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The longboard is very long, the shortboard is very short

SoulMask is likely to be the most dominant sandbox survival game this year, bar none.

This is definitely not an exaggeration, nor is it a charge-based advocacy - this is the ecstasy and unhesitating assertion of being addicted to hundreds of hours and forgetting about work and clear-headedness. If someone knows me well, they might say: Hey, is this another innovative game like "Millennia"?

Well, you know what, in the field of sandbox survival games, "Soul Visor" can indeed be compared with the dark horse of this year's strategy games - it can even be said to be slightly better in terms of word of mouth. This is actually not surprising to me, because the fatal shortcomings of "Millennia" are clearly visible, while those of "Soul Visor" are much more obscure - let's not talk about the details for the time being, and let me tell you first.

So, what is the innovation of "Soul Visor"? Why can this survival game, which debuted on May 31, 2024 and is still in the "early access" stage, win my praise?

Here we must first clarify a concept: survival games have actually been stuck in a dead end of homogeneity for several years - the entire gameplay system has been stagnant and wasted time, so much so that even I, an avid survival enthusiast, became a little frustrated. I once thought that the "survival" track had been blocked and there was nothing new to come up with. Players could only taste the same dish day after day for decades.

Playing in Cthulhu Desert Island

This is definitely not an outrageous statement. Haven’t you seen what the most frequently mentioned and most routine key point of survival is? It is - dusting.

No matter you are on Earth or in space, in the rain forest or in the desert; no matter you are wielding stone or iron tools, 3D printed epoxy polyethylene hardened plastic sound-absorbing steel or Armstrong cyclotron jet... tools. No matter you are a human or a ghost, walking upright with two legs or crawling in the dark with tentacles on all fours, survival is to chop wood, dig the ground, bury the pot, cook, build a home, raise livestock, and repeat endlessly.

To put it simply, it is to fight against dust, endlessly.

Graying the Pacific Ocean

What gamers do in the virtual world is nothing more than reproducing the life of early humans. This homogeneous process, which has a traceable history of human development and is almost smooth, may be interesting enough for newcomers who have never played survival games. But after hundreds or thousands of hours of repeating this process, it will only become more and more boring and uninteresting.

Just like when you are camping and eating in the wild, do you use a spoon, chopsticks, or your fingers? Do you eat canned food, fresh meat, or maggots? Is there really a difference?

Playing ash in the jungle - or becoming ash

Well... actually there is. In a sense, whether you agree or disagree with my statement determines which faction you belong to among the two survival game groups.

What? You ask me why I eat shit and maggots? No, buddy, you don't even dare to eat shit, and you dare to say you are trying to survive?

World famous painting: You can eat it without the head, it has six times the protein of beef - and then it bursts

Ahem, let’s get back to the topic.

The first group of people have a full sense of ritual. When playing survival games, they want to dig a hole to use toilet paper even when they poop. And toilet paper must start from Cai Lun's invention of paper. Just like the mountain lovers of "Minecraft", they can enter the game by pulling up a tree with bare hands in ten seconds, a workbench in a minute, stone tools in half an hour, iron tools in a morning, and diamond sets, but they have to torture themselves - I mean enjoy survival, starting from the Paleolithic Age, picking up tree bark and sticks for 7 days, and still looking for Gaoling soil to make a crucible for smelting iron but can't find it - a whole week of 007 all-weather and still stuck in the Bronze Age as a primitive man.

This is the so-called hardcore diehard faction, which is all about torture and being tortured, survival and being survived - their minds are full of "what can I build" or "how should I build it".

Or you are a pure game enjoyer, with a strong and handsome chin like Giga Chad and a tough body that has been trained for a long time. You eat and drink not to fill your stomach but to strengthen yourself. You can break rocks with your bare hands and beat the initial monsters with two punches. You also have a four-dimensional pocket in your arms. When you encounter difficulties, you can use the power of thinking. You can pick up some ownerless garbage on the ground and rub guns, ammunition, rocket launchers and vehicles with your hands.

Rather than "what can I make" or "how should I make it", this school of thought pays more attention to "what is the use of what I make" or "how to use it".

I'm in the end of the world, how come the free experience wave only takes seven days to come? - "Seven Days to Die"

To be more specific, in today's survival game universe, designers either dig deep into the concept of "survival" and deeply explore every detail, even wanting to add a button for breathing - this is the so-called hardcore simulation.

