DEATH NOTE Killer Within

DEATH NOTE Killer Within was provided by Bandai Namco for review. Thank you!

Social Deduction games have cropped up everywhere since Among Us hit legendary fame during an event that shall not be mentioned. To succeed, these games need to be simple to learn, hard to master, and have a steady player base. So let's look at the next take on the genre, DEATH NOTE Killer Within, based on the Anime DEATH NOTE.

The basic premise of DEATH NOTE is that Kira is a vigilante with a notebook that can kill anyone whose name is written in the book. L is the lead police investigator trying to uncover Kira's true identity and arrest them. Thus, DEATH NOTE Killer Within's premise is based around Kira and his followers attempting to find out everyone's true "names" and the investigation team trying to find out which of the players is Kira.

DEATH NOTE Killer Within is online only, as expected, with 4-10 players filling a lobby. Players are assigned one of four roles. 2 of the roles are pretty easy to grasp, being Investigators and Kira's Followers. The other two roles are L (Lead Investigator) and Kira himself, representing the "leader" roles, which are slightly more complex. There are offline tutorials and "training" for each role in the game, allowing you to learn how to play each role to get familiar with how the game works before heading online.

The leader roles involve instructing those around you, with L, the "Good" leader, unable to distinguish whether those he's working with are good or evil. It's up to you to deduce that by the actions of those around you. Kira, the "Bad" leader, gets the advantage of knowing the roles of his follower(s), so his objective is to find the names of non-followers and eliminate them using the Death Note.

Names can be found through various means, such as stealing the ID of an investigator, which can be done by Kira or any of his followers if they follow an investigator closely for a short period. It's risky, as the investigator will likely notice you following them closely, so you have to pick your time to try and pull off a move like that, such as when many players are together in a room. Kira's followers can then hand over the ID to Kira, and Kira can write their name in the Death Note to eliminate them from the game.

Suppose the player in the role of Kira suspects that the investigators are suspicious of them. In that case, they can also hand over the Death Note to a follower and make them assume the role of Kira, but there's a brief hand-off where anyone nearby could see the roles being exchanged. Also, when Kira begins writing in the Death Note to eliminate someone from the game, they will hold the Death Note, which is visible to anyone around, so make sure to hide away when entering a name. If you're seen, you'll need to hand over the Death Note to a follower immediately, or you may lose the game at the next meeting.

The game format is similar to other Social Deduction games, where there is a period where everyone can freely roam the map and complete tasks for their respective faction. When the next day begins, a meeting is held where players can discuss anything suspicious they saw during that day. Based on this information, players can vote for who they think Kira is. Kira and L are the only targets that matter in DEATH NOTE Killer Within. Eliminating Investigators and Kira's Followers can benefit the opposing faction, and eliminating either Kira or L will end the game.

Unlike other Social Deduction games, however, voting for a player isn't an immediate elimination for them, instead, if they are found not to be Kira, they will simply be "arrested", and have to spend the next turn tied to an investigator. However, the downside of being voted is that your name is outed for Kira to see, meaning they can choose to eliminate you using the Death Note from this point forward.

The gameplay appears surprisingly solid and balanced, with me seeing wins for both the investigator and Kira sides. This is always a worry with Social Deduction games, as they often favor one side. The games also air on the quicker side, with most rounds being around 15-20 minutes, but the rules can be adjusted in the lobby to adjust the length of time between meetings, movement speed, and the number of followers Kira has.

Tasks given to investigators will put them into situations where they are close to other investigators (which makes them suspicious), so this can sow a lot of confusion and dissent among the "good" team players. For example, one of my tasks was to pick up an item and give it to a fellow investigator, who later brought it up in the meeting that I was hanging around him and I could be Kira, resulting in 2 votes for me. Such tasks are needed, as unlike in other social deduction games, in DEATH NOTE Killer Within, there are usually eight good players and two evil players in the lobby, so it's heavily weighted towards good players.

The game does have built-in voice chat, and you will be expected to use it if you're playing publicly, so go into the game with the mindset of having to voice chat with strangers online and accuse them of being a criminal mastermind, then expect a witty remark back about your mother. There are many preset text messages you can send in the game, which will allow you to defend yourself somewhat adequately and accuse other players of various actions.

