Upcoming Death Howl Review

The deckbuilder and the soulslike accommodate each other well, even if Death Howl is initially too busy killing you to show its best hand.

PC Gamer's got your back

Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.

What is it? A painful but rewarding marriage of deckbuilder and soulslike. Release date Dec 9, 2025Expect to pay $20/£16.75Developer The Outer ZonePublisher 11 Bit StudiosReviewed on Asus ROG AllySteam Deck VerifiedLink Official site

‘Deckbuilders meet Dark Souls!’ is the kind of ironically-soulless pitch that makes me want to go back in time and drown a young Miyazaki in a poisonous swamp. Fortunately, Death Howl hasn’t been made by evil money men, but slightly-less evil developers who clearly understand what makes good deckbuilders and soulslikes tick. Even if they’re slightly too infatuated with a difficulty curve they purchased from the rectangle factory.

I thought all deckbuilders had to be roguelikes by law, so it’s paradoxically a little refreshing to play one that follows a more traditional game structure. You play a grieving mother who’s in denial about her young son’s death (oh, Merry Christmas by the way!) and who’s chased him into the spirit realm in the hopes of getting him back. Looks like somebody only played the first half of Shadow of the Colossus…

Unfortunately, the spirit realm likes its new boy, and so keeps chucking monsters at you. Turn-based battles play out on isometric grids reminiscent of the excellent Into the Breach. Each turn you draw five cards and then have five mana to play them with. Ah, but you also need that mana to move around, creating a dilemma between hitting your foes or running away to hide in the corners like a coward.

Sadly there’s no sign of Into the Breach’s undo button. In true Soulslike tradition, death is the main teacher here. The game gives you a lot of information but is intentionally—and irritatingly—vague about how enemy attacks are going to work until the moment they’re killing you. Expect an aggressive onboarding period as you learn how different monsters operate.

At least your starting cards are nice and straightforward. Strikes shove enemies into adjacent squares, arrow-shooting and rock-chucking handles distant threats, sprint helps you run away, and armor helps when you’ve cornered yourself yet again, dummy. Win a fight and all the fallen enemies become death

Source: PC Gamer