Either take survival as the basis and continuously inject other more lasting and easier to make different elements to create a different gaming experience - that is, the so-called "experience is king".

To be precise, the experience school does not weaken "survival", but compared with the simulation school, the survival elements of the experience school are generally placed in a secondary position - just maintaining the basic concepts of hunger, thirst, food, water, sleep, etc. For example, works such as "Raft", "Forever Sky" and "Subnautica", the focus of the game will be placed on the ups and downs of the plot and thrilling stage performances: for example, alien planets full of strange plants and animals, uninhabited areas with completely different ecological environments, or endless and dead wastelands.

Playing in Dinosaur World

This type of game often tells players an interesting story or prepares an exotic stage while ensuring the basic elements of survival gameplay. It not only allows players to experience the fun of "survival", but also attracts more light and medium player groups.

In fact, most of the popular and well-received games on the market now are basically survival games of this type - even "Green Hell" and "The Forest", which are considered by many to be the leaders in the hardcore game world, have also taken great pains in the subject matter and do not rely entirely on "hardcore" as a selling point.

Because apart from the abstract concept of "survival is playing games", to be more specific and practical, the survival elements in most survival games are almost without exception and almost necessarily bound to other gameplay - such as construction, production, story, and role-playing.

With these elements as a foundation, the beauty of life can be better displayed.

And when we turn our attention to the protagonist of this article, "Soul Visor", this work has brought new ideas to the gaming experience.

The stage of "Soul Mask" is set in a mysterious rainforest with suspected second- or even third-type contact. This work undoubtedly draws a lot of nourishment from the South American cultural circle, and also integrates many oral alien mysteries.

Thus, we can clearly see the tribal warriors dressed in colorful and gorgeous clothes, the mysterious primitive totem religion based on animal images, the mysterious and powerful alien technology, and the cruel human sacrifice that cannot be avoided.

The protagonist we play is just such a sacrifice who escapes from the dungeon cage.

So in order to survive, or perhaps also to take revenge on the primitive tribe that attempted to worship the great carrier of the fourth natural disaster, we, as survivors with nothing, could only mine stones, cut wood, hunt, and start with stone axes, stone spears, and stone pickaxes, building our own camp from scratch step by step.

Then, if possible, explore this unknown land and take righteous revenge on those cruel barbarians.

In fact, after players start the regular survival cycle step by step, they will soon notice the main course added by "Soul Mask" around survival elements - from chopping trees to mining, from medicine making to blacksmithing and even knives, guns and sticks, CampFire Studio has prepared a complete set of RPG-style gameplay for players, allowing players to benefit from every step of survival action.

Soul Mask roughly divides the most basic survival activities in the game into production activities and combat activities - both of which are driven by the proficiency system that RPG fans are very familiar with. As long as players repeat these survival activities, they can promote proficiency growth and benefit from it. For example, if the gathering proficiency is high, more fiber vine berries will be obtained.

The proficiency will have a qualitative leap every 30 levels. Production skills can unlock some feature improvements, such as harvest volume or harvest speed, or tool wear and tear. In general, it is more numerical. Combat skills are more intuitive. In addition to getting higher damage bonuses, players can also unlock unique skills.

To be precise, "Soul Visor" uses an RPG-style proficiency and skill system to infinitely refine the originally boring survival and development cycle, and uses numbers and abilities to form a stronger driving force, so that players can get extra dopamine while completing the regular survival cycle.

This system can be said to be a partial answer given by "Soul Visor" to the homogeneity of current survival gameplay.

After all, with the popularization of education and the rapid development of the Internet, the art of wilderness survival has evolved from a profound subject to a systematic popular information. As long as there is some basic common sense, ordinary people can talk about it. And the fruit grown by relying on this system - survival games, is locked tightly by this "common sense".

People need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate, and they also need to live well and wear warm clothes. Livestock need grass to fatten up, and they also need to exercise regularly to relax. Chickens lay eggs and people defecate. These rules and regulations are like insurmountable walls that block the space for survival game designers to play. Even if the designers come up with something "counterintuitive", no matter whether the players know how to survive in the wilderness or not, they will definitely be the ones who react most stressed.

Therefore, the proper RPGization can be said to perfectly smooth out the boring survival part of survival games. At least compared to the conventional delayed positive feedback, the straightforward RPG-style numerical stimulation effectively increases the gaming experience. Just in this way, "Soul Mask" can be said to have laid a good foundation. As long as the subsequent development is not a big problem, the game will definitely not be too bad.

