Sodaman Review

Another week, another bullet-heaven survivors-esque game hits the market. Sodaman is now available on Xbox Series X/S, developed by Tape Corps and published by GameDev.ist. As someone who loves fizzy drinks in real life, or soda as the Americans like to call it, this has its own unique spin on the genre. Blossomed from a small indie studio with only three developers, the game recently launched fully after a period in early access on PC. At a bargain price of just £6.69 on console, believe me, you’ll get your money’s worth if you invest.

Gameplay

Those who love the genre will be very familiar with the gameplay loop here. Fight off waves of enemies, stay alive, collect gems and receive consistent upgrades of your choosing and survive till the end of the run. Sodaman keeps you moving by giving you objectives during runs to tick off, which encourages map exploration. I found that trying to achieve the objectives too soon can hinder you as you prioritise that over levelling up your character. Levelling up gives you a choice of Soda cans each time, with different upgrades and mixing them can bring some interesting synergies, as there are several elemental properties to play around with. This makes runs feel different each time as you play around to see how powerful you can become.

There are also cards you unlock during runs that act as buffs, and you’re given a choice between two each time to build a deck of five. Between runs, you’ll be navigating a central hub, where you can unlock new weapons and level them up, along with pumping currency earned in-game into a fully fleshed-out skill tree. You can even alter portions of the body on your character and assign augmentations that provide different advantages that can be a real game-changer. So, beyond the surface of the gameplay loop, there is a deep progression system that will keep you playing run after run if you find addiction in these kinds of games, as I do.

Visuals & Audio

Aesthetically, Sodaman adopts a similar pixel-art style to titles such as Vampire Survivors. Dark blues and purples dominate the screen space with a nice mix of neon-infused green and pink gems as you obliterate the hordes of enemies. When it comes to enemy variance, there is a generous mixture of weird and wonderful critters ranging in strength. Whilst I’ve read reports of a few frame drop issues when the screen gets busy, I didn’t experience this once in over 20 hours on Xbox Series X, so perhaps this has been ironed out as part of the full release.

I really adored the design and thought that has gone into the Soda cans, which act as your power-ups each time you level up. Everything intertwines with the well-polished and constructed UI and menu system, which blends well with the experience and never looks untidy. Sound effects are as you’d expect. The rattle of gunfire and punchy feedback when enemies are dispatched is satisfying. One of the standouts is the electronic beats of the music that pulse through, which reminds me of some of the intense moments in Cyberpunk 2077. Quite often in these bullet heaven games, I turn the music off because I find it becomes repetitive, but in Sodaman it really adds to the atmosphere.

Final Thoughts

Sodaman is a fantastic entry into the genre, and the small team should be very proud of their creation. It’s one of those games where you can dip in for a quick run or keep ploughing through for hours on end, as there is plenty to do. There is lots of bang for your buck, and after over 20 hours of gameplay, I still haven’t ticked everything I want to do with this experience just yet. The spontaneity of being able to pick and choose upgrades throughout your runs, with permanent unlocks in between, brings great longevity.

If you fancy picking up a copy for yourself on Xbox Series X/S, you can do so HERE.