Praise and criticism of Soulmask (Fact and Fiction)

[Khotec]

In real life, survival and fantasy are incompatible. That strange combination does not guarantee good results in a survival game.

If we look for common sense and coherence in a semi-fantasy game like Soulmask, any mechanic based on the material reality of the known universe is transformed into myth. In Soulmask the mask does not determine the development of the game, but it is present, unnecessarily transforming the initial character and the tribe itself as a mere object and not as the main subject. That fantasy element divides the player who is looking for a survival game in Soulmask.

Why is the Mask the protagonist of a survival game?

What does the mask have to do with the material needs of the living being?

The answer to that question is very basic. The developers aim to introduce their personal touch with innovation and distinction in the survival game genre. They do not want to offer a mediocre survival game, but in the attempt, they fall into the clutches of mediocrity, in which the developers themselves survive and even come out victorious thanks to the epicenter in their excellent slavery mechanics. Thanks to the slavery system, Soulmask has achieved something important that sets it apart from other survival games. And here the mask itself demonstrates that it is not a necessary element in the slavery system, which can survive perfectly without the mask itself.

In this context of reality mixed with fiction, whose protagonist is a strange mask, Soulmask follows the rational line with mechanics based on material reality itself, such as cultivation and production chains that depend on raw materials and processed resources to create goods with use value in weapons, armor, processed foods, work tables and building structures. All the mechanics in Soulmask respect to a greater and lesser extent the laws of nature itself, such as gravity, time and even crops follow the same laws imposed by nature as we know it. And again the mask clashes head-on with that logic, perhaps because the developers consider that magic and mystery are necessary to increase the number of sales.

In short, the developers managed to provide realism in specific mechanics, but they also struggle with the contradictions of the market in which they consider that all consumers of survival games look for fantasy elements.

Of course, there are other mechanics that do not fit reality, for example:

None of the captured and recruited NPCs must be better than the starting character, since all the slaves have been defeated by a superior warrior. That superior warrior is your starting character, which the developers have capped. In any case, the captured warriors must continue, with or without the player's help, their own development until they become legendary warriors.

Of course, the developers do not force you to buy the game. You are free to buy and play it, but if they force you to constantly change characters, they force you to raise the skills of all the members of a tribe to whom, however, they give complete autonomy in their own life. I like the slave system precisely because the recruited NPCs seem to have
His own life. I also like the option of being able to control any member of your tribe, that's probably the developers' best work, but connecting all that through a mask is completely twisted and unnecessary.

Soulmask offers the best of slavery, far surpassing Myth of Empires itself.

Soulmask offers a balanced growing system. It also offers other realistic mechanics, but where it really fails is not in the stupid mask, but in the sizing system.

Soulmask mounts are probably the worst taming system in survival games today.

I like Soulmask and I recommend it, but I think developers should give options and open up possibilities for inclusion and non-exclusion. The mechanics that exclude only benefit one party. Among the mechanics that they exclude is forcing the player to play with characters that have not been initially chosen by the player themselves. That should only be optional.