Credit: Dear Villagers, Empty Head Games
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I was provided with the opportunity to review one of the first games developed by Empty Head Games, the first independent video game studio based in Cuba. Saviorless is a 2D platformer that promises an epic journey, puzzles, and strategy. It’s available to play on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. For this review, I did play this game using my PS5 console.
To properly review this game, I will be providing you with a synopsis of the story, I’ll talk about the gameplay, and share my honest thoughts on whether or not this game is worth your time. I’ll be sure to avoid any story spoilers in case, you decide to give Saviorless a try after this review.
What Is Saviorless?
In Saviorless you play as Antar an ambitious child who hopes to one day become a Savior. To achieve his mission, Antar will need to embark on a treacherous journey to a forbidden land known as the Smiling Islands. As Antar, you’ll face hordes of enemies, explore unique and varied landscapes, and defeat the many bosses that haunt the realm of the Saviors.
How Was It?
Saviorless is a very solid game overall. You can tell that the developers were focused on providing you with an epic journey, with many different twists and turns. To come out on top, you’ll need to focus on timing your movements properly and keeping your patience to complete the game’s difficult levels.
The Story
One aspect I enjoyed about the story is the unique way you are introduced to the game’s protagonists. Without spoiling it for you, it’s done in such a way as to immediately pique your interest and keep you emotionally invested in the story.
There is a ton of narration that happens as you progress throughout the levels, and you can tell the development team wanted to tell an epic adventure here. I think they did a good job overall. One thing I’ll mention is there are pages, you’ll need to collect throughout Antar’s journey. To fully complete the story, you’ll want to be sure to grab all of these pages during your playthrough, and some of these can be rather difficult to find. But I like this aspect, as it makes you want to explore the levels thoroughly.
This is a good move to satisfy the completionsist out there.
Art Design
I did enjoy the overall look and aesthetic of Saviorless. This game has a rather unique hand-drawn art style, that works very well in my opinion. It kind of reminded me of Rick and Morty, and the unique art style is complemented well by the game’s soundtrack. It both looked and played great on my PS5, although I’m very curious how well this game will perform on Nintendo Switch.
Now I do want to mention, that Saviorless can get a little dark at times, especially when you get to the latter half of the game. The mix of light and darker tones here may be a little jarring, but I don’t think this is enough to fully hurt the gameplay experience for most players.
The Gameplay
I did enjoy my time playing Saviorless. Games of this nature are generally known for their difficulty, and I did die a lot throughout my playthrough, but none of these deaths are particularly frustrating as the game doesn’t severely punish you for it.
When you die, you respawn very close to where you were originally, and there aren’t any items you have to worry about losing when you respawn.
This game is primarily more about strategizing and timing your movements rather than its overall difficulty. There were a few puzzles that I found particularly challenging, but all of them can be solved if you take a step back and think about your approach.
Now the boss battles can get quite difficult as you’ll have to use all of the skills you’ve mastered throughout your journey to win. But for those of you who are worried about the difficulty, I’d say don’t be. This game can be a challenge, but I’d say it’s nowhere near the difficulty of Cuphead. So most of you reading this review should be able to complete the game, and fully enjoy the game’s story.
The Final Verdict
Saviorless is a good game for what it is. I enjoyed my time playing it, and would certainly recommend it to those of you that are into 2D platformers. I’ve decided to give Saviorless a score of 8 out of 10. It’s a very solid title, and I think you can have plenty of fun with it.
I tried to find some negatives about the game, but there isn’t much that I can point out except for the game’s overall length and difficulty. It feels like the story could’ve been a lot longer, but that is a small criticism and I also felt like this game should be a lot harder than it was.
I don’t play very many 2D platformers, and maybe I have some unrealistic expectations or PTSD from trying to beat Cuphead, but I felt like this game should have been slightly more difficult or at least had the option to increase the difficulty to better suit my needs.
Thank you for taking the time to read my review. Are you interested in playing Saviorless? Let me know in the comments section.
