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You... and who else?
Game
Game2016
Slain: Back from Hell
Developer Steel Mantis
Slain! is a platform game developed by Wolf Brew Games and published by Digerati Distribution. The game shares similarities in tone and design to the Castlevania series, with elements of medieval Gothic architecture and heavy metal. The game was received negatively at launch and was overhauled and relaunched as Slain: Back from Hell. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
196 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Nov 4, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
60
Fresh
107 positive · 71 negative
95% range 53–67%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 107 | 71 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 1 | 0 | 16 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
908 of 1,311 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
60% recommend · 108 yes, 72 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 180 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (1,738 of 2,426 positive).
Players praise the game's heavy-metal aesthetic, pixel art, and soundtrack. [1][2][3][4] Many reviewers find the combat unresponsive and the difficulty cheap. [5][6][7][8] Some players enjoy the challenge and find it rewarding after mastering parries. [9][10][11]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
"Hard For The Sake of Hard" does not make a good game. I've played challenging 2-D action platformers. Actraiser 2, Castlevania: Dracula X, Demon's Crest, Shinobi III, etc. Those games, while extremely difficult, are balanced because the player is given ample amounts of options in dealing with the difficulty. Even 3-D games like Godhand, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and Devil May Cry 3 give the player enough tools to find …
- [6]
Do you know what is the most important part of a game, is to play the damn game, this game is a Kaizo trial and error, you don't play the game you just create muscle memory, this was developed by people who never played the arcade Castlevania, the arcade Ghouls'n Ghosts or even Battletoads, people who think old school equals cheap deaths. If anything this was inspired by the late bottom of the barrel games from the …
- [2]
Slain: Back from Hell is a brutally styled 2D action platformer that combines Gothic fantasy, heavy-metal aesthetics, challenging combat, and lavish pixel art into a focused old-school adventure. Developed by Steel Mantis and published by Silver Lining Interactive, the game immediately establishes itself through an uncompromising mixture of demons, blood-soaked landscapes, supernatural horrors, and thunderous music. …
- [9]
Slain might be the hardest game I played... but the more you play, the easier it becomes. Yeah, the game is unforgiving, but not really unfair. It hits that spot between frustrating and addictive. Let me exp(S)lain The combat is rather simple, yet works fine to me. Parries are especially rewarding, maybe the most satisfatory parry mechanic i've used in a game. Once you master it, combat becomes much more manageable. …
- [1]
Heavy metal is not a genre. It is a survival instinct.
Summarised from 34 of the 195 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
60% of the 180 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Slain: Back from Hell. The complaint that keeps coming up: input delay and unresponsive controls. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Slain! received "mixed or average" and "generally unfavorable" reviews, depending on a platform, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 196 · most liked firstAre you ready to headbang and fang? SLAIN 2's a heavy metal indie hack n slash game that allows you to unleash your inner beast! Free demo out now on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/3601680/... 20 minute Gameplay Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUCS... by indie dev @mrawolf.bsky.social #gaming
neutral · AI labelView post →"Hard For The Sake of Hard" does not make a good game. I've played challenging 2-D action platformers. Actraiser 2, Castlevania: Dracula X, Demon's Crest, Shinobi III, etc. Those games, while extremely difficult, are balanced because the player is given ample amounts of options in dealing with the difficulty. Even 3-D games like Godhand, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and Devil May Cry 3 give the player enough tools to find the proper means of succeeding. Slain does not. At all. You get a 1-2-3 mash…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →so this led to the very humiliating scenario of me angrily arguing with my girlfriend, getting so mad i told her i didn't want to play together anymore, leaving the party, and 5 seconds later having the game boldly announce "ANDREA WAS SLAIN"
neutral · AI labelView post →Heavy metal is not a genre. It is a survival instinct.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain has all the pieces to be a really great side scrolling action platformer. Graphically the game is top notch. The pixel art and animations are really lovely and you can tell a lot of time and attention went into the background art. The blood and gore is very satisfying and fits well with the overall theme. The heavy metal influence is a fun touch. The game play is reminiscent of an old school Castlevania game. It is a bit slow and requires some patience and there is no leveling up or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →WE'RE GOING TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME! THE PICKLES HAVE SLAIN THE KNIGHTS. josh schleichardt launched a huge home run, carter speights locked down 5 clutch outs, and the whole squad stepped up when it mattered most. see you in the title game. get your tickets 🎟️ picklestickets.com
neutral · AI labelView post →Fencer Slain nr 8, it's a game about duels after all.
