ADEPTUS CRITICUS GAME REVIEWS

Game Title: Death Howl

Developer/Publisher:  Developer: Outer Zone – Publisher: 11 Bit Studios

Platform(s): Steam

Release Date: Coming Soon

Genre: Deck Building Soulslike

Reviewed on: PC

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.co

Story and Setting

In Death Howl you play as Ro a grieving mother navigating a harsh ethereal Nordic-spirit like world to try and retrieve her deceased son. In the Ethereal Forest Ro finds herself in her son presents himself in the guise of a deer who runs off when she calls out to him. Ro must fight her way through the forest which is full of nasty little animal spirits to find him.

You are given a fair amount of freedom to explore this world with paths being blocked by the animal spirits when you initiate combat with the enemies you are presented with a red grid which becomes your turn-based battle ground, this is where thought really comes into it. I had found I had made several mistakes as I’m a bit of an idiot as I wasn’t sure how to use the cards I had been given. I soon learned that you need to be very careful when you attack and how to position Ro to nullify some of the enemies attack take the birds as an example they will shoot projectiles at you but in a straight line and will fire twice unless they have to move inline with you then they will shoot only one, this is because like you the player when ever you move you use one of your five action points.

The best way to handle combat is to just go in see what works and what doesn’t and learn the enemy I had great satisfaction beating the enemies when I did finally work out a strategy.

Death Howl doesn’t give you a massive open world to explore but it does give you paths you can explore with enemies at each of them, you can find healing stone circles which is Deaths Howls version of the Bonfire and act as a check point for you to fast travel between. Something that I am happy with is when you die in Death Howl and believe me you will die a lot, it respawns you right next to the encounter with the same amount of health you had entering the battle the first time so no more fighting through everything all over again to make it to that boss fight. There are side quests dotted about the map, and they can impact you in many ways I won’t go into that though as I don’t want to spoil anything.

The Demo ends when you reach the end of the Forest.

Now I haven’t spoken about the graphics yet so I will do that now I absolutely love the aesthetic and this aesthetic is what initially piqued my interest the colour pallet choice of using black as the backdrop with dark greens and browns really sets the mood and for me amplifies the story.  

Now I know Soulslike games are not for everyone and that will be the same with this game, but I do implore you to please check out the demo and try it for yourself. In my opinion if the rest of the game is of the same quality this is going to be a contender for game of the year especially for me.

As this is not the full game, I will not score the game I will simply say this…… Death Howl has made it to the top of my games to play pile yes even above my all-time favourite franchise Doom.