I do like it when a game’s title conjures up images in your head of what it would look like and then you see it and it doesn’t disappoint. Read GUILT: The Deathless and what do you see? Me, I envisioned some dark, grimy medieval world of monsters and that’s exactly what I got. Perfect naming.
That’s obviously not all there is to GUILT: The Deathless. Its Slavic folklore-inspired Dark Fantasy world is great set dressing, but what’s it about? Well, that’s where things get interesting.
GUILT: The Deathless impressions
The isometric viewpoint gives GUILT’s combat an old-school vibe.GUILT is, on the surface, an action RPG with roguelike sensibilities and an eager eye for moody medieval monster fighting. What sets it apart from other options out there is its shared world. All players contribute to the same world, so if another player unlocks a shortcut on the map, it’s available for all. Loot can be shared, and tools left for aiding your fellow goblin-slayer. Or to mess with them. You can play it how you want, and not contribute significantly if you so please, but you simply cannot avoid being a part of an ongoing world whatever you do.
The game employs permadeath, which means your current character can perish. Even so, any choices made prior to your demise still stand, which is pretty nice because you feel like your fallen hero will live on in some small way because of that. Having this balance of playing solo, but having this unspoken connection with strangers is something Death Stranding did so well, and I’m glad to see other developers are picking up that particular ball and running with it in their own ways.
The core of GUILT is its combat. Yes, you can indeed smell the heady aroma of a From Software game coming off GUILT. It doesn’t apologize for the stench, and doesn’t need to because it actually tries something a bit different with the aforementioned shared world and permadeath. Plus it’s only a part of GUILT, not the whole shebang.
You travel across the game world on a map.It’s a competent action RPG in battle, without being particularly original, but the systems around it add plenty of flavour to the pot. Progressing through the procedurally generated map and dropping into battle against punishing foes brings its own kind of choices. Your actions can lead to a more powerful avatar at your disposal, but there’s a good chance misery will be inflicted upon you as you travel the path of The Deathless.
GUILT: The Deathless is trying its best to walk the line between ambition and compromise. In these early moments, it’s handling that balance fairly well. Cherry-picking aspects of iconic games is an endless thing, but it’s only when the overarching vision can bring them all into a natural, cohesive whole that a game has any chance of working. GUILT needs a little refinement to really gel its ideas together properly, some more meat on its campaign’s bones, and it’s lacking in polish visually, but this is why it’s in Early Access in the first place. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out in the coming months and years.
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