Slave Zero X Reviews

Slave Zero X is a decent fast-paced action game experience with a surprisingly good story. However, its overall repetitiveness and lack of interesting boss fights drags it down quite a bit.

It's hard to believe that Slave Zero X is some headline-grabbing response to a furious fan campaign or anything of the like, just more of a surprise elaboration on a 25-year-old IP whose small contingent of mega-fans celebrated the announcement; these must be the same folks who snatched up the repackaged Slave Zero on PC which dropped almost ten years ago. As for this prequel, it stands as an uneven but interesting creation imbued with a generous amount of love and care, featuring a semi-retraux presentation including gorgeous painted character art and enthusiastic voice acting, along with a number of antiquated beat ‘em up peculiarities; it’s that latter element which risks alienating its already-limited audience.

Slave Zero X is an interesting-looking action beat ‘em up title with a few bugs and feels a bit repetitive, but if you just want to kill tonnes of enemies, you will enjoy this.

Slave Zero X is an old school game that is great to look at, thrilling to play at times with excellent animations and a feedback loop to the combat that makes smashing enemies into a bloody mess amazingly fun, but it's difficulty spikes and how those spikes are escalated only work to wear you down. By the end of the game those things you might've enjoyed about Slave Zero X are being crushed under a pile of frustrations as high as the body count you'll rack up across a full playthrough. When the wins no longer provide any feeling of satisfaction, it's easy to be left wondering what you continue for. But all the things that are so well executed in Slave Zero X still make it worth checking out, especially if you're already intrigued by the difficulty barrier-to-entry to cross the line into 'enjoying Slave Zero X, even if it makes you want to throw something.'

If you love all things retro, or are mad for beat ’em ups with high skill ceilings, you might get a good kick out of Slave Zero X. For many, though, tedium is likely to set in pretty quickly, and frustration might be felt regularly too. It’s the type of game that draws you in and makes you want to like it, but then often fights you and pushes you away. We’d certainly be up for a sequel that refines what’s on offer here and expands upon it.

Some mechanical hiccups and issues aside, Slave Zero X has crafted an enjoyably complex combat system while staying a Beat ‘Em Up.

If you really like your punishing hack and slash platformers, then Slave Zero X might be for you, but it doesn’t feel as rewarding as it should when progress is made. You hardly feel like the killing machine you are as you run into difficulty spikes, and the near constant swarms of enemies just gets a bit dull when you are not learning any new techniques to fight them.

While Shou can be a bit difficult to handle, Slave Zero X promises plenty of action for those willing to fight for their bloodlust. Its endless hordes can be a bit of a grind, but those willing to sharpen their swords and cut their teeth will enjoy executing this cannon fodder in style.

Slave Zero X is a competent Beat 'Em Up. Despite some of my qualms with design choices, I did enjoy my time with the game. And it runs quite well on the Steam Deck.

Incredibly stylish, beautifully violent, wonderfully voice-acted, surprisingly emotional and incredibly enjoyable: Slave Zero X is an absolute indie powerhouse.