www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIQsWZBmG04&list=PLIb_a695uFXD1F04CvD3DZ4rkbM03OeXy
[quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote]
[h1]Overall Rating - Average ★★★☆☆[/h1]
[h1]First Impressions[/h1]
I didn't have much of an opinion on Demons with Shotguns (DS) when first looking at it, but the reviews were quite good, it's an enemy blasting game, and it has local coop available. Those are a combination of features I appreciate, so I gave it a shot when my friend came by. It didn't seem too bad at first, but it wasn't long before we both got confused and frustrated. Sometimes, a game takes a bit more to figure out before it's enjoyable, so I played it on my own to see whether DS was better than that first impression suggested.
[h1]Gameplay [/h1]
In DS, there are 5 courses to play on, with 10 variants for each, for a total of 50 different arenas. These are unlocked by beating End of Times (ET), available in both single player or coop. For either ET or multiplayer mode, every player has a shotgun at their disposal, with six rounds of ammunition by default, and a flask of holy water that acts like a grenade. Power-ups, represented by tarot cards, spawn in randomly, with specific areas generating more grenades and shotgun ammo. None of these will replace your shotgun with a new weapon, though a few powerups give it more kick. In ET mode, the arena will spawn waves of enemies to kill, and you'll need to survive long enough to clear all five levels. Despite having so few stages, all of them have several rounds you need to persevere through, so they take quite a bit of time. Assuming you don't fail repeatedly, a successful playthrough would take around two hours.
Normally, I'd say the campaign would be the primary focus of a release. In this case though, I'd say that the emphasis is on the PvP side. After all, it is the top choice on the start screen. There are five different game modes available, four of which have a team variant. These are basically the same modes you'd find in any FPS game, with the souls dropped by players after death becoming a focal point, instead of a flag to collect, or territory to control. I'm not positive how much damage you can take, as a few bullets won't kill you outright, but one close-range shotgun blast, landing on a spike, or being crushed by a falling obstacle will destroy a player.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2092521189
[h1]Controls [/h1]
You can play with either a keyboard or controller, and when I played with a controller, I had no significant issues. A nice touch is how you can aim your attacks up and down, instead of only being able to fire straight ahead. Despite having other moves available, such as a shield and melee attack, I didn't make much use of them.
[h1]Story[/h1]
Unsurprisingly, as DS plays out like an arcade game, there isn't a story. You are able to pick a character, but they're essentially just meaningless roles, as there's not any background information on them. The preacher and nun aren't shown to have any different results or motivation for getting into the fray compared to Death. They don't play any differently either, it's merely a costume.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2092520342
[h1]Visuals[/h1]
If you were to base the game off of its title page, you'd assume it's an ugly game, as the cover image is of an unpleasant, wrinkled demon face. The other character art on the select screen isn't much better. Thankfully, the game doesn't look like that, with the pixelated visuals looking pretty good. Environments look dour and dark, aside from the out of place water tower area, which is all the more perplexing with the news helicopter that flies by. That anomaly notwithstanding, considering how the setting and enemies consists of Hellish forces, it makes sense that they wouldn't be handsome or beautiful, and their ugliness is decently conveyed.
[h1]Sound Design[/h1]
The music has a haunting, supernatural pitch to it that gives a good atmosphere to the settings you'll fight in. Firing the shotgun and setting off explosives has enough punch in the sound effect that it has a satisfying edge. There's not much else to mention otherwise.
[h1]Pros[/h1]
🌟 It's quite satisfying when you're able to get a close-range shotgun blast off on an enemy, or bounce an explosive holy water just right to take out a few foes.
🌟 The moves provide enough options to address a variety of enemy types and situations.
[h1]Cons[/h1]
❌ All of these can be adjusted for. However, with the controls, there's a delay when trying to fire another shot, and double-jumping won't work if you fall too far from the first jump. Additionally, shooting the shotgun has immense recoil, as it's enough to send you flying back off platforms.
❌ Objects don't always interact properly with the environment, such as when the rocket launcher enemies shoot a soul, causing it to fly around the screen. It surprises me that the soul has a physical hitbox and interaction with enemies, considering it's a power-up the player collects.
❌ Some of the power-ups feel more like a detriment than an improvement. For instance, boosting your jump height and speed sound beneficial, but they're drastic increases, and can make it feel like you've lost control for a while.
[h1]Tips[/h1]
🔍 The shield won't stand up to a missile or explosive, but it's great against the shotgun wielding demons. However, it can only withstand so many shots. It's alright at deflecting melee attacks, the issue is timing when to drop the shield and return fire.
🔍 Though you might prefer to play the game as intended, I purposely avoided the tarot card power-ups. I also only used the shotgun and holy water to attack, instead of using the charged melee move.
[h1]Final Thoughts [/h1]
I had the mistaken impression that DS was a game built around its campaign, with the multiplayer mode as something to do afterwards. You would want to beat the campaign first, as you'll unlock more maps for the multiplayer mode. However, the emphasis really is on the PvP modes. If you had a clearer understanding of this going into DS, and had at least three people to play the game with, then I think it'd be a better experience. As it is, I see why my friend and I weren't very fond of it, and certainly don't recommend getting DS for the sake of the campaign mode. DS might be a decent party game, with all the options and modes available, I just can't guarantee that having no personal experience with it.
[table]
[tr]
[th]PC Specs[/th]
[th]Performance[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ryzen 2700
RTX 2070
16GB RAM
ADATA SSD
1920x1080
[/td]
[td]The game ran without incident on default settings.
💖 - DS is healthy
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
