I am not good at Devil Daggers. The longest run I’ve made is 0.004 seconds under a minute. I am bewildered as I look at leaderboard scores that go any higher than mine. Devil Daggers is brutal and unforgiving, in ways that few score attack games can manage without sacrificing the drive to restart and continue. This is that balance that few games can pull off, and it makes for one of the more interesting score attack games to have been released.
Devil Daggers has no story, which instantly puts it in a category where its game design matters above all else. You appear in an arena floating in darkness, armed with a hand that can shoot daggers (presumably, devil daggers). Soon after you spawn, a tall spawn point for enemy skulls starts spewing said skulls out of its top. What you do from here on out will dictate the way the rest of your time in Devil Daggers goes.
Essentially, the game boils down to crowd control as you try to take out the skulls spewing forth from the mouths of spawn points. Strategy becomes a key component as spawn points continuously appear around the arena, also sending out minions of skulls. The strategy is invoked by whether you choose to try to outlast the skulls (they will continuously spawn if you don’t take out the spawn points), or if you try to tackle the spawn points (which have a weak spot that will often involve strafing to locate). There is so much going on after twenty seconds of playing through a run that it is easy to just become overwhelmed and give up. Fortunately, the redundancy of what happens in a round makes for a mindset that encourages persistence in the hope of a better run.
Luck is not involved in Devil Daggers. Similar to Geometry Wars, everything is placed where it is placed on every run, which means that nothing is left to chance. You learn things on each playthrough that will lend to your ability to win. For example, when I first went through a couple rounds, I never released the fire button. Daggers consistently shot out of my hand as I waded through enemy after enemy, occasionally killing the ones that drop a jewel to pick up. Then I realized if I stop shooting, I become a magnet for the jewels. Why do you want the jewels? It makes your daggers stronger. Why would you not always stop shooting when a jewel is nearby? Swarms of enemies are always chasing you and it could mean living or dying in that split second you release the fire button.
This is the kind of brutal gameplay that demands constant awareness, which makes Devil Daggers unique with its first-person mechanics. The game has you looking away from the ground on a regular basis, and also looking for spawn points to destroy. Without the ability to view what’s going on behind you, you might get killed in that split second you stop to look around. Or maybe you aren’t looking at the ground and it turns out you’ve now fallen off the arena because you were too concerned with running away from an enemy. I’m not convinced that I enjoy how the game blocks your vision when it is so focused on you requiring awareness, but it assists in making the game challenging.
It really isn’t that far off from playing a Geometry Wars in first-person, except even in Geometry Wars you could be backed into a corner. In Devil Daggers, you just keep strafing around in a circle hoping not to get hit by a flying skull. Enemies quickly escalate in difficulty and size, making it easy to get sidetracked and attempt to take them out instead of the smaller minions. No enemy can be taken for granted, especially not the smaller types.
Devil Daggers is something which also has an aesthetic that evokes the same feeling you get simply playing it. It’s dark and gothic in appearance, with hellish sound design that gives you a sense of place. It fits perfectly with the constant torture the game puts you through, but it also makes for a memorable experience. Creature designs are appropriately macabre, delving into the weird as well as the vile.
As I said when I introduced this review, I am not good at Devil Daggers. I think the issue is that while the game leans on strategy and repetition, it also has a bit too much chaos to contend with. I love playing it in short bursts, but after a certain point, the deaths outweigh the satisfaction of surviving another run. Sure, I could jump back in and maybe make it a little further than last time, but I don’t feel like my strategy is the reason I made it further. Instead, that little bit of chaos in between the known quantities is what makes my run last longer or shorter. Devil Daggers is a great game, but it is not a game you will probably get much time out of. With only one mode, it wears thin after a couple short sessions of its blisteringly difficult gameplay.
A PC code for Devil Daggers was provided by Sorath for the purpose of this review.