Deathbound Review (PC) – Day of The Dead
At this point, writing an introduction for a Soulslike title is akin throwing a cup of water into an ocean. There are so many that have attempted to ape the success of the award winning series itself, each with their own little unique twists, but never capturing the same level of rapturous applause. Deathbound’s quirk for the genre is introducing a party of playable characters.
That’s right, up to four of the available avatars can be equipped and switched between on the fly, in battle. Does it make for a compelling riposte against the colossus of the Souls series itself? I think we all know that’s a taller order than receiving Bloodborne 2, but Deathbound isn’t without its own flawed merit.
The crusade to deliver destined death to those of heretical persuasion begins here. Unsheathe your blades and charge into battle with me, won’t you?
The Grim Weeper
Soulslikes are known for attempting the same environmental focused storytelling of the titular series itself, to mixed results. Deathbound has a more straight forward premise, with a smattering of mystery left to the player’s imagination. The opening cutscene sets the scene of a zealot church who follow the Lady of Death, marching against the heretics of the Forbidden City. I’m sure they’ve brought a welcome mat and some flowers.
You begin as the commander of said crusaders, preparing to fell the rebellion’s leader. However, you are quickly displaced of your life and find yourself acquiring new Essences. Effectively, an Essence is the soul of another person. You’ll acquire up to seven characters in total this way, each with their own backstory and history within the ongoing conflict.
They’ll banter, bicker, argue and debate, for the most part over past deeds or current beliefs. Truthfully, none of them were particularly likeable. The story is also so minimalist it struggles to provide an adequate backdrop to really fuel their contrasting perspectives. At times, I found myself more glazed over than a Belgian bun when the dialogue trickled on, content to just push on.
There’s an interesting atmosphere and setting here, with the mixing of medieval characters in a post-apocalyptic, modern day world. Unfortunately, that’s where the intrigue begins and ends, and no amount of political backdrop between the Essencemancers or the followers of Death really compelled me forward. Voice acting is also very hit-and-miss. Some of the party hit their notes fairly well, while others sound like they were dragged up from the abyss, which is fitting, given their revival in the game, I guess.
Party Bound
While the characters of Deathbound might be better served mute, does it provide a gripping gameplay wrinkle? You can equip any four of the available avatars, each with their own synergies. Equipping two characters who hate each other, next to each other, debuffs the party. Meanwhile, sitting two who are fond of the other alongside, will provide a buff. It’s like being in primary school and sitting next to your best mate or your bully.
More importantly, they each have their own health pool, which will be replenished while out of combat, providing you’re dealing damage. Each avatar can tank between 1-3 hits typically, so swapping between them is almost mandatory. I thoroughly appreciated the system. Not only does it incentivise playing classes you typically wouldn’t in the genre, it creates a more dynamic feel to combat than simply having an Estus Flask.
The Trialforge developers also went one step further, by introducing morph counters and specials. Effectively, hitting enemies and blocking or dodging assaults increases your sync meter, allowing you to pull off faster swaps or powerful attacks. It develops the party system in both substance and narrative, which is great.
In the case of specials, it is a bit more complicated though. Pulling them off against bosses or higher poise foes can effectively be a death sentence, as there aren’t I-frames between animations. Moreover, once you’ve committed, you’re all in. Whether by accident or through ill-judged intent, I died a good few times trying to deliver a holy Mary, only to be delivered a swift slap into the dirt.
Press F To Pay Respect
Aside from the party system, Deathbound is a fairly formulaic Soulslike experience. Traverse levels, take on mobs of common enemies, find shortcuts to bonfires Phylactery points, fight bosses, so on so forth. Typical enemies can fell you quick if you’re not careful, and bosses can either be brutal or fairly easy, depending on your playstyle.
There’s plenty to discover in the world of Ziêminal, from buffing consumables to equippable rings and artefacts. Exploration isn’t as much of a focus however, as there’s typical one linear, obvious route of progression, and one or two small separate spaces with items in any given area. It doesn’t have the draw of some more open-ended Soulslikes, and lacks the tight direction of more honed-in experiences.
When Deathbound does try something different, for example a multi-foe boss fight or a pursuer type enemy, it comes unstuck. Sure, I felt the sense it was prodding me to try different approaches, but when the unkillable enemy glitches into the elevator I’m supposed to escape in, it doesn’t feel all that satisfying. Consumable cheese methods also felt encouraged, and given there’s no merchant or means of replenishing stocks, it feels underbaked as a system and just punishes those who don’t stockpile.
