Death Howl, in a quest to achieve genre blend bingo, takes some big stylish swings and reaches varying levels of success with each hit. This is an open-world soulslike deckbuilder with grid-based tactical combat and a haunting undercurrent of a story set to soul-stirring visuals. I was intrigued by the blending, expecting an engrossing yet punishing experience. That’s more or less what I got, but it wasn’t quite as electric as I was hoping for. Still, Death Howl is a vibes-laden deckbuilder that leans heavily into the soulslike progression and execution.

You play as a mother grieving the death of her son, and in the process, she tries to defeat Death via grid-based combat where she plays cards to attack and defend against increasingly perilous monsters. It settles into an expected souls-y flow as you bounce around from battle to battle with helpful campsites restoring health (and enemies) in between fights. The risk and reward becomes a focus. Do you push on for one more fight to progress further and earn more crafting materials to build out your deck? Or do you sheepishly crawl back to your last campsite and heal up?

The difficulty has one speed and it is punishing, but I found the difficulty spike was highest in the opening hour or two and started to level off as I wrapped my head around the card creation, totem accrual, and synergy potentials. The fights are primarily based around anticipating enemy patterns so you can avoid being cornered or slaughtered.

In between fights, you slowly walk around the world, occasionally running into spirits that offer up quests, Scandinavian folklore, and really sweet-looking pixelized animations. It’s a dark quest that definitely tugged at some parent heartstrings as I played it, but the blending of all the different inspirations and styles coalesces nicely. The genre blend bingo has a nice prize at the end of it, even if it’s a little depressing and difficult.