Deepward Game Demo: Swap Heroes Mid-Fight, Lose Them Forever

It's a good hook. Whether it holds up depends on a sanity system that a third of the demo's reviewers already complain about.

What the Deepward game demo gives you

The free demo covers three levels and three of the six heroes. You don't get all three at once: a developer explained on Reddit that you "start with 2 characters and unlock the third one in the next level", which is why one early reviewer thought the demo was capped at two.

The full game, which Steam styles as DEEPWARD, drops a squad of Ignis Noctis mercenaries into a cursed 1920s estate in the Carpathian forests, escorting an Austrian occultist baron on an expedition to find the source of a spreading darkness. The roster on the official site is Bruno (heavy gun), Vireth (sword), Tony (two revolvers), Isabeau (volatile magic), Joseph (shotgun) and Hector (a Tesla gun, naturally).

What the demo trailer shows

We stepped through the official demo trailer frame by frame. It opens on Bruno hauling his heavy gun through a hall of red damask wallpaper. At 0:06 Tony is already in, firing both revolvers at a cultist carrying a spear (one Steam review of the demo, in full: "Damn those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ peasants with spears!"). By 0:08 there's a candle pentagram on the floor, because of course there is.

The quietest shot is the one we'd watch twice. At 0:18 the trailer stops on page two of an expedition journal: "They encountered heavy resistance almost immediately." That's how the story arrives, through journals and talk with your crew, and the writing is better than it needs to be.

Screenshot: DEEPWARD demo trailer at 0:18 (EchoFall Games)

Two seconds later you get the squad screen. Three portraits sit stacked on the left edge while Tony, the active hero, walks past a glowing pickup with his bars at the bottom of the screen. At 0:24 Vireth's sword comes up, bat wings on the guard.

Screenshot: DEEPWARD demo trailer at 0:20 (EchoFall Games)

How the Deepward game handles hero swaps and sanity

Each hero carries their own health, stamina, weapon and active ability. Tony can slow down time and aims better, while Bruno has "a powerful stomp" (the developer's words, on r/roguelites). Kills restore your stability. Dawdling does the opposite.

The clever bit is that sanity is per hero, too. A benched hero's sanity "can only drop to around 20%", so swapping out is a breather as well as a weapon change. EchoFall says its references were Cruel and Mullet MadJack, and you can see it: this is a game that wants you moving.

Press kit: EchoFall Games

What demo players are saying

By October 15, nine people had reviewed the demo on Steam, six of them positively. Three of the nine single out the sanity meter. A thumbs-up review says dying from fear "feels way too quick to kill you" while praising gunplay that "felt good and responsive". A thumbs-down one is blunter: "Terrible optimalization, it runs at 50fps and looks like 22 year old game, sanity mechanic is dreadful." Another positive review sums the whole thing up as a "dark souls perma death multi character corridor shooter", which is fair and also a pretty good tagline.

The studio isn't hiding from it. In a thread asking how to make the effect clearer, the developer admitted players "skip through" the tutorial and said they've "decided to add some animated tentacles closing in around the screen", which should settle the question of subtlety.

The game has some momentum behind it. EchoFall's press kit says the July reveal drew coverage from North America to Japan and Brazil, Japan's 4Gamer.net among them. The Steam playtest drew more than 1,000 sign-ups, and EchoFall reported 10k+ wishlists within 76 days of the store page going live.

Our take

We'd grab it before Next Fest buries it under a few thousand other demos (and before you ask, our guide on whether Next Fest demos expire covers what happens after the festival). Play it for the swap: deciding which hurt hero to bench, and when, is the part worth testing. But if co-op is what you want, there isn't any, and if your PC sits near the minimum spec, the reviews suggest waiting for a later build. Shooter fans who liked the cardboard chaos of the PAPERHEAD demo or the noir of MOUSE: P.I. For Hire should find room for this one.

How we checked this

On October 15, 2026 we stepped through the official demo trailer (timestamps above), read the Steam store and demo pages, EchoFall's press kit and Steam posts, the developer's Reddit replies and all nine Steam reviews of the demo, and opened 4Gamer.net's reveal piece. We haven't played the demo, so nothing above is a hands-on impression.

References

• DEEPWARD on Steam: description, release window, system requirements.
• DEEPWARD Demo on Steam: demo contents and user reviews.
• DEEPWARD press kit: setting, sanity system, studio background, co-op plans.
• DEEPWARD official site: the six heroes and their weapons.
• DEEPWARD demo trailer on YouTube
• Developer answers on r/roguelites: per-hero sanity, abilities.
• 4Gamer.net reveal article (Japanese)