Demon Skin Review (Steam)
A brutal Hack&Slash game with a challenging combat system in the same vein as Dark Souls plunges you into the harsh dark fantasy world to test your will and your skills. Only those who dare to get into the Demon Skin can survive!
Pros:
- Decent graphics.
- 5.87GB Download size.
- Steam achievements.
- Controller support.
- Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, resolution scale slider, v-sync, smoothing, post-processing, shadow quality, texture quality, effects quality, foliage quality, and fps limit.
- Demons Souls-like gameplay.
- 2D perspective.
- Combat-you aims up, down, or in the middle attack stances, this is also how blocking works as if stances match then it’s a block.
- Really good animated 3D backdrops with action taking placing.
- Loot drops from enemies and chests.
- Click a button to see weapon stats on the floor.
- Pick up and drop weapons at will.
- Quick select for weapons and potions.
- Constant checkpoints.
- You see enemy health.
- Uses a stamina system for attacks and blocking.
- Earn EXP and get points to put into a skill tree.
- Blood and gore.
- Stun and finishing moves.
- Big boss battles.
- Ripl/dodge move.
- You can do jump attacks.
- Break enemy stances and shields.
- Bit of variety with endless runner-style segments.
- Has a slight God of War vibe.
- Good story.
- Very moreish.
- Combat feels meaty and weighted.
- Can rebind controls.
Cons:
- Combat does take a while to get used to and is a constant worry.
- Few personal issues with the game accepting my resolution, had to do with borderless fullscreen otherwise it would accept my choices.
- Checkpoints are quite far apart.
- Not as much variety as you would like.
- Has a few rough edges.
- Levels can feel quite linear.
- A couple of random crashes.
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8/10
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7/10
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7/10
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8/10
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8/10
Summary
Demon Skin is a game that is as brutal as God Of War but as technical as Dark Souls. The whole game plays out on a 2D playfield which is surprising as they manage to keep it feeling 3D in a weird sort of way. Combat is very clever with it having 3 stances which are top, middle, and bottom. Matching with the enemy results in a block (you can see the enemy stance form). Of course, with combat as meaty as it is in Demon Skin you can stagger, stun and perform finishers on opponents or break their shield. Il is honest it took a while to adjust to the fighting style as it’s very easy to naturally fall into button mashing and that doesn’t work so well, even now after many hours I still find the combat lets me down. It’s solid though and picking up new weapons all feel different but only really in a power type of way as all actual attack animations feel and look the same. Backdrops are very animated and 3D, you can see fights breaking out in the background, weather effects and so much more, and it just looks so cool. Levels are linear and are definitely a weak point but that’s kind of expected for a game like this in 2D. Overall I found Demon Skin to be a really good game that has some really good ideas and I hope we get another one as the devs have hit on something here and just need to refine it a bit more.