The First Berserker: Khazan

The First Berserker: Khazan was provided by NEXON for review. Thank you!

I'm not one for souls-like games, so I was a little nervous going into The First Berserker: Khazan, but I have to say, the fluid gameplay and the feeling of satisfaction that the game can bring you is one of the better feelings I've had playing a video game for a while, which is just as well when it has to counter the frustrations of a souls-like game.

The story follows Khazan, a military general falsely accused of being a traitor and, therefore, imprisoned and exiled. While being transported, he is killed and "resurrected" by a phantom who possesses his body, granting him supernatural powers. You now embark on a quest for revenge against those who betrayed you. The story is decent, and the voice acting, while minimal, also holds up.

However, the main focus of any Souls-like game is the combat, and The First Berserker: Khazan follows a pretty similar formula to games such as Dark Souls. You'll encounter your regular enemies as you progress through a mostly linear world with branching pathways. They will mostly pose as an inconvenience more than anything else, trying to whittle down your health before you reach the next rest point.

Your main concern is the boss battles you'll encounter. As you'd expect in a Souls-like, frequent boss battles occur during the game at key moments in the plot. These battles are far more exciting and put your skills to the test. When your opponent is making combo moves, teleporting around the battlefield, and presenting you with unblockable attacks, you'll have to think on your feet and learn both your enemy's moves and your own weapons.

Your choice of weapon is really important in The First Berserker: Khazan, and it's a good idea to keep yourself familiar with how each one works, as different boss battles can favor one over the other. Spears grant you far greater melee range if you want to keep your distance from your opponent but don't deal huge amounts of damage. Greatswords are slow but can deal a lot of damage and quickly weaken your foe, and Dual Wield is ideal for close combat but can leave you more vulnerable.

Ultimately, the combat feels smooth and fluid; it's satisfying to block or dodge incoming attacks and swiftly punish the enemy, and it's even more satisfying to finally beat that boss after countless attempts. If you can time it correctly, you can also parry attacks, which hurts the boss slightly without draining your stamina. The game skips previously seen cutscenes for bosses, and the save points are well-placed, so if you lose a battle, it's quick to get back into the action.

Your weapon stats are also slightly affected by the abilities you upgrade to. With abilities spread across Vitality, Endurance, Strength, Willpower, and Proficiency, each affects skill with certain types of weapons, as well as changing your other stats such as health, stamina, and combat capabilities. Armor sets can be worn to give buffs to your stats, and there are also skill trees tied to each weapon type, which can increase your effectiveness and grant new combos for you to use in battle. All in all, it creates a pretty deep gear and leveling system that gives us a chance to cater to our playstyle.

The combat feels a bit faster, similar to a hack and slash, but still has the Souls-like formula baked in. Attacks are faster or slower depending on the weapon type you have, and with a combination of abilities to unlock and ranged attacks, Khazan offers a great amount of variety. I especially enjoyed parrying bosses, hearing that satisfying cling of metal, and seeing the boss' health and stun bar go down to make a big attack and get closer to beating them. The bosses all felt unique in mechanics and style, and with the inclusion of gear, the skill tree, and the well-known Souls-like leveling system of gathering currency to increase stats one by one, I found Khazan a hard game to put down.

With regards to the presentation, as I said before, the voice acting in the game is pretty well done. The sound effects in general are also up to scratch, with audio cues allowing you to protect yourself from attacks off-screen, and the sound of getting a perfect block is a serotonin boost. Visually, the game adopts a cel-shaded style, and I think it works well in this somewhat dark world. Plus, it probably helps the game's performance.

I mostly enjoyed my time with The First Berserker: Khazan. It was quite a challenge for me, someone who isn't used to Souls-like games. If you do die a few times in the same area, the game recommends you switch to an "Easy" mode, which, while easier, is still pretty tough and will present a challenge to most players.

My only criticism is that the "lock-on" only locks on to enemies in front of you, so if you quickly want to change to a target behind you, it can cause some issues, which, in a Souls-like, can be deadly. Also, while there is a general premise to the storyline, it feels like the background to the characters is a little shallow and not expanded upon, meaning your knowledge of the world is pretty restricted to what little the game lets you know.

If you are after a solid Action-Adventure Souls-like game with a unique presentation, well-tuned combat with a nice skill system, and backed up by a pretty decent storyline, then The First Berserker: Khazan might be the game for you.

The First Berserker: Khazan - Steam Deck Performance

The First Berserker: Khazan works pretty well on the Steam Deck, as you would hope, seeing as it achieved Steam Deck Verified status by Valve before its launch. The game has good controller support and supports the Deck's native 1280x800 resolution.

There is a wide range of graphical settings, but I recommend keeping the settings on the lower side for the sake of performance and battery life. Plus, the game still looks pretty good on low settings, thanks to the somewhat artistic styling.

Recommended Settings - 60 FPS

If you want the game to feel smooth and look decent, these are your settings.

You'll want no TDP Limit set, so make sure to disable the framerate limit and set the refresh rate to 60. This will minimize any input lag, which is essential for games like this.

For in-game graphical settings, selecting the "Low" preset and then dropping the Shadows from "Low" to "None" actually puts us in a really good position for this; it pushes the GPU to its max, but you barely get any drops from 60 FPS, meaning it's a smooth and pleasant experience. The exception to this is some cutscenes, which will drop. One particular cutscene I noticed dropped below 20 FPS.

It may seem you can get away with the Shadows on "Low," but as you progress through the game, you'll encounter battles where the frame rate drops into the mid-50s, so for a stable 60, turn them off.

On the flip side, this does mean that the power draw is on the higher end, often drawing about 19W-22W from the battery. This means your playtime will be down to about 2.5 hours on the Steam Deck OLED and around 1.5 hours on a Steam Deck LCD. Temperatures were also up at around 70C-75C, with audible fan noise.

Battery Saver Settings - 30 FPS

If you want to preserve some battery life, turn down the in-game frame limit from 60 to 30 and use the same in-game graphics settings as above. This should lower the power draw to around 11W-13W while still maintaining playability. You should see around 4 hours of battery life on the Steam Deck OLED and around 3 hours on the Steam Deck LCD. Temperatures are also down to about 60-65C on these settings. I also recommend changing the refresh rate back to 90 for smoothness, but keep the disabled framerate limit option on.

Accessibility:

The First Berserker: Khazan does have an "Easy" mode, which makes the game's combat a bit easier. There is some aim assist to help with ranged weapons and an option for an Arachnophobia Safe Mode to alter the appearance of spider-like creatures.

Conclusion:

The First Berserker: Khazan is an enjoyable title for a specific group of people. The combat is tight and responsive, just what you want for a skill-based game such as a Souls-like. The story is decent, although I would have liked to have a bit more background information about the empire that Khazan served and any actual information on what kind of person Khazan is, but maybe that's for another time. The game's presentation is unique with the cel-shading, but it works well.

To top it all off, The First Berserker: Khazan runs great on the Steam Deck. We can't push the visuals too hard, but we do get a decent-looking game at 60 FPS, and we can lower the frame rate to gain some battery life if we choose.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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