Let It Die

Messy, mean, yet undeniably charming, Suda51's roguelike fascinates more than it flusters. Just. [Feb 2017, p.70]

There’s a level of complexity and polish that belies the lo-fi visuals, the gore, the bonkers story and the motley crew of nutbags that you encounter. Under new ownership, Grasshopper has – dare we say it? – grown up. [March 2016, p70]

Under GungHo's auspice it has made its deepest game in years, and one of its most fascinating, too. [Feb 2017, p.118]

There's nothing out there quite like Let It Die. This action game offers Souls-like combat, 40 floors to tackle, multiple paths to tackle, and a host of gear to make your own oddball fighter. The free-to-play mechanics are reasonable until you get to higher levels, where a death spiral may leave you looking for your credit card. It's not perfect, but Let It Die is damned fun.

Let It Die is a bit like – and this is meant as a genuine compliment – a budget PS2 curio. One of those games that is a bit rough around the edges and lacking in triple-A polish, but has an idea that is far more compelling and delivered in such a stylish way. Grasshopper Manufacture doesn’t deal in blockbusters, but this is likely to be another cult hit.

Coming at the end of a very impressive gaming year, Let It Die can't help but suffer in comparison to a whole bunch of other, more burnished titles. Still, the game's excellent action combat, weirdness, and variety of weapons give it just enough character to stand out and make it worthy of attention. The pay-to-win aspect is a bummer, and there is overall a sense of things being not quite solid, but anyone who's enjoyed other Grasshopper Manufacture games will enjoy this one as well.

Let It Die brings an amazing atmosphere full of nosense, gore and fights, but some elements may get really frustrating after the first hours of play. As a free-to-play opportunity, you should definitely try it yourself before deciding if you want to climb or not the Tower of Barb.

Let It Die is an ambitious game that threatens to charm players, but ultimately falls short due to unpolished gameplay, repetitious level design, and some really awful freemium schemes.

It’s definitely worth the time, especially being free to start, and I would recommend anybody with a PS4 and a love of brawling check it out. It’s a well put together little game with a good dash of trademark Grasshopper oddity. As a throwaway bit of violent action with some clever online features, it’s a good time...A good time, but not a particularly enthralling one. At some point, as with everything involved in this production, you’ll eventually just have to Let It Die.

A game that manages to entertain despite being a little rough around the edges. It's not particularly beautiful or well controlled, although it's fun.

Let It Die feels pretty damn polished for a game that costs nothing to play. In spite of the terrible menus and potentially broken PVP aspects, Let It Die is still very much a fun roguelike action RPG you can easily sink hours into.

A fun mix of Dark Souls and roguelike, and although the microtransactions create their own problems it does mean everyone can now experience a Suda51 game for free.

Bloodsplatters, exploding mushrooms, dark humor and being able to bring katana to a shotgun fight – all that helps Let it Die get noticed. Unfortunately, substance doesn’t live up to style, as gameplay turns out to be rather shallow and considerably limited by its free-to-play model to boot. [Issue#216, p.48]

Let It Die has numerous rough edges, but it manages to entertain through the sheer force of its weird personality and its varied, if clumsy combat. The controls are often clunky and there's rarely a meaningful sense of attachment to characters or gear, but its characterizations and settings often manage to keep the pain of the poorer stuff down to a minimum, at least for a while.

Suda51 tries to find the recipe for a perfect souls-like, but misses the correct dosage of the main ingredients: Let it Die is clearly unbalanced, and the ineffective mix of survival and roguelike diminish the ambitions of this pulp adventure.

One of the best free-to-play games for PS4. In some respects, it refers to the popular Dark Souls, but to be perfect it lacks better visuals and interconnection with environment. [Issue #271]

I can really get lost in the world of Let it Die, and I think I'll be playing it off and on for the next several weeks at the very least. It begs you to come back, and given the platform in which it's been distributed, it's something that can easily evolve into a better game in the future.