Denis Dyack is a incredibly talented developer who directed some of our absolute favorite titles. To this day, the Legacy of Kain series remains high on that list. His new studio just launched Deadhaus Sonata, where we actually get to play as the monsters. For the past couple of days, we’ve spent our afternoons messing around with the vampire class just to see how the unique card skills work. The game definitely has potential, but for the time being, it’s clearly in a very early build.
Biting and Cards
The main idea behind Deadhaus Sonata works well. Right now we just have the Vampire class, but six more are coming later. While we’re waiting on those updates, we can fight through dark castles and randomized dungeons, solo or with friends. We tried it solo and were pleasantly surprised by the overall experience. Exploring and using most of the skills gives off a really fun, retro vibe.
Instead of a normal skill tree, you have Tarot cards at your disposal. You earn Major cards to get new active skills, while Minor cards upgrade them. It is a fun and rarely seen way to build a character. The moves, as we mentioned, look cool. We loved using Blur to float safely over water, and Whirling Death is a great skill for crowd control. If you think this is cool, wait till you try Exsanguinate (spoiler: you hover in the air and drain blood from a distance like a true badass).
The fighting, however, feels slow—unrealistic even. The animations take a long time to finish. When a bunch of enemies swarm us early on, moving out of the way is hard. Even the basic vampire bite is stuck on a strict timer. We hit hard, but we spend a lot of time waiting to attack again. Some might say it’s clunky; we say it’s very old school.
The loot is not based on random drops. Instead, you unlock gear by completing specific goals. There is no killing monsters over and over just hoping for a good sword; you have to earn it on purpose. It is a neat and well-executed idea, and it made us wonder why it hasn’t been used more often.
Big Ambitions
The devs plan to stay in Early Access and cook for about 18 months to iron everything out. Big ideas just take a lot of time. Patience with this title is going to be key.
Deadhaus Sonata is a very early version. As we pointed out, you get exactly one class, and it took us about four hours to be basically done with the current content. Finding secret areas might stretch that time, but not by much. Even though the world is small right now, there is a crazy amount of voice acting already—13 hours of audio logs that we thoroughly enjoyed listening to.
Sooner or later, though, the rough edges will frustrate you. The hub town has a lot of unfinished pieces. We found floating lore books that we wished we could read, but couldn’t. The blood trail that guides us to the next objective sometimes points to burnt-out fires. However you want to spin it, Deadhaus Sonata is just a small slice of a game, but one with the promise of something extraordinary.
A Short Meal
We really like the ideas that Apocalypse Studios are playing with, especially the inventive card system and the rewarding way to earn loot. We didn’t mind that the combat was slow, but we couldn’t help but wish for more of everything. We want to see where Deadhaus Sonata goes, but right now, we are just waiting for more of it to exist.
ID Card:
- Developer: Apocalypse Studios
- Publisher: Apocalypse Studios
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: Early Access (2026)
- Genre: Action RPG / Co-op
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