Death’s Gambit is a 2D RPG similar to the Souls series released in 2018. Death Gambit: Afterlife is essentially an expansion of the original game that has almost tripled in size and includes many changes. The original Death Gambit has never been played so I haven’t been able to find all the changes, but from what I’ve gathered the list of changes and improvements is extensive.

Story

The protagonist Sorun goes on an expedition to Aldwynn, a country that holds the secret of immortality, and like everyone before him, he and his expedition perished. Against all expectations, this was not his end but a new beginning as he made a deal with Death to find the source of immortality and destroy it.

After accepting this deal, he goes on a quest to not only fulfill his end of the bargain but also to find his missing mother, who went on a previous expedition.

This is a seemingly simple story, which, perhaps, is fraught with something more. You can find that the game is inspired by the Souls games when it comes to storytelling because you don’t get huge expositions, but instead, you get little bits of story that allow the player to piece the whole picture together by themselves.

There is some humor here, which contrasts strongly with the painful and agonizing atmosphere full of corpses and blood.

There is another noteworthy detail in this story. Unlike the Souls or Nioh games, the characters react to Sorun’s return from the dead, resulting in endearing banter, a nice thing that I’ve seen only in Hades.

Gameplay

As expected, Sorun only starts with basic skills, such as the ability to jump short distances or slide. When he defeats bosses, he sometimes not only gains talent points to use in his skill tree, but also gains new skills such as jumping, which can be converted into a temporary glide ability, or a powerful stomp ability that can overcome certain obstacles and

Death plays a key role in Death’s Gambit: Afterlife, as it does in all SoulsLike games. Be prepared to die a lot, as even normal enemies can and will kill you from time to time until you develop appropriate strategies to deal with them and understand how combat works in this game. Thankfully, thanks to Sorun’s contract with Death, death does not automatically end the game, as Sorun finds himself back at the last statue of the Idol of Death, which he visited whenever he dies, with all the essence he may have acquired beforehand, yea bonfires. Of course, you can level up Sorun, salvage items you don’t need for materials to upgrade your equipment, and return to the field to try again.

Basically, every death potentially results in Sorun becoming much stronger. There is a way to break the contract by unlocking permanent death, but I would not advise doing this until you understand all the mechanics of the game, especially at the initial stage. The only real hassle before dying, besides having to return from where you were before, is that you will lose the healing feathers in the place where you died if you have one.

The game took inspiration from the Souls games and their mechanics like the level-up system but gives it its own meaning. Instead of being penalized by losing all your money, you instead lose one of your recovery items (the equivalent of an estus flask) that you can pick up where you died. If you are not sure where it is, you can spend some money to return it.

What has changed in the game?

As mentioned earlier at the beginning, this is not just an expansion and nothing but a new game introduced by Afterlife.

Changes to systems and mechanics have been made to the existing Death Gambit:

• Class Selection: Players can now test weapons and classes before committing
• Input Buffering: Players can now change direction during an action even after the animation has started.
• Cooldown: If abilities are interrupted without executing the ability, they no longer go on cooldown.
• Stats: Stamina and Speed ​​(END/HST) capped at 30, but each point increases damage, stamina, and cooldown reduction.
• Healing: Healing animation is faster, but heals less.
• Shop: Players can now buy stacks of one item at a time.
• Players can now dismantle and disenchant items at a save point.
• Inventory can now be sorted.
• Soul Stones can be obtained more easily.
• 10 new levels expand the world, making it one of the biggest Metroidvania worlds.
• Metroidvania updates are a brand new way to explore and re-explore the world with new areas and secrets to find.
• 6 new bosses will test your mettle.
• Reworked old levels and game systems.
• Use 22 new weapons, each of which changes the gameplay.
• Customize your play style with over 100 talents, multiple classes, and advanced talents.
• The expansion continues the story past its current conclusion with climactic alternate endings.
• The in-game map now tracks your progress and helps players avoid getting lost.
• Several new endings
• Crafting
• NewGame+

Technical part

Visually, Death’s Gambit: Afterlife is a sprite-filled game that effortlessly resembles the grimdark fantasy setting that the title tries to convey in its entirety. Particular attention is paid to the details in the background of each area, as well as the appearance of characters and creatures. And to be honest – some locations can easily surprise you.

The voice acting in Death’s Gambit: Afterlife is excellent. The art of Death and other characters is especially striking, and the voice acting is also very pleasant, the voice acting helps to revive the characters. It should also be noted for its absolutely chic and very appropriate soundtrack. The music not only fit perfectly into the atmosphere of each area but also motivated well in battles.

Visual novel-style character portraits used in story scenes give a clearer picture of prominent characters. Graphically, while the overall game has a darker and pixelated vibe, Death’s Gambit: Afterlife still has its own charm.

We talked about the good, but it is worth mentioning the bad:

• constant loading with location transition (even with SSD)
• control accuracy
• balance issues (everyone complains about the difficulty, but for me, the game was too easy)

Next DLC announcement

in addition to the fact that the developers are constantly supplementing and polishing the game, they recently announced a new DLC:

DLC Ashes of Vados is coming to PC on Feb 10 2022! It will come to Switch, PS4/PS5 later this Spring.

DLC FEATURES

• New Boss Fights: A new boss encounter against Ash will continue the Death’s Gambit story.
• Defeating him unlocks a drastically different and challenging heroic version of this boss encounter called “The Eldritch Hand.”
• New Platforming Challenge: Halls of Cruelty will test your reflexes and platforming skills at a grueling new level.
• New Combat Arena: Test your endurance in the new Horde mode fighting wave after wave of enemies.
• Boss rush: A new Boss Rush mode! Fight all the bosses back to back in normal or heroic!
• New Game Modes: Randomized Items // Heroic Forced // Madness Mode // Fink Mode.
• New rewards: Completing Halls of Cruelty, Ash, boss rush, and arena challenges will award some new loot!

The Switch physical edition of Death’s Gambit is out now!

You can find it at Walmart, Target, GameStop, and other locations, or order online. Those who have pre-ordered it should be receiving their copy soon. This edition includes a sticker pack of your favorite lumberkin, and a reversible map/character compendium.

Xbox!

Death’s Gambit and all content updates will be coming to Xbox this Spring. Stay tuned for more info.

And what do we end up with?

A game that can be rough and frustrating at times in one place or another. The game takes some getting used to the style of the character as well as the graphics. Destroying enemies after a long struggle, finding a winning strategy, and finding weak points in the game is also a pleasure. It didn’t hurt that the game’s story was convincingly simple, with some touching moments and a touch of humor. The game took a lot from the Souls series, good or bad, but it’s up to you.

As for me, the game turned out to be not bad, but it lacks difficulty, especially in the starting stages, but the developers made excellent boss fights.