Developer: Apocalypse Studios
Publisher: Apocalypse Studios
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Deadhaus Sonata – Preview
When we first saw footage of Deadhaus Sonata pop up, we were quite intrigued. When we also learned that the creator of the iconic Legacy of Kain series was behind this, we were genuinely excited. While we can’t speak about every gaming community out there, in our community, Deadhaus Sonata had been making waves, and we were stoked to learn that the game was hitting Early Access. That time finally came, allowing us to try out this vampire-oriented experience together with a buddy. While there are a lot of good ideas present, paired with old-school storytelling and original gameplay mechanics, the current rough state of the early build left us a bit disappointed.
Truth be told, we’re going to keep things rather brief in this preview. As it stands now, Deadhaus Sonata doesn’t have that much content just yet. You are pretty much thrown into the experience where you play through a rudimentary tutorial before you go to your hub to delve into the rest of the content. The skill system here revolves around a Tarot card system, where you can find new cards in the world, some of which provide you with active skills and others with upgrades. While this is, in essence, a skill system like you’ll see in a lot of other titles, the framing and mechanics are very fun to explore. The developers also want to implement a unique puzzle system, but we felt it was still a bit undercooked at this point in time. We are kind of curious about it, however, as we don’t shy away from good puzzle gameplay.
The combat still feels very basic, as there is no parry or block present just yet, and you eventually just end up hacking and slashing while alternating between the skills you’ve already unlocked. It’s rather satisfying cutting down multiple enemies, draining their blood, performing finishing moves, etc. Even so, there’s still a lot of work to be done here as well. We would also love to see dedicated controller support, as we do tend to enjoy this style of combat a lot more with our trusty controller.
As far as the presentation goes, the game looks a bit rough around the edges, but still good enough to set the right atmosphere. We mainly loved the old-school-sounding narrator telling us some of the story beats as well as what we’re expected to do. This is further complemented by an already decent soundtrack and sound effects that provide adequate audio feedback. We’ve only seen a small part of what the game will eventually become, but what’s already present has sparked our curiosity for things to come.
Even though Deadhaus Sonata does have a few interesting components already, we do believe that in its current state, it shouldn’t even be an Early Access project. Controls tend to be janky, base mechanics are extremely undercooked, performance is abysmal on higher settings, and we lost progress multiple times when playing co-op. In the case of the latter, we were sent back to the tutorial level after we perished in a level, to then start from scratch again. This did not happen when playing solo. We feel the game should be considered a playtest, and we don’t really get why it’s a paid one. This, like the future game, should have been free, as the developers can use all the feedback they can get at this point in the development process.
Conclusion
Deadhaus Sonata has a lot of good elements when it comes to its setting, its lore, and its concept, but at the time of writing, the price of entry for what is essentially a playtest is way too steep, especially considering the game will have a free-to-play future after its Early Access period. We enjoyed playing the game with a friend, but the many bugs and its current rough state didn’t exactly win us over. If you like old-school titles such as Legacy of Kain, then we can suggest keeping tabs on the development progress of Deadhaus Sonata. If you are looking for something modern and already somewhat polished, we can’t really recommend this one in its current state. On the bright side, however, the game is planned to remain in Early Access for roughly a year and a half, allowing the development team to iron out the kinks.
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