The panorama of the action RPG who were inspired by the souls structure has grown like wildfire, and over time we have witnessed horrifying spectacles, alternating with truly important jewels. The latest on the list to try to jump on the winner’s bandwagon, trying to change many of the cards placed on the table by FromSoftware in the old days, is the title we are talking about in this review today, Deathbound.
With the final release date announced somewhat surprisingly, we found ourselves playing a title that has a lot to show, especially trying to hybridize the genre with features that we found intriguing. What are we talking about? Let’s go step by step.
By the Goddess Death!
The first few minutes of Deathbound want make things clear from the start on a narrative level. A short introductory video shows us a brutal attack by the Church of Death (the Goddess) and its templars, at the expense of what appears to be a handful of simple, poor and malnourished citizens. The victory is obviously overwhelming, but the one the Church is looking for hasn’t been taken yet. Without giving too much away about who he is, and what happens from here on out narratively, just know that the first of the characters that we will control is one of Death’s Templars, one of the high-ranking officers. For Death’s faithful, passing away is an honoris to be embraced eternally by the Goddess, but this does not mean that the time in life should be wasted, or short by choice. So checking Therone Guillaumewe will set out on the trail of this mysterious man and his gang.
However, things seem more complicated than expected, and after an explosion with a blinding blue flash, the city has filled with very strange mutated creaturesan extremely dangerous army that seems to take on anyone.
The settings are a mix of past and future with a post-apocalyptic flavour.
Why did we say “first” character before? Because actually we won’t drive just one. In fact, during his research, our Templar will find himself assimilating some “Essences” of fallen heroes, heroes who will come back to life in his body, and who will also talk to him and each other. Exactly, multiple essences and multiple consciences in a single body. Be careful though, these will not only be his allies, but there will also be enemies of the opposing faction (the followers of Life and not only), so they won’t always have ideals the same or similar, but they will also go in contrast. all this creates a very particular dynamic, which we will explain to you shortly.
Together with the companions he will meet (7, including himself), will begin his search inside the dystopian city, and little by little it will be discovered that under the veil of mystery there is an incredible rot, with revelations that we will leave to you.
Long arms = keep your distance!
Essence Exchange
If the map type has shortcuts, respawn points (called “Phylactery“, a probable analogy with the Lich), and collectible management may seem very standard for the genre, but there are some changes to the rules of the game very peculiar gameplay mechanicssuch as the force and the Health that I am overlappingwith maximum stamina that will then decrease as we take damage.
As already mentioned, we will be able to exchange essences to use different characters in combat, which however will always be linked in more ways: first of all, if one of them gonna diethe defeat will be for everyonesecondly, we will be able to perform particular combos thanks to the altered status and to the shapeshifting attacksexchanging essences while we are hitting enemies, or even characters and statistics they will influence each other (giving us bonuses and penalties) even based on the position they have in our formation.
An example of how binding essences in a certain arrangement affects stats
In fact it will not be possible to make more than one “active” 4 essences at the same timeso we will have to choose them based on our fighting style or our strategies. To exploit the shapeshifting attacks, however, we will need synergya bar at the bottom of the screen that will recharge when we perform perfect dodges or hit enemies. The upgrade tree is also largely shared, and almost all the upgrades we will buy as we level up will affect all the essences.
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THE personages they all have one strong characterizationof ideals, of motivations, and above all of different fighting styles. Some prefer sword and shield, some quick attacks, some ranged, or some will simply be a brute. All of this will only increase the satisfaction and versatility of your team.
The system is also very welcome rings and artifactswith different effects that we can adapt to our strategies, and that we can enhance in a fun way with objects that we will find in the game, or that will be dropped on us. We also really liked the fact that some Consumables they really turn out very useful and sometimes indispensable, well balanced within the game economy.
What left us a little perplexed, however, is the repetitiveness of situations and fightsbut above all a Bossfight Management turned out pretty poorly. The enemies themselves can often prove to be a worthy challenge, but not only because they can be tough, but because in general the technical department is taking on water to no end.
A most enjoyable bossfight, but be careful!
A great effort
While Deathbound may be satisfying after a victory, and pushes you to continue thanks to its peculiarities (even though the character switching seems to us a hybrid between what happens in Genshin Impact and Wutering Waves), what convinced us least were the technical side, and partly the artistic one.
Starting from the most obvious one, unfortunately Deathbound really suffers from many technical problems: if fortunately the frame rate drops are limited to the arrival in new areas, when they are still empty, the problems arise in a responsiveness of commands that are often imprecise (and sometimes fail to receive input), a one of the worst cameras ever seen in a title like that, and a level design that as far as sufficiently well articulatedfeatures visually heavy patterns, with entire locations looking like a maze of identical corridors.
This also brings us back to the artistic sectorNarratively we can promote Deathbound without infamy or praise, since it focuses a lot on the tell the storynot only the events, but also the characters, not only when we assimilate them or in the memories we will encounter on the maps, but also in the descriptions of the various unlockable abilities, which will make us understand even better who we have in front of us.
Visually, however, we come across many sore points, such as the approximate care of monsters and enemies, bosses that are anything but memorable despite the cutscenes for the main ones, the aforementioned lack of charm regarding the settings, and a soundtrack that is practically absent for a large part of the game, especially in some situations where it was essential to say the least (some bossfights have lost their charm precisely for this reason).
Unfortunately Deathbound It could have been much more, but it seemed like a good first step to create something different and satisfying.
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