Warning: The following article on why Bleak Faith: Forsaken is actually a good Soulslike now contains spoilers for the game.
Deep down, I was really rooting for Bleak Faith: Forsaken. Imagine playing a techno-skinned Dark Souls with all the environmental grit and scarce lore you’d expect in a FromSoftware game but dialed up to a Shadow of the Colossus scale.
Mountainous industrial pipes acted as bridges into sprawling labyrinths; staircases led to emptied homes and facilities, one such area engulfed in a deluge of rain from a flooded district above you, spilling out from the cracks in the ceiling.
The dreary vision of Bleak Faith: Forsaken was and still is engrossing. And even due to the sheer breadth of its game world, the RPG had a sense of meaningful interconnectedness as you discovered shortcuts and dipped into newer areas by retreading old steps. Unfortunately, if Bleak Faith: Forsaken were just a game about exploration, it would have fared better when critics and gamers finally got their hands on it.
In fact, in my review in early March last year, I called Bleak Faith: Forsaken “frustrating” and detailed how much of a technical nightmare it was. Character movement felt clunky as all hell, enemies bugged out and were hard to fight because of it, and accidentally clipping out of bounds broke the game world. These examples are a tiny few of the issues that plagued my experience.
From the lack of necessary UI elements to confusing tutorial screens to the various glitches with the bonfire-like mechanic, everything seemed liable to shatter in an effort to meet the game’s ambition. But then I’d remember the atmosphere of Bleak Faith: Forsaken – how leaping across chasms of stone gave me David and Goliath shivers. The game was an unfinished product but a gem hiding in jungly sand after you looked past its failings.
Thankfully, developer Archangel Studios, a team of literally three people, also saw that potential and put their heads down to grind out the RPG into a better game with patches. Now, Bleak Faith: Forsaken is a totally different game mechanically and far more stable.
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The team implemented quality-of-life changes toward climbing and menus, plus they even redesigned large swaths of the world with new paths and colored beacons to help with exploration. Side paths are different and lead to acquiring unique accessories. Animations were overhauled, movement is less floaty, and the combo system with weapons feels sharper.
Every month since March 2023, Bleak Faith: Forsaken has received a patch or multiple adjusting the player experience and reconfiguring difficulty to hit a sweet spot. The developer added i-frames recently, a long-requested feature, and is already chugging toward its next patch.
Experiencing all these changes after my first go-around months ago was shocking because I was no longer docking points from the game but instead getting swept up. I’m now paying closer attention to what items I pick up from enemy drops and noticing nuances in gameplay systems. In the past, I had to steamroll through most gameplay features because they didn’t work.
A good Soulslike is technically sound and delivers an experience where intrigue and difficulty continually shift like a drop of a dime, and unlike before, Bleak Faith: Forsaken is now doing exactly that and even more with its world design. It’s no longer just a broken game with impressive visuals.
I can focus on molding a build around exotic weapons and passives instead of hoping I don’t clip out of bounds again for pulling a lever. Boss attacks are better telegraphed with effects, and hitboxes are fairer. Discovering gear pieces around a zone is still gratifying, like in previous builds, but you don’t have to slog through bugged-out corridors of teleporting enemies.
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That being said, Bleak Faith: Forsaken isn’t a perfect Souslike. The jank is there, but you shouldn’t go into it expecting Lies of P quality. Where it stands today, you can enjoy what it attempts to accomplish and go on a journey uncontested by endless glitches and bugs.
Bleak Faith already had charm, but its evolution through updates has only made it more desirable. It just needed retouching in crucial areas to truly start shining the way it should have on launch day.
