Paradox Soul Review

Ratalaika Games are currently releasing a lot of titles at the moment, Paradox Soul is the latest one. Paradox Soul has been likened to a chilling metroidvania, so it’ll be interesting if that is indeed the case. For the Platinum trophy hunters out there, they’ll be glad to know that Paradox Soul is another fairly easy game to get all the trophies.

You play as Dr Alli Rose, a research scientist that comes across a test facility and as any research scientist worth their salt, you have to investigate what’s going on. That’s about it for the story in Paradox Soul, you’ll find very little as you progress in terms of plot, dialogue or action sequences until you reach the end. Possibly that is what Paradox Soul is aiming for, because there is very little help on offer. Each scene is like a level and there are a lot of levels, so ideally you would like a map to help you out. There is a map to be found but there’s no hint that one exists or where it could be found.

Like most metroidvania games you make your way through Paradox Soul entering stairs/lifts to access other areas. On your way you can upgrade your weaponry and come across a small selection of enemies. Some of the enemies can simply be jumped over or run past depending on your mentality. You have a limited lifeline but luckily each scene is a checkpoint, so if you die then you simply respawn at the entrance you came through. The enemies are pretty standard affair. Disfigured humans jump out of glass cubicles and chase you, weird dogs run at you, some humans have guns so you have to take cover, there’s a hovering drone, some kind of ramming machine and something that resembles the ED-209 from Robocop. They are all have fairly easy patterns to follow so beating them isn’t a challenge.

The bosses are harder but again follow a set routine, when you defeat a boss you will be gifted additional weaponry & skills such as the ability to drop bombs or generate electricity.

In Paradox Soul, your character can unlock the ability to double jump and slide which will help you bypass certain obstacles. There are key cards and other items that allow you to access other areas. There’s not a huge amount of variety in Paradox Soul, you basically enter a scene, shoot a couple of things then move on to the next, sometimes you’ll find something useful, most of the time you don’t. Graphically Paradox Soul goes for a nostalgic retro feel whilst the environments are a bit on the basic side, it does feel like a lot of levels follow the same template.

Paradox Soul is a light edition to the metroidvania genre, the lack of help could put some off but overall Paradox Soul is not a challenging game. The lack of a story doesn’t help whilst the repetitiveness of respawning enemies can grate. There’s a little bit of character behind Paradox Soul, it’s just a shame it is shrouded in such mystery.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.