There is an option that players can enable that will read out any preset text messages other players send, so even if the text window isn't open, players can still audibly communicate with voice chat players. Still, the downside is that each player would have to enable this option to ensure you've been heard, and by default, it is turned off.

The game does support CrossPlay between PC and PS4/PS5, so the player base is somewhat healthy and doesn't depend on players being on one platform over another. I didn't have difficulty finding a game, but if you do struggle to find a game, try searching other continents for games. America East seemed to be the biggest.

Visually, the game is pretty basic; graphics are not the focus here, and while they're decent enough, there's nothing to praise here. The character designs are a little strange and may take some getting used to, but they're ok, and you can modify them somewhat with the customization menu. At least, this style means the game is quite easy to run.

Speaking of the customization menu, the DEATH NOTE Killer Within features a battle pass-esque system, with customization "tracks" you can follow, each with a free and premium path. Leveling up in these tracks will unlock new cosmetics for your character and things such as new preset messages to send. Unlocking a track's premium path is a one-time purchase, and right now, there are 2 tracks available.

DEATH NOTE Killer Within is a competent Social Deduction game, more so than many others that have arrived and immediately failed. We will have to see whether it has the legs to last into the future, but for the first couple of days after release, at least, the player base will be holding up, and there's fun to be had here. If you can gather your group of friends together, this will be a blast and I would consider the price fairly reasonable.

DEATH NOTE Killer Within - Steam Deck Performance

DEATH NOTE Killer Within works pretty well on the Steam Deck, with support for the native 1280x800 resolution and good controller support. The main downside is that some text may be a little hard to read, especially the "hints & tips" you receive in the tutorials and training.

Recommended Settings - 60 FPS

Set the SteamOS frame rate limit to 60, then a TDP Limit of 10W.

We can run the game at the highest graphical settings here, barring Anti-Aliasing, which I feel doesn't add much for the power it costs. You can see the settings used in the image below:

While DEATH NOTE Killer Within isn't particularly impressive graphically, it still looks decent with some shadows and a clear presentation. It also doesn't use too much power to run at a smooth framerate.

As I said, the power draw is on the lower side, mostly hovering in the 11W-14W range. This means Steam Deck LCD owners should get a good 3 hours of battery life, and Steam Deck OLED owners should get around 4 hours of playtime.

Temperatures reflect the lower power draw, mostly being around 60C-65C. I didn't notice any fan noise.

Battery Life Settings - 30 FPS

Set the SteamOS frame rate limit to 60, then a TDP Limit of 7W.

Lowering the graphical settings here gives us the option to save some battery life, and since the game is not visually impressive anyway, you might find this preset preferable. Here are the settings I used. The drop to 30 FPS is the main hit we take here.

Using these settings, we can maintain a stable 30 FPS in the game. The game still looks fine, with everything as legible as before, which would be the main issue in a game like this. It's just a drop in Shadow Quality, a loss of Depth of Field, and running at 30 FPS instead of 60.

The power draw is even lower with these settings, around 8W-10W, so Steam Deck LCD owners should expect around 4 hours of playtime, and Steam Deck OLED users around 5 hours.

Temperatures drop a little further, being around 55C-60C. Again, there was no noticeable fan noise.

Accessibility:

DEATH NOTE Killer Within has some accessibility features, such as transcribing player voice chat into text if you're hard of hearing. However, this feature only works for English voice chat, is delayed by a few seconds, and sometimes doesn't transcribe the text. The text can also disappear offscreen if a player says a lot without pausing. Therefore, DEATH NOTE Killer Within likely isn't playable if your hearing is impaired unless you join a specifically text-chat-only lobby, which is rare.

Conclusion:

DEATH NOTE Killer Within is a game that succeeds where others have failed. With fairly balanced gameplay mechanics between the 2 sides, you aren't bemoaning which side you end up on, plus these mechanics are easy to learn, coupled with a reasonable launch price, and the game has so far managed to bring in enough players to support itself.

Those unfamiliar with DEATH NOTE shouldn't worry, as the game thoroughly explains all the mechanics, and any knowledge of the anime or comic would provide no advantage here.

The game runs flawlessly on Steam Deck, besides some slightly smaller text in the tutorials and training. When in the game, however, you should be able to see any critical information easily. Controller support and performance are also flawless, and the game also detects and uses the Steam Deck's microphone by default for voice chat.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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