So you had a lot of fun, quarrying and cutting wood diligently, using your own hands to build your first home in this rainforest. And just as you took a picture of your first campfire, you discovered a strange figure. A wanderer wandering in the jungle made a request to you - he/she wanted to join your tribe.

You suddenly realize that "Soul Mask" is not a conventional sandbox survival PvPvE game with some RPG elements. This work also has a tribe system similar to "Fantasy Beast Palu" - players can rescue people from primitive tribes, select the best seeds to serve the development of their own tribe, and contribute to their own great cause.

Things suddenly became interesting.

After the player harvests his first "Palu", he can be freed from the heavy production activities. So exploring this rainforest becomes the first priority. You obviously noticed that your tribesmen are stronger and have more potential than the body you are using. His/her proficiency limit is higher, and there are even unique entries to further enhance production or combat.

In addition to catching Palu yourself, you can also invite friends online to become Palu

Therefore, the top priority is not only to figure out who the opponent is and where he is, and how to capture him - I mean, inviting more outstanding savage seeds to voluntarily join the tribe and contribute to our great cause is the top priority.

After going through great pains to defeat the savage guardians of the ancient ruins, you harvested some weird technological creations that obviously shouldn't exist in primitive society. More importantly, you suddenly discovered a shocking secret - it turns out that you are not a human!

Do you remember the strange mask that suddenly stuck to your face in the cutscene? To be precise, the player is not the body he created himself. The player is the mask from beginning to end - the golden pendant, the strange and mysterious sacrificial mask.

The entire magnificent stage of "Soul Mask" suddenly opens up. The RPG system, exploration system, and the clan system that you originally thought was the core of the gameplay are not the focus. The real core of this game has long been in front of you - Soul Mask.

Three initial face armor

In fact, the visor system closely integrates all the subsidiary systems of "Soul Visor". From the RPG-style proficiency system to the attribute point system and physical strength management to the capture and switching of the body system, and even cooking, feeding, exploration and adventure progress, they are all directly linked to the consciousness level of the visor.

No matter which body the player possesses, as long as it is a positive activity that is conducive to survival, the level of consciousness will increase - even if you just stand there, as long as the controlled group is still breathing, you can continue to improve yourself.

What’s even more surprising is that the visors in “Soul Visor” are not limited to the three that players can see at the beginning. In fact, as the world view advances and the exploration intensity increases, after defeating various savage camps and exploring mysterious alien ruins, players can obtain a full 10 visors, each with a unique skill tree and bonuses - from sharpshooters to violent warriors, from conductors to shadow assassins to explorers like mecha knights. The options available to players can be said to be extremely rich, with corresponding routes from combat to production.

What the designers themselves may not even realize is that this visor system, which may have been a flash of inspiration, has rewritten the dilemma faced by survival games - who says that those who survive in a sandbox must be individuals, why can't it be a will wandering among a group?

How can a will lead its people to survive in an environment full of ferocious beasts and powerful enemies? The natural way is to become stronger and then develop.

How to become stronger?

In addition to constantly fighting and honing your martial arts skills in manipulating machines, you can also directly possess potential seeds or mature powerful warriors. Yes, that's right, as the mysterious mask and the actual controller of the tribe, we can freely shuttle among the tribe members. All bodies - whether male or female, old or young, are the cornerstone of the prosperity of the tribe, and are the property and weapon in the hands of players.

Even death cannot destroy us, because the body still has flesh and blood, but the soul mask is eternal and indestructible.

Return with a full load (without watching the drum challenge)

How does that develop?

Select the best warriors in the tribe, control the strongest bodies of your men, beat your opponents with sticks, use force to show your favor, and then plunder those primitive tribes to make your opponents your primitive capital. Just like a real primitive man, take the one you like, push his/her body to the limit, knock him/her unconscious with a stick, and then conquer his/her soul with a mask.

We represent the will of this rain forest. We can kill and conquer without mercy as long as it serves the grand ambitions of our tribe.

This is also the root of the fascination of "Soul Mask". Do you think it is just a primitive rainforest survival sandbox? No, it also has tribes and camp management. Do you think it is just that, just a "Palu-like" survival game with deeper RPG elements? No, it also has masks and exploration.

"Soul Mask" is different from most survival games on the market. What players have to do is not to survive in a narrow sense, but to truly become the only will of the ethnic group, the absolute spokesperson of the tribe, and lead the light of primitive civilization to survive in the chaotic darkness in the distance.

