DEATH HOWL
A gloomy deckbuilding odyssey and an accidental Soulslike
Developer The Outer Zone
Publisher 11 Bit Studios
Format PC
Origin Denmark
Release 2025
The death howl is a kind of anguished expulsion of the soul. Each of your foes – animals in the spirit world – cries out as you deliver a fatal blow, a visible energy escaping its maw. For you, as a shaman, this becomes a currency of sorts. Howls are drawn into your body, where you use their power to your advantage. You also pick up material trophies from your kills – the snout of a boar, a feather from a crow – combining these with the magic of the howls to craft cards, supplementing primitive techniques such as throwing rocks with more incisive weapons and skills. As such, there’s a freeform nature to this sombre Danish card battler that we wouldn’t associate with the likes of Slay The Spire. It’s one reason Death Howl is billed as a ‘Soulslike deckbuilder’, a somewhat crudely fitted label, but not inapt.