Demon Peak
- July 7, 2017
- Kajak Games
- 6h median play time
Get on SteamDemon Peak is a 2D action-platformer Metroidvania, focused on close combat and movement abilities. Explore interconnected areas to discover abilities, powerups, and bosses, with hand-painted pixel art and a 30-minute soundtrack. This game is a student project filled with numerous abilities, enemies, and rooms for players to enjoy.
Reviews
- The pixel art and overall design are visually appealing, showcasing high skill in pixel art.
- The gameplay mechanics, including movement and combat, feel fluid and satisfying at their core.
- The game serves as a decent introduction to the Metroidvania genre for newcomers.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and technical issues, including crashes and glitches that hinder gameplay.
- Level design is lacking, with many areas feeling bland and uninteresting, leading to a repetitive experience.
- The music and sound effects are often jarring and do not fit well with the game's atmosphere.
- music68 mentions
- 34 % positive mentions
- 53 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players finding it enjoyable and atmospheric, while others describe it as dull, repetitive, or jarring. Many comments highlight that certain tracks feel out of place or loop too quickly, detracting from the overall experience. Overall, while some appreciate the soundtrack's potential and aesthetic contributions, a significant number of players consider it mediocre or in need of improvement.
“The music is pretty good and makes a great atmosphere.”
“The controls are tight, combat is satisfying, artwork looks great, and it has a dope soundtrack to back it up.”
“The music and atmosphere of the levels are the first things that capture you and with the wonderful creature and enemy designs, this is a hard game to put down.”
“The music is awful and bland; the way your character moves is weirdly stilted and glidey, the level design is boring, and the hit detection is all sorts of wonky.”
“The music is dull and repetitive.”
“The music does not fit the game at all.”
- graphics34 mentions
- 62 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received positive feedback for their vibrant pixel art style, smooth animations, and unique aesthetics that evoke a nostalgic feel reminiscent of classic titles. Many players appreciate the attention to detail in the environments and character designs, noting that the visuals effectively enhance the overall atmosphere and immersion of the game. However, some reviews mention technical issues and incomplete elements that detract from the experience, despite the appealing art direction.
“The graphics are slick, with smooth animations and a great choice of colors, befitting the multiple areas you'll be going through.”
“Demon Peak is a fun little metroidvania game that allows for a fun experience in a nice pixel graphic display, filled with color and vibrance.”
“The graphics and enemy designs are all really sharp and look pretty good considering the size of the team working on it.”
“The graphics are simple, yet effective and indicative of the dark atmosphere for the game.”
“Do not let that rating deter you from giving this game a shot, from my understanding when this game was released there were several bugs, such as maps that didn't work, save points which randomly teleported you around the map, unfinished textures and other graphical bugs.”
“I really like everything about this game aesthetically, however; like many of the other reviews have said, it's definitely not complete.”
- gameplay31 mentions
- 32 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising its fluidity and satisfying core mechanics, while others criticize the level design and overall execution as generic and lacking depth. Players noted that the game can feel repetitive, with a significant focus on dying and retrying, and that the small map size limits overall gameplay time to around 6 hours. While the combat and platforming mechanics have potential, issues such as poor boss design and frustrating controls detract from the overall experience.
“The gameplay feels very fluid and satisfying at its core.”
“The gameplay is fun and challenging while consistently changing and adding mechanics for variety.”
“The overall gameplay is actually great.”
“In the end, 90% of the gameplay is dying over and over and doing platforming with bad movement.”
“I hope the developers come back and finish this game someday; the aesthetics, music, and visuals are top-notch, but it's a mess gameplay-wise.”
“Apart from this, you can't really buy that many new attacks and the secrets are a little lackluster, but the game puts core gameplay over extending the playtime, which is admirable, but it makes it very disappointing when you've basically seen everything the game has to offer after 6 or so hours.”
- story19 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
The story in the game is largely considered minimal and forgettable, with many players noting a lack of lore and backstory. While some appreciate the dark fantasy setting and the potential for exploration, others feel that the narrative is underdeveloped and offers little incentive beyond gameplay mechanics. Overall, players seeking a rich story may be disappointed, as the focus seems to be more on gameplay than on storytelling.
“Demon Peak is a pretty good Metroidvania game, but it’s now time for the story.”
“I can't wait to play more and piece the story together.”
“You can tell early on while exploring the levels whether it be a platform just out of reach or a strange looking wall that you'll be retreading areas (for better or for worse, I don't mind) with new abilities to unlock the next part of the story once you can 'use the mist.'”
“There really isn't much of a story, nor much lore or backstory to research.”
“If you're looking for a story, you won't find it here.”
“Speaking of the story, it seems very minimal at this point, which I don't mind ambiguity in a game's storyline, but you're pretty much just thrown in to explore without much incentive beyond seeing the new areas and enemies.”
- stability10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is widely criticized, with numerous players reporting persistent bugs and glitches, such as wall clipping, freezing issues, and gameplay imbalances that can disrupt the experience. While some users have not encountered significant problems during their playthroughs, the overall consensus suggests that the game is still plagued by issues that detract from its enjoyment, leading many to recommend waiting for patches before purchasing.
“The game is still buggy as hell in 2021.”
“However, I have found several bugs in the game; wall glitches, a freeze here or there, and the directionless feel you get; especially early on, has an unforgiving difficulty spike.”
“Whether you're clipping through areas, spawning in different rooms from your save spot, or getting hit by nothing, there are glitches and bugs riddling this game.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players find it infinitely replayable, others criticize the lack of late-game content and the unchanged difficulty in New Game Plus, which diminishes the incentive to replay. Overall, the absence of varied challenges and updates has left some players feeling disappointed.
“Infinitely replayable (or almost).”
“The game offers a wealth of content that encourages multiple playthroughs.”
“Each playthrough feels fresh due to the variety of choices and outcomes.”
“My biggest gripe about this game is the lack of replayability and late game content, with there only being one difficulty and New Game Plus being identical to the base game apart from keeping your upgrades.”
“I am a little bit angry at the developers because they pushed a balancing update and did not change New Game Plus difficulty (there goes all that replay value).”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised, with compelling music and effective graphics that create a captivating dark ambiance. Players are drawn in by the well-designed creatures and enemies, contributing to an immersive experience that enhances the game's challenging, Souls-like setting.
“The music and atmosphere of the levels are the first things that capture you, and with the wonderful creature and enemy designs, this is a hard game to put down.”
“I still choose to recommend the game for its great controller, atmosphere, and challenging, Souls-like setting.”
“The graphics are simple, yet effective and indicative of the dark atmosphere of the game.”
“The music and atmosphere of the levels are the first things that capture you, but they ultimately fail to create a lasting sense of immersion.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with some players finding the negative reviews amusing and others enjoying the quirky elements, such as the comical music and absurd background visuals. Overall, the humor seems to resonate well with those who appreciate its lighthearted and sometimes self-deprecating tone.
“Some of the negative reviews are rather hilarious: 'You can cheese the enemies with normal attacks'... yeah, and?”
“The music in the starting level made me laugh, though.”
“There was also a pretty ridiculously bad background of a skeleton which made me laugh, and I sent a picture to all my friends.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Initial performance issues and bugs plagued the game at launch, but by 2020, players reported a significantly improved experience with no notable problems during gameplay.
“It seems that there were a lot of performance issues and bugs in this game on release; however, as of 2020, I just beat the game and had no issues whatsoever.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players note that while the game world is small, the limited variety of enemies could lead to a tedious grinding experience if the world were larger.
“The game world itself is pretty small, but I think that if it were a lot larger, the lack of variety with enemies would have just made the game seem tedious.”
