Bite-sized Review:
Deathbound

By Chris Picone, 16 August 2024

Not going to lie, I picked up an early preview copy of DeathBound and still only published this review a week after the game released - not because I'm slack, but because it took me a while to not suck at it. Which doesn't mean it's an overly hard game necessarily, just that it can at times be unforgiving and it took me a little while to get the hang of it.  The developers promote it as a Souls-like, which I can neither confirm nor deny because I only played Dark Souls very briefly many moons ago and never really got into it. I don't know why - maybe there's something wrong with me. I did enjoy DeathBound though. Something about its aesthetic just sucked me in immediately.

Aesthetics

DeathBound's graphics make for some awesome screenshots.  Inside the game they're maybe slightly dated (or at least not the ludicrous unobtainable modern AAA photorealism I'm slowly getting used to) but they're still pretty bloody good.  The game features a weird combination of fantasy and contemporary; at the outset you're playing as some sort of knight but strolling around and fighting demons in modern laboratories and train stations.  Occasionally you explore souls' memories, which take you to some bizarre out-of-time-and-space passage full of apparitions. Also, the bosses are huge and gnarly. There are some neat cinematics too. 

Gameplay

The first section of the game's fairly mundane in that you start as a knight and your initial moves are a quick attack, a heavy attack, a block, a parry, and a dodge.  Stamina's important though; it prevents the game from just being a button-masher and theoretically forces you to time your attacks, take a few swings when it's opportune, and then dodge or parry enemy attacks to regain the initiative and attacks again. I found it was a little clunky sometimes though because usually I was attacking a few times, dodging the retaliation, and then kinda circling around or semi-fleeing waiting for stamina to return to attack again. I'm probably just not very good at the game though. And it did add a real challenge in boss fights where you had to think a bit harder about how best to preserve yourself in a sustained battle.  As you progress further you absorb new essences which allow you to morph between characters more or less instantly. Your next unlock is a mage who controls a small variety of ranged spells with no "basic attack" or parry in sight - so now while you run away and wait for your stamina to rebuild, you can morph and fling acid on the enemy until they close the range and then morph back to the knight again. The mage is also better at dodging because they use "heat" to cast spells instead of stamina, so the game comes down to synergy and playing all of your characters to their strengths. 

Verdict

I'm really enjoying DeathBound. There's a bit of a story but it's fairly light on, and the strolling around between fights can feel a little grindy at times. But it's really about knocking the chumps off to gain enough experience to level up so you're ready for the next boss fight. Those are pretty fun and there's just enough story and lore snippets between to keep it interesting. I'm hoping to play this one through to the end -  I gather it's around 11 hours in duration. 

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1277130/Deathbound/