There are games, and then there are games... Unfortunately, I must clarify right away that this is not a masterpiece, but rather a particularly mediocre game that should not have been released until the developers had fixed the glaring holes and cleared away the piles of bugs that infest it. Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive does deliver on certain points, but overall it comes across as a clumsy attempt to generate quick money from a popular franchise.
Okay, let's be clear: I know nothing about Solo Leveling. Nothing. From what I understand, it's originally an immensely popular Korean manhwa (webtoon) that was later adapted into an anime series, with billions of views worldwide. I'm not downplaying the fact that animated series from Asia are hugely popular - I've seen several of them myself - but I completely missed Solo Leveling. Unfortunately, my hours with the game have not managed to spark any desire to dive into the original work. On the contrary, I feel very done with the entire Solo Leveling universe after this.
Another thing I've realised is that this game is a PC port of the original mobile game Solo Leveling: Arise, developed by Netmarble. In the port, they've done away with the controversial gacha elements (where you spend money on random draws for characters and equipment), but traces of its mobile origins are clearly visible. Everything from the menus to the user interface looks like something you would encounter in a typical mobile game. The problem is that Arise Overdrive doesn't offer much more than the usual mobile experience: endless grinding in search of new loot, more XP, and new levels that look pretty much the same as the ones you visited before. Basically, it feels more like work than fun.
In the game's introduction, you play as Sung Jin-woo, the main character who starts out as the "weakest" hunter in the world with the less than flattering rank of E. The world of Solo Leveling is a modern fantasy setting where mysterious portals to dungeons have opened, filled with monsters that threaten humanity. Hunters with supernatural powers fight them and are ranked from E (weakest) to S (strongest). After things go wrong in the game's first dungeon - a double dungeon that turns out to be more dangerous than expected - Jin-woo almost dies, but wakes up as a "player". Not one who plays with people's emotions, but a player who sees menus in front of them, senses level-ups, and can develop their abilities systematically. The goal is for Jin-woo to become the strongest monster hunter in the world, and all you need to do to achieve that is to endure the same repetitive loop over and over again: fight, level up, repeat.
Different classes and grades after the fighting was over. Unfortunately, I never got particularly high scores.
After yawning my way through the tutorial section, you get to choose a class: Assassin, Duelist, Elementalist, or Ruler. Interestingly, the classes are not only different fighting styles, but also linked to difficulty levels - from "very easy" to more challenging. This is an approach I can't remember encountering before, and it provides a certain amount of flexibility. But after making your choice, all that remains is to wander around the incredibly generic hub world, choose missions and fight roughly the same monsters over and over again. The hub feels like an empty backdrop, with no life or interactions to make it memorable.
Fighting monsters is not something I found particularly enjoyable either. Netmarble seems to rely entirely on how the battles look rather than making them genuinely engaging. There are flashes and bangs from the weapons, and it's difficult to identify what's actually happening in the midst of the chaos. You mostly press the B and Y buttons to attack, and the A or LB button to dash away or parry. There is a system of timing-based dodges and counters, but it lacks finesse and suffers mostly from how poorly optimised the game is. Every now and then, you manage to pull off an "extreme evade" by dashing away at the right moment, and it's a bit of fun to activate the special attacks that become available after enough damage. It's all about visual spectacle, and in that regard, the game delivers - as long as it doesn't lag.
A visual spectacle that actually looks quite good - as long as it works as it should.
The graphics are one of the stronger aspects: stylistic cut scenes (both well animated and comic book-style) and interestingly designed bosses actually look really good when everything is running smoothly. The cel-shaded style fits perfectly with Solo Leveling's manhwa origins and creates a feeling of stepping into the series. But for me, it just makes it even clearer what the game really is: surface without substance. Fans of the original work will surely appreciate experiencing Jin-woo's power fantasy for themselves, with the chance to recruit other characters from the series and build a team. But even though I searched and searched, I found nothing of real value for a beginner like me. Well, actually, the music is quite catchy - I'll give it that.
Technical problems are commonplace in Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive. Dialogues that are completely silent because the voice files don't load, game crashes that force you to restart levels from the beginning, and frequent dips in frame rate ruin the experience. The game could have benefited from a few more months of development. In addition, it requires a constant online connection, and the servers have been unavailable several times during my playtime, which is problematic, to say the least, especially in a single-player-focused port.
The hub world is not much to write home about.
I cannot recommend Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive to anyone. Are you a die-hard fan of the franchise? Then I suggest you close your eyes and slowly back away to avoid it as there's a risk that your love for the series will completely dry up, or it's possible that as a die-hard fan, you'll actually enjoy the game despite its shortcomings. Perhaps it's a game for those who just want superficial, action-packed battles with sexy characters in short skirts, and endless grinding and levelling up... but I don't know how many of such gamers there are these days. The game's appearance doesn't save it for me. During my 9-10 hours with the game, I wanted nothing more than to turn it off and forget what I had forced myself through and that's hardly what you want to feel when playing a game.