Demon Peak Reviews

I was put off by the reviews saying it's broken. But I took a chance in the recent sale. November 2017 on Win10 it does run, for me at least. I can't alt+tab out of it, it crashes. And I have had one in game crash but not repeatable and not happened again. The game plays very very quickly, you can dash but the character is really quick anyway. Visually: the characters are much nicer than the maps (so far) but there's nothing wrong with the maps, they're just typical stuff, where the characters I'd say are really nice looking. If you just had these maps and the same gameplay but with little cute bobble people (as per so many games of this kind), I'd have moved right along from this title - YMMV. The only mechanic so far that's an irritation is a spear throw that's a back then forward and fire - I've rebound movement to D-pad to try and make this easier as I was failing to pull it off with control stick on controller most attempts. The music is nice and generally I just find it fun to play. It is a bit weird that you can go back through your explored rooms to get back to save location and then go back to where you got to last with all the enemies respawned but just jump over the enemies, rather than fight again. Sure enough with this last thing, if you look, there is a speedrun video showing exactly what I mean, you can just ignore the enemies and jump through rooms - once you're to the exit, they're history. I'm sure that gets tougher and in any case, it's fine if you want to exploit the speed of movement that way, but personally I'm only doing this when coming back from a save with respawned guys I've already killed. Once I get to a new room, I'm back to clearing it out properly. It's low price indie so you can forgive a lot anyway, but on sale, it's the price of a sandwich, but lasts a lot longer :)

The pixel art is pleasing, I absolutely love the save rooms (little kitties hopping around and a biiiig kitty in the wall), most of the music is fantastic, and the movement is tight and quick. Another thing I appreciated is that enemies have to actually attack you to do damage and very few of them have the 'poison skin' effect, which helps with exploring and speed running. The game isn't very long and at times I felt I was gaining upgrades almost too quickly, but that just meant I always had a good supply of abilities to play around with. As for currency, the game is pretty generous with it, so there's not usually a need to ration your healing items unless you're saving them for a boss fight. After reading about the problems other players have had in the past, I'm pretty glad to have discovered this game in its current state. I had no issues with bugs, glitches, or gameplay imbalances.

This game could be cool. However, the controls are greasy, there's no option for D-pad movement that I could find, monsters gang up in a way that feels really unfair, the platforming is less graceful than you'd like in a Castlevania wannabe, and there's very little depth to it. Oh, and the music is dull and repetitive. The level layouts are just 'meh' even if the ambience is pretty good. The treasure feels unrewarding. Collecting the gold that drops is a pain. It just goes on like this. Feels unpolished, but has potential. Barely worth the asking price.

[i] Demon Peak [/i] was a promising Metroidvania until the developers abandoned it. I would say that game feels about 90% finished so it is not unplayable. Actually, it does not start for some people but I did not have that problem myself. After replaying the latest patch most of the small issues were fixed (many of those negative reviews don't reflect the update). My biggest problem with the game is NewGame+ because it changes absolutely nothing. I am a little bit angry at devs because they pushed a balancing update and did not change NG+ difficulty (there goes all that replay value). I thought the gameplay was pretty decent so it made it much more disappointing. I hate this developer but personal feelings aside, I think the game is still worth buying if you see it on sale. The character starts with only few moves which makes a bad first impression .However, like with most games in this genre, you will find a lot more powers and upgrades overtime. Most of the unlocks are actual new moves and not just stat increases. Default dash controls are a little awkward but you can switch them in options to a more common set up. I think it plays fluidly once you get use to timing special skills .Most of the enemies can be beaten tactically if you know their weakness. The difficulty is pretty fair aside from some unpolished boss fights. Basically you have to find and kill 3 bosses in order to access the final area. It takes a couple hours to beat depending on your experience. Not that much to explore aside from hidden power ups which might add another hour. Platforming gameplay was average, nothing too special. You can unlock a few different mobility tools like dive-kick and double-jump. The soundtrack was enjoyable depending on the area. I agree with most players that some of the music did not match the tone of the game. In general, the game is at least average in every aspect. [h1] Pros: [/h1] + decent combat and platforming gameplay + several powers to unlock + hidden items + enjoyable visuals and music [h1] Cons: [/h1] - does not work for some (works for me just fine) - still has some bugs but not too many - weak level design - NewGame+ changes nothing [b] Verdict 7/10 [/b] I was really looking forward to what this game could have been. It just feels like the developers were making a good game and abandoned it too quickly. I would enjoy it so much more if NewGame+ actually had increased difficulty (is that not an easy fix?). Damn that one hurts. I don't like how the developers left some people with a broken game and loyal fans without NG+ fix. It is above average if it actually works for you.

