Deathbound

Deathbound was provided by Tate Multimedia for review. Thank you!

Admittedly, I have a love-hate relationship with souls-like games. They can be gorgeous works of art with addicting gameplay elements, and I do enjoy them, but I am so bad at them. Still, I do love to play them, and for the most part, Deathbound was a similar experience. The souls-like has some great set pieces, and when everything works, it works exceptionally well. Unfortunately, there are too many moments where it doesn't all connect, which ends up making it more frustrating than fun.

The combat is definitely the strongest aspect of Deathbound, and it has some unique elements that I ended up enjoying a lot. Like other souls-like titles, you will run around a 3D world and fight enemies walking around, using a combination of attacking and dodging to eliminate foes, but each one is powerful enough to deal real damage or kill you. It's pretty standard, but what sets it apart is the party system implemented.

Throughout the game, you will gather the essences of other party members, making them playable. Each character has a unique moveset and abilities/strengths, but it's the way you utilize each one that is really cool. You can swap to the characters while you are dodging or fighting, allowing you to make sure nobody loses too much health or even do large damage! You have a "Sync Bar" that goes up as you attack, and if it is filled enough, swapping a character while attacking will do massive damage.

Each person interacts with the world, other characters, and even each other differently. Some characters have synergies in both positive and negative ways with each other and can give you a nice buff or debuff accordingly. They can also interact with and talk to different NPCs depending on who is selected, which I really liked. It adds a small layer of strategy to choose who will work best with each other as you build your party.

I also enjoyed Deathbound's progression systems here. You do get EXP when you kill enemies, and you can lose all of it when you die just like other souls games, but I like the skill tree system and how you can not only upgrade your entire party with static passives like increased health or critical chance, but you can also level up aspects of each individual character. You can also get upgraded accessories to equip, and I like how straightforward it all is.

Outside of this, combat is pretty standard, except sometimes it just doesn't work. There have been multiple times where my attack just goes through the enemy without hurting them or hits a random wall that I was just swinging through, which led to my death. This, coupled with the fact that most enemies will be grouped together instead of singled out, can make the game feel more aggravating in general. Dodging also feels a bit spotty at times too. You can do a perfect dodge, which gives you a chance to morph into another party member, but there were times it felt like it should have worked but didn't, or I just didn't dodge the attack when I really thought I should have. This could have been just my skill, but I do try to put my skill into consideration.

As for the story, I was actually quite intrigued by the premise. The world of Zieminal was once inhabited by a civilization that pushed technology forward, but they are no longer around, and their tech was lost. Now, the world has progressed to a medieval-like present, and you will navigate a very clashing world. The characters each have their own motive, and the clash between death and life is quite intriguing. I really liked each character, their backstory, and their designs, which were all on point. The voice acting could have been better, but it was bearable.

Deathbound has some places that do feel off, though, with varying levels of technology that range from medieval to realistic present to very futuristic. It's weird that all of this exists all at once and that some of the tech, like elevators, are still in working condition. But running around as a knight in a futuristic city was cool, and I generally liked how the world looked. It definitely encompassed that dark and moody feeling I was expecting, and it did well.

And while it is playable on the Steam Deck, it can be draining on the system.

Deathbound - Steam Deck Performance

Deathbound is playable on the Steam Deck and can definitely be enjoyed, but there are a couple of changes that need to be made to really enjoy the experience. With souls-likes, input lag can be a make or break the brutal combat, so to minimize that, we need to set a framerate limit within the game and disable the limit in the quick access menu. By doing this, it eliminates any input lag.

I also found some settings to work weirdly, at least way more than I expected. Anti-aliasing being lowered makes the entire game blurry, while FSR being too low will add a lot of ghosting. The other settings also don't affect how the game looks in a large way, but this means the game can be very draining unless you want to make it blurry. So, because of this, I have one recommended way to enjoy the game.

I would say doing a combination of high-ish settings at 30 FPS while making sure the ghosting is gone and the sharpness is there. Most smaller or more linear areas will stick to around 13W battery drain, but some areas can go up to 21W even with these settings. It does seem to draw a little more power than it needs, but with some areas and bosses that need the extra power, I would keep the TDP limit unlocked.

Accessibility

The game does have some accessibility options and allows you to disable blood, highlight key items, and filter arachnophobia mode so you don't have to see any spider-like creatures. You can also toggle subtitles, change language, toggle inverted camera controls, disable tutorials, turn on or off auto lock-on, and change audio sliders.

The game supports 16:10 resolutions, so there are no black bars here, and there are both cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Deathbound is an interesting game that never reaches its full potential. The world is interesting, the characters are designed well, and the party-based combat system is great, but the lack of polish throughout the game makes it hard to enjoy and borderline frustrating. I do believe that some updates may be able to fix the biggest issues I have, but in the end, the game as is right now isn't a souls-like I would play. It can run on the Steam Deck, with some compromises on settings, but it is playable!

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

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