If there is one thing that is certain in life, it’s death. It comes in many different forms such as old age, illness, or, as seen in Games From The Abyss’ latest title Death Elevator, an elevator with dozens of floors.
Death Elevator hands control of a nameless protagonist to the player who must journey through various floors of an infested elevator and defeat foes. One hit will cause you to die – which may sound brutal – but, when paired with the bullet time mechanic, which slows time down enough for the player to react, it’s a fair trade off. Various weapons can be picked up on the different floors including an SMG, sniper rifle, assault rifle, shotgun, and grenade launcher, all of which will disappear after their ammo has been used.
This Superhot style title, published by QUByte Interactive, is an arcade gaming first-person shooter, meaning it uses points as an incentive rather than a story or campaign; an outdated system developed for gaming when saving wasn’t an option. This decision creates the unfortunate problem of the game’s novelty wearing off extremely quickly. What begins as a grand time blasting away enemies and progressing through floors, slowly descends into a hair ripping cycle as you try and get more points with little to no change between the levels.
The structure for the game is baffling to me as, much like its counterpart Superhot did, Death Elevator would have greatly benefitted from a campaign or at the least some incentive to replay the game after your initial completion. Collectibles, weapons or just about any other unlockables would’ve made my time with Death Elevator that much more enjoyable, and not had me wishing for the sweet relief of death on my hundredth run through of the elevator.
Despite all this, Death Elevator does arrive at the correct destination a few times. The mechanics, whilst inspired like most great forms of art, are innovative and unique providing for a “wow” moment on your first run through of the game. And then we have the bullet time mechanic, something which is especially interesting as it takes a similar mechanic seen in Superhot and decides that it’s not the player’s choice whether they want to stop time or not, instead leaving it entirely in the hands of the enemies. This helps to add further difficulty and challenge to a game that is already bursting to the brim with it.
There’s also a Hardcore mode that removes this mechanic entirely, ensuring it is safe to say that Death Elevator is not for the faint of heart.
Another thing I appreciated about Death Elevator was noticed upon initially booting it up. It’s designed around retro score-based games. This means that, just as games from years gone by have not, this one will not hold your hand. Not once does it tell you where to go, and it definitely does not tell you how to overcome your struggles, all of which is a breath of fresh air in a gaming market attempting to please everyone. Death Elevator knows its audience and only tries to please them, dumping the player straight into the action.
The game’s innate unforgivingness forces anyone who wants to come close to completion to learn the mechanics and develop skill. This form of progression leaves the player with an immense sense of pride once they overcome that certain part they were stuck on for hours or, eventually, once they reach the elevator’s limit and complete the game. Had Death Elevator decided to hold your hand all the way through, this euphoric feeling couldn’t have been replicated.
If I had to pick one thing apart in Death Elevator, it would be the missed opportunity for bosses. The mechanics, weapons and environments all scream challenging boss fight, but alas there is none to be found in the game. Bullet time could’ve been put to its limits with this implementation, with the player pirouetting around the room as if an adept ballet dancer on stage. Many will say the difficulty is an issue due to the clear target audience being that of hardcore gamers, but this isn’t personally an issue for me.
Taking this all into account, Death Elevator succeeds in the mission it sets out to do elegantly, yet after completion it leaves you craving more content; this is a short game that relies on replays to extend its length.
You will have a blast shooting and stopping time in your playthrough of Death Elevator, but the real questions lies in whether this euphoria will last until your thousandth death, or your first…
Death Elevator Ascends: A One-Hit Death FPS That Will Test Your Skills – https://www.thexboxhub.com/death-elevator-ascends-a-one-hit-death-fps-that-will-test-your-skills/
Buy Death Elevator on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/death-elevator/9mz1814s9jq8
