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Death, Demon, Gore, Killed and Splashes of blood.
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GAMES Death's Gambit
Death's Gambit Review
Posted: 4 months ago.
Author: Ben Kendall and @GeekDadGamer.
Overview
Death's Gambit is a running, jumping and fighting game where you defeat enemies, collect weapons and progress through levels. Drawing on the platforming of games like the Castlevania and Metroid games, it adds difficult and precise combat akin to that found in Dark Souls and Demon's Souls or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, creating a unique blend of exploration, combat and narrative. The game was updated in 2021 with a free expansion, Afterlife, which expands the story, refines the combat system, and adds more levels, bosses and weapons.
You play as Sorun Galbraith, who is sent to the realm of Aldwynn on a quest to uncover the source of eternal life and find your long-lost mother, but on the way, you and your comrades are killed. When Death arrives to collect your souls, he resurrects you, allowing you to continue your quest, albeit in eternal service to him. On your mission, you must find and kill all other immortal beings, in order to become immortal yourself.
Gameplay involves exploring the maze-like levels and fighting enemies to progress. Each of the 20+ levels has a boss fight, in which you'll need to use precise button presses, skill and tactical play to overcome their immense strength. As you go, you unlock new abilities and items that will allow you to get to previously unreachable areas from earlier in the game, in a non-linear progression structure.
It's the way that it combines difficult and detailed combat systems with the non-linear, exploration-focused platforming elements that makes it a unique game to play, which rewards skill and perseverance.
You play as Sorun Galbraith, who is sent to the realm of Aldwynn on a quest to uncover the source of eternal life and find your long-lost mother, but on the way, you and your comrades are killed. When Death arrives to collect your souls, he resurrects you, allowing you to continue your quest, albeit in eternal service to him. On your mission, you must find and kill all other immortal beings, in order to become immortal yourself.
Gameplay involves exploring the maze-like levels and fighting enemies to progress. Each of the 20+ levels has a boss fight, in which you'll need to use precise button presses, skill and tactical play to overcome their immense strength. As you go, you unlock new abilities and items that will allow you to get to previously unreachable areas from earlier in the game, in a non-linear progression structure.
It's the way that it combines difficult and detailed combat systems with the non-linear, exploration-focused platforming elements that makes it a unique game to play, which rewards skill and perseverance.
Game Details
Content Rating: PEGI 16
Release Date: 14/08/2018, updated in 2021
Platforms: PC, PS4 and Switch
Genres: Action, Fighting and Platform
Accessibility: 17 features
Developer: Kei Kube (@KeiKube)
Players: 1
Lists
View our choice of games like Death's Gambit. This game is good if you want to:
Duration
Play Time: This game will take between 14 hours and 20 hours to complete. Similarly to other games in the genre, you may have to backtrack to find areas you missed or bosses you need to fight. This can substantially increase the time to beat the game from the average time of around 16 hours.
Play Style
This is a single-player game.
Age Ratings
Content Rating
Rated for younger players in the US where it is ESRB TEEN, ESRB state: Enemies emit splashes of blood when struck, and a handful of enemies burst into pieces when defeated. Cutscenes and backgrounds sometimes depict battlefields with corpses laying in pools of blood or dead soldiers impaled on spears. During the course of the game, players can obtain a brew item, which is depicted as a frothy mug in players' inventory; a rat can also be seen hiccupping and swaying while holding a bottle. The word “sh*te” appears in the game.
Costs
Does not offer in-game purchases, 'loot boxes' or 'battle/season passes'.
Accessibility
Our Death's Gambit Accessibility Report documents 17 accessibility features:
There are no difficulty settings as the game is designed to be very difficult, and many sections require extremely precise inputs and rapid pressing to perform combos or dodge attacks.
As the game is played on a 2D plane and is less labyrinthine than other Castlevania-inspired platformers, it is relatively straightforward to navigate through. On occasion though, you need to backtrack to different areas, and this isn't said, instead leaving you to figure it out.
The text is overlaid directly over gameplay, so it can sometimes be hard to read.
The game is often dark and of low contrast, making it hard to distinguish between different objects and characters, some of which are quite small.
There are no difficulty settings as the game is designed to be very difficult, and many sections require extremely precise inputs and rapid pressing to perform combos or dodge attacks.
As the game is played on a 2D plane and is less labyrinthine than other Castlevania-inspired platformers, it is relatively straightforward to navigate through. On occasion though, you need to backtrack to different areas, and this isn't said, instead leaving you to figure it out.
The text is overlaid directly over gameplay, so it can sometimes be hard to read.
The game is often dark and of low contrast, making it hard to distinguish between different objects and characters, some of which are quite small.
Video Games Like Death's Gambit
Our experts have hand-picked the following similar games. These are similar to Death's Gambit in how they play or their theme. These are good alternative games to Death's Gambit, or are a younger rated alternative for players not ready for PEGI 16 or ESRB TEEN games.
