I feel most of us are consistently attempting our hardest to fill the Darkish Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice-shaped holes in our lives. They’re merely among the biggest video games ever, and nobody can actually be blamed for looking for extra of them. Time and time once more, studios have tried their fingers at soulslikes, and time and time once more, they’ve fallen wanting the alchemical combine that makes FromSoft’s genre-defining efforts such an enthralling rush. Of late although, a crop of contemporary and ingenious video games have appeared that appear to be difficult the established order, and whereas One other Crab’s Treasure is in the end a bit on the secure facet, it’s an excellent try and breathe some life right into a style that usually fails to face by itself two legs.
Sure, on the subject of shaking up soulslikes, Aggro Crab—the builders behind the missed roguelike Going Below—are taking a stab at it. One other Crab’s Treasure follows Kril, a hermit crab whose shell will get claimed by a foul and corrupt monarch. As Kril journeys to seek out his shell and take it again, he comes to fulfill the denizens of the ocean, who open his eyes to the issues that plague them and the world at giant. All the pieces in One other Crab’s Treasure is a few type of trash, from the buildings of New Carcinia to Kril’s weapons and armor. Humanity’s refuse has a house on the backside of the ocean, and Kril and firm vogue a lifestyle out of it. All of the whereas, although, gunk is slowly driving all of the crabs to wanton homicide and destruction. Society is collapsing and we’re selecting at one another for scraps relatively than banding collectively to forge some sort of resolution. Now why does that sound so acquainted…
As crustacean society is eroded and erupts into violence, Kril takes up his rusted fork and plumbs the depths of the oceans for treasure to be able to purchase his shell again. Earlier than he lays a claw on any treasure, nevertheless, he finds a steady of worthy opponents standing in his means. One other Crab’s Treasure is totally not as laborious because the video games that impressed it, however additionally it is tuned a good bit greater than it’d seem at first blush. The typical enemy isn’t actually a pushover, and managers will test you laborious in case you don’t study to maintain up with them. Very similar to Sekiro, it sort of calls for you study a couple of particular mechanics, particularly a game-changing parry, to be able to make it to the top with out ripping your hair out. Take it from somebody who went an embarrassing size of time with out utilizing these mechanics and suffered for it.
When you lock in although, fight in One other Crab’s Treasure falls right into a satisfying move paying homage to the back-and-forth move that made FromSoft’s samurai motion recreation so instantly iconic. You don’t get the identical clang of katanas viciously bouncing off each other, however One other Crab’s Treasure’s marriage of sound and motion isn’t any slouch, both. Each hit has a crunch to it that jogs my memory of Hole Knight and the parry is accompanied by a dopamine-inducing knock impact. The benefit with which you’ll be able to hit it and land a riposte all however assures that the majority gamers can really feel as cool as a (sea) cucumber all through their time with the sport. When all of it comes collectively, One other Crab’s Treasure simply feels rattling good. It falters in some areas—specifically, the digicam screwed me over in some actually tight spots—however for essentially the most half, it’s an abject pleasure to play.
One other Crab’s Treasure can also be a pleasure to observe and take heed to. It’s deeply humorous, and delivers its in any other case darkish story concerning the ethical (and literal) decline of society with a wink and a slap on the again. A personality known as Firth assists you to find a treasure that’ll assist Kril purchase again his shell (the forex and XP on this recreation, for what it’s value, is microplastics), however he additionally spends nearly all of the sport blindly admiring a enterprise capitalist generally known as Roland. Regardless of all indicators pointing to his shittiness, Firth insists time and time once more that Roland is just a participant within the free market and that the havoc he unleashes on the lives of these he exploits is because of a failure of capitalist constructions, relatively than those that partake in and thrive off that system. He’s each would-be economist who realized the phrase “supply-and-demand” in grade college, stopped internalizing anything after that, and jumps into your mentions to let you know off while you criticize Elon Musk.
That humor, in addition to the cartoonish nature of One other Crab’s Treasure, is Aggro Crab’s bread and butter, and it extends outward into the development of the world and the sport’s aesthetic. Since ACT performs out from Kril’s diminutive perspective, it takes some liberty with the exaggerated proportions of human trash, like some very lengthy model legs that join the higher and decrease crusts of the sport’s central hub, New Carcinia. One of many boss fights is towards a crab who makes use of the cracked glass lid of a pot as a protect and a takeout field for a helmet. The primary boss you combat shouts at you—in what can solely be described as essentially the most violent voice path I’ve ever heard—from throughout an enormous battlefield concerning the being a “clawbreaker” earlier than charging you want a lancer. After which, in fact, there’s the matter of your personal gear.
ACT is a soulslike with a gimmick I genuinely beloved. As a crab with no shell, you may crawl into a lot of the trash within the ocean and switch it into makeshift armor. Something from a shot glass to a pc mouse will be made into armor, in addition to weapons down the road, persevering with ACT’s comedic visible language. There’s nothing fairly like going up towards some fearsome monstrosity from the depths of the ocean with a fucking Rubik’s Dice in your again, you recognize? The shell system isn’t only for laughs, although; it accommodates unfathomable depth.
