I’ve said before that the attack-dodge-counter style of action gameplay, arguably popularized by the Batman Arkham series, plays like an unintentional rhythm game. This style of gameplay often devolves mechanical skill into a glorified quick-time event, where all you really have to do is continuously press keys to the unintentional “rhythm” of combat, jumping between enemies like you’re in a bloody ping-pong machine with no real concern for physics, momentum, or gravity.
The natural, albeit unexpected, evolution of these mechanics was Dead as Disco, a game that takes the idea that these mechanics play “like” a rhythm game and turns them into one.
I’ll save you a bit of time and let you know right now: I absolutely adore Dead as Disco. I’ve been passively keeping up with the game’s development since they started advertising its release on YouTube, and it didn’t take me five whole minutes to fall in love with the gameplay. The title not only executes its mechanical premise incredibly well but is also absolutely packed to the brim with style, substance, incredible music, and visuals. I fell in love with this game, even knowing that it’s in an unfinished, Early Access state, and it’s going to be very hard for other titles releasing this year to compete.
If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know anything about Dead as Disco, it is quite literally a rhythm-fighting game. You play as the dead drummer Charlie Disco as he confronts his now larger-than-life former bandmates, beating them down in heavily stylized stages built around songs of varying genres. Every part of the fighting mechanics is tied to the beat: dodging, attacking, countering, and doing any of it in time with the beat enhances the damage and puts you into a flow state, guiding you as you take down enemies in something between kung-fu and a dance-off.
The simple premise driving the gameplay of Dead as Disco is fun and lends itself to near-infinite replayability as you both try to top the leaderboards in each segment and chase newer and groovier songs to hone your skills. It is simultaneously a fighting game and a beat-blaster, and you will be bobbing your head as you bash skulls through the various stages or Infinite Mode.
If the great music wasn’t enough, Dead as Disco also shows off some incredible visuals and animations. Every boss fight is essentially an extended cutscene, full of hype moments and aura, the likes of which I haven’t seen in a title before. There is substance in Dead as Disco, but everything in the game is eclipsed by its style. It would be a waste of time for me to describe the Dead as Disco experience as anything other than really, really cool, with the same enthusiasm as a snot-nosed toddler telling you about Power Rangers or dinosaurs for the first time.
Something that particularly wowed me about Dead as Disco is how well the game understands music videos—framing everything and timing boss attacks to key moments in their corresponding tracks—and how well it understands the choreography of kung-fu movies. There is this incredibly satisfying feeling watching hordes of enemies approach our protagonist at the top of a hill or staircase, watching them stumble backward like real stunt doubles. There is this very clear faithfulness to the action of the genre Dead as Disco was inspired by, which makes the combat feel so much more real, yet utterly campy and incredibly fun to watch.
The game also lets you upload your own music for custom levels, an incredibly fun and chaotic feature I can’t wait to see flooding my YouTube algorithm.
This entire review, unfortunately, can’t just be me glazing over Dead as Disco. The title is, after all, in Early Access, meaning that it isn’t a complete product, and I can’t love it as much as I would if it were. I’ll save that for when I inevitably do a full-release review of this game, as I’ll very probably be playing it right up until the moment that drops.
Alas, being in Early Access, Dead as Disco is simply not finished. While the segments available feel incredibly well-polished and very, very playable, the unfortunate reality is that many levels aren’t available, and you cannot play the full game as it is intended just yet. There is simply more to come than what the current build has to offer, and players should be made aware of that before they decide to buy the game.
I am very, very curious to see what is to come from Dead as Disco‘s roadmap, besides, of course, the missing levels. I imagine most of the changes are cosmetic, but given how much the title already has to offer, I am very confident in the developers’ ability to deliver even more incredible features. I’m looking forward to seeing where the game goes next. If you have even an inkling of curiosity about the game, I recommend picking it up, even in its Early Access state, and supporting these incredible developers.
Pros:
- An incredible mix of action gameplay and rhythm game, a first of its kind
- Incredible style-with-substance that wows with its visuals and music
- Deceptively simple mechanics with infinite replayability, thanks to the ability to upload your own music
Cons:
- Currently missing features as the game is in Early Access
Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC Early Access Review of Dead as Disco. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page!
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