A bit rough around the edges, but overall a decent Metroidvania/hack 'n slash in a dark fantasy setting. It took me 3.6 hours to finish the game so it's not a huge game, but there also a New Game+ (though I'm not sure what, if anything, it changes) and achievements for clearing the game in less than 45 minutes, or without saving, if those are your thing. Worth the $5. The game initially had some technical problems, but apparently they've all been patched out as I played through the game without any issues, hiccups or crashes.

Wow, I love this game, the Music is great, the graphics/art are beautiful and you're givin the option to mess with the filters and Scanlines. The gameplay is fun and challenging while consistently changing and adding mechanics for variety. It's true that there are certainly some bugs that I've come across, however this is something the developer has pointed out them selves and have and will continue to fix them. It's truely a great game that just needs some polishing and for the price of 4.99 (3.99 on sale) it's a steal. A lovely gem!

this is the single worst game i have ever bought on steam. the only things i liked about the game: [*]the art is very nice. someone with really high skill in pixel art was obviously at work here [*]the gameplay feels very fluid and satisfying at its core [/list] but [*]the game is still buggy as hell in 2021. items falling through the floor, button inputs randomly not working, the player character and enemies standing in the air. [*]the music and sound effects are garbage and eargrating. [*]the controls are garbage, you cant leave menus by pressing cancel, you cant skip dialog by pressing continue. scrolling through the menu is bound to the button you bind your dash to, wtf? [*]it is very confusing at the start, no direction at all is given and you go to 4 different areas. [*]the game is very very hard. dodging and blocking sucks, and you do not have any kind of dependable healing. you can farm out coins and buy healing potions, but you can't equip a shield and a potion at same time. everytime you want to switch your equipped item you have to go through the horribly controlled menus. [*]there is no map for the entire game, only very tiny area maps that do not help at all because the game is split up into hundred of tiny areas. [*]there are a lot of errors on the in game map. showing paths where there are clearly none, always on the same 2 map tiles being connected. [*]you can't even find a map for the game anywhere on the internet. well tbf you can't find anything about this game anywhere. probably because it is so bad that everyone quits after finding the first upgrade. [*]you can not dodge through enemies. and their attack range is higher than you dodge range. this means if you are close enough to hit them, you can not dodge away far enough to evade their attacks in any way, forcing you to basically cheese any enemy you find. [*]enemies do not give xp. this means your character never gets stronger in any way by killing monsters. so you basically skip every enemy in the game because there is not reason for killing them, eventho this should be a game about killing enemies. [*]in the end 90% of the gameplay is dying over and over and doing platforming with bad movement. [*]enemies drop useless currency that falls onto the floor and bounces around falling off of edges, causing you to lose about 50% of everything that drops. [*]enemies kill you in 2-3 hits. but even the most basic enemies in the game take 5-15 hits to kill. [*]i opened a chest to find 3 throwing axes inside. these are SINGLE USE and deal less damage than your basic attack. i couldn't even kill a single basic enemy with the contents of the chest. if you buy them at the store you need to pay money from like 50 enemy kills to buy enough axes to kill a single enemy. but that won't even work because you can only carry 9 of them. you need around 10 to kill one enemy tho. jesus christ how can a game be this bad. [*]whenever you leave a screen-area (they are tiny) every enemy respawns. even less reason to kill anything. [*]i thought i was having a bug that my equipped item randomly changed to another but i found out that if you press up to jump and dash at the same time your equipped item cycles through to another one. there is no information about this anywhere in the game or the control settings and it can't be unbound. edit: i found a setting where you can disable it, but it's not in the controls menu. [*]you can't stunlock enemies even when they take 15 hits to kill. (they have no flinch animation) [*]you can't block or perfect parry boss attacks, so the shield is basically useless [*]even the very first boss spawns additional very hard enemies throughout the fight [*]most of the abilities/attacks in the game require some kind of street-fighter-like button and directional input. really horrible when you are in the fray fighting enemies. they won't work 90% of the time. [*]8 achievements of this game are basically impossible. lovely for a completionist. [*]the bosses seem to do percentage based damaged. so collecting health powerups is useless. yay! [*]your damage never increases throughout the entire game. very unsatisfying. this also means that the areas are not balanced at all.

