Nick Cooper and Julian Trutmann are both seasoned veterans that hail from powerhouse game developer Epic Games. They both have years of experience in the industry creating titles such as Gears of War, Paragon (rest in peace) and Fortnite. So them coming together to create a new start-up studio called Drastic Games sounds pretty good right? If you answered yes then you would be correct.
And it didn’t take long for the duo to announce their first project, Soundfall, a dungeon crawler, with one very specific element that drives the game. You guessed it, music. On Drastic Games’ website, they describe what the story is about.
“You play as Melody, a talented young audiophile mysteriously transported to Symphonia, a world where music comes to life. You’ll befriend endearing allies, wield powerful abilities and legendary weapons against a horde of malicious adversaries as you race to halt the return of an unfathomable darkness, Discord.“
The announcement trailer doesn’t tell us too much but does shed some light on basic gameplay mechanics and how the game will look. Which is gorgeous by the way. You can tell the two have been married to the Unreal Engine because the game looks very pretty and well designed. It seems that you will go through the game and use the music as a sort of a heartbeat for your actions. This will reward players for landing attacks on time with the music and could produce some really interesting combos. But this will heavily rely on your rhythm to carry you through the game.
The little animated shorts in between the gameplay are very appealing and would be a great plus if they were actually included in the game to help move the story along. I’m so impressed by the overall aesthetic that it will definitely l be on my list of games for next year.
Writer’s Opinion
I never want to get too excited by a gameplay trailer because you never know what the end product will be like. But just listening to the music and watching Melody glide around to the beat was almost mesmerizing. All of the bright colors and sharp animations really made a good first impression on me. Music is a big part of my life and I haven’t really dived into too many music-related games (aside from the typical Guitar Hero). SoundFall looks very promising and as a huge fan of Paragon and Gears of War, I have faith that the small team can deliver something unique. It is still very early days as the game is set to release next year, but keep your eye on this one. It may be one of the high notes of 2019.
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