Skul: The Hero Slayer is a pixelated, permadeath, action-platformer that’s first version came out on January 20 and is available on Steam. Skul follows the story of your typical Demon King storyline, a story of humans overtaking the Demon King who has been terrorizing their lands. However, it takes the point of view of one of the Demon King’s soldiers, Skul. Skul is then set forward on an adventure to rescue the Demon King from the Human Forces.
For those who don’t know what permadeath games are, it is a game type that resets each time you die, though there are permanent stats you can slowly upgrade throughout your runs. In Skul, you collect Dark Matter when defeating enemies that can be used when you die to upgrade your base stats, like health and crit damage. Crit damage is what ups your chance of getting a critical hit, or in other words doing more damage.
Overall when it comes to storyline, Skul is pretty bland. There is no overwhelming part that seems fascinating to the player. However, where Skul loses in the story, it makes up for in gameplay. Skul is a genuinely hard game that is yet still fun and exciting to play. Which works great for a permadeath game.
There are also upgrades throughout the runs that you can buy at the stores, however, they go away when you die. One of the most interesting and fun upgrades are the Skul
Upgrades. Each upgrade gives you special moves as well as different stats. Some are more fast, like the Ninja Skul, and others are slower, but deal a lot of damage, like the Ghoul Skul. You are also able to wield two Skuls at once and change between the two, getting the pros of each type.
Skul is separated into five different areas and none of them are an easy fight, which keeps the games interesting. With gameplay and mechanics that make up for the admittedly lacking storyline, Skul: The Hero Slayer, is an exceptional game that is enjoyable no matter how long you play it. With the game having just come out in its first version and more to come, I can’t wait to see how they improve the gameplay even more.