The roguelike genre has been one that has been increasingly getting attention over the years. From the fantastic Dead Cells to the unique Invisible Inc, there is something for everyone in the genre. Unfortunately not every roguelike quite hit’s the mark and Demons Tier+ is one of them, but it is close.

Over a thousand years ago, King Thosgar was a hated king who would often dabble into the arts of dark magic. After almost destroying the world and unleashing monsters, peace eventually returned. Until now, that is. A giant pit has opened up and a group of adventures journey down to stop the demonic forces and discover the truth of what happened a thousand years ago. To be honest, the story isn’t worth paying attention to and it feels like an excuse to push the gameplay across. Thankfully, cutscenes are skippable.

Demon’s Tier+ plays like a traditional twin stick shooter. It’s played from a top down perspective as you fight through procedurally generated dungeons, fighting waves of enemies. The game gets more difficult after each floor and you will occasionally encounter boss fights. Each level gives you a random objective to complete from simply killing all enemies to opening all chests. There’s not a lot of variety here in the objectives and you will find yourself pretty much exploring an entire floor most of the time anyway.

The levels themselves aren’t anything exciting and the random generation isn’t really noticeable. It’s at its worse when you load into a map surrounded by dozens of enemies. Some of which explode when killed. At the end of each chapter is a boss fight that are your standard boss fights. Early on these are mind numbingly easy, requiring little in the way of strategy, but as you progress they become much more exciting.

Demon’s Tier+ is also a rogue-like so you can expect perma-death as well as some progression. As you kill enemies and progress through each floor you will receive D-Tokens which can be used back at the hub to unlock new classes, buy potions, and upgrade your weapons. If you die down in the dungeons you will lose everything, but you can return back to the hub at any time by using magical ropes, keeping your tokens, but sacrificing your progress. I really dig this approach to progression, but it can make the gameplay loop get old really fast with the lack of variety on display here.

If you manage to get through a floor you will be able to use the gold you’ve picked up to upgrade your character for the remainder of the run. Upgrading; health, attack damage, shields etc. It’s all standard stuff that you see all the time. These are all for that specific run so if you die or return to the surface using the magic rope you will have to start again. Make sure to pick up all the gold in each floor for more upgrades. You will need them to survive.

Like all good roguelikes it’s not really over when you finish the final boss. Instead you unlock the next tier which ramps up the difficulty more and more until you finish the third and final tier. The problem is the gameplay loop here isn’t exciting enough to push you to do repeat playthroughs.

The 16-bit art style on display here looks decent enough. Nothing really stands out as amazing, but the variety in enemy designs on the nicely designed bosses do look great. The dungeons themselves look kind of boring as well. That’s until you hit the lava area of the game that is an absolute eye sore. There’s also the matter of the occasionally difficult to read text, the font used here can at times be infuriating to look at.

Demon’s Tier + at its best is a decent enough twin stick roguelike to play, as it performs well enough, but doesn’t add anything new to the genre. Its overly repetitive gameplay, uninspired level designs, and lack of interesting mechanics makes it one I’m not going to return to.

Graphics: 5.0 One annoying to look at area and some difficult to decipher text boxes let down what would have otherwise been a somewhat decent art style.	Gameplay: 6.0 Fast paced twin stick action, but gets boring fairly quickly.
Sound: 6.0 The sound design is forgettable, but even though it doesn’t impress, it also doesn’t irritate. It’s just there.	Fun Factor: 6.0 A decent enough roguelike with not a lot going for it.
Final Verdict: 6.0

Demon’s Tier + is available now on PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Playstation Vita.

Reviewed on Xbox One.

A copy of Demons Tier + was provided by the publisher.