This week, during the Steam Next Fest, Lady Death: Demonicron Demo is live. This game has been on my radar since it was announced on kickstarter, but I missed the backing. Before we deep dive lets get a bit of a background on Lady Death.
“Born in 15th-century Sweden, Hope Hope was the innocent, beautiful daughter of a cruel warlord and practitioner of the dark arts named Matthias. Unbeknownst to Hope, her father was actually a powerful demon who had disguised himself as a mortal. When her father’s dark practices were exposed, the enraged villagers accused Hope of witchcraft. Condemned to burn at the stake, Hope summoned an incantation she had overheard her father use. She brokered a pact with a demon to enter Hell, completely severing herself from her humanity in exchange for her life.”
Imagine if she were with Dracula from the Castlevania anime and this happened. They would both be a menace, but Hope, a.k.a. Lady Death, is justified in her early years as a villain who turned into a Dark anti-heroine. Now we have a hack-and-slash beat’em that seems to depict her story well. I am noticing a bunch of comics getting a revival in video game form, just like the Phantom game from last year. But, thats enough of that back story.
Lady Death Hack and Slash:
Now, the trippy part is that this game is promising a co-op experience, which makes me wonder if Purgatory will be a playable character. Nothing like two baddie Hellians ready to slash through hell! It was a quick few levels to experience that have a cool grading system that most beat’em ups are known for. Lady Death Demonicron has a high level of gore, which is to be expected.
The combat system has me at odds. You have your basic light attack, and there seems to be a heavy. However, the heavy also activates a super A.O.E (area of effect) attack finisher. Then, if I hit quarter circle X/Square, she does a devastating blade attack or a flame punch that causes OVERKILL animation.
There is a downside to the combat as it’s a bit clunky, especially when you have to deal with ground enemies. She has a down spit attack, which is hilarious, but the hit detection is off. That will mostly be the annoyance personally in any Beat’em up game when the hit detection is off, or there is no real proper down attack. It didn’t help that I could not find the controls or move list area, but I will dive into the settings and check again.
Closing thoughts:
I am happy she is getting noticed once again, this time in gaming, and hopefully, they will update the game mechanics to smooth things out. First impressions go, I am there day one once it drops on July 30th of this year. The price is where I will probably waiver, if it is reasonable, then we are good to go. But let me know if you tried out the demo, which you can download on Steam right now. Also, check out my playthrough in the video below. – Beast Out –