Grim Soul Review

  There are some games for mobile that have so much potential to be good but the time gates they adopt can really take you out of the experience. Grim Soul by Kefir! is a top-down survivor game for your phone.  It takes some of the best aspects of the survival genre but unfortunately suffers under its own weight.

This Could Be Interesting

  You are immediately dropped off in a dark land with nothing but your wits and your past experience in the genre of survival.  Finding mats and building the basic tools is easy enough.  The higher your level the more items you can build, each item allowing you to build more mats or tools for fighting and foraging.  They gate this making you spend points to unlock crafting items, which turned into a minor annoyance as some quests you receive require you to craft certain items, which might be locked.  This is the start of some frustrating features that really hold this game back.

  This game is time-gated like no other.  A lot of mobile games will give you a good hour or more to get into the game; this game will not.  Grim Soul does not do this well at all.  Every day you are given free food and water, which are required to stave off thirst and hunger but your health is something you have to wait patiently for.  Food and some potions can recover it but it's so little, a few fights later, you are putting your phone down so you can pick it up in a few hours to maybe find the resources to heal.  The problem is, it's just as easy to never pick the game back up and I was never compelled enough to buy the currency to move the game along. (because of course, it has premium currency)

But Wait...

  There is a map that you can access that is the area surrounding your new settlement.  From your home, you will be able to travel to surrounding areas that take a certain amount of time to reach.  You have 100 energy to quick travel but once they are used up, and they are used up quick, you have to wait for your character to travel back.  Once again, more waiting compounded on more waiting.

  To top all of this off your gear can break.  Your swords, armor, and harvesting equipment breaks after use and it really doesn't take that long.  It looks like the higher end equipment might last longer but you are so limited on inventory the thought of having to get more materials just leads to a feeling of frustration.  You can make chests to store items but they are small as shit and the early bag you make only gives you a few more slots.  This whole set up is just too restrictive. 

  It's unfortunate because the game felt like it had potential early on.  It felt like a solid survival game for mobile and it might be if you have the patience for it.  Unfortunately, I do not and with the flooded mobile market, I have far better things to do with my time.  Like, play shitty games that I have downloaded from some ad feed.  This game is off my phone as soon as I publish this blog. 

TL;DR: 

  Grim Soul is a survival game that cannot outlive how long it makes you wait for everything.  Potential wasted on a disappointing time-gated model.