Shredding Through the Hordes of Hell
On paper at least, Devil Jam should be relevant to my interests: a mixture of the seminal Vampire Survivors and heavy metal music. What’s not to love?
Well, not to be too obvious about it, but that’s what this review will hope to find out. Devil Jam from those at Rogueside NV, has a premise that is pretty simple. Described on the Xbox store page as “a survivor-like roguelite”, that just about tells us all we need to know. So, can Devil Jam hold a candle to Vampire survivors, or is it another also ran? Let’s descend to the depths of Hell and have a look, shall we?
A Deal with the Devil to Defeat Death
Kicking things off with a look at the story, the news here is not too bad. We are members of a rock band who signed a contract with the Devil, without reading the fine print too carefully. So far, so metal, yeah? Well, it turns out that Death himself had a hand in your demise (and that of your bandmates) as the Devil claims he is innocent in your death. In fact, he is so incensed that Death killed you (and that’s a weird sentence to type, let me tell you!) that he offers you a way out: if you can take on and defeat Death, then the Devil will release you back into the world to carry on your career. Hey, if you can’t trust the devil, who can you trust?
With that goal in mind, we sally forth into the wasteland to see what we can do…
Aiming Your Instruments of Destruction
Luckily, our instruments of choice are our weapons in Hell: a guitar, bass, drums or even a voice are all lethal to the denizens of the inferno, and even the bosses that pop up every now and again aren’t immune. It’s here that the gameplay in Devil Jam starts to veer away from the source material, and the basic weapon (your instrument) can be aimed with the right stick like any twin stick shooter. I’m a bit on the fence about whether I prefer this or the “target the closest enemy” approach taken in Vampire Survivors. Sometimes it’s nice to aim, but the trade off is forgetting where you’re shooting when the screen gets busy. And boy does the screen get busy!
Luckily, we aren’t left with only our instruments for long, as killing the enemies brings a steady supply of experience orbs/gems/flames (I’m not sure what they are) and as in all games, points bring prizes.
Inventory Cells and Deadly Sin Buffs
Each time we level up, a seemingly random representative of the Seven Deadly Sins will appear and offer a new ability, and it is here that the next difference in gameplay style appears. You see, our inventory is split into twelve cells, four banks of three, and each bank is activated in turn when we attack. The only difference is our basic attack, which fires once for each bank. All clear so far? What this means in effect is that we can choose where and when our attacks come. Having one attack in each bank means we are usually always attacking, which helps ensure that we stay alive.
To add a little spice, there are also abilities that buff other attacks, and these have a certain pattern that they affect. Being able to place a buff ability in a space where it can influence more than one attack is the dream, and it is this flexibility that is at the heart of Devil Jam. Add in various “gifts” from the Devil, that usually come with one buff and one nerf (such as one ability that gives you extra luck, but reduces your health, and that’s not even the worst one!) and you’ll soon develop your favourite items. My personal favourite makes enemies hit by the attack more likely to drop health packs (and yes, it does work on bosses, handily enough) and another passive ability that makes an explosion occur when you pick up a health pack: these two abilities together, especially when powered up, can be unstoppable.
Each run is different, with a random selection of power ups to pick from, but the roguelite bit comes in the hub between runs. We can purchase new abilities, even new people to assist us in the shop, and it uses currency picked up in our runs, so there is a pleasing circularity to the game.
Sprite Overload and Audio Stutters
Speaking of the enemies, and how busy the screen gets, we need to talk about the presentation. The various arenas we compete in are hand drawn in style and look very nice, in a wasteland, hell-type of way, and they are absolutely crammed with enemies. These range from little bats to jelly blobs to giant muscled dudes, not even counting the bosses. Everything is designed well, and the game has no difficulty in moving the amount of sprites around on the screen, and the waves of enemies can be overwhelming at times.
Sound is an area where I have noticed some issues, however. There seems to be a weird delay when either starting a run, or transitioning to a boss fight, where the sound stutters and quite often stops altogether. It does usually chime in a few seconds later, but it is distracting. Other than this, the sound is pretty good, and the metal music doesn’t disappoint. All in all, not too bad on the presentation front.
A Worthy Riff on the Survivor Genre
All things considered, Devil Jam is a worthy entry into the survivor genre. It isn’t god tier (and frankly, only one game is), but it is a very playable effort, with a real hook that will drag you back for just one more run. The different arenas add to the challenge, and getting a killer build going is always fun.
If you need a bit more survival in your life, you could do a lot worse than Devil Jam.
Important Links
Devil Jam Cranks Up The Volume On Xbox, PlayStation And Switch – https://www.thexboxhub.com/devil-jam-cranks-up-the-volume-on-xbox-playstation-and-switch/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/devil-jam/9N1MLTNKK0MG/0010
