Khazan: The First Berserker – A Comprehensive Review

When Lords of the Fallen came out in 2014, it was interesting to see another developer daring to mimic From Software’s Souls formula. But now that it’s a whole genre, seeing another big-budget soulslike just doesn’t feel special anymore – even Star Wars has had a crack at it. So what’s The First Berserker: Khazan bringing to the table? What fresh twist or novel setting makes this soulslike stand out? To be frank, I can’t see one. If I were to be as reductive as possible, I’d say it simply takes some core ideas from Nioh, and slaps Sekiro‘s parry on top.

Some of you might read that and think this anime-eyed action RPG sounds derivative. Others will probably salivate with glee. Well, both reactions make sense. There’s absolutely nothing original about The First Berserker: Khazan. It might also be the most fun I’ve had playing a soulslike in years.

You are General Khazan, a once-celebrated veteran who has been framed for treason by a cowardly emperor. After the tendons in your arms are severed, you unwillingly make a pact with a big bloke called the Blade Phantom who grants you the power to cheat death. From here you set out on a quest to punish those who framed you and restore your name.

Yeah, it’s hardly Macbeth. The story is one of the game’s weakest elements, a by-the-numbers tale of revenge that sees you tear through a bunch of forgettable one-note villains and expendable allies. Worse still, the majority of the plot is divulged through narrated slideshows. To give the writers some credit, they seem hamstrung by the fact that this is a prequel (of sorts) to Dungeon Fighter Online, a free-to-play beat ’em up by the same developers. But I can’t imagine even diehard fans of that will find themselves invested.

The main story missions are straightforward enough. Fight through some enemies and mini-bosses, light some bonfires and unlock shortcuts along the way, then beat the snot out of the boss at the end. That journey is, unfortunately, another of Khazan’s shortcomings – everything up until those boss fights feels like a formality. They try to mix it up occasionally by introducing puzzles, but mostly you’re just going from point A to point B and killing everything along the way.

There’s a sense of sameiness to enemies that gets worse the longer you go on. Fighting a bunch of lizardmen was fun the first time, but by the time they featured as the primary antagonists of a fourth main mission, I was truly bored of dispatching them. It’s not just the types of foes that get tiring either, the way in which they’re arranged throughout levels makes the whole affair feel tedious. I lost count of the number of times the game threw a bulky mini-boss at me, placed a bunch of archers behind it, and called it a day.

Even when you try to milk a little extra variety from side missions, these mostly just feel recycled from the main story. Some of the maps are repurposed in interesting ways, by adding puzzles or opening up new routes that were previously inaccessible. But, again, very few of these missions add unique enemies, and every one I played just had a reskinned version of a main story boss at its end. One side quest went out of its way to justify this by insisting the boss was the twin brother of the last guy I fought. You’re not being slick, Khazan – I know you just put a helmet on the last boss model and dusted your hands.

But while bosses can reappear more than you’d like, they do make up for it in one significant way: they are absolute menaces. On top of the usual unblockable blows, there are combo strings that are ten attacks long, grabs that are only signified by audio cues, attacks that build a negative status effect even when you block them, area-of-effect swipes that almost fill the entire arena. Khazan’s icicle yetis and hammer heaving demons throw everything at you. Hardcore fans of the genre might think I’m burying the lede here, but this genuinely might be one of the hardest soulslikes I’ve played, solely due to the boss fights.

Ultimately, however, they are still fair. Khazan balances its aggressive nonsense by giving you a massive bag of defensive tools. Granted, there are only three weapons – the Dual Wield, the Greatsword, and the Spear – which compared to Elden Ring might sound like a huge limitation. But this more closely resembles the ideas of Nioh. Every weapon type has its own skill tree, unlocking unique special attacks, movement options, and buffs. All three weapons feel distinct from one another, and thanks to the skill tree’s steady progression I never felt burnt out when simply sticking to the Dual Wield for the majority of my playthrough.

The cleverness comes in how you use these blades. There are four different ways you can counter enemies: you can dodge, you can guard, you can parry, and you can use the counterattack skill to deflect unblockable attacks. But by timing a dodge or guard perfectly, you can use their “brink” variants. These will help you regenerate stamina or reflect damage back at your foe.

This results in big battles that are satisfying in a way that no other boss fights have felt to me since Sekiro. There is great satisfaction in perfectly reflecting a beast’s 30-second-long combo. Or parrying a hulking monstrosity and shaving off half of its stagger bar. There are no cheesy strategies or exploits to be found, you simply have to lock in and play a perfect game every single time. It’s daunting, but there is an unmatched feeling of having to surpass a perfectly timed and intensely lethal game of Dance Dance Revolution.

As someone who loves the genre, I can forgive so many of Khazan’s defects because of this fierceness. But I can’t deny that the game has plenty of weaknesses outside of those pitched battles. If it was a more concise adventure (a full playthrough will set you back around 80 hours), a lot of the issues I’ve mentioned might not seem like such a big deal. Instead, it leaves me feeling conflicted. I’m caught between lamenting its laborious (and often rehashed) campaign, while truly celebrating its gratifying, in-depth combat. There are some bruising boss fight treasures buried in Khazan for any tough-knuckled soulslike fans, it’s just a shame you have to dig through mounds of uninteresting levels and scores of samey enemies to reach them.

This review is based on a review build provided by the publisher.