and command a small army of fellow tribespeople to help you hunt, forage, and fight against the lethal local fauna.
There are eight different weapon styles and 58 combat skills. Using a robust physics system, Soulmask wants to make fighting feel heavy and arduous, but also rewarding and cerebral. This isn’t a hack-and-slash where you can just wade in and wipe out waves of enemies. You need to pick your battles, and your attacks, carefully. You can play solo or join a 70-player online server to compete in PvP.
And now, there’s a huge new demo. The Soulmask Steam Next Fest demo lasts for a whopping 40 hours and allows you to advance to level 30. If you want to try it – and try it, and try it, and try it some more – you can get the gigantic Soulmask demo right here.
Alternatively, you might want to try some other great RPGs, or maybe some of the best open-world games available on PC.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.