The First Berserker: Khazan - The hardest soulslike I've ever played, yet it's still brilliant

Here’s the problem, I set out to review The First Berserker: Khazan with a lot of confidence, and a little trepidation. I count myself as one of the millions of fans of the soulslike genre, though I do so without a proficient level of skill. I’ve completed a good many games from the genre and consider Elden Ring among my favourite games of the last decade, but that doesn’t mean I’m any good at these games.

You can keep that in mind as I declare The First Berserker: Khazan as the hardest soulslike I’ve ever played. The first game that comes to mind when I think about this new release is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, a game that, until now, was the hardest game I’ve played in this genre. You see, where the two games feel incredibly similar, is in their reliance on perfect timing. I feel no shame in admitting that at the grand age of 42, my reflexes are not what they once were, and the perfect parries of Sekiro were far beyond me. The same is said of The First Berserker: Khazan.

The action here somewhat mixes the fast-paced action of a game like God of War: Ragnarök, with the hardcore mechanics of Elden Ring. Fans of Kratos’ adventures will instantly feel at home with the combat, mixing up dodging, with thumping hits and bone-crunching chaos. Those who love the soulslike genre will feed off the intense difficulty of the bosses and scenarios, while revelling in the usual tropes found elsewhere in the genre - dying and collecting your resources, stat upgrades, and a constant sense of dread.

For much of my time with this game - I’m only a small handful of chapters into the campaign - the meat and potatoes of each level wasn’t much of a test. The linear levels wind their way through gorgeous environments, littered with enemies, before reaching the boss. That journey, right up to the point of entering the boss arena, felt like a reasonable challenge. Upon walking through the doors and facing off against the boss, I lost any shred of confidence I once had.

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It’s not just that these ferocious, over-the-top enemies hit hard, it’s that without a high level of skill in dodging at a precise moment, or deflecting an attack at a crucial point, you will die. A lot. There are, thankfully, some neat mechanics that soften that blow, but I’ll come to those shortly. For now, let’s look at the second big boss of the game. I won’t spoil who it is, or how they fight, but I will paint you a picture.

There I am, battling this creature, learning their attacks, watching each swipe of their weapon, and memorising the poses they step into before each devastating manoeuvre. The fight is a slog, despite the many levels I’ve invested in vitality or damage. Half the time I’m hitting perfect dodges, dashing out of the way with a ghost-like visage, landing huge combos. The other half, I’m getting battered. Each time I get hit, my small health bar is devastated, and with only a few heals, it takes me around three hours to see the beast staggered and hurting. Then phase two started.

It has already taken me hours to get to this point, and suddenly I’ve got no heals left, I’ve been staring at the TV for ages, and this bastard has got a whole new phase to beat. Cue even more hours, many of which I’d only occasionally get halfway through that health bar. Even taking advantage of the summons within the game, represented by ghosts of the underworld, didn’t make a difference in my survival. That could be the AI programming of the spectres, but it’s most likely my poor excuse for thumbs.

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Now, I’m sure many of you reading this are eagerly rubbing your hands together in masochistic glee. This is probably music to your ears - a real challenge waiting for you. For me, it was repeated disappointment after disappointment. Mostly in myself, because away from the sheer difficulty of this game, it’s superb. I’d hasten to say that The First Berserker: Khazan is, without any doubt, a truly brilliant game. And, if I could have overcome the difficulty, or my own ineptitude, I would consider it among my favourite action games. Because the game does a lot right.

For example, after getting smashed into the ground a few times by enemies, the game actually offers you an easier difficulty - though I’d note, it’s not that much easier, at all - and those “neat mechanics” I mentioned previously, will be of help to players who don’t consider themselves experts. Being able to fail a boss fight, and still earn Lacrima (this game’s souls/runes) is a lovely touch, as is having your dropped Lacrima outside the boss arena, rather than inside.

This means, that even after a handful of failed attempts, you’ll never lose Lacrima, and you’ll actually gain more from getting further and further into those failed attempts. Meaning, you can grab the odd level here and there, while attempting to oust a boss.

This works simply - let’s say you fight a boss and hit them twice before you die, you might get a bonus of 80 Lacrima when you respawn. However, if you manage to get their health bar a couple of hits away from their defeat, you’ll get a couple of thousand Lacrima. It soon adds up to extra levels, which obviously goes some way to mitigating that difficulty. But you’ll still need a high level of skill.

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That skill comes in combat for the majority of the time you’ll spend with the game. Being linear, rather than open-world, there’s not a lot to discover off the beaten path. There will be side quests available through the hub-world of the Crevice, where vendors and upgrade options exist, but for the most part you’re marching on through story chapters at a pace.

That combat, though, is incredibly satisfying. A combination of quick swipes from one of the three weapon types - dual-wield, greatsword, and spear - sit alongside bigger, harder-hitting attacks. These are bolstered through a skill tree that is broken down into each weapon class, but also a page dedicated to boosting Khazan’s abilities, stamina regeneration, or traversal. Where this differs from other games in the genre, is in the spirit meter, which slowly builds and can be spent on combos delivered via unique button combinations. This ends up making combat feel like a cross between the deliberate and methodical actions seen in something like Dark Souls, with a more frenetic-style seen in fighting games or brawlers.

I’m telling you this, with this much detail and explanation of my humble skills, because I couldn’t finish the game in time for a review. In fact, after chatting with a fellow reviewer - who has also struggled greatly - I’m not even halfway through the game. However, I want to tell you that, despite this, I would recommend the game to fans of the genre. If you’ve followed the stories of the DNF universe, or perhaps saw the cel-shaded anime visuals and fancy an action game, this ‘sort of review’ is your warning not to take the game lightly. Maybe try the demo, first.

Those anime visuals are constantly stunning, creating a painterly world and some of the most gorgeous character models I’ve seen in this generation of games. The story of revenge, through working alongside ghosts and spirits from the underworld, is thrilling. And the combat, while I’m obviously struggling with it, is satisfying and surprisingly deep.

I can’t, in good conscience, give a review score to The First Berserker: Khazan, because I’ve not experienced enough of the game. However, I can’t also let the game go without a recommendation, because, were I better at parrying and dodging, I’d find very few faults here and heartily say that fans of soulslikes could very well end up with a new favourite game.

I can’t fault the mechanics; I can’t fault the voice acting, or the story; I can’t fault the combat or level design; I can only lay fault with myself for simply not being able to get good enough to see this adventure through to its end point.