Don't be scared away by the low review score of this game: Apparently, it had to be released way to early due to license issues and had some bugs, yet today, everything is fine. And you won't regret buying this. You'll be having a blast like nothing else before.

As of the writing of this review the game has a mixed rating on steam. Do not let that rating deter you from giving this game a shot, from my understanding when this game was released there were several bugs, such as maps that didnt work, save points which randomnly teleported you around the map, unfinished textures and other graphical bugs. If I played the game in that state I probably would have given this game a negative review also, but all of these features have been fixed in the latest version. The game itself is a standard metroidvania, but a very well done metroidvania. Like most games of this type you have a decently sized map to explore and as you traverse the map you acqurie new abilities that help you access new areas. You have some standard stuff like a double jump and the ability to breathe underwater, and a few unique items like spears which are a ranged weapon but can also be stuck to walls to be used as platforms. Exploring the world is fun, you are always finding new upgrades and new combat moves which keeps things fresh, your character moves fast, the animation is fluid, and the controls are perfect. Your character and his weapons look awesome and the world is varied with a wide variety of enemy types to fight. You also get a some moves that are used with street fighter style inputs which I had a lot of fun with. There are a total of 4 bosses, all of which are fun to fight and present a nice challenge. The game took me about 3 hours to beat, and I had an absolute blast playing it. The combat is fun, the platforming is fast and precise, and the exploration is very rewarding. If you are a fan of metroidvanias/hack and slash games there is no reason not to buy it, at full price it is $5 which is a steal.

Okay, to start, I did mostly enjoy playing this game... but there are some things that need to be discussed and reasons I wouldn't recommend this to a friend. To summarize, the game is not ready to be released. There are a plethora of bugs that are nearly inexcusable when selling a "completed" game. Not only bugs, but also game design decisions. I'll make this a simple pro/con list. (Although it says 8 hours played, I beat the game in less than 5. At least 3 hours were AFK in menus). Pros: + Very nostalgic Castlevania feel + Good art + Multiple usable items/skills that can be unlocked + Good enemy variety Cons: - Some chests (the "rare" ones) are empty. You will not be rewarded for finding some of the rarest chests in the game. - Incorrect map programming. There will be multiple zones of the map where you exit a room and end up 2 rooms away instead of the correct room. - Missing/Poor textures. Some platforms don't have textures yet and hidden walls underwater have a very awkward texture that makes them stick out like a sore thumb. - The weakest enemies in the game are some of the strongest and will make the first few minutes very frustrating. - Bosses are way too easy... I beat the final boss without much of a problem while only having beaten one other boss (I didn't even need this). When I beat the boss, I only had like one health upgrade and one stamina upgrade. - Although there are many skills, your main auto attack, double-jumping (unlocked) and health potions are all you need to beat the game. Literally. - Enemies don't have anything to fight against your "cheese". Almost every enemy in the game can be "cheesed"... except for the first/weakest mob in the game and their upgraded counterpart. They are the only difficult enemies because of their extreme speed, damage, and inability to be read. - There appears to actually be "debug" stuff left in the game. Invisible portals, "notes" for where merchants should be... not sure if these were debug tools, but they didn't add anything to the game. - There's actually a point in the game where you can soft lock by getting stuck in a room if you don't have the ground smash yet. You'll have to quit the game and load back in to your last save. - The soundtrack. I muted the music in the first 5 minutes and played my own music. The music does not fit the game at all. If there are better songs later in the game... then that might be nice. But I doubt it. So, if the game actually required me to defeat all of the sub-bosses before the final boss, that'd make the game much more enjoyable. If all the bugs I mentioned were fixed, that'd also help. If the last boss required anything more than the main auto attack, double jump, and health potions... that'd also be nice.