Beast Of Reincarnation Opens To Mixed Steam Reviews

Beast Of Reincarnation Launches With Mixed Steam User Reviews Due To “Lifeless World” Published Aug 4, 2026, 3:40 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. The announcement of Beast of Reincarnation raised some eyebrows. Coming from Pokemon creator Game Freak, it was a vast departure from anything it had done recently: a giant Soulslike action RPG, set in a post-apocalyptic world. It looked good, exciting even, but there were some concerns about whether the Japanese developer could pull it off. Those concerns now seem fully justified, with critics' reviews dropping overnight and players getting their hands on the game, proving Beast of Reincarnation is a mixed bag that's not for everybody. Beast Of Reincarnation's Reviews, From Both Critics And Fans, Are All Over The Place Beast of Reincarnation launched to a 76 on OpenCritic, with 64 percent of critics recommending the game. The reviews ranged from a 9.4/10 all the way down to a pair of 5/10s. It showed a vast divide in critical opinion and leaves the game outside the top 175 scoring on the review aggregation site this year. Perhaps more interestingly, given the larger sample size, Beast of Reincarnation has already split fans on Steam. At the time of writing, roughly 8 hours after its launch, the game has over 800 reviews, with just 52 percent positive on the Valve-owned platform. This has left it with the dreaded "Mixed" rating. There are a couple of clear reasons for this low score. A Lack Of Ambition And Empty World The first major complaint dividing Beast of Reincarnation players is the game's failure to deliver on the ambition shown in its trailers and its empty world. "I waited for a long time, and so far it feels like a budget AA game wearing expensive graphics and being sold far too close to AAA pricing," said one negative review. "Exploration is weak, movement feels restrictive, and the camp's placement is awkward." A second reviewer added, "After playing it for an hour or so, I found myself with this sinking feeling of this world and game being just soulless and hollow. I wanted to like it, but I just could not find it in me to continue. Nothing dragged me in to stick around." Many players also called the combat dull and repetitive, the movement awkward, the control scheme confusing, and the storytelling and acting bland. Marred By A Handful Of Technical Issues Alongside a janky camera, there were more than a handful of complaints about Beast of Reincarnation's technical aspects. "I've tried various graphic settings; nothing works, and I still can't get a stable 60 fps. I've immediately tried other games, and CPU clock can go up to 4500 MHz, and other games are much more stable and can gain up to 160 fps in 4 K / medium settings with DLSS," said one complaint. Another said of its graphics, "I've got weird pixelization in cutscenes. Almost like it wasn't designed or supported to be stretched or upsized outside of 1080p. And even then, I'm playing on a 1080p 27inch monitor, and it's still pixelated." It seems like early concerns were justified. It's almost certainly not the start that Game Freak would have wanted, but as we've seen multiple times in recent years, a few patches and the game could be right as rain. Many have begun to say they'll wait for the game to go on sale, and that seems like a wise move. Released August 4, 2026 Developer(s) Game Freak Publisher(s) Fictions Number of Players Single-player Genre(s) Action, RPG, Soulslike, Adventure