Soulkeep which is the Play2Eanr Tower Defense game in the Splinterlands ecosystem was released yesterday and with 10 Owned Packs from the presale I tried it out eventually beating the League 1 Matches. This is my initial impression along with how to beat the 4/5 Level which is not that easy.
Soulkeep 1st Impression
Unlike Genesis Leagie Goals which was a total joke and disgrace from what I watched, Soulkeep actually looks to be a proper game designed at a somewhat comparable quality level to Splinterlands. I played Tower defense games in the past and kind of know how they work but some aspects were still quite confusing to get into and still it doesn't really feel that straightforward how to really find the best strategy for each given map.
I opened my 10 packs which only really got some dopamine for getting 2 legendaries while all the other cards I had no clue what they did or if they even were any good. When playing I just opted for the main battle button which seems to be the singleplayer campaign. which has 5 levels in league 1. The first 3 I easily cleared while the 4th kind of felt impossible with the towers I had available.
This however was the most fun I had with the game these past 24 hours as it presented a challenge I wanted to get over. I do expect many to give up though as it kind of felt impossible without owing a hero or some of the more fancy card. I went to watch some streams hoping to see the answer but others like 
So the game had me keep trying with what was available which offered a real fun gaming experience without any of the Play2Earn expectations coming into play. Eventually, I managed to beat the level and after that on the 1st try cleared the 5th level to complete League 1. It looks though that the real Play2Earn is in the Tournament which I will explore more in the coming days.
League 1 Level 4/5 Walktrough.
The Tower Selections I made to beat this level were The Fountain of Terror (which has a bigger range), The Card Sharp, The Kinfe Tosser, and the Tarantula Loom which are all common Towers available to all.
As for Spells I used the 2 that were default with the Stew Of Doom and the Crackesnap
This means that I only replaced the Charnel Pit with the Fountain of Terror to beat the level.
As for tower placements and Spells, if feels like spells are more important than I initially thought as I often saw a wave near the start break my defense while the later waves I managed to hold. with a proper spell it seems possible to prevent this. Eventually this was the setup that managed to beat this level
After this, I anticipated to move up to League 2 but it seems that I still need to play more to get enough Souls to unlock that which I assume gets unlocked by playing more in the tournaments
Soulkeep Initial Evaluation
So I had fun with the game so far but it's very unlikely that I will get deep in this game mainly because I see similar issues as Splinterlands where the earnings won't live up to the costs. I did throw 50$ at the packs way back which pretty much gets you nowhere as the card combine mechanic makes these games extreme Pay2Win. In that regard, the earnings aspect kind of ruins these games more compared to it adding an extra layer. As a game like this has an optimal solution which is likely going to be figured out by bots and AI, human players are always going to be steps behind it feels.
Conclusion!
I had fun so far with the game and the challenge that 4/5 level presented me to overcome aside from any of the Play2earn aspects. I will explore the game further but I very much doubt it will be something that I get into in a similar way to Splinterlands. I will make an update next week on how things are going...
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