Devil Daggers is the closest thing I have ever seen to a perfect game. I have never played anything like it. You know, back when I used to play games for 30 - 40 hours every two weeks, it was divided between at least 3 - 5 games. In less than a single week, Devil Daggers has not only taken my playtime from the last two weeks from 4.9 hours to 20 hours+, but it has made up about half (as of writing this) of my normal two-week playtime TOTAL. As of writing this, with 16 hours logged (probably 4 of which were spent on the homescreen), my high score is 192 seconds. So what is it about this game that's so captivating? Well, I'm gonna explain it all.

The Visuals:

The low-poly 3D models mixed with an extremely low resolution and dark, gritty color palette make this game look very unique. Even when things are far away and they are being drawn using less of the massive pixels in the resolution, you can tell exactly what you're looking at.

The Game Mechanics:

I have NEVER played a game with game mechanics as tight and polished as this one. Not even the overrated games of today (CS:GO, Rocket League, Overwatch, and so on) can come close to this. It's not overcrowded with different game mechanics but what they have work together in a very meaningful and seamless way. From the Rocket Jumping, Momentum, and Two-Purpose Daggers with travel time, to the spawn times of the enemies, the swarm mechanics (which I've never seen done so well before), and the shape/size of the platform. Everything. Not ONCE have I died and considered myself to have been killed by anything other than my own incompetence, and for a competitive, score based game, that is very important.

The Sound Design:

You know, as an amateur musician and aspiring audio engineer and producer, great sound design gives me a boner. I have reached the point where I've trained my ear to notice every detail of every sound, so the more you treat my ear and the better your sound works with what's being shown on screen, the more I have to rave about it. And let me just say.. This is quite possibly the single best sound design I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing in gaming. The most recent Battlefield games come close, but the sound here is so excellent that with enough practice you could probably play the game blind. Also, despite having no obligation to do so, the developer has added support for 3D binaural sound, which means when played with the right headphones, the skulls are suddenly floating right past your ear and behind your head and it feels as real as a fly buzzing around in the room near you. Every action, every enemy, and every position has a clear place in the frequency spectrum and overall soundstage of the game. Every sound adds to how satisfying the gameplay is, and you can't play the game without it. Believe me, I've tried.

The Addiction/Replayability:

I genuinely fear that this game has already started to make whatever self control for gaming I thought I had vanish entirely. Every run feels completely unique, and even though I know I'm seeing the same enemies I fought last round, it still feels like an entirely new experience with new decisions to make, new problems, and new ways for me to get myself out of a pinch. Everything just feels so dynamic, and I've played games with way more content that got old way quicker (My interest is still growing and has yet to hit a plateau). This has led me to "one more round" myself past midnight and into the wee hours of the morning.

The Performance:

I own a normal laptop. Quad-core 2.2ghz AMD A8 processor with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics and 12 GB of RAM. Not at all suitable for gaming. Well, I still get a solid 60fps early on and it still remains playable to the very last seconds of my 192 second record. If you have ANY sort of GPU, you have nothing to worry about. This is likely due to the massive pixels, low-poly models, and the fact that all that exists in the game world is a platform and hundreds of demons on it. Who knows? Maybe it's also some good old fashioned optimization.. That seems to be rare today, especially with every developer these days hopping on Unity or Unreal Engine.

The Verdict:

It's 2 am, and I'm tired. Just buy the game. It costs about as much as a fast food meal and it'll be 50 times as enjoyable for many hours longer. However, if you do buy it, prepare for a real challenge, one created simply by crafting creative enemy types to be fought with solid game mechanics instead of the generic cookie cutter fps enemies of today.

Devil Daggers is the closest thing I have ever seen to a perfect game. I have never played anything like it. You know, back when I used to play games for 30 - 40 hours every two weeks, it was divided between at least 3 - 5 games. In less than a single week, Devil Daggers has not only taken my playtime from the last two weeks from 4.9 hours to 20 hours+, but it has made up about half (as of writing this) of my normal two-week playtime TOTAL. As of writing this, with 16 hours logged (probably 4 of which were spent on the homescreen), my high score is 192 seconds. So what is it about this game that's so captivating? Well, I'm gonna explain it all. The Visuals: The low-poly 3D models mixed with an extremely low resolution and dark, gritty color palette make this game look very unique. Even when things are far away and they are being drawn using less of the massive pixels in the resolution, you can tell exactly what you're looking at. The Game Mechanics: I have NEVER played a game with game mechanics as tight and polished as this one. Not even the overrated games of today (CS:GO, Rocket League, Overwatch, and so on) can come close to this. It's not overcrowded with different game mechanics but what they have work together in a very meaningful and seamless way. From the Rocket Jumping, Momentum, and Two-Purpose Daggers with travel time, to the spawn times of the enemies, the swarm mechanics (which I've never seen done so well before), and the shape/size of the platform. Everything. Not ONCE have I died and considered myself to have been killed by anything other than my own incompetence, and for a competitive, score based game, that is very important. The Sound Design: You know, as an amateur musician and aspiring audio engineer and producer, great sound design gives me a boner. I have reached the point where I've trained my ear to notice every detail of every sound, so the more you treat my ear and the better your sound works with what's being shown on screen, the more I have to rave about it. And let me just say.. This is quite possibly the single best sound design I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing in gaming. The most recent Battlefield games come close, but the sound here is so excellent that with enough practice you could probably play the game blind. Also, despite having no obligation to do so, the developer has added support for 3D binaural sound, which means when played with the right headphones, the skulls are suddenly floating right past your ear and behind your head and it feels as real as a fly buzzing around in the room near you. Every action, every enemy, and every position has a clear place in the frequency spectrum and overall soundstage of the game. Every sound adds to how satisfying the gameplay is, and you can't play the game without it. Believe me, I've tried. The Addiction/Replayability: I genuinely fear that this game has already started to make whatever self control for gaming I thought I had vanish entirely. Every run feels completely unique, and even though I know I'm seeing the same enemies I fought last round, it still feels like an entirely new experience with new decisions to make, new problems, and new ways for me to get myself out of a pinch. Everything just feels so dynamic, and I've played games with way more content that got old way quicker (My interest is still growing and has yet to hit a plateau). This has led me to "one more round" myself past midnight and into the wee hours of the morning. The Performance: I own a normal laptop. Quad-core 2.2ghz AMD A8 processor with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics and 12 GB of RAM. Not at all suitable for gaming. Well, I still get a solid 60fps early on and it still remains playable to the very last seconds of my 192 second record. If you have ANY sort of GPU, you have nothing to worry about. This is likely due to the massive pixels, low-poly models, and the fact that all that exists in the game world is a platform and hundreds of demons on it. Who knows? Maybe it's also some good old fashioned optimization.. That seems to be rare today, especially with every developer these days hopping on Unity or Unreal Engine. The Verdict: It's 2 am, and I'm tired. Just buy the game. It costs about as much as a fast food meal and it'll be 50 times as enjoyable for many hours longer. However, if you do buy it, prepare for a real challenge, one created simply by crafting creative enemy types to be fought with solid game mechanics instead of the generic cookie cutter fps enemies of today.