Devil Daggers, a debut from the demonic developer team Sorath, brings all new meaning to the definition of “hellish”. The player is pitted against a seemingly endless onslaught of hellish legions in a hellish black abyssal arena – and it’s hellishly difficult. Inspired by the 90s aesthetic sported byQuake and Doom, Devil Daggers is guaranteed to make you suffer, but assuredly entertain you in the process.
When booting up Devil Daggers, there is no indication of who, or where the player is. The only choice given is to walk into (and assumedly pick up) a floating, glowing dagger or stop playing – and I probably wouldn’t judge anybody that chose to shut the game off there and then, since the immensely addictive trial of skill, patience and error to follow is a pixelated nightmare.
The first thing I noticed as particular to Devil Daggers was the nostalgic 90s artstyle. Even the main menu remains true to the days of old, with pixelated headings and very few adjustable options. Once the player walks into the fateful devilish dagger, gifting them the ability to fire an array of projectile blades, they are promptly rushed by hordes of skulls – some plain, others not so plain; adorned with multiple skeletal legs which endlessly writhe and reach for the player, triggering the arachnophobia I never knew I had. And the obscured, incredibly dark visuals of Devil Daggerspresents this relatively campy affair as one of the most unsettling I’ve experienced in quite a while.
The creatures the player is forced to face are obscured by ineffable darkness – a particular enemy type dubbed simply as “spiders” (who, in reality, are magnificently huge skulls with spider-legs), appear to manifest themselves from the darkness, their legs sprawling from the abyss. This brilliantly terrifying effect is primarily thanks to the gorgeously dismal lighting, which outlines each and every creature with a thick mask of ambiguity. Being surrounded by darkness, I never felt comfortable knowing that at any moment an ambush of skull-insects could form and promptly end my short run. The constantly re-affirmed sense of claustrophobia wouldn’t have worked in the same way without the 90s aesthetic Sorath decided to sport, leaving many features of the obscured demons to the player’s imagination.
There isn’t any soundtrack per se, but the droning crescendo of screaming skulls and twitching spider-legs manages to fill the otherwise soundless void; creating a sort of dynamic, environment-based soundtrack for each and every run. I know that this can be said for any game – that the sounds of the environment or enemies could be seen as an avant garde sort of soundtrack – but the sound in Devil Daggers is an appropriate replacement for an orchestral score. I tried not to remain in the failstate for too long, since the continued sludgy ambience of hellish skull-creatures is genuinely too chilling for me to stand for long periods of time. I don’t think I’ve heard anything that embodies the chilling, abysmal chaos that Devil Daggers represents than the endless yelling of the creatures that lie therein.
I should probably talk about the foundational feature of all games – the gameplay. Devil Daggersplays just like Quake – it’s smooth, fast, simplistic and very, very difficult. With an option of two attacks and the abilities to move and jump, you’d have trouble getting muddled up with the controls. Although Devil Daggers is punishing, I never felt as though it was unfair. The player is given very good maneuverability, and the enemies aren’t given an immensely disproportionate amount of health compared to that of the player – and although the player can only take one hit before reaching the failstate, enemies go down after no more than a few hits (saving for the later tankier enemies), diverting the gameplay focus from perseverance to skill, and quickness of wit.
However, Devil Daggers feels a little repetitive and, as a result, not very diverse. Although nobody, including myself, has even come close the conclusive encounter of Devil Daggers, I feel it’s a bit unfortunate that there isn’t any more content. Fortunately, I’m not the only one looking forward to a fully-fledged shooter title to grow from the soil of Devil Daggers, so (fingers crossed) I’m hoping that Sorath succumb to demand and start working on another title soon.
This game is beyond the level of recommendation – I think anybody reading this review would be mad not to give the game a chance, at the risk of their sanity or, at least, their patience.
