Deaths Gambit (Review)

Death's Gambit is a challenging 2D souls-like action platformer with RPG elements. Developed by White Rabbit and published by Adult Swim Games. Death's Gambit is a game I had been highly anticipating ever since I saw a teaser about a year back, it's promise of being a hybrid of 2D Dark Souls and Shadow Of The Colossus was very intriguing and had me trying to hold back my hype, as I very well knew that there was a possibility that it wouldn't come out as good as it looked. Sadly my skepticism was justified and the game doesn't quite deliver on what it's marketing promised, for a rather small indie title the marketing was a bit blown out of proportion.

The story and concept were generally very fascinating, it follows the journey of a soldier named Sorun who was killed along with the others in his small army, and has been resurrected by death to be one of his agents, meaning you're now immortal and cannot be permanently killed without breaking death's contract. Which you can actually do, but I wouldn't recommend it as dying as a mortal will harshly but understandably delete your save. You journey to Caer Siorai, a well-protected citadel that is home to a magical source of immortality, which death wants you to destroy (for obvious reasons). There's also a subplot about finding your missing mother, and hunting down the supposed evil that killed you, who also happens to know something about your mother. Throughout the course of the story there are a few "cutscenes" that give you hints as to what's going on, there's also a ton of lore-heavy item descriptions for you to delve into if that's your kind of thing. 

I'd like to point out the gorgeous pixel art, it's very detailed and well done in some places (especially on the bosses like the sword wielding giant where the scale is massive) and not so much in others. Resolutions and animations are inconsistent, lower resolution assets placed next to higher resolution assets causes a muddled effect. Some animations like getting on and off your steed are very fluid and polished, while certain attack animations look stiff as if missing frames. It's very clear that many corners were cut in order to save time, (and sadly so were large portions of content). The different sections of the game all have a unique look to them (except the snowy area and maybe the castle), the atmosphere built around the world is amazing. And even the soundtrack was pretty great though subtle, helping to create a dense atmosphere, but when the music does pick up everything seems very epic. The voice acting was also very good, you can tell the cast really put passion into their characters.

The locations are all fairly small in the first half of the game, causing it to feel jampacked with too many boss fights. The areas themselves although short, are full of traps and enemies (especially the snowy area) which was frustrating at times and felt like an excuse for the lack of size, it furthermore causes the pacing to feel strange. The boss fights themselves are really enjoyable at times, such as one particular trippy unexpected battle that I won't spoil, and the sniper in the graveyard. on the other hand larger bosses seem to be more of just a spectacle, don't get me wrong the first few encounters with them are magical, but once you realize they only have about two or three basic attacks the awe and wonder kind of wares off.

When it comes to gameplay I expected to be stampeding down valleys and mountains on my trusty steed in search of giant mighty colossal beasts to hunt down and slay on an epic scale, sadly the horse is downgraded to a fast travel system, the grapplehook mechanic that was shown off was completely taken out of the game, and the giant mighty colossal beasts shown in the trailers were for the most part nowhere to be found, and the ones that do still make their appearances in the game, are sadly just NPC's. needless to say when I found out I was pretty disappointed. To be bluntly honest I was mislead into thinking death's gambit was something it's not. (I would strongly advise developers to not show off large portions of content and gameplay mechanics in teaser/announcement trailers if they are not 100% going to make the final cut, it's misleading and kind of dishonest if not disclosed before release.)  That being said it's still a decent game.

lets talk about the combat, you've got your shield, dodge-roll, parry (virtually useless against everything), and weaponry and armor (changing armor does not change your appearance) based on your preferred build. Of course in true souls-like fashion, the core of the combat is based on managing the stamina meter. The stamina system feels very out of balance and ends up being a chore to manage, even just dodging twice can completely drain your bar and leave you defenseless, giving rise to many prolonged distance based fights. Most of the enemies are very aggressive and will relentlessly pound on you until you become overwhelmed and die, while others can be easily dealt with by simply walking back and forth and jumping over them, making some battles seem ridiculously effortless. When you do perish, instead of loosing shards (souls) you drop phoenix feathers, which are your main source of healing. these can be traded in for a damage bonus taking away any penalty of death. 

Although it's plagued with inconsistency, and has quite a few bugs, as well as some balancing issues. I still think it's worth recommending for it's engaging story, fun boss fights, and occasional moments of awe and wonder. The game is short at about 8 hours, but if you feel like going through it all over again there is NG+ and it's pretty well done, enemy and item placements are changed up, and so is the difficulty, keeping the gameplay fresh. There is potential for Death's Gambit to be a spectacular game, if the developers decide to patch it up a bit and maybe add in some of the scrapped content, but until then it doesn't quite feel there yet. Death's Gambit is available for $19.99 on Pc/Steam and PS4.