I usually skip souslikes not made by FromSoftware, but one Steam demo just won me over

I'm a FromSoft fiend, but there are hardly any other soulslikes I can stand. I can dig something a bit more removed like the first-person Lunacid or 2D Mina the Hollower, but there's an uncanny valley effect for me with stuff like Lies of P or Nioh: It's so close to being the thing I love, but doesn't quite bring it home.

Enter Prison of Husks, whose demo is live on Steam: It carries the same risk of comparison to the champaign of Souls with its camera, controls, and vibes, but manages to be different enough to really get my goat. The first thing that won me over was its commitment to a retro PS1 rendering style, boasting little touches that come off as genuine retro expression rather than hopping on an indie trend.

Those touches include a forced 4:3 aspect ratio, 640x480 default resolution, and chunky console menus. Through that filter, Prison of Husks looks to be blending Demon's Souls vibes and level design with Sekiro combat, as well as some flourishes all its own.

I'm a sucker for a good perfect block parry, and Prison of Husks' had me running back a demo miniboss dozens of times until I buried it. It's not perfect: Sometimes it felt like I didn't have a big enough window to meaningfully counter after a parry, and Prison of Husks lacks the crystal-clear feedback of Sekiro's stagger meter. But the combat felt good—better than most lesser Sekiros I've encountered.

As for the atmosphere, I was intrigued. It's the grey, towering gothic structures and specific strain of cryptic "ooh cursed one" that I associate with Demon's Souls and, to a lesser extent, Dark Souls 1. You play as some kind of life-sized doll automaton possessed by a wayward soul⁠—or maybe more accurately, you play as a wayward soul possessing doll automatons⁠—and you really ought to do something about all this entropic curse stuff in the air.

(Image credit: Glass Head Dolls)

(Image credit: Glass Head Dolls)

(Image credit: Glass Head Dolls)

(Image credit: Glass Head Dolls)

Prison of Husks is also trying some mechanical experimentation that I respect: It's leaning more action/exploration than RPG, with equippable gear but no complicated stat/class/leveling system that I noticed. Reading into Prison of Husks' Steam page, it sounds like there will be some build differentiation in the weapons and supplemental accessories instead.

I'm also happy to report that it runs great out of the box on Steam Deck⁠—even with throwback graphics, that's not always a guarantee a game is actually lightweight enough for the Linux-based handheld. As a bonus, the Deck's 16:10 screen is also a nice fit for Husks' 4:3 aspect ratio. Prison of Husks is planned to launch sometime this year. You can wishlist it and check out its demo for yourself on Steam.