The new indie roguelike Death Must Die combines the metagame and story structure of Hades with the monster horde survival made popular by Vampire Survivors. Death Must Die is Realm Archive’s second Early Access title and takes players on expeditions into the underworld to battle Death’s minions.
As you battle enemy waves, other gods will share witty remarks and blessings that improve your attacks, summon minions, and launch automatic spells against enemies. You also collect equipment that grants permanent boosts, unlock new characters, and choose starting bonuses by completing achievements.
Here’s the background:
Time is very angry with Death for deceiving mortals from their allotted time on Earth, and provides you with a magical sandbox so that you can personally go to the underworld and defeat Death. The rest of the gods join the crusade because Death is breaking the rules, and also because they all think it will be very funny to watch you do it. The writing and voice acting aren’t perfect, but they’re there nonetheless, which is more than can be said for most games in this genre.
Early reviews on Steam are positive – at the time of publication, 92% of the 4,383 reviews are positive. The balance of movement and hand attacks isn’t perfect yet, but the element of dodging predictable enemy attacks and projectiles adds something new to the formula. It’s not just about avoiding collisions, but also impacts. Add to this the occasional larger, more dangerous enemies to dodge, and the result is a fast-paced roguelike.
If the developers can continue to improve the core gameplay without overwhelming the screen with red spots for dodging, Death Must Die has a good chance of a successful future. And of course, it’s important to provide the deep meta-progression that we all love to see in this genre.
Death Must Die available for $7 at Humble and Steam. The developer is Realm Archive, which previously created a hybrid card game and visual novel called Kamifuda.
