With the resurgence of Doom over the past few years one may be looking for other games that offer a similar type of experience. Demon Pit from publisher Digerati and developers Psychic Software and DoomCube is one such title that upon first glance will instantly remind you of the original Doom titles. It’s an arena based first-person shooter that tries to channel Id Software’s classic title but doesn’t quite nail the execution.
Part of what makes Demon Pit less appealing than something like the classic Doom is that it is nothing more than just an arena shooter. There is no real story here and nothing much else to do than just fight wave after wave of demons. The ultimate goal is to survive and earn as high a score as you possibly can. Along with trying not to die to the enemies there are also traps that will appear in the map that can damage you so you’ll have to keep your wits about you and be on the move to avoid them.
Controls function fairly well and are pretty simple to understand. You can shoot and jump and you also have the ability to use a grapple hook at points around the arena to quickly traverse around. Using these points will be critical the further you get as the amount of enemies and traps the game throws at you will kill you quickly unless you skillfully zip away with the grapple ability. Demon Pit only gives you a single life so if you die you’ll have to start over from the first wave. If you take damage you can regain some health by picking up health pick-ups on the map but be wary as they take awhile to respawn.
Enemy variety is OK but there are only around ten different types in total. You’ll be fighting them off with seven different firearms in total including shotguns, pistols, rocket launchers, plasma cannons and more all accessible via a weapon wheel. Each felt good to use and I didn’t really feel like the game needed any additional weapons than what you have to work with. Building up your score is done by killing enemies one after another. Every time you score a kill you’ll notice a timer appear on screen that will count down. If you don’t score another kill before it reaches the end then your multiplier will be reset so chaining kills is crucial in order to get the best possible score for the leaderboards.
The visuals in Demon Pit are meant to have a retro look but I didn’t really find this particular look appealing. Everything in the game just kind of has the same visual identity to it and because of that it just feels like there isn’t enough variety in what you are looking at. The soundtrack in the game was pretty good though and was enjoyable enough to listen to as I blasted wave after wave of demon. The game has a very small trophy list with only 13 in total but it does include a Platinum. You can earn it by making it to wave 60, getting all the weapons, killing hundreds of demons and doing a couple other specific things. Overall it isn’t a bad list at all.
Demon Pit works well as a game but just doesn’t offer much to players outside of just being an arena shooter. There is no story, the visuals are kind of bland, and there isn’t much to do other than just fight wave after wave of enemies. It is affordable and people who just want a game like classic Doom where all you do is score chase will likely really enjoy it. It just might not interest you are looking for any sort of depth.
*Demon Pit is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Reviewed on a PS4 Pro. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.