I like it when a game has a beginning, middle, and end—I'm old fashioned like that—so I tend to avoid a roguelike unless it looks really, truly special. Upcoming stealth-immersive-platform-brawler-prank sim DreadBound fits the bill.
From its first trailer, DreadBound looks to be taking a page from the likes of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic or 2025's best immersive sim, Skin Deep, by embracing the slapstick and improvisational side of the genre, rather than cerebral exploration.
In DreadBound's first trailer, I clocked instantly deploying spike traps, oil slicks to trip enemies (or set them on fire), Ravenholm-style circular saw projectiles that you can embed in walls and use as platforms to reach high places, and an homage to my favorite quick melee in all of gaming, the Dark Messiah kick.
Rather than the handcrafted levels typical of immersive sims, DreadBound will feature "a cursed city that changes every time you die." That gave this Roguelikephobic gamer some pause, but roguelike and immsim, when attempted in the past, have often proven to be a chocolate and peanut butter genre combo.
Amnesia: The Bunker boasts randomized codes and item placements after your first playthrough, which helps the horror sim keep its bite on repeat outings, while I've heard good things about Prey's roguelike Mooncrash DLC. More than anything, I like the potential for forced improvisation to override complacent gaming: Even all-time greats like Dishonored can let you get into a groove that keeps you from exploring all of its gameplay possibilities—teleporting and nonlethal takedowns, in my case.
The full delivery of DreadBound's promise could result in a game where you're always off-balance, always having to adapt your playstyle—a full ghost sneaky run here, a loud and proud trapmaster there—based on what opportunities the randomized map affords you. That's what I'm hoping for, anyway. DreadBound currently has no definite release window, but you can wishlist it on Steam and there's a demo coming "soon."
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