Soundfall Review (PS5): ‘Getting in Tune’

Soundfall, from developer Drastic Games, tests players to use their instruments just right, bobbing and weaving to the beat. With a dungeon crawler based around music and perfect timing, along with some looting, does the game deliver just the right tune or strum widely? Find out in our Soundfall review below.

Hitting the Right Notes

Soundfall is all about running through various levels, gathering loot, and attacking to the sound of the beat. There are five playable characters that you can unlock as you progress through the story missions. Most of these are short and sweet, running anywhere from 2-3 minutes in length on the easier levels and pushing near 5 at times during harder ones. The purpose here seems to be quick hitting levels that don’t overstay their welcome and songs that run just the perfect amount of time. This is a good thing, as the maps are full of recycled bits from previous levels, so keeping it short helps keep things from getting monotonous.

The music is where Soundfall truly shines. Each world that you visit has a different theme from drums to classical, and I honestly don’t think I found a single song I wasn’t bobbing my head to. The songs also bring different challenges to combat, as you want to match the beat with your trigger pull, gaining chains as you hit each consecutive note. This can be difficult at times, especially if you come from a level with a fast beat to one with a really slowed down sound. While I did enjoy this cool twist, my hands often times got a little cramped while trying to time my trigger pulls instead of just being able to go full auto.

Multiplayer Misses its Gig

One of the biggest hiccups with Soundfall is in the Multiplayer. Yes, of course it’s great that it has it and it does function well. However, it is let down by two huge issues. Number one, its online component only allows you to play with people from your friends list. This means no matchmaking with strangers. For me, it meant no games period as none of my friends own Soundfall. This is a major goof for an indie game that, let’s be honest, isn’t going to have a huge fanbase.

Number two is while the game does have local co-op, the main players levels and such do not carry over to player 2, or 3, or 4. So for instance in my playthrough of Soundfall, I had my daughter join in from a guest account. At this point, I had every character unlocked and sitting pretty at around level 18. My daughters character however was level one and only had Melody unlocked. Sure, I can help her grind to meet my level, but the amount of time to do that is significant and it kind of discourages friends who come over from dropping in.

Soundfall Review PS5 – The Final Verdict

There is a lot of love with Soundfall. The music never fails to suck you in to each leve,l and the story and characters are cute. However it’s not all solos and encores, as the level design is rather bland and repetitive and the multiplayer leaves a lot to be desired. If you are in the mood for a dungeon crawler with a nice twist, you have a gem in Soundfall. Just don’t go expecting an overly deep loot system or anything too complex. It’s a rather straight forward game that’s all about getting lost in the sounds, which honestly can be rather nice to do.