Deadhaus Sonata

The issue isn't that Deadhaus Sonata has cosmetics or monetization. Plenty of successful games monetize early. The issue is priority and timing. Deadhaus Sonata entered paid Early Access while openly stating that the game is still in very early development, with limited content and roughly one playable class at launch, while also planning cosmetic monetization throughout Early Access. Early Access exists to refine a stable gameplay foundation through player feedback... not to establish storefront systems before the core experience consistently functions. Industry criticism of Early Access has repeatedly centered around unfinished games treating monetization as part of the product before the game itself reaches acceptable technical quality. Looking at community impressions and demo feedback, recurring complaints are not "there aren't enough cosmetics" or "there isn't enough to buy." They're things like performance issues, clunky combat, bugs, movement problems, and gameplay systems not feeling complete. So the criticism becomes simple: If players are hitting progression blockers, performance issues, and gameplay problems within minutes of playing, then additional monetization systems solve none of the reasons players are leaving. Cosmetics generate revenue from retained players. Stability creates retained players. Therefore, prioritizing monetization before gameplay stability risks weakening the exact player trust and player retention needed for monetization to succeed in the first place. The argument isn't "don't sell cosmetics." It's: You don't build the gift shop before finishing the theme park entrance.

What happened between the Bloodbath Demo and now. It's a totally different game. Everything cool from that demo is missing. It's not even the same game or feel. You had a working battle system that was solid and now it's all gone. Weirdest thing ever. I have never seen this before. Something mostly polished and now crap. It was developed in Amazon Lumberyard, then switched to Open 3D engine, then went to UNITY, then now it's in Unreal 5. WTH. The three meter, Life, Sprit, Mana thing is also seemingly gone. Now you just have a life bar. Insane

I was invited to play this with someone who had a key for me. A small summary: this game feels like a late alpha. Concept is good, lore is good. Gameplay is rough and bugs out nearly every fight. The game has way too many things wrong with it. I'll be speaking from a co-op perspective. Initially the cards are individual, so if you play through the first area with someone, ONLY ONE PERSON GETS THE CARD, meaning your co-op partner is not going to have skills only obtainable in the first mission. There was also a bug that prevents you from progressing the first mission if your co-op partner gets the cards and equips the tarot card before the host so it won't progress (at the small podium that has the tutorials for tarot cards), we had to dash over the wall to progress. The combat seems like they have a very good basis, however it is poorly executed. Enemies change their direction mid-attack and animation to still hit you when you dodge. Several abilities will bug out and either get you stuck in the map or stuck levitating which can dashed out of. Most of the executions animations are broken and either stop mid-way through or do not even engage but the enemy still dies. The maps bug out so progress is impossible. From what I could tell the game is heavily dependent on a moon/planet phase that dictates powers and whether things open or not. It was not clear at all. We could only play the first map and I was the only one who could get into the tombs, plus when we tried to fix it in several ways we just couldn't get back into the tombs at all to continue. I spent two hours essentially quality testing the combat and map, invisible walls stop you but with the levitating bug you can just fly over them. At least if you fall through the map it resets you to the start of the map. Combat could be something good in the future, but the animations, hit boxes and abilities all HEAVILY need to be focused on. From what I was told it was a small team that has been working on this game for 8 years. To be honest it feels like they have a ton of ideas that they tried to implement at the same time without making sure the basis of the game is solid and steady. The game gives me vibes that they want a good story first then gameplay second, which would be fine if it was a visual novel or something like a Telltales game, however this is an action RPG and gameplay should be at the forefront. On a good side there are tutorial videos to show how to use the Tarot cards and abilities in game. This game COULD find footing and be good, however in its current state it is a buggy mess that has too many things trying to happen. If the developers could focus on the gameplay, specifically the movement and combat, get their feet firmly planted in the ground making the game fun, they could absolutely turn this around and make this fun. Right now, it is a lesson in quality testing. If you want to see my experience first hand: https://youtu.be/bVdSRBOwFcw

Received key for free. Got me with vampires and tarot, but... Not executed well at all. Bad UI, jank combat, lack of direction, and poor decision of having a store on day one of early access. Was not aware of AI content when given the key. Wouldn't have tried it had I known.

combat demo was better, not ideal, need polishing but it was better graphics effects combat was better, even after death realm idea. right now it feels like game not evolved, but make turn in wrong way.. was very exited... but now its unplayeble(( look on videos with werebat from combat demo. Its like from another game, higher tier game..

