Ember Souls Hands-On: VR Hack-And-Slash With A Magic Twist

Ember Souls is a new hack-and-slash title inspired by Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia, and we went hands-on at Gamescom.

Previously revealed at the UploadVR Summer Showcase in June, Ember Souls sees you playing as the last Immortal. Tasked with defeating the mysterious Shadow Sultan, this VR adventure promises parkour, climbing, and environmental puzzles. There’s 20 different weapons and you’ll gradually find “ember stones” that provide magical abilities, like harnessing wind or slowing down time.

It’s not the shift I admittedly expected from VirtualAge; the Barcelona studio previously developed a VR FPS/RTS hybrid that launched last year, Guardians Frontline. Still, the announcement had me intrigued, and as someone who enjoyed both Assassin’s Creed Nexus and Asgard’s Wrath 2, I was happy to jump in on Quest 3 during Gamescom 2024.

This demo didn’t show me a continuous gameplay segment, and this preview merged three gameplay sections, starting from the very beginning. Guided by your magical falcon, Alshain, Ember Souls introduces the premise well as you head for the palace, which is unsurprisingly riddled with enemies and traps. Navigating obstacles like giant swinging axes and timed flamethrowers in the walls feels very cliched, though watching the fabric tear as you slide down curtains to new areas is a great visual touch.

Combat is entertaining if not especially original, and watching foes evaporate after throwing daggers into them is pretty fun. However, simply swinging around a sword alone doesn’t do much for me these days. We’ve seen hack-and-slash combat so many times across VR games, and I get why; it’s arguably the easiest method of VR combat when using motion controls.

What keeps this interesting is the ember stones. The demo only showcased your character’s elemental wind powers, and this provides several useful functions. For those who’d prefer not to climb manually, you can instead grip distant objects like the top of a climbable area for convenience. My favorite use is pushing enemies back during combat, and that delivered the most satisfying use of Jedi-esque “force powers” I’ve seen since Synapse.

I’m curious to see how these powers expand as the wider campaign unfolds, and I’d love to see what other abilities you can use. Ember Souls certainly leans into its inspirations and while I wouldn’t call it the most exciting VR hack-and-slash that I’ve played, VirtualAge’s upcoming action game has potential.

Ember Souls will soon reach the Meta Quest platform and Steam.