The original Devil May Cry is one of the stranger developments in gaming. It began as a "Resident Evil" game and morphed into a pseudo-fighting game with combos and flashy aerial attacks. Recent productions have been set in a completely three-dimensional world and the horror elements have been downplayed, but what if they weren't ......" Soulfest, like Scrappy DMC, has emerged to answer the question, "What is the point of this game?

Whereas Devil May Cry has become more over-the-top and comedic over the years, Soulstice is steeped in a dark, dour, grim medieval atmosphere. In terms of aesthetics (though certainly not in the design of the world), it resembles the less cheerful Dark Souls, with not a single moment of warmth and beauty, such as the onion knights or the glowing sun. All that remains is a ruined settlement, the towering city of Ilden filled with transformed citizens and monsters from the void. As Briar the Ash Knight and her sister Lute, you must invade the city and seal the breach to save the world.

Soulstice's story is in a tricky place, with moments of melodrama sprinkled over a flimsy, simplistic plot. We are asked to care about the sisters, but both are drawn from uninteresting archetypes (the cornered, unsympathetic warrior and her innocent sister) and never develop any more personality than that. The game is littered with little exchanges that, in theory, should tell us something about the sisters, but they are rarely more than the clichéd "I wish the killing would end," and, worse, are repeated endlessly as the game progresses.

Chapters are separated by cutscenes that serve to move characters to new locations, but do little to flesh out the world or history in the process. Sometimes explanations and character development are spared, sometimes not enough. Ultimately, we need to give them a reason to care.

Instead, in this apocalyptic and grim fantasy setting, story takes a backseat to action and atmosphere. It's a thick ladle of mood created by an overbearing soundscape that only builds during fast-paced battles and a desaturated color palette that makes it difficult to read the world at a glance. Many times I had to squint at the screen to figure out the layout of a scene or to see the edge of a platform before it fell off the edge. Increasing the brightness helped a little, but even then, the tonal variation was still not enough, with mainly shades of black, blue, and green, making it impossible to get a quick read on the environment.

Like Devil May Cry, the Soulstice stage moves between two phases. There is the exploration phase, where briars explore the linear environment (dead-end paths may hide power-ups and currency), and the flashy breakout battle, where creatures pop out of portals and go after you. A magical barrier creates a closed combat arena, and once all enemies are defeated, you are graded on time, combos, and damage done.

While the animation is a bit stiff and the enemies are not as flashy as in "DMC" or "Bayonetta," the combat in "Soulstice" is fun and challenging with a barrage of weapons and monsters that explode flesh and currency. There is less emphasis on long-range combat (it takes quite a while to get a bow), and greater emphasis is placed on ghost companions, who can interrupt enemy attacks with the touch of a button.

While juggling creatures as a briar or trying to learn combos while punching and dodging, often a button prompt appears above the enemy. If the timing is right, the lute will intervene and, depending on the situation, repel an arrow, slam back a weapon, or freeze the enemy in place. It's a bit of an Arkham Asylum, where you can take on multiple enemies at the same time without having to worry about being attacked from all sides.

While there is plenty of room for timing, combat remains difficult, as lutes cannot fight them all off at once. Combat increases in scale and complexity, with monsters that are invincible until they activate the appropriate energy field, knights with armor that must first be beaten off, and ghosts that try to possess creatures and resurrect them. This makes it difficult to follow all of Lute's button-mashing instructions, and it is important to remember that frozen enemies will eventually thaw out. Button mashing is just barely possible by purchasing consumable (and limited) health items or finding them in the world, but it is not possible to switch off completely during a battle.

Once you get the hang of the energy field, you can hit red-tinted monsters by turning on red and ghosts by turning on blue, but suddenly you also have to fight landmines. Land mines burn up when you light red, and explode if you leave them lit for too long. The combat in "Soulstice" sometimes asks for too much.

Still, it feels good to survive the exhausting combat and see the platinum badge appear at the end. In "Soul Fest," this lousy result became more common to me as the system stacked up, from the super-powerful Unity moves to the temporarily devastating Rapture state. These advanced powers become practically indispensable later in the game, but they are poorly taught. Tutorial pop-ups lack detail and the skill tree is full of incomprehensible upgrades.

For the longest time I had no idea how to perform Unity's moves. It's actually a finisher. First you build up the Unity meter (by mixing Briar and Lute attacks without getting hit) and then you unleash a specific special move. I only figured this out after perusing the help menu and Lute's skill trees (4 of them). These trees have so many options that they are baffling, so I am grateful for Briar's tree, which only lists weapon combos and improvements. I just unlocked a new technique for the whip.

Outside of combat, this is a much simpler game. You navigate the winding streets of the dimly lit, colorless city, sometimes entering alleys to smash crystals for currency and pick up the occasional nugget of an upgrade. Lute's versatile energy field allows Briar to bypass traps, smash crystal gates, and even jump onto ghostly scaffolding. This is a throwback to the early days of Devil May Cry, mainly because of the camera. The fixed camera angles, except during combat, make the city look truly gorgeous, but make it difficult to actually play the game.

For example, platforming. There are many platforms in Soulstice, but the camera angles are never consistent. Scenes are often framed for style rather than practicality, making it difficult to judge the distance between adjacent platforms. I usually use character shadows as a guide when there are sections of platforms in a 3D game, but the world of Soulstice is so gloomy that such an option is not available. This oscillation in depth perception is a constant problem, not only in platformers, but also in combat and when smashing crystals in the air. It is difficult to determine if you are on the side or not. If you miss, you have to climb back up and start over.

Thankfully, in battle you have full control of the camera (most of the time). These moments of freedom are therapeutic, but unfortunately, once you win, you are clumsily returned to the primary or floating viewpoint.

I found this switching to be constantly misguided and constantly frustrating as I was forced to admire the effort expended on the environment. Sure, there are beautiful vistas of sunlight shining into a scorching skyline, but I'd rather have a consistent perspective that allows me to move forward without constantly losing my bearings.

The world feels false almost everywhere you go, and the space available for exploration does not match what is right in front of you. You can't enter that alley, you can't jump on that roof or platform, and only certain (glowing) crates can be destroyed. It takes skill to hide invisible walls, but in "Soulstice" they are hidden from view, taking away from the immersion of the game.

More than anything, Soulstice feels like a forgotten Xbox 360 action game, like Dark Sector or Dead to Rights: games like DarkSector and Dead to Rights: Retribution were enjoyable there at the time because of their novel ideas, but maybe not so much more than a decade later. Similarly, "Soulstice" has some good ideas that defy the conventions of DMC-style sacred games. For me, the monotonous setting and level design ultimately dampened my enthusiasm, but if you can overcome the problems, this is a solid Devil May Cry-style title, with chunky, formidable combat.