A free third-person hack-and-slash action game

STRATO-SPEAR is an action “hack and slash” game where you have to fight your way around an island full of alien monsters. It has the graphics and gameplay style of a classic Playstation 1 game. It is a short and furious game that is highly replayable.

This action game has a fighting style inspired by Devil May Cry. In fact, strip back the art style of the early DMC games, and this game is very similar. The lightweight physics and frenetic action, along with its bold color style, were inspired by Super Smash Bros.

Varied enough combat to make it good

There are many overly basic soulslike games with lackluster combat. This game has jump, dash, shoot, attack, throw, target, and crouch. There are also modified actions if you are holding forward, backward, or crouching. It is just enough variety to keep the game interesting.

Experiment for a better experience

The game has several functions that are not properly explained. There are things like the ballerina drill attack or simple things like a heal function that must be discovered. The game may have more mass appeal if perhaps a training/tutorial section showed people these functions.

Straining under its small budget

This third-person combat game is very well made, but it only has around half an hour of gameplay. The combat is addictive enough to warrant a replay, but this game is sadly a tasty entree rather than a full meal.

The graphics may scare away modern gamers

The Playstation 1-era game graphics of low-polygon counts, repeated textures and low-resolution objects is going to be off-putting for modern gamers. Much of the repetitive environment texturing was cleverly hidden by darker-toned backgrounds, but it won’t fool hardcore gamers.