Devil Daggers is a brutally-difficult single player first person shooter, set on a small arena where hordes of demonic enemies spawn. The objective of the game is to survive for as long as possible. This game is really stripped down to the bare essentials of an fps game. There's one button (shoot) and WASD moves around, with space to jump. The arena is square in shape. You shoot at the scary skeleton things, and when you die you're given a score, which is how long you survived down to the microsecond. Everything is simplified. There's no story, no different modes, no maps or obstacles or various weapons or upgrades or crafting or anything. You don't even have gun and even the menu consists of just a couple buttons. Basically It's just you and the demonic hordes.

There's also no health bar.. in some ways it's like a first-person bullet hell game. You're running around this small arena, there are hundreds of enemies coming at you.. and if one of them even brushes against you, that's it you're dead. So it requires perfect coordination,

In many ways, Devil Daggers is similar to games like Dark Souls or Super Meat Boy. Or maybe it's a mixture of the new Doom plus Super Crate Box. It's quick to pick up but very difficult to master. Dying (over and over again) is not a "game over" but instead it's an essential part of the experience; a game mechanic. In fact the "R" key is bound to restart so you can rapidly try over and over again.

Despite the simplicity of this game, it seems as though the style and design have been carefully constructed. In appearance it immediately evokes memories of software rendering, like Quake from the 90's, those jagged pixelated edges and textures. The sound is another key feature of the game. While you play, a creepy ambient tune hums underneath it all and as you progress the music and sounds start to build and intensify. Sound is actually a very important aspect of the game and headphones are recommended as you often rely on the sounds to tell whether there are enemies behind or beside you. The whole experience is really intense but also addictive. In the same manner as Dark Souls, you initially find yourself faced against such overwhelming odds. But through repetition you slowly begin to master the systems and to make progress. But you can't win this game, you will inevitably become overwhelmed by the enemies, it's only a matter of time.

Usually I don't play first person shooters, so it's hard for me to understand why I am so fond of this game. Perhaps it's because I like ridiculous challenges. The atmosphere of this game is overwhelming and palpable, and it feels quite amazing when you reach a new milestone or kill a difficult enemy. I don't really spend much time playing FPS games so I'm out of practice, but I'm quite proud of my current high score, which is 171.6187 seconds. A big part of the fun and the experience is beating your own time and the times of your friends. The game automatically tracks the scores of your Steam friends and also tracks your own progress on the global leaderboard. From within the game you can click on anyone on the leaderboard (or your own personal best) and look at detailed stats or watch a complete replay of the match.

This game is insane and it's really good. If anyone wants to try it, it's available at the moment for $1 from the Humble Store. Come, I challenge anyone to hop on Steam and beat my high score. :P

https://www.humblebundle.com/jumbo-bundle-7