Soul Chained

Introduction

Soul Chained, released 7 September 2026 by solo developer Kyroware Games, builds a chaotic co-op action game around a simple, physically-enforced premise: two players fight through purgatory literally bound together by a chain, using shared chain magic, teamwork, and frequent accidental friendly fire to survive a series of brutal, distinctive bosses. It sits Mixed with a modest sample of 41 reviews, and reading widely through it reveals a genuinely wide split between reviewers who find real, chaotic joy in the concept at this budget price and reviewers who describe a level of jank and instability serious enough to override any fun they might otherwise have had.

Genuine chaos, when it works

The clearest, most consistent praise across this sample's positive side concerns the core co-op loop itself. Reviewers describe real satisfaction charging up powerful chain-magic attacks and coordinating timing with a partner to devastate groups of enemies at once, and boss design draws consistently enthusiastic, specific comment — reviewers single out individual encounters by vivid, memorable description as some of the funniest and most distinctive they've seen in the genre. Multiple reviewers explicitly compare the experience to Chained Together crossed with Dark Souls, and several specifically frame the game's ambition as impressive given it's built by a single developer, crediting real passion behind an undeniably distinctive core concept even where they acknowledge rough execution surrounds it.

Real, specific lag and stability complaints

Set directly against that praise, this review found a large and specific body of complaints about technical stability. Multiple reviewers report severe lag even in two-player sessions with minimal ping between them, describing this as a serious, currently unresolved problem rather than an occasional stutter. Separate reviewers report specific Steam Deck performance issues even at medium settings, and at least one detailed reviewer reports controls that were barely functional during their early playtime, specifically noting an inability to even disable the on-screen cursor during gameplay. A separate reviewer reports being unable to select a playable character in single-player mode at all, describing it as a basic design oversight rather than a deliberate late-game reward.

A chain that reviewers say doesn't really chain

A specific, pointed complaint concerns the game's own central mechanic. At least one detailed reviewer reports the chain connecting the two players barely interacts with level geometry at all, passing straight through obstacles it should physically respond to — a serious problem given the chain and its physical interactions with the world are the entire premise the game is built around. This is a different, more structural complaint than general jank, since it targets the specific system the whole marketing pitch and core loop depend on.

No proper final boss

Beyond the mechanical and performance complaints, this review found a specific structural disappointment concerning the game's ending. At least one detailed reviewer reports the game lacks a proper final boss encounter entirely, describing the actual conclusion as a horde run followed by a basic, unremarkable enemy rather than a climactic set-piece. Given how much of this sample's praise centres specifically on individual boss encounters as the game's clearest strength, ending the whole experience without a comparable capstone reads as a genuinely missed opportunity rather than a minor complaint.

A recurring, unverified suspicion about AI-generated content

It's worth reporting directly on a pattern that surfaced repeatedly and independently across this sample: multiple, otherwise unrelated reviewers specifically suspect AI-generated voice acting or broader AI-assisted content, with one detailed reviewer describing the voice acting as unpleasant to listen to and specifically attributing that quality to AI generation, and others invoking AI dismissively in describing the game's overall quality. This review was not able to independently verify whether AI tools were actually used in the game's development, and treats these comments as a documented pattern of player perception rather than a confirmed fact. Given how often the suspicion recurred unprompted across separate reviewers rather than in a single isolated comment, this review judges it worth reporting directly to prospective buyers who might weigh that possibility in their own purchasing decision, while stopping short of stating it as established.

A solo developer's ambitious swing, landing unevenly

Taken as a whole, this review reads Soul Chained as a genuinely ambitious concept from a single developer that lands convincingly for some players and falls apart for others, with the split tracking closely to how much technical jank and instability a given player is willing to tolerate in exchange for genuinely memorable, chaotic co-op moments. That's a meaningfully different situation from a game that's simply mediocre throughout — the highs this sample documents are real and specific, and so are the lows.

Final Verdict

Soul Chained offers real, chaotic co-op fun at a genuinely low price, with boss design and chain-magic combat reviewers consistently praise as distinctive and memorable, all the more impressive given its solo-developer origins. What holds this score down is a serious, specific and widely-reported cluster of technical problems: severe lag even in favourable network conditions, a chain mechanic reviewers say barely interacts with the world it's meant to define, missing basic functionality like character selection in single-player, no proper final boss, and a recurring, independently-raised suspicion about AI-generated content this review could not verify but felt necessary to report. Worth a punt at this price with a friend who has reasonable expectations for a solo-developed budget title; skip it if stability and polish matter more to you than raw, chaotic potential.