Welcome to Hell. After living a lifetime of chasing demons and ending their reign on Earth, you’ve wound up in the fiery underworld of Hell. As punishment for constant hostilities against the forces of Hell, you are herby sent to fight in the Demon Pit. From Doomcube Software, Psychic Software, and Digerati Marketing comes Demon Pit, a 90’s love-letter to ultra-fast first-person shooters such as Quake. Demon Pit arrives at a comfortable time, as the next big Hell-raising shooter, Doom: Eternal, doesn’t arrive until March. Demon Pit promises lightning-fast thrills set against a demonic horde, and while it provides that, the actual pit is all that players are condemned to.
Demon Pit is a wave-based arena shooter, where players fighter against the endless demonic hordes in a pit designed to challenge, punish, and enslave any damned soul unlucky enough find themselves in such a horrifying predicament. The legions of Hell desire for nothing but to feast upon your soul. They aren’t going to get yours without a fight! The arena is diabolical and amorphous, constantly changing and shifting into more dangerous forms. Armed with a multitude of weapons, players fight to the bitter end for glory on the online leaderboards.
Demon Pit is a pit where players fight demons in a multitude of waves. There is no story. There is no campaign. There is no multiplayer. Just you and the endless hordes of Hell’s demons. This can make Demon Pit a tough buy for some desiring a more fulfilling and complete experience, especially at the price. As a fan of shooters, a campaign would have been interesting, especially since we get to peer into the various levels and enemy types that could have been seen. Demon Pit has a limited scope, but where the game greatly excels is in its fast-paced gameplay which is extraordinarily refreshing and rewarding.
Demon Pit’s gameplay can be summed up in three ways: movement, wise weapon handling, and grappling. Demon Pit is smooth and quick, requiring a quick response from the player to properly combat and fight the legions. The multitude of weapons featured in Demon Pit all have finite ammunition, with the exception of the standard handgun. The grapple allows players to swing across the entire pit and acquire the few but precious health packs. Mastering these three elements is essential to making it far in Demon Pit, and on the leaderboards. The legions come in various deadly forms, some harder to eliminate than others, especially the flying skulls. Additionally, the Pit will transform and contort itself into various shapes, presenting new obstacles and hazards for the lone player. The primary objective of Demon Pit is to survive.
Demon Pit has euphoric gameplay and exceptional polish. At first, it is rather unfamiliar and jarring, especially for those accustomed to other first-person shooters on the market, but the more players invest in the simplified shooting mechanics, the better the experience gets. Soon after starting, Demon Pit presents an experience that is attractive and difficult to let go of. In a fiery pit of fire and brimstone, a rip-roaring metal soundtrack highlights every demon eliminated and every wave completed. Weapons roar with ferocity and hostile intent and demonic limbs explode with an old-fashioned polygonal graphic style. It’s fast and ferocious, and something sorely needed in today’s gaming space. The gameplay of Demon Pit is old fashioned but incredibly familiar. In an era of auto-healing and auto-aiming, Demon Pit challenges the player to an era where pinpoint accuracy and incredible momentum were needed to survive. Demon Pit doesn’t emulate that but seemingly embraces that from the ground up to become something familiar but new. Each wave is a sheer thrill of excitement and even when the player is defeated, there is a consistent “One more time!” hook that gets players to jump back into the fray to try something new. Honing existing skills, establishing new tactics, preserving ammo, and examining every small choice can all make a big difference in one’s success in Demon Pit.
The one area where Demon Pit could improve is the difficulty. There are 60 waves to conquer in Demon Pit. For those brave enough, a Platinum Trophy resides at the very top. After several hours of effort, I found myself barely making it past Wave 14. Demon Pit is tough, but perhaps too tough. A checkpoint system, armor, special powerups, a warp section, or some means to return from death would have given players a chance to make it towards the end. As it is, it’s easy to repeat the same waves repeatedly and it may prevent particular players from ascending. The aforementioned suggestions would neither defeat the purpose of Demon Pit nor make the game a pushover. Instead, it would have made the game more accessible for a wider audience, especially as Demon Pit is on the Nintendo Switch.
While it may not have a campaign or multiplayer, Demon Pit is an exceptional gameplay experience that is enthusiastic in its design and it feels well-done overall. The gameplay mechanics are easy to learn but fun to master and every wave passed is another rewarding climb up the leaderboard. Demon Pit will entertain those looking for a different gameplay experience and greatly entice those that long for the days where gameplay was tied to payer skill.
Demon Pit is a fiery good time.
For more hellish reviews, check out my thoughts on B.D.S.M – Big Drunk Satanic Massacre or my journey through the alien worlds of Eclipse: Edge of Light.
More information on Demon Pit can be found on the official website. Demon Pit is available on Steam, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch for $9.99 USD. A digital PS4 copy was provided for the purpose of review by Digerati Marketing.