neutral · AI labelView post →Do you know what is the most important part of a game, is to play the damn game, this game is a Kaizo trial and error, you don't play the game you just create muscle memory, this was developed by people who never played the arcade Castlevania, the arcade Ghouls'n Ghosts or even Battletoads, people who think old school equals cheap deaths. If anything this was inspired by the late bottom of the barrel games from the Amiga and Commodore 64. Input delay to jump, input delay to attack, input…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly can't really recommend it. Setting is awesome but gameplay is too flawed. Difficulty is just cheap and tedious. Its not terrible but at some point it just wasnt worth keep going. Some enemies can pretty much only be killed with parry. Parry window is quite tight. One hit kills you. You get the idea, its not fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My new pixel art, dragon statue I did for Slain 2 The Beast Within video game 🤘 #pixelart #indiedev #indiegame
neutral · AI labelView post →I'm really tired of this current trend in video games, that they are either casual timesinks, or excrutiatingly ultrahard ragefests, that are purposely created and endorsed by hyper-super gamers online to gaslight you into thinking that you can't play games if you don't like soulslike/retro-reminescing stuff / you're a baby / get good etc. Back in the day when Maddox wrote an article about Contra 3 being cool and manly because it's so difficult, it was meant to be a joke. THIS GAME IS NOT FUN.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got Slain: Back from Hell from a bundle with some recent games. I have never heard of, nor have I seen any game-play of this game at all. Why? Lack of advertisement? Epic exclusivity? I guess I will never know. Does the game hold up to nowadays "Platformer souls-like" games? I sadly, Yeah. I'd personally say it does. So, let's get to it. Done a little bit of research on the game before writing my review According to several friends that own this game, they seem to have said the same…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Here's my second #NintendoSwitch #indiegame highlight for today! 🎮👍🏼 Game - Super Spy Raccoon Developer - Slain Mascot LLC Publisher - @flynnsarcade.bsky.social Release date - December 19, 2024
neutral · AI labelView post →Slain is another example where the creator has put so much effort into a game's presentation that they forgot to make their game fun. Let me explain. Slain is considered "NES" hard. This is when the game play is pretty basic but it is chock full of cheap mechanics that stop the game being fun and instead, Less Super Mario Bros and more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. it milks your time for everything it's worth through cheap deaths. As an example, the game has the classic knock back effect. This…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's incredible to me that this game somehow feels less responsive than the actual old school Castlevania games. In that game, you expect input lag, but the input lag is even. It's the same. Somehow, this game manages to be both slow AND unresponsive. You move like you're in mud, you attack like you're drunk, and ultimately you feel like you might as well be punching underwater. Now, poor controls you can chalk up to incompetence rather than malice. But the problem is the game almost feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stopped on the second level. Sluggish controls, cheap enemy placement, bland repetitive level design. ( the same platforming tasks came up 3 separate times in the first level). Give this one a miss and go for the messenger instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought it this morning. Beat it two minutes ago. Fairly simplistic and sometimes BS combat disguised as difficulty. I jumped on it because I'm a big fan of metroidvania and roguelike titles. Definitely not the best I've played, but not entirely the worst. For a few more bucks, just go get Blasphemous instead. It's much more thought out in terms of gameplay mechanics and "difficulty." Soundtrack was cool. It's a good way to waste a few hours. ♥♥♥♥ you Vroll.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Dragon in Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't have a name unlike the first game, so because of this line people have started calling him Slain and the joke is so dumb but I love it xD
neutral · AI labelView post →This game has some good ideas, but really suffers from an unpleasant input delay within combat. I'd say if it goes on sale 100% give this game a chance, but if not maybe buy the upcoming sequel for hopefully better polish overall.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain: Back from Hell is a brutally styled 2D action platformer that combines Gothic fantasy, heavy-metal aesthetics, challenging combat, and lavish pixel art into a focused old-school adventure. Developed by Steel Mantis and published by Silver Lining Interactive, the game immediately establishes itself through an uncompromising mixture of demons, blood-soaked landscapes, supernatural horrors, and thunderous music. Rather than relying on complicated progression systems or mountains of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain would be a very decent and average game had it been released in the mid-90s, but for something released in the mid-2010s, it`s just not good. It adds nothing to the hack-and-slash genre that you haven't already seen hundreds of times over the years. The music is decent but movement and combat are not that good, enemy and level design is pretty subpar, and the lore/world is forgettable. Skip it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →More pixel art I did for Slain 2 The beast within game. #pixelart #indiegame #indiegamedev
neutral · AI labelView post →---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS + great looking, smooth and detailed pixel art + the locations and enemy variety (theme and design) is pretty nice ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☑ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't + attack, parry, dodge, move - no really in-depth mechanics, but it's all you need to play (more or less how original Castlevania games are) - feel like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It feels really bad giving this game a negative review cause it has an amazing setting, awesome aesthetics and a great soundtrack. However everything else feels bad, from combat to navigating. It is absolutely punishing, to a point were it's more tedious than frustrating. This is just one of those games that you either finish or put down after 40 minutes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Score: ★★☆☆☆ Played on Steam Deck: Yes. Tags: Action, Platformer, Heavy Metal Game Review: Slain: Back from Hell is a clear case of presentation outpacing execution. Its pixel art is striking, often compared by critics to heavy metal album covers; and the animation work is legitimately impressive. The soundtrack leans fully into that identity. It’s aggressive, cohesive, and fits the tone, even if it won’t appeal to everyone. The problems begin the moment precision is required. Controls lack…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain certainly has a unique look to it but it has a few issues. The difficulty is a bit all over the place and that's largely due to the controls not being tight and responsive. I don't know if it's the controls or just the way the enemies and platforming were designed to be frustrating to deal with.. or a combination of the two but you're going to be fighting the controls and be irritated quite bit like I was.