10 SHAMELESS Dark Souls Knock-Off Games
“Mortal Shell” (2020)
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While many entries on this list will be more like homages to the Dark Souls formula, Mortal Shell is more of a love letter to the series by developer Playstack. While much of the core mechanics and gameplay will be familiar to veteran Souls players, Mortal Shell tweaks the formula just enough to keep it from being a simple copy/paste entry in the ever growing “Souls-Like” genre. Instead of choosing a class to play as throughout the entire game, Mortal Shell allows players to choose from various “Shells”, to allow players to experiment with the different classes and even switch back and forth on the fly later on. With some truly awe-inspiring environments and just enough original ideas of its own, Mortal Shell might not have reinvented the formula but it did just enough to entice new players into its haunted world.
“Blasphemous” (2019)
The Souls formula isn’t just for the obvious 3D homages to the popular series, as Blasphemous elegantly translates the tough as nails, live, die, repeat formula to a 2D Metroidvania experience dripping with atmosphere. Given the game’s title, naturally the world of Blasphemous is coated in religious iconography and uses these overtones for some truly horrific enemy designs all based around religious and messianic figures. Unfortunately, not everything from Dark Souls can translate well to a 2D plane with much of the combat being more about memorizing your enemies’ attack patterns rather than adapting to their changing tactics and the upgrade system doesn’t offer enough meaningful changes to make any of the many upgrade options viable. Blasphemous is still enjoyable thanks to its incredible art style but beyond its visuals, there’s not much here to keep long-time Souls fans engaged for longer than the title’s initial runtime.
“Eldest Souls” (2021)
The most borderline copyright infringement title on our list for name alone, Eldest Souls actually borrows more lore-wise from God of War than Dark Souls with our hero being sent into a Citadel to deal with the many Gods imprisoned there. Leaning more into Bloodborne-style combat, forcing the player to be more aggressive with their attacks to regain precious health, the 2D isometric plane the battles take place on keep you constantly on the move with many of the bosses’ screen-filling attacks. Eldest Souls also deviates from the normal Souls experience in that the only combat encounters are with the bosses themselves. With an absolutely gorgeous pixel art style and each of the bosses’ unique personalities coming through not only in their beautiful designs but the arenas you engage them in, Eldest Souls makes sure no two encounters are ever alike.
“Hellpoint” (2020)
While most Souls-like clones are content with simply copying the iconic series’ medieval fantasy setting, Hellpoint takes things into futuristic sci-fi territory. Sadly, beyond an interesting environment, nearly every aspect of the Souls series is present here, the methodical combat, the lost experience upon death and even a similar checkpoint system are all nearly carbon copies of a formula done better by the developers who crafted it to near perfection. The world of Hellpoint is quite large and extremely well detailed and makes you want to explore further, searching for lore dumps to explain why you’re there, but the samey hallways make backtracking frustrating for all the wrong reasons. In the end, there simply weren’t enough original ideas beyond an interesting setting to differentiate Hellpoint from other, better Dark Souls clones.
“Steelrising” (2022)
The most recent entry on our list, Steelrising also switches up the Souls formula by taking place during the real historical setting of the French Revolution - albeit an alternate history version with automatons created by King Louis the XVI, but still, historical Souls-like. Using your own automaton to face down the king's many dangerous creations, Aegis moves like a ballerina around the battlefield with elegance and beauty as she turns her many foes into spare parts. Steelrising offers players a myriad of period accurate weapons as well as a grappling hook for more advanced exploration as Aegis navigates not only the war-torn world but also a political narrative full of historical figures with their own agendas and branching paths. Steelrising might be familiar but puts enough of its own spin on the formula with an original setting and does it with much needed grace and poise.
“Code Vein” (2019)
Stop us if you’ve heard this one: vampire anime Dark Souls. We didn’t think so. While many of what Souls-like fans would expect are absolutely present here, Code Vein takes what makes the Dark Souls formula work and adds additional layers to make it unique to their world. While the Souls series is primarily a single player experience, players can call in others to assist with encounters during their playthrough, and while Code Vein offers multiplayer as well, the player character is constantly assisted by an AI companion during their exploration, for better or worse. Code Vein also allows the player to completely respect their character as they see fit, allowing players to tweak their class and character builds as needed. Code Vein offers a unique take on a familiar game play style, but your mileage may vary depending on your love of anime and its many tropes.
“Remnant: From The Ashes” (2019)
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Dark Souls with guns sounds like such a simple idea you wonder why more developers haven’t attempted the same approach. Remnant leans heavily into its gunplay but unlike Dark Souls’ progression which rewards exploration for new equipment, Remnant takes more of a Destiny-style reward system in which the player is constantly grinding in hopes of finding better loot. And while Dark Souls focuses more on a single player experience with multiplayer available, Remnant is designed with this gameplay style in mind as three players take to the post-apocalyptic world in search of better gear. However, this means those looking for a single player experience will face an uphill battle as many encounters seem geared towards multiple players. With solid and punchy gunplay and a beautifully grotesque world, those looking for a new spin on Dark Souls should definitely grab a couple of friends and take on the Root.
“The Surge” Series (2017-19)
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Deck 13 has made a name for themselves in recent years adapting the Dark Souls formula, as you’ll see once again later in the list, but with a sci-fi setting and a focus on dismemberment over simply surviving encounters, The Surge series has garnered its own fan base building off the Dark Souls series. Putting players in an exo-suit and unleashing them in a world overrun by other exo-suited enemies as well as nanomachines run amok, The Surge’s world certainly sets itself apart from the typical medieval setting most Souls-like titles like to imitate. The Surge gives players an arsenal of weapons to choose from, spoiling players for choice when it comes to building their personal loadouts. While many Souls-like tropes are still present, the dismemberment of the game’s numerous enemies for new equipment and weapons keeps things fresh and interesting and the over-the-top slow-mo kill animations never get old.
“Nioh” Series (2017-2020)
As we said at the beginning of the list, just because a game is a shameless knockoff doesn’t mean it can’t be good, and Nioh is the exception that proves the rule. Developed by Team Ninja, the developer is no stranger to engaging and well balanced combat, having cultivated a following of tough but fair games with the Ninja Gaiden franchise, but with the Nioh series, the developer has truly found their stride. Taking the Dark Souls formula and applying it to Japanese mythology works incredibly well and allows Team Ninja to not only force the player to fight absurd mythological creatures but also ground these encounters in a fantastical version of real life battles. The series has been extremely well received and some fans even consider it to be more difficult than the series its blueprint originated from.
“Lords of the Fallen” (2014)
This was Deck 13’s first foray into the genre of Souls-like and the comparisons are far more obvious than their later efforts. Everything from the setting, the combat, and even a few of the boss encounters feels lifted from the iconic series Lords of the Fallen is clearly inspired by. Lords of the Fallen could easily be called a “Souls-Lite” with its focus more on easier and arcadey hack and slash action as opposed to the normal tough but fair style of combat other Souls-like titles are known for. One of the only interesting systems Lords of the Fallen uses to differentiate itself from its Dark Souls brethren is in its combat multiplier, but sadly even this isn’t integrated in any meaningful way. A long-in-development sequel is finally due in 2023, but it remains to be seen if it will elevate the IP beyond its shameless knockoff status.
