» Video Game Review

By Jake BOWMAN

“Down To Hell” is an answer to the question, “What if you combined video games and heavy metal music?” A 2D hack-and-slash/beat-em-up game, which developer Red Dev Studio affectionately calls a ‘slash-em-up,’ “Down To Hell” is a game I really want to like but, in its current state, I just can’t.

Made with a small team of only about seven people, DTH has been in development for a little under a year and Chapter One, of the confirmed five chapters, is set to release in early access today, April 18. On the DTH webpage of the online video games service Steam, the developer explained why the game was initially launched in early access,

“For us, early access is a good way to get support and feedback from the Steam community. Thanks to that, during the development of the game we will be able to make the game better,” said game developers at Red Dev Studio.

I can attest to the need for making the game better. I was initially given a pre-early access copy that was almost unplayable and within a week the game was updated and is in a much better state than it was. That being said, the game still needs quite a bit of work.

Though designed to be difficult and taking inspiration from games like “Dark Souls” and “Salt and Sanctuary,” the difficulty is found not in the combat or gameplay but in the clunky controls. More than once I fell into a pit because the jump button didn’t register or because the imprecise controls overshot my landing. At one point, after beating the first boss, I attempted to step onto an elevator only to somehow fall into a crack between the elevator and the wall and die.

The problem with dying in general is that the trek back to where you were forces you to redo a series of mini games that are thrown at you periodically. You may be forced to survive for 90 seconds, kill 15 enemies or survive four waves of enemies coming at you and you cannot progress further until you finish. The first time the tasks are completed, they are fun and engaging. The 20th time you are forced to do them, due to dying from something that’s not your fault, is considerably less so.

At its core, “Down To Hell” is a fun game. The main protagonist’s sole focus is to kill everything and everytime you fight a boss, a cool metal soundtrack gets your blood pumping and ready to spread carnage. The story is simple and, translation issues aside, good enough to get you to what you really want to do, which is kill stuff.

What should be a fun mindless getaway for a few hours is just bogged down by a lack of some polish that the game severely needs. It’s clear the dev team has a lot of passion for what it is creating and has stated it plans to keep supporting and adding content to the game even after its five chapters are released. But for now let’s hope that, with community feedback, what’s currently available will get the TLC it needs.

“Down To Hell: Chapter One” will be available in early access today, April 18, for $9.99. Plans for the future will see the game on Nintendo Switch, and possibly other consoles after that, but it is currently only available on PC through Steam.

  Jake BOWMAN