This kind of gameplay mode can almost only be experienced in strategy games, and "Soul Visor" gives you a precious opportunity to immerse yourself in the song of the rise of the primitive tribe from a lower perspective and a more RPG mode.

The only game that can be compared to it is probably "Ark: Survival Evolved".

The "Extinction" DLC should be the end of the story, and "Genesis" is just a waste of time.

The gameplay of "Ark" obviously provides nourishment for many sandbox survival designs, and "Soul Mask" undoubtedly borrows a lot from it. But compared with the "How to Train Your Dragon" and "PvP on the Great Plains, I'm the South Giant, you walk, if you have a dream, come", the most outstanding feature of "Ark: Survival Evolved" is the ups and downs of the storyline and the hidden line buried under the main survival line - saving the earth.

Yes, the superhuman technology and technological achievements in "Ark" are not alien creations, but come from human beings themselves. After discovering the unparalleled energy crystal, human beings over-exploited the mother planet, which led to the outbreak of energy wars and the destruction of the earth's ecosystem.

Therefore, players play the role of clones of the destined survivors, complete the survival challenge of the Ark system, follow the footsteps of clone predecessors from different eras, and finally return to the earth with the help of the deified Helena, clean up the Chen Ke left over from the world war, and let the seeds of civilization return to the earth.

This is not just a direct struggle between survivors, but also a struggle between humanity as a whole and the past and the disaster.

"Ark" perfectly demonstrates what it means to "fight with people and have endless fun, fight with heaven and have endless fun"

Such a grand and inspiring performance is entirely possible to be reproduced in "Soul Mask", because alien technology and primitive tribes are naturally suitable for magnificent plot performances. Even further, the game experience and gameplay depth of "Ark" are more focused on PvP, and it is inevitable that the focus will be deviated in the actual performance effect. "Soul Mask" has a tribe system and RPG system as the foundation, and the focus on PvE game experience also provides a natural stage for grand narratives.

As the spokespersons for the will of the ethnic group, we obviously have unlimited possibilities.

If all this is really realized, then the emergence of "Soul Visor" can indeed be regarded as a rare change in survival sandbox games.

But all this may just be my fantasy. As I mentioned earlier, the designer may not have noticed the possibility of the grand narrative of the "visor system". In fact, in the big update on July 18, CampFire Studio overturned the idea of ​​the initial body and reset it - compared to the original poor and featureless initial character, the new version of the initial body not only has unique entries and a higher proficiency limit, but can also use alien sarcophagus technology to copy the talents and attribute panels of the tribe.

This is certainly a change that is very beneficial to the gaming experience.

Each mask has its own special move

The first version of "Soul Mask" showed its shortcomings in the initial machine experience. Players invested a lot of energy and emotion in the character creation and early development, but before the story unfolded, no one expected that they would play just a mysterious mask.

From a design perspective, players have a very deep empathy with the initial character. Although they can constantly switch and manipulate the bodies of other tribesmen in the early stages, players always hope that the initial character can play a greater role in the development of the tribe.

Unfortunately, if the designers really tried to emphasize the identity of the player's ethnic group, they would obviously give the initial unit a more mysterious position that fits the stage background, such as a group priest or a tribal leader.

Although players no longer rely on the flesh of the original machine to help the tribe, this first body that escaped human sacrifice and accidentally carried the player's will can obviously inspire the will of the tribe and become the first ray of light for the rise of civilization.

It is even possible to become a Prometheus-like character.

The setting that allows the master to steal the tribe's panels and power is very game-like and convenient, but it also downgrades the carrier of the tribal will and the ethnic group's will from a higher level to a lucky person, an ordinary person - a pathetic character who is so ordinary that he needs to use super technology to steal the tribe's power.

I had hoped for a golden throne-like "toilet" and a noble primitive leader. But it is clear that the designers only see it as a derivative of the players. This design may be convenient for players and may significantly improve the gaming experience, but it also means that the reform steps that "Soul Mask" was about to take will only be half-stepped and will not move forward - it cannot really change the underlying logic of survival gameplay.

Of course, putting aside my personal philosophical ramblings, the status of "Soul Visor" is undeniable: it is like the Ark that debuted in 2017, splitting the chaotic world of survival sandbox games from an angle that no one has ever considered.

Although this cut is a bit regrettable, there is no doubt that with the help of the tribe system and mask system that combine quite a lot of elements, "Soul Mask" will definitely be the most fun survival sandbox game so far in 2024.