Soulmask is the next game coming from Campfire Studios. It is an action adventure survival game. I got to go hands on with this game. I’ve played about 4 hours on my 3060 laptop. Below you can see the settings and specs of my computer. I ran the game at the default high settings without messing with any of the options and it ran at a smooth framerate of 60fps the entire time I played.

• CPU – Intel I-7 11800H 3.20 GHz
• GPU – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
• 16GB RAM

Graphicly, this is a beautiful game. Character models are a bit lack luster with very few options to choose from the customization menu. The female physics are a bit over the top to say the least. Its kind of hard not to notice it first thing when you turn on the game and you’re welcomed by comically large breasts. I chose a female character and turned the “breast size” bar to its lowest setting and they were still comically huge. They really want you to know during the game play that the character has a bosom that can bounce. For narrative reasons I suppose? Seems odd for the tone of the game, but hey, who am I to question Campfire Studios, right?

I was thrown in to the game with no equipment or recourses. At first I started to get a headache wondering what I was gonna need to do to figure out what the hell I am doing. However, I quickly realized the tutorial bar in the top left was guiding me step by step. It made it extremely simple and easy to follow.

Once I started understanding the basics, I started grinding away for recourses to build. Many games like this will ask for long hours of mindless grinding, but the pace of this game so far has been very satisfying. Since I just played Palworld only 2 months ago, I can tell you my biggest complaint of that game was crafting and harvesting recourse wait times. I can tell already, I am not going to have that problem with this game. Every step you take in the game, it seems you can harvest just about any and everything around you.

It didn’t take long for me to get to the point of crafting my own house on the beach. The crafting user interface could use some tweaking. Building was such a solid fun experience, my issue however is that each material I need, needs to be added to my quick use bar. I don’t have to do that, but the alternative is going in the the inventory menu, shifting through arrows, potions, and meats to get to the roof icon that I need to equip.

One of the cool things about its crafting and recourse hunting loop, is being greeted by a random NPC. I had one come up and ask to join my camp. Once I let her in, I could then assign her to managing the camp, keep the fire warm or craft at the workbenches. I can only imagine when the servers for this game go live, you will experience the same thing but with real people.

I happened to find a treasure box with one of every kind of weapon. So I took them all for a test run. I had a greatsword, dual swords, single sword, bow, spear and arrow. Games like these seem to struggle with bland combat. Not Soulmask. There are multiple ways to interact with your arsenal of weapons. I ran in to some enemies around some ruins. During combat I switched weapons, fighting styles, and shifted through my inventory to fight 3 people. The combat is really fun and It helps keep the pace of the resource farming grind healthy.

At the time of writing this I have yet to really run across any challenging creatures. In fact the largest issue I’ve had with the game this far, is its bugs. I run in to some scary looking creatures, I attack, and an icon that they can hear me making noise comes up but they don’t take damage nor do they respond to me. The same happened when I found a Llama with a saddle. I got excited thinking I could ride it, however I stumbled upon the same issue with it.

What makes it stand out aside from its solid combat and crafting system, is its class system. A gigantic skill tree is based off of the mask you choose in character creation. These are the three types of masks and the perks they focus on …..

Civilization – stamina and health

Conquest – melee and damage

Rich – ranged/bow

You can even unlock fast traveling between camps after leveling up a bit and find some cool artifacts while you explore.

I played in a PvE server where there wasn’t any enemy fire while I tried to build my camp. So I can’t tell you all the ins and outs of the PvP, however that mode is an option.

Overall this game offers a very solid survival, crafting, and action adventure experience. Its strongest pro is that its pacing is right on point. I quickly was sucked up in to its gameplay loop. They do such a great job at rewarding you for your time. The environment is gorgeous, and just running around the island to explore what new monsters and scenery you find is worth your time.

If you have Ark: Survival buddies, Palword friends, or you are simply just a fan of these types of games, I strongly suggest you keep an eye out for Soulmask. If you do want to try it, make sure to check out when the open beta starts May 1st – May 17th on PC!