Deathbound (Xbox Series) Review

Standing out in any crowded genre forces you to try new things. It often feels like the “AA” to “AAA” ‘Souls-like market is overflowing, with high production values and familiar, refined mechanics. This leaves lower budget or indie ‘Souls-likes in a position where they have to improvise and try out new mechanics to draw your attention. Developers Trialforge Studios have done just that with their budget Souls-like, Deathbound. It combines tried-and-tested ‘Souls-like mechanics with new gameplay innovations and mechanics that elevate it above its admittedly janky and sometimes problematic foundations.

One of the first attempts at being different is in how it handles the story. Unlike most ‘Souls-like, Deathbound offers a fully-fledged and properly told tale. While there are pretentious item descriptions and plenty of world lore hidden in ability descriptions, Deathbound is far less obtuse than most in the genre. There’s an actual beginning to this tale, plenty of character stories tied into the proceedings, and a natural, linear story flow as you progress through the world. It even has a story that’s interesting.

Set sometime in the future, mankind has fallen from grace and plunged the world back into a new and brutal “Dark Age”. The technological marvels of man, along with their apparent immortality, are a thing of the past. Their once towering cities are now forbidden zones, their technology a heresy, and there’s an endless war between the Cult of Death and the Cult of Life.

Deathbound leans heavily into depicting a brutal, primitive hellscape – a world driven by fanaticism, zealotry, and genocide. There’s a lot of narrative here, strewn between character introductions, interactions, and memories from the past, all of which do a decent job of getting you up to speed on what’s happening – usually with quite a few expletives thrown in for good measure. Your characters aren’t mute, blank slates and I also appreciated their self-awareness of their resurrection ability, which ties into the stories main goal.

Mechanically, all the ‘Souls basics are accounted for: light and heavy attacks; dodging, blocking, and parrying; dropping experience on death; levels that loop back on themselves to create shortcuts; and Phylacteries – i.e. bonfires – to rest and level up at. However, Deathbound adds onto those mechanics with some new and interesting mechanics.

One of the key marketing statements was that Deathbound is a party-based Souls-like that is, I feel, a misnomer. There are no party member following you around or aiding you in combat. What you do is pick up extra characters to play as along the way, with each corresponding to a specific build/class that you can switch between on the fly. Unlike most ‘Souls-likes, in which you create a specific build for your playstyle and lock yourself into, Deathbound lets you swop between classes as you please, giving you a wide range of combat options for every situation.

Yes, each character has their own story and personality, but they’re still more of a character swap on-the-fly than anything else. Killing enemies nets you XP that you invest into a stat tree shared between the classes, allowing you to increase stamina, health, and melee damage, along with some class-specific buffs that are shared between the other classes once unlocked. It’s a great way to make sure that each class is always at the same level and effectiveness as everyone else. Those class-specific buffs are tied to the story and unlocked through memory points you gain from viewing a moment in their past.

Unlike most ‘Souls-like, there’ i’s no extra armour or weapons to pick up. You use the default weapons each class has throughout the adventure. Instead, you pick up trinkets and artifacts, which can also be levelled up. As with the stat tree design, it keeps the game and your inventory, nice and streamlined. That said, you can do pick up a variety of consumables and I really appreciated how common, everyday items, were repurposed as something else.

If I had to pick Deathbound’s most game-changing systems, it would be the “sync bar” and “Morph” mechanics. The sync bar builds up as you attack enemies, and it’s designed to be used with the Morph system which lets you swop between classes during combat moves or dodges to deal massive damage. For instance, if you’re attacking with the soldier class and Morph to any of the other classes, not only will the attack land, but there’s a brief moment of invulnerability as classes swop out, with a massive damage dealing finisher powered by the sync bar.

Initially, it’s an awkward system to get to grips with but it quickly becomes second nature as each class is assigned to a D-pad direction. You could play this in typical ‘Souls-like fashion, relying on parries and dashes only to survive, but the game has been specifically designed to use the Morph and class-switching mechanic. Not only is it lethal against all of the games enemies when used correctly, but it’s incredibly fun as well. When you consider each class has its own health and stamina bars, this gives you more survivability in combat, but if the class you’re currently using dies, it counts as a wipe and back to the last Phylactery you rested at.

Another mechanic to consider is the synergy between classes. The Church of Life characters hate the Church of Death fanatics, and that can impact both the effectiveness of switching in combat and how items work. For instance, a health shot to heal the class you’re playing as usually depletes health from the others. To offset that, killing enemies also heals your passive classes a little bit as well.

I really enjoyed how class combinations could be used to melt enemies once I got used to the Morph system. For instance, starting a fight with the Essencemancer (a mage class) let me stack corrosive attacks, which you can follow up with a corrosive buff to weapons, before Morphing into a melee class, then dole out three attacks while morphing to a spear-wielding class for a final blow. It’s not uncommon to watch half a bosses health bar melt away if you nail one effective combo. True, it’s often harder to pull combos off during later boss phases, but it’s an empowering and I can’t stress just how much more fun the game became once I mastered it.

That said, I’m not a fan of tying of your stamina bar to your health bar. In short, the lower your health, the lower your stamina, and yes that’s just as awful as it sounds during protracted boss fights.

For all the positives, there are some negatives that need highlighting. Deathbound suffers from the same problems that plague many ‘Souls-like, namely cheap enemy positioning and janky hit detection. Deathbound loves to ambush you in tightly knit spaces, of which there are many since the level design is on the small side and full of tight corridors and small rooms. It’s not uncommon to be boxed into corners or up against environmental objects that you move away from, or to have your sword banging against walls while enemies don’t seem to have that limitation.

Janky hit detection is most noticeable when you should be invulnerable but aren’t, or when enemies can’t be hit when getting up, whereas you can. There are also some wonky animations, especially for running with certain characters, while the lock-on system is very temperamental, both giving issues when trying to lock on to enemies and breaking off too easily.

At least Deathbound ran fairly smoothly, and I can’t recall any performance issues of note – though the audio did have a habit of cutting out if you let the game idle too long.

Wrapping up, if you’re one of those players whose idea of a good ‘Souls-like is spirit-crushing difficulty, Deathbound will likely disappoint you. Yes, there’s a decent enough challenge, especially if you choose to play it traditionally, but it was, overall, a lot easier than expected. Even easier once you master the Morph system. With its straightforward storytelling and compact level design, Deathbound plays more like an action game with Souls-like trappings than a Souls-like proper – though that’s no bad thing. There are interesting game mechanics on offer and a difficulty level that’ll challenge you without keeping you from seeing the end. Not all of the changes land, but Deathbound proved a far more intriguing and fun than my initial impressions led me to believe.

Deathbound was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5.