Awful

First thing first - this is an early access game through and through which means that it is not feature-complete, not optimized, not bug-free and doesn't have a lot of content so if that is a deal breaker for you then you should wait until it is in a better place. That being said this is a solid basis for a game with quite a few original ideas. The combat is heavily based on the usage of various skills, target prioritization and resource and cooldown management and while mechanical skill and reaction speed are a factor they are not the focus of the system. There is a basic attack and basic dodge in the game but limiting your playstyle to those alone will get you nowhere. Currently there is one class in the game with 8 skills that you can find for it. Each skill has 3 to 8 available upgrades that add different functionality. Those skills are unlocked through exploration and puzzle solving while the upgrades are unlocked through combat - you kill enemies and those drop different "cards" which are the components needed to upgrade the skills. In terms of itemization currently the only loot that you can find is weapons and "inscriptions" that can be slotted into those weapons in order to enhance your character. The weapons drop from certain enemies and currently there's a sword, an axe and a spear and you can dual-wield the single handed weapons. The weapons themselves provide you with different attack movesets but as basic attack is not the focus of the combat those do not matter that much. The inscriptions are generated upon completing repeatable tasks within the world and depending on the task and how and when you complete it you get a collection of affixes(usually 8-9 of those but it varies) assigned to the inscription. There is quite a variety of affixes from different damage types and resistances to passive skills and even summons. Each weapon has a capacity as to how many inscriptions it can hold and each inscription has a different cost depending on its type which is determined by the task completed. So far the weapons seem to have a capacity of 12 and each inscription costs 2 or 3 of those to slot in so even with this bare-bones implementation of the itemization you can come up with quite a few builds depending on the affixes you have and the skills you choose. In terms of content currently there are 4 levels(a tutorial, a small outdoors zone, a couple of randomly generated dungeon levels which different gimmicks that I count as 1 and an in-door level) and about 10 basic enemies, 2 minibosses and 1 boss. The levels are not very long and I think most people would be able to get through them in less than 4 hours. The levels are replayable though and if you want to engage with the itemization and the skill system you would have to replay it to unlock everything that there is to them currently. The game features in-game voice acting for the tutorials and different situations that can occur as well as for in-game lore related to celestial events. Additionally it integrates the audio series The Chronicles of the Grand Inquisitor as audio logs that you can find and there is quite a lot of game lore in those but that content is also available on various places out of game and if you are into the lore I would recommend you do that instead of searching for them in-game for the time being. I have to mention that here is a proof of concept cash shop with a few cosmetic items in it and outside of that there is currently no visual character customization but one is planned for the future.

I have been watching this game for a while. Been in the discord, followed the progress, been a bit quiet at times, but generally have kept up with the highlights. I know the dev team care about this project. I know they are going to make it work with everything they have. But unfortunately for the state of capitalism, they need money for that. They've been up front that what the game has right now is roughly 4 hours of content. It's stated in the early access dropdown section. It's lacking about 80%-90% of what is planned. That said, what they do have is phenomenal worldbuilding. Lore out the wazoo, and plans to expand that lore, and the world, and the game, all with the feedback of the players. Of course they aren't JUST doing what players suggest, but they incorporate the ideas and thoughts of the fans into the things they're already doing. All this said, I'll be completely honest. I don't love everything I've seen so far. The game is fairly unoptimized, I get frame drops, the UI isn't great, and sometimes I can be pretty easily confused with what I'm doing, or what's happening. What they have right now is bare bones, but it's a framework for them to refine and expand upon. They could have easily taken the money of those early supporter packs and just ran. But they've been hard at work for a while, and shifting engine sometimes does tend to set one back on their work. The fact that these devs are still here, still working, still trying to make that vision come to life, should be commended. Is this game worth buying as it is? Probably not. But I still recommend you do, because that money will go towards making the end product that much better. And that end product will be given out, for free, so if you really don't want to spend the money, then don't. If you want to put a down payment on a gothic third person action game that lets you play the undead, then I suggest this game to you. Just expect it to take a little bit more time.

There could one day be potential but they would have to suck it out (pun intended) of it

If your a fan of the original Legacy Of Kain Blood Omen then this is for you, but don't expect it to be optimized at all or even be modernized in terms of todays combats styles. This game has a couple of identity issues like if the devs wanted to make a survival game like V-rising but scrapped that idea. Then wanted to be a mmo but scrapped that idea. Then wanted to be a action rpg and decided to stick with that but didn't update the combat or UI for said action rpg. I know the game is in early access and all sorts of issues with be fixed and UI can change and even combat and graphics can be updated. But lets be real it plays like Too Human on 360 and looks like a Xbox one game. I know I know its early access and things can change but only time will tell. It does however have that gothic feal and really does remind you of Legacy of Kain. Hopefully in time this game can flesh out the combat a little better and fix the controller support, also fix the clunky UI. I do recommend the game because the potential is there it just needs some more attention and its a bit early to throw this game under the bus.