Deathbound Preview (Steam)

Deathbound Preview, Deathbound is a one-of-a-kind party-based soulslike set in a callous world where Faith and Science clash. Dynamically transform between fallen warriors all with their own unique skill sets, combat styles, and rich history. Conquer a brutal reality where Life and Death were never more conflicted.

Deathbound Preview Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• Download size.
• Steam achievements.
• Graphics settings – screen mode, limit max fps, v-sync, motion blur, anti-aliasing quality, texture quality, shadow quality, post-processing, view distance quality, DLSS mode, DLSS sharpness, enable FSR, and FSR sharpness.
• Full controller support.
• Two control schemes and choose Xbox or Playstation button icons for the controller.
• Mouse and keyboard support.
• Can remap the mouse and keyboard controls.
• Soulslike action RPG gameplay.
• A full 3D game world with 360-degree camera control.
• Morphing – a mechanic whereby you find characters and absorb their essence, this means with the d-pad you can morph into that character.
• Each essence (character morph) has its own set of health and stamina.
• If any essence dies they all die and you get a player death.
• Tutorial pop-ups as you play.
• Ten save slots.
• You can and will change between essence e as you fight or pull off combos and it really opens it all up.
• You can overheat and explode if you use magic too much, the heat bar does go down and you can manage it easily with a bar.
• When you die, you drop all experiences you have not banked and have one life to get it back.
• Level up at the special totem-like structure to open up new abilities and increase stats.
• You can see the amount of exp you are carrying.
• Lock-on allows you to focus on an enemy and you can quickly change target.
• Items can be seen as blue orbs emitting light.
• Combat is a case of learning patterns and taking your time, you can riposte, parry, dodge, and counter-attack.
• Breakable objects covering the world.
• Stamina is paired with your health meaning the more health you lose, the more stamina you lose.
• Conflicts and synergies play a big part, conflicts grant a unique buff and debuff while synergies grant a unique buff. You have to manage the conflicts and synergies with your bound essences and phylactery.
• Find materials and resources for healing and upgrading equipment.
• Excellent voice work.
• You can upgrade gear at the level-up Totems.
• Each essence steals health from damage dealt with and heals the unused essences.
• You can have up to four essences at one time.
• A world full of exploration and intrigue.
• Poise is in the game so deplete the enemies’ bar to stagger them and do major damage.
• Afflictions like poison, bleeding, etc can be built up in you and your enemies.
• Totems act as a respawn point.
• The general performance is actually quite good.
• Names of locations pop up as you explore.
• It’s a world where you can find secrets, alternate routes and find shortcuts.
• You learn about each essence as you find them, their abilities, and a bit of story where you go through memories to get some backstory.
• Excellent in-game cutscenes and character interactions.
• Stories can be told via ghost-like sequences.
• Within the level-up skill tree are actions for particular essences and parts where it’s for everyone.
• Enemy projectiles can get stuck in you and show.
• Does like to sprinkle in the odd jump scare here and there.
• You see enemy health bars and damage dealt.
• Stealth allows you to backstabber enemies for maximum damage.
• It’s possible to freeze enemies.
• Each essence plays in a unique and wildly different way from the last.
• Your Sync meter is used for morphing during fights and combos, you build it up with fighting and getting perfect deflection.
• Find memory cores to get more backstory in the menu.
• I love the interactions between all the essences and how they react to what is going on.
• Enemies can drop items.
• All enemies respawn after you die.
• Each essence can have its own talents, you unlock and equip them at will.
• When upgrading items you can choose to do the top or bottom buff.
• Character builds is a thing and you can do it.

Deathbound Preview Cons:

• There is no pausing.
• The basic controls are not explained well.
• Combat does take some getting used to.
• Enemies just stand there waiting for you to trigger them and it’s a bit world-breaking.
• The world is done in such a way that it can be hard to navigate.
• No jump button.
• The essences and what you can and can’t do with them are not well laid out and it just feels like stress with a lot of menus and icons.
• It’s just a case of learning a new soulslike and that in itself can be a good or bad thing.
• A lot of what you think is an obstacle is in fact nothing you can pass through.
• The combat in terms of changing essences for combos and dodging takes a lot of time to get used to.
• Enemies can be in a state or position where you cannot hit them.
• Judging timed blocks is rather tricky.
• Invisible walls in stupid places.
• No accessibility options or a way to turn off the arachnophobia setting for the early game.
• If you die in the backstory of an essence then you lose your exp and have to find and start the backstory again.
• You cannot skip the backstories.

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Deathbound:

Official website.

Developer: Trialforge Studio

Publisher: Tate Multimedia

Store Links – 

Steam