Death's Gambit

It offers a challenging, story-driven platforming experience that will reward the patient and methodical.

I like a lot of what Death’s Gambit has to offer, but controlling it is vexatious. The game does a decent job establishing a small, captivating story wrapped in a melancholically exquisite world. I wish Death’s Gambit found more of its own voice, since it truly does shine in the moments it tries something new and refreshing. Although it doesn’t necessarily take the concept of adapting the 2D Souls formula to the next level, Death’s Gambit is another solid shot at it.

A very blunt attempt to fuse two beloved games, Dark Souls and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, into one challenging 2D action-platformer. Developer White Rabbit shows a strong understanding of what made each of them great but glosses over fundamentals that all great games need, such as responsive controls and an understandable game world, and falls short of its promise.

The freedom, and the constant sense that I’d be surprised when I turned the next corner, somewhat smoothed over the frustrations of Death’s Gambit, but it’d be a stretch to say I enjoyed it as a whole. Figuring out the best strategy for each boss fight is satisfying, but actually beating them isn’t fun enough to justify the pain of battling the stingy stamina system. Throwing myself at the same boss 29 times in a row just wasn’t quite worth the hassle.

Surely, Death’s Gambit is a beautiful game. Music is great, story-telling is great, and there a significant challenge. But Sorun’s animations and many glitches are too much to bear.

Death's Gambit is an enjoyable experience, but with the shortcomings it has and the lack of distinguishing elements it's decent at best.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has proven to all players, that it doesn´t need Hollywood faces in the story to attract players, because it’s completely fine with its online entertainment. Call of Duty is definitely going to stay with us for a couple more weeks. [Issue#290]