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Forced parry system with completely random attack timings and no way to tell visually when the very short parry window is active. The levels are littered with one hit kill traps that don't really serve a purpose beyond wasting your time. Reflecting projectiles barely does anything to the enemy that casts them but is necessary. Special attacks that require a charge time that do nothing if you dont release them at a specific time. Good luck ever using it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is just hard for the sake of hard. I stopped playing after beating the ridiculous Mother Beholder boss. Even at a low hours I played I feel no enjoyment, the game doesn't reward you for beating bosses. Action is sluggish, backward dash in pretty useless the only meta in this game is to parry all enemies as your normal attack is slow. Also this game pits you in the most unfair and disadvantageous position like throwing a squad off melee enemies on both side while also putting mages…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dark, metal monster slashing in underworld. Gameplay similar to 16-bit action platformers. Lots of slashing, lots of slaying and lots of red. Visuals depending on the taste, overall well made. Some blops and blots of redness. Levels are straight forward, proceed to the right, sometimes flip switches and don't fall into the lava. Two CRT filters. Checkpoints between levels. Multiple different enemies. It's one of those games - learn pattern and enemies movement to win. For fans of 16-bit…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks beautiful but really, really frustrating to play.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain might be the hardest game I played... but the more you play, the easier it becomes. Yeah, the game is unforgiving, but not really unfair. It hits that spot between frustrating and addictive. Let me exp(S)lain The combat is rather simple, yet works fine to me. Parries are especially rewarding, maybe the most satisfatory parry mechanic i've used in a game. Once you master it, combat becomes much more manageable. Some points you might wanna know too: -There are plenty of checkpoints in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is pretty good. Regarding the main critics from the comments : the input delay. There is no delay, what people are talking about is the character does have an animation when he swings and if midswing you decide to block, it wont work. So when you commit to an action, you have to anticipate that you are going to have enough time to actually do it. I find the game pretty challenging, my only complain is sometimes the last checkpoint is to far back, so you have to repeat the same…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain is a tough action platformer with an emphasis on action and no difficulty settings. I played it with a controller. While I don't agree with some of the other negative reviews, I still wouldn't recommend this game. Keep in mind that I usually don't play this genre. -The already limited game mechanics (basic attack, charged attack, basic jump, backward dodge, magic attack, and parry) are crippling for the sake of being a tough game. -If you touch enemies, you take damage and are stunned…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →difficult without fun = frustration for nerds. Compared to this, souls game have no flaws
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain: Back from Hell. Maybe this game should have stayed there. The game looks great and has some good mood...but the combat is overly dull and sluggish. There are far too many games that do this combat style better. And is Hell really cold these days? Every time I stopped moving it was like I was sliding on ice. I will still get more playtime in it since I own it. Might as well..but I know my tastes, and this will have to pull an amazing 180 move for me to change my opinion. Right now…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →On paper the game sounds and looks fantastic, but the gameplay lacks everything, seriously.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can see the appeal of this game, great visual style and atmosphere, but for me the lack of story, the clunky controls and the boring gameplay lets me to not recommend this game. My rating 5,5/10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain is an awesome 2D platformer with amazing art and a badass metal soundtrack. It's probably not a game that everyone will enjoy due to its difficulty, however, if you like games like Castlevania, give this one a try. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this game and would recommend it to anyone looking for a challenge.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slain is Assho Too Hard. No difficulty settings. Tedious. Nah dawg.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sluggish controls, awkward combat, and tediously repetitive enemies. It's like the devs thought "let's make an edgy heavy metal sidescroller" and no further thought was put into it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game feels genuinely terrible to play. The combat feels weightless and horrible while also being incredibly delayed and slow. If I didn't get this for free from a friend (he bought a bunch of game keys off of fanatical) I would have refunded it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I kindof wish I could say 'maybe' when recommending this game but pushed for an answer I would have to say I dont recommend it. - the game is not all bad but it just has too many frustrating elements in it for me to say to someone "you have to play it". I have only put the time I have into the game because I am an achievement hunter (to a lesser degree) and thought I could get them all with little effort, but this is not the case. Pros - . Its got one hell of a cool aesthetic, like older…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I know plataformers aren't known for their good stories, but come on... it's like a 8 year old that his big brother likes Iron Maiden wrote this.Besides that, gameplay sucks, good graphics though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a great game! Dont let the age of this game fool you.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →my most anticipated game of 2026 is indeed Slain 2, a metal af indie. The original Slain is still one of my favorite experiences I've had on the Switch. I am going to absolutely mess this game up when it comes out.
