Demon's Tier+ PS4 Review

Everyone has their demons, and for me, I’ve had these particular demons for some time now and happy to exorcise in this Demon’s Tier+ PS4 Review.

In case you didn’t read the news piece before (shame on you! What will Louis Cypher think?), it’s a dungeon crawler of sorts with some despicable rogue-like elements.

On first glance, it’s not the most niche of titles out there, but go deep for a bit, and it has a lot of depth.

Enough of the dad-like jokes and on with the show.

Demon’s Tier+ PS4 Review 

The problem with a lot of RPG’s is the learning curve or walls of texts of which king has been rooting which princess, thus a kingdom is at war or have allied with an ancient race of…

Blah blah blah.

These sorts of games are very engaging, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to get straight into it the action and Demon’s Tier+, from COWCAT Games, does precisely that.

Without any fuss, you’re shown how to attack with the right stick and how to move with the left. Well, the latter isn’t shown, it’s obvious.

Shortly after killing a circle of enemies, there are a few signposts scattered about that detail the mechanics on how to play the game.

Despite the best intentions to retain all the pointers, I read through the notices, entertained a few NPCs, then delved into the abyss that were the tiers of the title.

The Darkest Dungeons

Going into the dungeons of Demon’s Tier+, you work your way through a random dungeon with an equally random objective: 

• Destroying all the explosive barrels.
• Defeating hidden enemies.
• Opening all the treasure chests and much more.
• Getting a sneaky hit on the reaper.
• And much more.

The game does not pause when you go to the next level as I often found as I would go to grab my tea, have a quick scratch or type another sentence, then realise I was being attacked.

Though I’m not the greatest fan of this style of graphics – possibly because they’re a little overdone, Demon’s Tier+ artwork is charming and I liked both the playable characters and enemies.

However, there were a few times where I couldn’t work out what an on-screen item was and like Pavlov’s dog, I had this conditioned response of blowing up anything explosive every time I was near, knocking off my health.

That’s much like the game really: the rogue-like elements seem harsh at times, but if you’re honest with yourself, 99.9% is your own fault, either by being a knucklehead and dashing through an area, investing in the wrong stats for your play style, or hitting the exploding barrels for the 100th time.

Choose Your Own Adventure(r)

Other than the starting character, the knight, you can unlock more classes, each with their abilities and stats:

• Assassin
• Berserk
• Archer
• Cleric
• Wizard

You can purchase new characters from the tavern, as well as unlock new ones each time you complete one of the tiers in the game.

It is a bit of a grind to unlock them as well as items – not through lack of enemies, but getting out of one of the tiers unscathed and you’ll lose practically all your stuff on death.

What’s so interesting about Demon’s Tier+ is you can’t overpower your character for many reasons.

Investing in attack power and range was my preferred option by default, but note that these attributes cost money and each time you increase one, the price goes up.

There’s an immediate difference in whatever you invest in as enemies will take fewer hits, or you can run rings around some of the behemoths you encounter.

Throw Me A Frickin’ Rope

I was quite surprised how long I survived on my first few attempts; accumulating a hell of a lot of dosh.

In the event of death, you lose your coins, but return to the place of death, and like Dark Souls, you can pick up what you dropped, at least, on the first attempt only.

As I got deeper, I was getting to the stage where I needed to return to my base and either buy new characters or gear.

Then I went back to the village and remembered the noticeboard and one of the merchants where you buy a magic rope: equip this at any time in the dungeon, and you can leave with your wares. 

Those noticeboards were there for a reason.

Demon’s Tier+ reminds me a little of Streets of Rogue (that’s a good thing), but not with as many features, but there are a few built-in filters you can select from the main menu. 

As a scanlines whore, I switched to this setup immediately, but it didn’t translate so well on the big screen TV and surprised that I stuck with the default settings instead.

Going Deeper Underground

What it lacks in extras, Demon’s Tier+ makes up for in the gameplay and the wicked bosses that would often fill the screen, unleashing bullet hell.

Not a boss as such, but Best Supporting Actor, is the Reaper.

Unlike that part-time hack in Persona 5, this reaper will appear after you’ve spent five minutes in each dungeon (countdown timer is continually displayed at the top of the screen).

All-in-all, Demon’s Tier+ is a great indie title but be forewarned that it does require a hefty amount of grinding if you suck at the game as much as I do.

The level design is a little repetitive, but that’s sometimes the nature of the genre, and it’s countered by some fun objectives but even better bosses.

[rwp_box_recap id=”0″]