Turning a first-person shooter into a Soulslike isn’t just a matter of giving enemies more health. Sure, they’d be tougher to kill, and difficulty is synonymous with Soulslike games, but all you need to do is use more ammo to defeat them. Instead, Guns of Eschaton uses specific weak points on enemies that you’re encouraged to target. Shooting them anywhere will deal a little damage, but if you hit a foe’s weak point, indicated by makeshift bandages on various limbs, you’ll deal considerably more damage.

That isn’t the only trick to it, however, as you also need to shoot weak points in a specific order, and that order is different — as are the weak points themselves — for each type of enemy. Eduard Malykh, the head of game design at Eschatology Entertainment, described it to me as “reactive gameplay.”

“We wanted to approach that as what it means to be reactive in a shooter, where you don’t shoot enemies on sight,” Malykh told me once I’d finished playing a demo set during the opening level of the game. “Instead, you see somebody, think, then understand where to shoot, and wait for a proper moment to shoot. Then you apply a lot of damage. So the preparation means a lot. You need to prepare before the battle and you need to be ready to react and not act immediately.”

In-game, you’re accompanied by a codex, which is a leather-bound journal full of handwritten notes and sketches about the foes you encounter and their weaknesses. This will become your best friend, as you’ll often have it equipped in one hand, while the other wields a revolver. Since Guns of Eschaton is Western-set, weapons are slow and manual, which adds to the challenge and decisive nature of gameplay, as opposed to mowing enemies down with assault rifles.

My demo was short and mostly consisted of the tutorial, along with the first couple of encounters in the semi-linear world, but it gave me an early sense of how satisfying it is to nail an enemy’s weak spots in quick succession. It follows a traditional Soulslike structure: campfires are places to heal, acquire upgrades, and respawn enemies, and while each level isn’t quite open, you will often have different paths to choose from and shortcuts to unlock.

What struck me the most was how punishing the game is if you miss a shot. I’m usually a PC player when it comes to FPS games, so using a controller here made it a struggle. However, I imagine that with a mouse and keyboard, Guns of Eschaton will be a breeze for someone who enjoys competitive multiplayer shooters, such as Counter-Strike 2 or Valorant.

Malykh was also keen to stress that Guns of Eschaton isn’t post-apocalyptic, as many video games are; it’s just straight-up apocalyptic. “Narratively, eschaton is a process of when something is reborn from the apocalypse. So it’s not the process of destruction in the world, it’s something which happens after the world. And our game happens during the apocalypses. So you are not playing in a post-apocalyptic Western. You are literally playing when the apocalypse is happening and you will see your character’s actions and your decisions.”

Viktor Antonov co-founded Eschatology Entertainment in 2022, but passed away in February 2025. Malykh explained that when Fuad Kuliev, the CEO, creative director, and founder at the studio pitched the idea to Antonov, he was “hooked” by the concept. “The whole world vision and the art you see is created by Viktor and his team.”

Guns of Eschaton is due to be released before the end of 2026 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.