positive · AI labelView post →It's hard to be salty about SLAIN in dynasty warriors when the game over music kind of fucking rules
neutral · AI labelView post →Good at first. Good art. Sucks later. Beat this game out of spite.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun, but controls are very unresponsive quite often. I'm on a bluetooth gamepad, an 8bitdo, and consistently, it is unresponsive. I'm not going to use the keyboard, I'm going to use the same thing I've used on many games that works perfectly fine. Very bad for a game that is heavily reliant on fast combination of moves to even get through it. Sorry to discourage an otherwise pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kick ass game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will not be supporting this publisher any more. A game - Valfaris, that I paid for was suddenly revoked from my account. I will not tolerate such behavior. I've always tried to support newer and smaller devs and publishers, my steam account is FULL of them and I have more indie games than I have time in this lifetime to complete. However such practices as the one below is unacceptable "Account Alert for rrmarti3 - Sep 25, 2024 A product code you registered has been revoked from your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The visuals are great but the gameplay is extremely stiff. The game demands you play exactly how it wants you to. You must fight every encounter in a particular order otherwise you will not progress. Reminds me most of the original castlevania games, but those at least had more variety in the weaponry opposed to this. You have a basic set of abilities and a parry you have to rely on about 80% of the time. On the whole its trying to emulate the difficulty of retro games without giving you the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is in a weird spot. It's not a bad platformer, its just not good enough. Some tweaks would make it less painful to play. But there are some things that are well done, like the music and pixel art.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It looks great but the gameplay just amounts to hallways full of dudes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The way the difficulty is done is just annoying and the combat itself does not feel very satisfying.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →NFL Threatened to Ban Player From Game for Honoring Slain Palestinian Girl truthout.org/articles/nfl...
neutral · AI labelView post →This game sucked. Admittedly, I didn't finish it, but I saw enough. The combat was stale. There are basically two kinds of enemies - ones that you just attack, and others that you have to parry and then attack. Most of the enemies are a little on the tough side, so it's just better to keep running and not waste your time. If you die, you get sent back to the checkpoint, which can be a ways back sometimes, especially after having been required to do something tedious, like a long…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Delays in attack, delay in defense, step back not usable when u need it(delays), u cant run and atack,wth? dude who ever made this, take sword run and atack, does it work? yeah it works.... i just tried i broke my door ... now i need new door. why i keep seing games with this kind of physics. im gona attack, oh no wait i must stay absolutely still so enemy can kill me for sure ........... every other game like this is broken ..... i dont care if its good made audio/graphics(it is), but if…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not hard, just frustrating
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game feels clunky and unresponsive, no update since forever, on slaine update history they market valfaris updates like wtf is it included free with slain wtf devs?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I thought this game was fine in 2016 but they did a great job updating it. It plays wonderfully on the top resolution my monitor can produce. It always looked gorgeous and it still does. I love the music and the checkpoints appear often. Our protagonist got woken up from a good, deep sleep and is angry about it - I can relate. He probably took 20 grams of melatonin before that spacy ethereal handsy dickwad woke him up so now he's got to go to cvs and get more. I can relate. I'd be hacking away…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is tough. I own this on Epic because it was free a year or so ago, and then got it here on Steam through a bundle. Unfortunately, this version is kind of borked. When you go full screen (at least with my duel screen setup), the game runs with this faded blur effect. Like an echo. It honestly gave me a headache. This doesn't exist on the Epic edition (which is v1.1). Not sure what version this one is, but I can tell you it isn't the same as the Epic one. If you really want this, then I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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