Thankfully, I’m a hoarder, so I was alright. As usual, you can expect death to mean dropped souls essence, which you need to go back and hoover up, or lose it forever. To its credit, Deathbound’s upgrade tree is meaningful, and finding specific memory points for each character provides powerful boosts to all Essences. For example, allowing all melee attacks to inflict bleed or poison.
Hey-Deez Aren’t The Boss of The Underworld!
You’ll need to upgrade frequently and often too, for Deathbound’s world certainly lives up to its name. I was sent cascading into the land of the damned more than a few times. Sure, some of those were from glitches, unfair gank fights and geometry issues. But, some were delivered courtesy of the tough boss encounters.
For the most part, using your parties’ various abilities effectively gets you through most basic encounters unscathed. I succumbed to a few foes initially, but after learning their choreographed moves for a while, things started to click. Then I hit the late-game stages and that sense of fairness is flung out of the window faster than my controller when I’m holding 40,000 essence and get killed.
Whether it be two supped up, flaming headed dogs ambushing me with no means of separating them first (invincibility hitboxes are great), to a boss hitting more times than a full stamina bar can avoid in one combo, Deathbound struggles with balance like a bear on a high wire. Bosses were often an engaging spectacle, but would either be far too easy (stick to the butt technique) or feel comically advantaged against you.
Hence the previously mentioned consumable cheese being so prominent. While the core of a Souls experience is here and it plays relatively well, the fine-tuning and balance testing is just too awry. Throw in some framerate drops and wonky geometry that gets you or the enemy stuck more often than it should, and it just doesn’t always feel satisfying to play.
If you were hoping to just run your way through, it’s more Dark Souls 2 style than say Elden Ring, so skipping enemy mobs is a pain, making trips back to where you fell awful.
A Deathly Glow
When it comes to looks, Deathbound is a bright and sparkly spirit of decay. The mix between present day architecture and technology with medieval knights, rogues and shamans is pretty fantastic. Carving through a laboratory adorned with a powerful green hue while you face off with ghastly, abnormally proportioned creatures is dark fantasy wonderment.
Imagine my upset then, when the game dumps you in the sewers for the first couple hours. Or, with the promise of a massive gladiatorial arena to battle the abominations of hell itself, the fireworks that met my entrance crashed the framerate. The variety and potential of the setting on display are top-tier, but Deathbound’s technical performance and reluctance to lean into its most appealing feature hold it back.
Colour palettes, creature designs and lighting are excellent. However, facial animation doesn’t exist in this universe, combat animations are choppy and there’s a rough-edge nature to the whole affair that brings the overall artistic painting down. That it crashed on me three times and glitched me out of the map once certainly didn’t help its cause.
Despite its problems, there’s lot to like in Deathbound’s universe. The streets are littered with bodies and the remnants of battle. Modern spaces are turned upside down with old-age frills and there’s a creative spark that permeates through the game. Look past its faults and you’ll discover a visual gem, even if its environments don’t hold up to the best in the genre.
The Deathly Gallows, Part One?
Deathbound can be completed in about 10 hours, depending on skill level. There’s some replayability value in terms of collectibles and general mastery of the genre, but not a whole lot else. The different party members and their respective playstyles may eek out a bit more fun, but story and lore wise, there’s little reason to return for a second jaunt post-death.
While it doesn’t compare to any of FromSoftware’s entries, nor the very best in the genre, Deathbound does have some elements that may scratch the challenging action-adventure itch. The party system and visual flair are its best qualities, when they’re allowed to shine and not overshadowed by what probably amounts to budget restraints.
Still, dancing the tango of trading blows and swapping fellows feels satisfying, in what is a decent Soulslike entry, if not an especially great one.
While not bound for the embrace of death owing to its unique party system and visual flair, Deathbound struggles to stave off the reaper’s scythe thanks to technical issues, poorly told stories and unbalanced though otherwise competent gameplay. It may scratch the Soulslike itch for some, but whether you’d reanimate the souls of the damned for a longer crusade, only the Lady of Death knows.
Deathbound is available August 8th on PC (review platform), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X.
Developer: Trailforge Studio
Publisher: Tate Multimedia
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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