Many of the 69 (good) shells you may purchase share a sure variety of Umami abilities—consider these because the distinctive “Ashes of Struggle” skills tied to tools in Elden Ring—however fluctuate in kind, measurement, weight, and defensive capabilities. Some shells shoot out bubbles that hone in on approaching enemies, whereas others provide you with a rising uppercut assault. On the opposite finish of the spectrum, some grant a defensive buff or a prickly glass backbone, and one among my favorites will get Kril drunk, which dulls his response time, however makes him hit more durable. Resulting from their totally different defensive scores, in addition to the depth of a lot of ACT’s foes, you’ll usually break shells whereas defending your self in fight, which provides many encounters (particularly towards bosses) an improvisational really feel. My biggest victories got here once I was scrambling essentially the most, and making use of varied shells and their respective skills. The construct prospects in ACT are as huge as they’re hilarious to understand.
Upgrades and different items of apparatus construct upon and feed into the promise of the shell system and make it explode. A grappling hook, for instance, permits you to pull shells towards you in the midst of fight, rewarding fast pondering when the going will get tough. An improve I unlocked allowed me to recuperate my shell’s well being, which will get knocked down while you block, by attacking instantly afterwards ala Bloodborne’s well being mechanic. A hammer improve allows you to stick any shell on the top of your weapon and make it extra highly effective, whereas concurrently granting you a second protect and set of skills in case you select to swap between your armor and weapon. After unlocking a virtually impervious shell—which must be sought out and worn or purchased to unlock completely—I insured it at a shopkeeper (which means that I may spawn with it), discovered a technique to duplicate the shell, and doubled up on it as armor and a weapon. By the top of the sport, I used to be successfully within the chunkiest armor possible, fats rolling far and wide, and two-handing a max-level Zweihander that I swung with reckless abandon. If you recognize, you recognize, however for the parents that don’t: One other Crab’s Treasure has acquired the sauce.
Now, provided that boss fights are essential to any good soulslike, let’s take a beat and speak about ACT’s massive baddies.. This recreation has a ton of them—some are even optionally available—and very like these in FromSoft’s personal Souls video games, they span the vary of “nice” to “why?” The extra that these encounters targeted on fairly stage one-on-ones, the higher they have been. However in paying homage to the style’s greatest, ACT falls into some pitfalls it’d’ve been higher off avoiding. One late-game optionally available boss is a very egregious gimmick combat that appears much better than it feels and finally, a couple of of the fights begin to get a bit same-y of their building. The quantity of occasions I circled a single massive crab and waited for my flip to swipe at them is just too excessive for a recreation that’s very often so artistic. ACT’s fan-service leaks into different points of the sport too, and results in equally combined outcomes.
ACT wears its soulslike flag proudly, and that’s evident within the format of the sport and a few cheeky references to ranges and video games previous. An enormous stretch of the sport is that this practically barren wasteland that connects numerous areas known as the Sands Between, which Elden Ring gamers would possibly recognize. Quickly after your first journey via the Sands Between, you come to a grove that has a little bit of a poison swamp theme going for it, and never lengthy after that, you come to a city with an enormous central lane and one massive sniper crab on the far finish.
These are the sort of enjoyable nods that ACT’s upbeat aesthetic usually brightens and adapts, and I’m fully right here for them. On the flip facet, there are additionally some oppressively darkish caverns that really feel paying homage to spots just like the Tomb of the Giants from the primary Darkish Souls, which was by no means actually nice to start with! To make issues worse, one actually late-game space leans into this even additional and sticks a bunch of enormous, strolling turrets into these darkish caves that laser you out of goddamn nowhere and pad out the ending a bit. In a way, Aggro Crab recreated “Horsefuck Valley” out of Darkish Souls 2, an infamously tough space that ought by no means have been made within the first place.
I can also’t focus on the issue of enjoying ACT with out drawing some consideration to its efficiency. I’m not often the sort of critic to make point out of these items, since I really feel it’s the least essential a part of a recreation’s evaluation and it’s typical to count on some bugginess when enjoying video games previous to their launch, however ACT toed the road of what even I may settle for at occasions. Efficiency usually held up, however every so often, I’d hit a fairly noticeable hitch as zones loaded throughout transitional areas, which practically impeded me from progressing at one level. However then I observed that the longer I performed, the more severe the efficiency acquired on PS5.
Some areas weren’t as optimized as others, resulting in some acceptable body drops (if this recreation wasn’t already sufficient of a soulslike, now it positively was) however by the top of my longest classes, my recreation was completely chugging regardless of the place I went. I as soon as spent the higher a part of a minute merely attempting to stay a shell onto my weapon proper in entrance of a boss combat as a result of the sport outright froze about three totally different occasions. Loading screens would additionally catch on a small little bit of the sport’s soundtrack like a file with a scratch in it. And although I’ve been in communication with the staff since, they usually’ve assured me that it is going to be fastened as quickly as doable, I hit a bug towards the top that has really utterly softlocked the sport, stopping me from taking up the ultimate few bosses and beating it.
Whereas I’m certain post-launch patches will spare most people these complications, it feels value mentioning, on the off likelihood that it isn’t all resolved by the point ACT launches, that it’s positively coming in a bit tough, particularly on consoles.
Efficiency points and tough homages apart, One other Crab’s Treasure is much and away one among my favourite soulslikes. It clearly loves that lineage of video games sufficient to copy their formulation fairly nicely, however it’s at its greatest when it steps out of the shadow of the inimitable Souls video games and has its personal enjoyable. A wholesome steady of boss fights hold issues contemporary and vibrant whereas the story displays on the plights we’re at present going through and the ripple impact they’ve on the world round us, giving gamers a style of the candy and the bitter. Nevertheless it’s the shell system right here that looks like a revelation, and the truth that it additionally works as a terrific visible gag is just the cherry on high. Regardless of some tough spots, One other Crab’s Treasure is just too charming, humorous, and ingenious a recreation to overlook.
