I mean, wow? I'm honestly not sure what else I can say.
I refrained from waxing poetic on Devil Daggers because I was afraid of betraying what the game is for me at its core. I found it refreshingly simple while still being sophisticated in execution, and while I have seen plenty of talented individuals who have spent countless hours polishing their play to a mirror sheen, it was never much more than a simple time-waster for me. An excellent one, but not the kind of game so remarkable as to keep me hooked the way some others of its ilk have.
So when I first saw a listing for Hyper Demon, I instinctively cocked an eyebrow. I wasn't really sold on the idea of a sequel or successor to Devil Daggers, if only because I wasn't sure what a new game could bring to the table that a sizeable update couldn't. At least, not without compromising what seemed to make Devil Daggers special in the first place. But I looked into it regardless.
Upon viewing various trailers and gameplay videos for Hyper Demon, I was... Confused. This was unquestionably the work of Devil Daggers' creator, and without doubt a re-iteration of that game's core concept. But what was I actually looking at? Somewhere in that swirling sea of pearlescent light was a player, doing... Things. And tried as I might, I just could not parse the action happening before my eyes. Where Devil Daggers had served as a strange sort of zen experience for me, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of anxiety seeing Hyper Demon in motion. It felt like setting George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte next to Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. If you were to describe the scenes depicted as laconically as possible, they might sound much the same, but a cursory examination of each painting makes it abundantly clear they're radically different in tone and theming. I was apprehensive as I pulled the trigger on Hyper Demon, feeling quite certain it wasn't going to appeal the same way as Sorath's maiden title.
And yeah, upon seeing the multi-part tutorial, those apprehensions were very much reinforced. The fact there was a tutorial at all was a bit of a surprise, but in progressing through them I started to realize just how different of a animal this game was going to be. All of these new movement mechanics, on top of the ways you interact with your enemies, demanded a lot more out of me than the simple strafe-jump-shoot fundamentals of the original.
After checking off each box, I proceeded to step into my first game and I was annihilated almost immediately. On repeated attempts, I found that while I might have been able to survive longer, that wasn't good enough anymore. My score would continue to tick down unless my demon-slaying skills impressed. I persevered for a few more runs, struggling to place anywhere north of 30 points, before I started to feel this strange tingling in my brain. That itching, sneaking sensation that I've become more intimately familiar with as time has gone on. Is this game just not for me? Was it the elegant simplicity of Devil Daggers that had hooked me the first time? Had Hyper Demon managed to overcomplicate what was, to me, the almost platonic ideal of first person shooters? I sat back in my chair for a second and thought about it. Then I set the game aside briefly and went back to watch the gameplay videos I'd seen before.
All of a sudden, everything was so clear. Even with the thirty minutes or so I'd spent with the game, I had been gifted enough insight to comprehend the true form of the beast. New ideas were already emerging on how I could improve upon my score and watch my name ascend the leaderboard at breakneck speed.
Hyper Demon manages to be a successor to Devil Daggers while also being its antithesis. Daggers wants you to survive, Demon wants you to perform. Daggers splashes bright reds against a dim and dreary backdrop, providing perfect contrast. Demon is a kaleidoscope of color and fear. Daggers pares down FPS gameplay to its barest aspects. Demon gives you swath of new tricks and rules, and then demands that you respect them.
The current world record for Devil Daggers is roughly twenty minutes.
The current world record run for Hyper Demon is like a minute and a half.
Huh.
At any rate, I'm going to need to spend some more time with it at some point because I have definitely not played enough to decide where it stands amongst other games in my mind. It's quite obvious that while both Devil Daggers and Hyper Demon seek the same goal, they go about achieving them in meaningfully different ways. But I felt the need to say now that even if it ends up not having quite the same appeal for me, I can still appreciate Hyper Demon for what it is: A feast for the senses that is definitely one of the coolest games I've seen in recent memory.
I refrained from waxing poetic on Devil Daggers because I was afraid of betraying what the game is for me at its core. I found it refreshingly simple while still being sophisticated in execution, and while I have seen plenty of talented individuals who have spent countless hours polishing their play to a mirror sheen, it was never much more than a simple time-waster for me. An excellent one, but not the kind of game so remarkable as to keep me hooked the way some others of its ilk have.
So when I first saw a listing for Hyper Demon, I instinctively cocked an eyebrow. I wasn't really sold on the idea of a sequel or successor to Devil Daggers, if only because I wasn't sure what a new game could bring to the table that a sizeable update couldn't. At least, not without compromising what seemed to make Devil Daggers special in the first place. But I looked into it regardless.
Upon viewing various trailers and gameplay videos for Hyper Demon, I was... Confused. This was unquestionably the work of Devil Daggers' creator, and without doubt a re-iteration of that game's core concept. But what was I actually looking at? Somewhere in that swirling sea of pearlescent light was a player, doing... Things. And tried as I might, I just could not parse the action happening before my eyes. Where Devil Daggers had served as a strange sort of zen experience for me, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of anxiety seeing Hyper Demon in motion. It felt like setting George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte next to Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. If you were to describe the scenes depicted as laconically as possible, they might sound much the same, but a cursory examination of each painting makes it abundantly clear they're radically different in tone and theming. I was apprehensive as I pulled the trigger on Hyper Demon, feeling quite certain it wasn't going to appeal the same way as Sorath's maiden title.
And yeah, upon seeing the multi-part tutorial, those apprehensions were very much reinforced. The fact there was a tutorial at all was a bit of a surprise, but in progressing through them I started to realize just how different of a animal this game was going to be. All of these new movement mechanics, on top of the ways you interact with your enemies, demanded a lot more out of me than the simple strafe-jump-shoot fundamentals of the original.
After checking off each box, I proceeded to step into my first game and I was annihilated almost immediately. On repeated attempts, I found that while I might have been able to survive longer, that wasn't good enough anymore. My score would continue to tick down unless my demon-slaying skills impressed. I persevered for a few more runs, struggling to place anywhere north of 30 points, before I started to feel this strange tingling in my brain. That itching, sneaking sensation that I've become more intimately familiar with as time has gone on. Is this game just not for me? Was it the elegant simplicity of Devil Daggers that had hooked me the first time? Had Hyper Demon managed to overcomplicate what was, to me, the almost platonic ideal of first person shooters? I sat back in my chair for a second and thought about it. Then I set the game aside briefly and went back to watch the gameplay videos I'd seen before.
All of a sudden, everything was so clear. Even with the thirty minutes or so I'd spent with the game, I had been gifted enough insight to comprehend the true form of the beast. New ideas were already emerging on how I could improve upon my score and watch my name ascend the leaderboard at breakneck speed.
Hyper Demon manages to be a successor to Devil Daggers while also being its antithesis. Daggers wants you to survive, Demon wants you to perform. Daggers splashes bright reds against a dim and dreary backdrop, providing perfect contrast. Demon is a kaleidoscope of color and fear. Daggers pares down FPS gameplay to its barest aspects. Demon gives you swath of new tricks and rules, and then demands that you respect them.
The current world record for Devil Daggers is roughly twenty minutes.
The current world record run for Hyper Demon is like a minute and a half.
Huh.
At any rate, I'm going to need to spend some more time with it at some point because I have definitely not played enough to decide where it stands amongst other games in my mind. It's quite obvious that while both Devil Daggers and Hyper Demon seek the same goal, they go about achieving them in meaningfully different ways. But I felt the need to say now that even if it ends up not having quite the same appeal for me, I can still appreciate Hyper Demon for what it is: A feast for the senses that is definitely one of the coolest games I've seen in recent memory.