Guns of Eschaton Demo Review Summary

A stylish, atmospheric Wild West soulslike FPS hybrid with excellent gunplay and unique enemy weak spots, though the weak point puzzles can feel tedious.

Beautiful and Stylish Visuals: Many reviewers praise the game's gorgeous, stylish, and atmospheric art direction. The visuals are often described as beautiful, polished, and original, with a unique mix of western, apocalypse, and horror elements.

Soulslike Difficulty and Design: The game's difficulty and soulslike mechanics are a common point of discussion. Many appreciate the challenging but fair combat, the learning curve, and the integration of soulslike elements like campfires and exploration.

Atmospheric Wild West Setting: The weird west, apocalyptic, and horror-infused setting is highly praised for its originality and immersion. Reviewers love the atmosphere, world-building, and the unique blend of western and supernatural elements.

Excellent Gunplay and Impact: The shooting mechanics are widely praised for feeling weighty, satisfying, and impactful. Reviewers highlight the attention to detail in firearm animations, sound design, and the overall feel of combat.

Unique Weak Spot System: The enemy weak spot mechanic, where players must target specific body parts, is frequently mentioned as a standout feature. It adds depth to combat and is often described as interesting and rewarding.

Weakpoint puzzle system tedious: Combat revolves around identifying and shooting enemy weakpoints in a specific sequence, which feels like a puzzle rather than an action game. Clusters 5, 8, 13, 14, 17, 30, 59, 87, 96, and 107 describe this as annoying, restricting player agency, and making fights repetitive.

Damage drop-off and enemy range: Weapons deal zero damage at distance due to falloff, while enemies can shoot from very far away with high accuracy, making gunplay feel unfair. Clusters 4, 10, 19, 21, 27, 60, 80, 99, and 40 highlight this as a major balance issue.

Clunky movement and controls: Movement feels sluggish and unresponsive, with instant dashes but inability to cross small steps, floaty climbing, and lack of a jump button. Controller remapping is impossible and menu navigation is broken. Clusters 25, 35, 47, 48, 57, 86, 101, 105, 82, and 77 report these problems.

Narrow and unadjustable FOV: The field of view is extremely narrow and cannot be changed, causing nausea and making the game feel like looking through a keyhole. Cluster 1, 3, and 85 highlight this as a major issue that also leads to deaths.

Unintuitive inventory and ammo systems: The inventory, equippables, and bullet types are poorly explained, requiring menu digging. Special ammo doesn't replenish at bonfires, and switching bullet types is confusing, leading to hoarding and frustration. Clusters 12, 26, 42, 43, 49, 102, and 75 cover these issues.

Soulslike FPS hybrid: The game combines first-person shooter mechanics with soulslike elements such as challenging combat and exploration. It is frequently described as a soulslike shooter or FPS soulslike.

Unique shooting and parrying: Combat revolves around shooting and parrying, with an emphasis on timing and positioning. Players must parry and use gunplay strategically.

Enemy weak spots mechanic: Enemies have specific weak points that can be targeted for increased damage. A codex system helps identify these weak points.

Limited ammo and reloading: Ammunition is a finite resource, and reloading takes time, adding strategy to engagements. Special ammo types are also limited and do not replenish at checkpoints.

Weak point hit order: Weak point shots must be executed in a specific sequence to deal significant damage. This order must be learned and memorized, often from an in-game book.

Game runs well: Multiple reviewers report the game is well optimized and runs incredibly well on their systems. Clusters 1 and 2 explicitly praise performance and stability.

Poor performance reported: Some players experience terrible performance, with FPS dropping to 20 in menus and 15 during cutscenes. Auto-detect cranks settings to max but only about 30 FPS is achievable on lowest settings.

FOV is bad: A reviewer describes the field of view as awful, indicating a discomfort or poor design in the camera perspective.

Limited upscaling options: Only TSR is available for upscaling, with no FSR support. This limits compatibility for players with AMD or older GPUs.

Hardware heating issues: The game causes excessive hardware heating that requires optimization. This suggests inefficient resource usage on some systems.

Positive recommendations for the game: Several reviewers highly recommend the game, calling it excellent and worth recommending. They express enthusiasm and look forward to the full release.

Purchase intent despite concerns: Some reviewers are likely to purchase the full game despite existing concerns or friction. They would pre-order or buy it, and would pay full price if certain optimizations are made.

Requests for difficulty and combat changes: Some players want an easier difficulty level or significant combat design changes. Without these, they cannot enjoy the project or will not buy the full release.

Need FOV and ultrawide support: A lack of FOV slider and ultrawide support led to negative reviews and refusal to wishlist. Adding these features could influence purchase decisions.

Recommended for Soulslike fans: Reviewers recommend the game specifically for players who enjoy difficult games and soulslikes. It is not for everyone, but the target audience will appreciate it.

Session length: 1.0h.

Reports show mixed early friction, from controller problems and unclear tutorials to a brutal learning curve and tedious systems. The clearest positive signal is that the game becomes fun once the gameplay and enemy mechanics click, making this a 'clicks after' profile without a supported time estimate.

Friction: Controller menu navigation skips two tabs and aiming drifts even at low sensitivity; Codex reading slows pacing; Unclear tutorial tips force trial and error; Brutal learning curve; Tedious spot sequence system; Weird pacing and questionable map design with dead-end paths.

Unlock drivers: Gameplay and enemy mechanics clicking; Friendly, spoon-feeding tutorial.

Soulslike Newcomer: Learning combat and boss patterns while relying on the game's visual and mechanical polish. Motivation: To enjoy a well-made first entry into the soulslike FPS genre. Stance: buy.

Cowboy Firearm Enthusiast: Sticks with the game to use and admire period firearms with high attention to detail. Motivation: Authentic and detailed cowboy firearms. Stance: buy.

Combat Systems Critic: Uses weakpoint shots, parries, and varied builds while analyzing enemy design consistency. Motivation: Mastering consistent, learnable combat rules and meaningful playstyle differences. Stance: sale.

Demo impressions dominate feedback: Multiple reviewers base their feedback on demos, including Gamescom demo sessions, rather than the full game. They eagerly await the complete release to form a final judgment.

Comparisons to other games: Reviewers compare the title to Witchfire, Hunt Showdown, Darkwatch, Remnant, and Souls games, noting similarities in audience or design. Some liken it to Dark Call of Juarez Souls or Ghostrunner for its surprising feel.

Demo content feels limited: Reviewers note that the demo is short and restricted in gameplay variety, with one mentioning only a revolver is available. This narrow scope hampers a full assessment.

Compelling weird west setting: The game's post-apocalyptic world draws inspiration from the Deadlands TTRPG universe and Stephen King's The Dark Tower. It is described as Deadlands merged with an FPS Soulslike.

Unique FPS Soulslike hybrid: The game is described as merging Soulslike mechanics with first-person shooting, a novel combination. It is positioned within an emerging genre of soulslike shooters.