Roguelites seem to be coming out, announced, or demo’d nearly daily at this rate. All try to leave a mark on the roguelite community to some degree, with many of them tending to be developer passion projects. While there are a few different tropes in the genre, new games typically tend to align their core gameplay around specific other titles, such as Vampire Survivors, Binding of Isaac, and lately even Balatro. Devil Jam fits closer to Vampire Survivors than others. It takes the common feeling of the “kill everything, become powerful” gameplay and injects its own identity into the experience. It’s unique, it’s innovative, and it’s addictive in the most satisfying ways.
Rocking out with demons
The core story of the game is simple. You are a rockstar who is the newest member of a record label owned by none other than the Devil himself. The record label has other demonic talent with it as well, from Talent Acquisition Agent Lust to Wrath, the Head of Security. The Deadly Sins all have a place in the record label. Their one united goal is to “beat” Death in a hellish variation of Battle of the Bands. Along the way, you’ll meet more and unlock more by fulfilling quests the Devil gives you, ranging from killing a certain number of specific enemies to beating the run on specific characters or levelling particular items you can get during the run. All demons have their own set of skills that can augment your own based on what you choose as you level up, and it leads to unique runs every single time. From lasers that shoot around your character to literal bombs that you can toss on the ground and have enemies run into as they chase you down, every skill is unique and has interactions that players can discover on a run-by-run basis.
Being so focused on music, it’s expected that the game has a good soundtrack. I’m undecided about it. I think the core soundtrack is good, but not great. The repetitiveness of it does detract from its ability to be a solid portion, especially the song in the game’s hub area, after a while, it becomes very repetitive and distracting. However, the final boss fight of runs with Death has great music that is different from the rest. It’s somewhat of a let-down that there is not more music variety and more interesting sounds. Though, as a smaller development team game, it’s to be expected to some degree.
The art of the game is great, particularly the creative designs applied to the demons’ appearances. It’s interesting to see how the team has personified the deadly sins. My personal favorite is Gluttony, a cat in charge of catering. It’s a fun spin on the Sins, and from what I’ve seen, each is polished and thought out down to dialogue and personalities. It adds a new dimension to the upgrade screens you get as you level up. Even the hub area has this, with the Devil himself artistically imagined, and even the merchants used for meta progression have this liberty taken towards them. It’s fun, interesting, and overall really helps tell a sub story, and that kept me wanting to come back and see what would be said next. It reminds me in a lot of ways of Hades, where I distinctly remember wanting to know the subplots after I died.
Gameplay
Devil Jam is the epitome of a roguelite survivor game. Waves and waves of scaling enemies with boss fights scattered along the way. I was pleasantly surprised to see the sheer variety of enemies, and it makes sense. A full run will take you about 30 minutes. But there weren’t many times it felt boring or a constant bombardment of the same enemies or periods without them. I had a few moments, especially early, I felt as if I’d outscaled the wave early, but that went away as I climbed up the difficulty rating from beating a run and starting again.
Boss fights were entertaining and featured fun mechanics; my favorite was Carlos. There was so much happening during his fights, especially if you face him as the second boss instead of the first one you get in your run. It was rewarding to beat him and get to continue the run, and just like in other survivors games, my performance in individual fights served as a test of my build.
Where this game shines the most is the number of ways that it allows you to build your run. From interacting with passives to placing buff upgrades in specific spots, allowing you to get overlap onto specific skills, the 12 skill board is revolutionary in the genre and something I found myself thinking about even after I’d stopped playing. It allows so many unique builds that I think it’s not only unlikely to get similar runs, but it’d be nearly impossible.
Technical
Devil Jam overall plays well; I didn’t go into it expecting anything to hamper my performance, especially due to the nature of these kinds of games. I’m very happy to say that the game’s artistic design, and even when there was quite a lot happening on my screen, did not give me a single frame drop. It felt solid and polished, even for a pre-release build.
I did encounter a single bug that caused an issue during my play experience, but I was not able to replicate it. Something happened while quickly going in and out of menus that just completely locked me in place. It occurred while I was in the hub area, and a quick restart of the game resolved the issue. But other than that, the game was smooth. Rewards and upgrades felt worth it, and a steady climb in power instead of the sudden power that gets dropped on players in similar titles.
Overall
All in all, Devil Jam seems to be a good entry in the genre; it’s got a unique system that I could foresee being its main draw to players, and the amount of builds and interactions feels endless to me. I’m not a mathematical genius, so I can’t say for sure, but in my 10+ hours of playtime, I know for sure I never had the same build, which is refreshing, though there is still some balancing to be done for the game. For those who follow the genre closely, that’s just the way these games are, and I foresee some more balancing patches and fixes coming even post-release as the developers get more feedback. During my time spent with the game, I personally saw some balancing fixes and changes come into the game, which is a heartwarming sign as a lover of roguelites since it shows the team genuinely cares about the enjoyment and ability to try different things.
Overall, Devil Jam is a solid player in survivors-like games, and I think most players who enjoy them will want to give it a play. I even see a chance at this game drawing in from the music crowd, especially because of the rhythm-like mechanics. It is a fun, rewarding play loop that has the air of addictiveness to it. It’s a great game to spend time on, and the increasing difficulty scale keeps it somewhat different as you progress.
Devil Jam releases on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on November 3.
The Review
Great
