Void Sols
With so much of the environment obscured until you get close enough to illuminate it, it’s easy to get cornered. It’s a fine feat of game direction to then make a standoff between two triangles feel genuinely tense
The Soulslike is now so ubiquitous that simply shifting the camera overhead and erasing the third dimension isn’t enough to make a new example feel novel. Fortunately, it’s not Void Sols’ best idea. That would be embracing the ‘Dark’ in Dark Souls with sparse illumination that makes exploring its mazes a tense creep through the abyss. Progress comes from levelling up and finding better equipment, naturally, but also from igniting fixed torches that offer limited clarity. Light is precious, scarce and constantly obscured by annoyances (including yourself ) from revealing threats. Hiding an enemy around a corner is a cheap trick beloved of the genre, so it’s a minor miracle that Void Sols manages to make it feel fresh again, and significantly fairer, by obscuring foes in your own shadow.