Devil Jam Review — Devil Music

If there’s one thing I appreciate more than anything about the survivors-like genre, it’s that it seems to draw in some really creative ideas for settings and characters. Perhaps it’s because the gameplay itself is so simple to implement that it allows developers to put a greater focus on the art and worldbuilding, but whatever the reason, it makes new releases in the genre feel very fresh and exciting for me personally, even when the mechanics aren’t all that different.

Devil Jam is no exception, taking us into the delightfully fun setting of a hellish rock concert. In this survivors-like, you play as one of three devilish rockstars as you fight back waves of demons to the beat of the music, all part of some devious concert in the seven layers.

The first thing I want to compliment Devil Jam on is the art, which shouldn’t be a surprise if you read the first paragraph of this review. The survivors-like genre, thankfully, works incredibly well with hand-drawn 2D artwork and simple animations. Every enemy and character is gorgeously drawn and has a pretty sick design, and I found myself liking all of the playable characters, which is pretty rare for me. I usually have one character I think looks cool, and I play them because I don’t like the rest.

The game suffers a bit from its own success here, as with these interesting takes on demons and the game’s cool cast, I wish there was some sort of story or character interaction to build on them more. Sure, the demons who provide you upgrades or boons have one-liners when they do so (à la Hades), but there is no actual character exploration or narrative to follow. Not only that, but our protagonists do not have a single line of dialogue in the game, which I found pretty disappointing.

Before I get to the other aspects of the game that disappointed me, I want to once again praise Devil Jam for its unique mechanics. Like any other survivors-like, the game has you collect experience points to level up and unlock a series of missiles and passive abilities to help you survive the hordes. Unlike other survivor-likes, Devil Jam pulses through these abilities using a 12-slot board that activates from left to right in a repeated sequence, which the game calls notes. Essentially, you have a passive rhythm to your attacks that you get to customize. This allows you to have far more control over your cooldowns and even lets you combo certain attacks to come out at the same time for extra effect.

This board also has a placement minigame where the position of certain boons empowers other slots, so it’s this really clever strategic mechanic inserted into the middle of an otherwise familiar survivors-like.

There is so much I like about Devil Jam, but unfortunately, I don’t feel like I can call it a completed game. Rather, it feels like it should be entering into Early Access, but according to everything I know about it, it isn’t.

The game features one map, three characters, and only a handful of boons based around and given to you by the seven deadly sins personified.

Not only does it feel like there’s a severe lack of content present in the game, but likely because of this issue, Devil Jam also has a problem with gatekeeping content from you.

Essentially, everything in the game is unlocked by completing missions, which are tied to your success in a run. This, of course, is pretty standard for the genre. However, these missions are not only difficult to complete at lower levels, but also without important mechanics like different boons, new characters, map interactables, upgrade stations, and new characters. You can very easily find yourself fatigued as you try to progress with what feels like less than half of what the game has to offer, unlocked.

When you pair this with how tanky the game’s 10-minute bosses can be, it can feel like you simply don’t have the tools unlocked to complete the achievements to unlock the tools. It’s also not uncommon to get a run where you make no progress at all, which can feel like a waste of 10+ minutes.

While unlocking things is obviously the core progression system in a game like Devil Jam, there needs to be more available to unlock and more of the core experience presented to you without having to grind for it. This is especially true of music tracks, because holy moly, I got really sick of listening to that same song about an hour into my playthrough. Four hours later, and that same song is still the only one I have to listen to. I started playing the game with the volume muted after a while.

What Devil Jam could use is more time in the oven. While I’m sure the developers plan to continue to update the game as it comes along, right now, it feels like a grindfest without enough content to unlock to make the grind worth it. If this was an Early Access preview, I’d be impressed, but as it stands Devil Jam feels like it doesn’t have quite enough meat on its bones to call it a full release.

Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC review of Devil Jam. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Devil Jam is available on Steam.