Devil Jam Review - Forget Vampires, Bring on the Metal
So if you have ever seen my socials, well, you would know I am a metal type of guy. Since my rebellious youth, the sounds of crunching guitars, thumping drums and wailing vocals have spoken to my soul in a way that no other music has. I love everything about it, from the imagery to the personalities, hell, even the big hair and tight pants that the genre attracted in the 80s have a soft spot in my heart. So when I heard about Devil Jam, a game that takes the foundation set by Vampire Survivors and layers it with a headbanging heavy metal vibe, I had to dive in.
Considering the type of game it is, the story is obviously not a massive deal here, but the setup has classic “metal” written all over it. The Devil is essentially a sleezy record producer, and his latest signings, a band that he had big plans for, were killed by his main competitor, Death. Thus, the band ends up in hell. But the Devil is not to be thwarted, so he offers the band members a chance to live again, if they can kill Death, that is. So, instruments in hand, the band heads off into Hell to take down Death’s minions and eventually, Death himself.
It is a fun setup that lets the designers loose with their love of all things heavy. Along the way, boons and upgrades are given to the player by representations of the seven deadly sins, each with an appropriately metal characterisation. For example, Sloth is represented as an emo Sound Engineer and Wrath as an overly eager bouncer. I love all of the small touches that the design team have placed in here, with so many metal references strewn about that it becomes a bit of a game-within-a-game to spot all of the nods to songs, bands and albums.
Gameplay-wise, there is absolutely going to be some familiarity for those who have dipped their toes into the Survivors-like genre, but there are a couple of nice twists that give Devil Jam a unique feel. Each band member has their main weapon that activates on every beat in a traditional 4/4 music pattern. This 4/4 pattern is represented on screen as a 3×4 square, and each of these squares can be filled with other attacks or boosts that activate on that specific beat. So the strategy then becomes deciding where on the grid players place the boosts and weapons to do the most damage. Stringing together the right combo can result in a wonderfully overpowered character that tromps through Death’s minions with ease, but get it wrong and your run is going to be way tougher than it needs to be. It adds a layer of strategy that isn’t often found in these types of games, and it was a very welcome addition indeed.
The levels themselves are split into two different categories. The first is the main levels. It is here that players will tackle Death and his underbosses during a 20-minute run. Finish it, and you will unlock new levels, challenges, difficulty levels and upgrades. The other type of level is a challenge level, where players are presented with a certain set of conditions that alter the way the level is approached. It is here that my first real gripe with the game comes about, and that is the lack of content. Devil Jam only has 3 main levels to tackle, and within those levels, only 4 different bosses, including Death himself. When compared with the big hitters of the genre, Vampire Survivors and Deep Rock Galactic Survivors, that feels enemic and a feeling of repetition sets in pretty quickly. Hopefully, more content is added soon, because as it is, a lack of variety is going to kill this game quicker than anything else will.
The design of the levels themselves is a little boring, too. There is a ton of heavy metal iconography lying around, but the difference between the 3 main stages is minimal. When everything else in the design process has such a wonderful feeling of individuality, it is noticeable that the setting for all the action is pretty dull. What isn’t dull is the music, which, considering the theme of the game, should be expected. A ripping metal background score of chunky guitars and heavy drums comes to a crescendo of soaring vocals once the players reach the final boss. It is the perfect companion to the game, and it will drag a devil horn salute out of even the grouchiest metal fan.
Devil Jam is such a stylish, well-imagined spin on the increasingly crowded survivor-like genre that it is hard not to recommend it. It doesn’t quite reach the absolute highs of Deep Rock Galactic, mainly due to a lack of content, but it is still worth your time because of its total commitment to the Metal theme, great sense of humour and additional strategic layer to the game’s combat. If the team behind it can add some hefty DLC into the mix at some point, Devil Jam could potentially stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the genre’s greats, but as it is, you should still get a good 6-8 hours of headbanging fun. Despite a flood of similar games in recent times, Devil Jam stands out, with its horns to the air, guitar on its back and leather pants on, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Devil Jam was reviewed on PC with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
