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0 Deadhaus Sonata is a new title from someone who worked on Legacy of Kain and Too Human. In this game we will be assuming a role of an undead vampire that will bring terror and fear to the world. The game is now out and begins its early access life on Steam for just £16.75. I personally haven’t played any of his previous work, so I won’t know if there are any nods to his other games. But maybe check out our reviews for some of the Legacy of Kain releases.
Bring terror to a new land.
Gameplay
Deadhaus Sonata, throws you into the tutorial after a small screen of dialogue. There is not much in the way of story-telling from what I could see, rather most information is placed in lore stones. These are green obelisks found in the world and the hub. In the hub I could do a couple of things; equip new gear, look at chronicles, and jump to a mission destination. Gear wise I haven’t found much beyond getting the same spear over and over, but I have been getting an abundance of tarot cards. Even though the category is called Tarot, Deadhaus Sonata refers to them as Arcana. These tarot cards come in two varieties, major and minor. Major ones are the actual skills the player has to utilise in battle, while the minor provide buffs to them when certain ones are added.
A skill I loved was Exsanguinate. This move launches your character above and begins to drain enemies around you, offering a safe way to avoid damage and heal a little. For the actual healing, you can get them from the use of skills or by finishing off foes when their health is depleted. However, doing finishers does leave you susceptible to attacks, making healing risky. Another useful skill was like an acid totem; place it in a doorway and watch enemies drop. Now the actual minor tarots will buff these by lowering cooldowns, adding more targets who are affected when the skill used and much more.
Missions and enemies.
To begin a mission, there is a table in the hub where we select a destination from. These areas aren’t large, but they’re big enough for you to have a look around. Some tasks will appear to you when approaching certain structures, like a statue of the Lady in Red, that you must defend. Otherwise, a path will become locked and you aren’t able to enter. If you do fail like I did, then return to the hub and reload the area. When it comes to enemy types, from what I noticed there are a handful. We have swordsmen, archers, priests, and I think vampire hunters, based off the hats they have.
Some other types where ghoul-like ones, these proved to damage you a lot more compared to the humans. Enemies will use different status based weapons, although I only met ones that would use divine, or like a fire type. Dying in a level will prompt you to return to the hub, which isn’t a problem thanks to the game giving a check-point to any new place you’ve visited. But you do have to run through the whole area again, that is annoying.
Graphics & Audio
Despite its simplistic art style, Deadhaus Sonata struggles greatly with lagging and frame rate issues. While the lighting is bright and saturated, and the shadows are well done, the graphics aren’t demanding enough to warrant the performance issues. Animations either glitching out or straight up not working, clipping through enemies, and constant stuttering, even when navigating menus. Speaking of which, the game froze twice simply trying to get to different in-game menu tabs. While the narrator is great, his voice lines would sometimes repeat themselves and overlap, making his voice a cacophony of noise that grew tiresome quickly. I’m not the biggest critic of graphics, but when it affects the gameplay it ruins any shred of immersion I can grasp. It leaves me frustrated and focusing on all the errors rather than what good graphical points the game may have.
Longevity
I tried to play the game for roughly a little over 3 hours, but it was really difficult. I managed to get to the first boss, but couldn’t defeat him as he seemed invulnerable to all damage. And when returning I would get deleted by the onslaught of enemies in the first room.
Final Thoughts
While playing, I suffered so much stuttering and freezes, that it made Deadhaus Sonata nearly unbearable. I somewhat enjoyed what I did play, but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. From the UI to the combat, the game still has a long way to go, that is very clear to see.
I won’t be too harsh due to it only just releasing into early access, but if you take a chance on Deadhaus Sonata, take it with a grain of salt. From the trailer below, there seems to be a lot of stuff I haven’t had a chance to try. Which is a shame really. Also when looking at the map, we can expect two new areas in the future. And hopefully some major balancing issues.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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