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I have to admit, when I heard that there was yet another Soulslike game due to appear on the Xbox, I was somewhat cynical. The phrase “another day, another Soulslike” may have even crossed my mind… After all, with Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree currently ruling the roost, do we really need another? It would have to bring something new, something that we haven’t seen before to even be worthy of a glance, wouldn’t it?
Well, the subject of this review is a game called Deathbound from Trialforge Studio and Tate Multimedia. Deathbound does promise to bring something new, as we have been crying out for – a squad based Soulslike? How would that work, and indeed, does it?
The news is pretty good in terms of the presentation. Deathbound is presented in the now traditional third person view, and the maps that we have to explore are a very good size, if somewhat restricted in field of view – while the overall map size may well be huge, the bit of it you can see at any one time is only a corridor, or a room, for instance. While the graphics appear nice, they aren’t like an open world game. The design of the characters that we play, as well as those we meet are well done, with distinct enemy types needing different tactics alongside the also traditional much larger bosses that we come across every now and again. There really is nothing to complain about with the visual side of things. Yes, the camera suffers from the usual problems that are common for these games, where if you are locked on to a foe and they close the distance, the camera has a mini meltdown and won’t show you anything useful. You soon learn to work around this, but it does lead to some cheap feeling deaths until you do.
Sound is functional – that is about the best I can say about it. The actual battle sounds are all fine, with the various weapons having different sounds and so on and so forth, and these work well. The main issue is with the voice acting and whilst every character has their own accent, they do all feel wooden. As an example, Anna, I think, is supposed to sound British, but she sounds like someone once read about Britain in a book and based the accent on that.
So what about a story? Well, it would be great to know why we are wandering around and getting into scraps and as the game opens, we are Therone, a follower of the Goddess of Death, sent into a stronghold to defeat the Essencemancers, who worship the Goddess of Life. As we make our way through the city of Akratya, we come across fallen enemies who can be recruited to our side – this is the essence of the difference between Deathbound and the rest of the Soulslikes I have played. Can we raise an army (albeit inside one mortal frame) and save the day? Do we even know what day we are meant to be saving? All this and more will be explained and explored as you go on.
In terms of gameplay and the main difference found in Deathbound is that now we aren’t restricted to a single character. Instead, we can flip between different Essences on the fly, even mid-combo to make attacks more powerful. Each different person we find becomes an Essence that we can bind to ourselves, and with up to four Essences able to be equipped at once, you can make a surprisingly varied team.
Each Essence has a unique set of attacks too – Therone uses a sword and shield, Anna a dagger and a crossbow, Iulia a spear and so on and so forth. Picking the right Essence to take on specific foes is also a good tactic to learn. In the first boss fight, for instance, we can use Tehkri, an Essencemonger, as his poison attacks do an insane amount of damage to the boss.
Swapping between the bound Essences makes a lot of sense and is enjoyable to partake in, but beware – if one Essence dies, it is the same as all of them dying, so monitoring your health is vital. This also feeds into another of the game’s new mechanics as the characters have a kind of combined health and stamina bar, which doesn’t sound too bad until you realise that at low health, you also have very low stamina – so the last stages of a boss fight, say, become very difficult indeed. It’s alright being on the last dregs of health and out of healing items if the boss is nearly dead usually, but in Deathbound it severely restricts the amount of attacks you can do.
Other than this, the game is very much business as usual for a Soulslike – explore, get Souls (or whatever they are) return to the Phylactery (bonfire) level up, rinse and repeat. And every now and then meet a boss, get stomped, go and grind some more levels, and then return and triumph. It really is like Dark Souls 1, right down to the inability to jump, which feels like a backward step after Elden Ring.
Deathbound does enough to make for an interesting playthrough, and this is largely down to the new features and the introduction of the Essences, which adds a whole new dimension to the familiar gameplay. The Bound Essences idea is a good one, right down to where you place the active Essences on the grid – certain Essences hate each other and cause conflict, giving your attacks a certain something, while others have views that align, again giving your combat abilities a boost. The system is well thought out, and as long as you play with the dialogue muted, Deathbound is a worthwhile game to add to your collection.