Soundfall Review

Soundfall from Developer Drastic Games and Publisher Noodlecake is a rhythmic fun-filled action looter-shooter twin-stick dungeon crawler. That’s quite a mouthful huh?

In Soundfall, players will take on the role of Melody, an average teenager who works in a coffee shop. Melody tries on a pair of headphones and gets sucked into the world of Symphonia. Players will take on the role of Melody as she traverses Symphonia and slowly but surely gets sucked into a battle to save the world.

While that all sounds pretty generic, Soundfall does a good job with its narrative. Players will be introduced to new characters as they progress through levels. They’ll also unlock new playable characters and will face off against Discordians. Discordians are the evil forces that are plaguing the world of Symphonia. They are led by a mysterious figure calling the shots and it’s up to Melody and her newfound friends to save Symphonia’s musical themed world from ruin while restoring musical harmony.

Soundfall features a tonne of musical puns throughout its story but the gameplay is the star of the show here. Gameplay in Soundfall involves players firing off attacks both melee and ranged using musical themed weapons. The catch being that the game is a rhythm based looter-shooter and as such, players will have to time their attacks with a metronome at the bottom of the screen that is synced to the beat of the background music that plays in each level.

Soundtrack

Soundfall’s soundtrack features over 100 songs from multiple genres of music. Everything from pop to metal and drum and bass features in the game and there’s even some iconic, well-known names such as Frank Klepacki here. Yup, that’s right, the Command and Conquer music guy. Soundfall on PC also allows players to import their own music to the game to generate new levels within Symphonia. These levels will be available to you in single player or local co-op play. No multiplayer song-sharing unfortunately but this makes sense given the fact that it would end up causing copyright and legal issues.

The levels in Soundfall all fall within a specific environmental theme. There’s plenty of these available in the world of Symphonia and while some levels might seem samey in a particular Symphonia region, the fact that the music and the enemies in each level are so varied means that it doesn’t really feel repetitive at all. In fact, the only time the repetitiveness really kicks in is if you’re trying to score the highest rank available on a particular level or if you’ve failed a level and have to replay it.

Soundfall isn’t a difficult game and is extremely enjoyable because of the wide variety of songs on offer throughout Symphonia. Players will also be able to level up and upgrade their characters with new items and weapons which keeps the gameplay somewhat fresh as you progress. Some characters once unlocked however are definitely way more powerful than others and you’ll definitely end up favouring a particular character because of their abilities. The game could have used more balancing here.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Soundfall revolves around music but unfortunately, it suffers from one massive flaw in its design. While the idea of attacking to the beat sounds great on paper, the actual songs used in the game and the metronome at the bottom of the screen don’t really match up that well. If you want to rack up the highest scores possible, it would be better for you to pay attention to the metronome instead of the actual song’s beat since the former would allow you to score the highest points possible.

Timing your attacks with the metronome while dodging enemy projectiles and chaotically running around the top-down view levels is quite intense and Soundfall can be quite a stressful game if you’re a perfectionist. If however, you’re in it for the fun and the music, Soundfall can be played casually with missed beats and poor attack timing and you won’t really miss out on much. You will however struggle to defeat some enemies since your attacks are more powerful if they are perfectly timed with the metronome’s beat. Players will therefore have to focus on either defeating enemies or trying to time their attacks to the beat. This can be a rather daunting task so it’s best if you just focus on surviving and defeating enemies the first time around when playing through levels.

Graphics

Graphically, Soundfall features a very colourful cartoony low-poly aesthetic with an immense amount of flashy effects. The levels themselves are also really well done and fit in perfectly with the themes assigned to them. Players will have to traverse narrow spaces and wider areas filled with environmental hazards as well as dodge enemy attacks in a world that truly draws you in. Soundfall also features some fully animated segments which kinda make us want a fully fledged cartoon version of the game.

There isn’t any voice acting in Soundfall and this is a tad disappointing but the extensive selection of in-game songs makes up for this somewhat. There are some truly great tracks in here and there’s plenty of songs which will have you singing their lyrics or humming their tunes in no time. One of the earlier electro pop tracks titled “Fly Fly Fly” by Ethan Martin and Frida Winsth is particularly infectious. We Come Alive by Waykap is another. Soundfall has quite a few of these earworms and it is great discovering new music tracks via the game’s levels.

Soundfall while flawed, is still great fun. The game is also clearly meant for chaotic local or online multiplayer and since you can have 4 players max in a party, you can really have a tonne of fun with the game if you have 3 other friends available to play with.

Overall, Soundfall is a game we can recommend purely because of the simple narrative, visually appealing cartoony aesthetic and the extremely great soundtrack filled with music from a lot of different genres. The game isn’t all that pricey either so it’s worth giving it a try with some friends. It’s a music filled adventure and one that’s packed with a lot of fun along the way. Just don’t take it too seriously because the metronome in-game is definitely not indicative of the song’s actual beats.

Developer: Drastic Games
Publisher: Noodlecake Studios
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5

Reviewed on PC

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