The First Berserker: Khazan Is Already Turning Heads on Steam—Here’s What Gamers Are Saying

The First Berserker: Khazan, a souls-like action game from the Dungeon Fighter Online universe, will be released on March 27. Critics have already had a chance to evaluate the new game and were generally satisfied with it. The Blix team will talk about the weaknesses and strengths of Neople’s latest action game.

Highlights

• Review of The First Berserker: Khazan
• Reviews from players and journalists, strengths and weaknesses of the game

Critics’ Opinions on The First Berserker: Khazan

As of this writing, the game has 80/100 on Opencritic and 80/100 on Metacritic, with 78% of journalists recommending it for playthrough.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a brilliant blend of the Soulslike and Hack and Slash genres, offering some of the best combat in recent gaming years and an incredibly polished product. 

Fextralife

Journalists praised the game’s excellent combat system, which skillfully combines blocking, dodging, and counterattacks. This makes the battles dynamic and deep, and the process itself sometimes becomes “like a dance.”

Some people saw hints of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in it rather than the Dark Souls series. However, these slight hints should not be considered direct borrowings. Khazan adds its features to a familiar formula, making it unusual.

The bosses and overall visuals are also praised. The visuals offer an anime setting in a dark fantasy setting with detailed locations. The graphics are very decent, and each location looks incredibly inspiring.

Ultimately, The First Berserker: Khazan is a good time. Its aesthetic differentiates it from the plethora of ARPG Souls-likes we’ve become used to, and its brilliant boss fights are engaging enough to entice you through levels that start to feel boring around the mid-way point of the game. But its lacklustre story and bloated, inconsistent mechanics hinder what could have been a better game if it were more refined.

Push Square

Most reviewers described the protagonist as “flat,” the levels as boring, and the game’s prologue (available in the free demo) as “rather unfortunate,” as it gives very little insight into what awaits in the full version of the game.

Despite somewhat samey missions and a flat protagonist, Khazan’s combat and boss design are some of the best I’ve seen in a soulslike.

PC Gamer

Player Reviews of The First Berserker: Khazan

The game has already received the first reviews from gamers and press evaluations. In Steam rating, 95% of reviews are positive when writing the news. 

Players claim that the fights and boss battles are fantastic, the story is fine, the graphics and level design are perfect, and the variety of enemies is solid compared to other games. 

This game is absolutely awesome. I enjoy games like Elden Ring, Dark Souls or Lies of P etc. It takes literally all the good parts from those game and take away the annoying parts (like long runbacks etc.). <…> Gameplay is insanely cool. It is similar to Lies of P. Parrying sound is VERY juicy when you hit it right. You can ALWAYS change your skill points. There are no drawbacks or ressources needed for it. 

User comment in Steam

We saw complaints about the launch of the game itself and technical problems. Also, the user wrote that stamina is too low, and you will be depleted if you run out of stamina.

On Reddit, following the journalists, some players noticed that the levels were still monotonous and suitable for a short campaign. However, the developer assures the campaign lasts about 60 hours of play.

Conclusion

The First Berserker: Khazan will be released on March 27 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Deluxe edition owners can already start the walkthrough, which, according to journalists, exceeds 40 hours for the primary campaign alone.