Down to Hell is not a new title by Red Dev Studios as It was released on PC earlier however the developers released a Nintendo Switch version of the game which is the focus of this review. Down to Hell is a ‘Heavy Metal Slasher’ which features the story of a nameless knight who must fight and reach his ultimate goal in a world full of chaos, demonic bosses and other monstrosities. Since this is a 2D slasher title, combat is a vital component of this genre and the following review of Down to Hell will tell you how the Nintendo Switch version of the game fairs in different aspects.
There is a lot of fighting in the game and to fight the enemies, you have your trusty sword which comes with both light and heavy attacks. You can combine them together and land different combos that deal additional damage to enemies than normal attacks. These combos are vital for survival in the game because the boss fights are pretty tough and you will need to ooze out every last bit of DPS from your sword to defeat them. Apart from the sword, you will also have access to different spells and unique attacks which are unlocked after you defeat different bosses in the game. They will complement the main sword gameplay and will allow you to deal additional damage to your enemies when your sword cannot reach them easily.
As you make progress in the game, you will reach different save points which also act as checkpoints and fast travel points. All of your consumables are refilled at these points as well. The environment and visuals are two things that I liked most about Down to Hell. The game weighs around 2.2GB after installation however it offers amazing visuals. The environment of the game is really dark and really puts you in the mood for fighting devils in hell. The visuals are pretty good and the special effects are fine when you compare them with the rest of the game visuals. At certain points, you will also be treated to certain hand-drawn interludes.
That being said, sadly Down to Hell does not really shine when it comes to gameplay or combat mechanics. The developer earlier dubbed the title as a ‘Heavy Metal Slasher’ but when you are actually playing the game, the heavy metal only plays during boss fights and the tracks picked for the game do not really sit well in the boss fights. They are more than a nuisance than a means to get our blood all warmed up for the boss fights. There are not a lot of boss fights in the entire game so the music is not that much varied as well. In normal areas of the game, you will hear simple, generic music playing throughout the level. The Heavy Metal is apparently reserved for boss battles only.
The gameplay is pretty much what you would expect from a normal 2D slasher however there are a few annoying bugs. The game surely offers a little bit of challenge but once you’ve figured out the strategies of killing the enemies and bosses, there is little to look out for in the game. The advanced mechanics such as dodging and air attacks are not precise and are often a problem rather than a solution. Pushing up will simply cause the character to run left or right randomly instead of him jumping which makes aerial attacks really difficult to land. If you do manage to land them, they are pretty effective but it is all luck mostly. The dodge is not that useful as well because often, I was stuck inside the boss rather than arriving on the other side.
Glitches like these are extremely annoying. In certain areas, the aerial enemies were so high in the air that I was simply unable to get to the to kill them. In such cases, my only option was to move ahead completely ignoring them. Speaking of ignoring the enemies, you can literally run through all of the enemies easily. If you don’t want to fight with the common enemies, you can simply ignore them and jump or dodge through them and reach the portals for the boss fights. The common fights do not give much either however if you trigger an arena fight, you will need to defeat all enemies before moving to the next area.
You get updates from chests that are found after defeating bosses or clearing fighting arenas. These updates include increased health or mana bar or you can opt for updates that increase the damage of certain skills. You cannot customize your character in the game and you can only have a certain build which can be changed by how you choose to upgrade different attacks or health/mana bar. Other than these upgrades or unlocking new skills from defeating bosses, your character remains the same throughout the game.
These upgrades will ensure that you are ready to face increasingly tougher enemies as you progress through the game. Down to Hell is not a very long game. In fact, it is quite a short game with a typical playthrough lasting anywhere between 2 and 3 hours or even 1 hour if you rush it. The boss battles take up most of the time. The real gameplay is also the boss fights as normal enemies simply act as fillers. They are scattered throughout the levels and they get tougher as you progress in the story. The game only has 2 chapters for you to complete but depending on your playing style, you can expand the gameplay further by killing every enemy that comes in your way.
Overall, Down to Hell is not a very impressive package. It is short and does not really amp up when it comes to gameplay either. The title has been out since last month but so far no updates have been released for the title that could potentially fix the movement and combat bugs in the game. The developer may release patches for the game in the future because of the Holiday season but we will need to wait and see about that. Even if the glitches and bugs are fixed, the game still offers very little to the player with just two chapters. For what it is, it is a fun title if you have nothing else to play but with the ever-growing library of Nintendo Switch, I am sure that you will have plenty of titles to opt for instead of it.
Final Verdict:
Down to Hell is glitchy and really short. The developer claims that the entire game can be completed in 3 hours but since you can literally run through the levels and fight only the bosses, you can finish the game in under an hour if you know the strategy of fighting each boss battle in the game. There is no multiplayer or any other game mode so after beating the game once, if you don’t want to experience the story again, there is literally nothing else to do in the game. The UI while playing the game is also pretty big compared to the resolution that Nintendo Switch supports and sometimes it blocks viewing your character even. The game might be a bargain at $9.99 but I would rather buy some other game which offers a little more gameplay and options.
Final Score: 6/10
