|| REVIEW || Demon's Tier + (Xbox One)

Developed By : Diabolical Mind                                           Published By : COWCAT
Genre : Twin Stick, Pixel-style, Indie
Release Date : June 9, 2020

Some time ago, I was introduced to COWCAT Games through a friend telling me about a giveaway for a couple of their games. I never got around to checking out the games, but I did watch them get played and thought they were great games. So when the opportunity to cover a new release from them in Demon's Tier+ arose, I couldn't pass it.

The game begins with you fighting your way through a large field as a way of learning the game's twin-stick control scheme. After laying waste to the quick and easy mob, you can push through and walk into a nearby town to visit it's local tavern. Inside, you learn of the nearby dungeons of King Thosgar, a man who once wiped out humanity and replaced everyone with monsters. This was believed to be legend until this town's pit opened and has drawn all sorts of adventurers in who never return from the pit.

While in the tavern, you meet a group of such adventurers that become your cast of characters throughout. Each one has their own stats in regards to speed, damage, and defense. Two characters are locked off initially until you complete Tier's 1 and 2 of the pit, so if you want to add them to your roster you'll need to master demon destruction.

One thing that's a bit different with Demon's Tier is that each level is not just about finding a way out. Instead, you are given a specific mission that needs to be completed before the exit will even open up. This can range from killing every enemy, or a very specific one, opening all chests or (again) finding the key to open a very specific one, or even destroying all bombs/explosives on the map. Once this mission is complete, the exit will open up and a waypoint indicator will appear alongside your character telling you where it's (roughly) located.

While you can technically take as long as you need to complete the levels, you'll want to do so within five minutes. Every level has a five minute timer on it, and once it runs out you'll be facing down a pretty big threat. This threat's name is The Reaper. This thing is massive, taking up just about your entire screen, and to make it even more fun it's immortal. So you can't hurt it, your only option is to run. Hopefully you can avoid him bursting into your party, because he is a big ball of stress that you just don't need involved in your fights.

Every so often you'll engage in a boss fight. These are random encounters, so your first boss won't always be your first boss. As you can expect, these guys are big and they are tough. What makes them tougher is the stats you will most likely have the first time you face off against them. And, to make it even more stressful the five minute timer for The Reaper is still active on these levels too.

Your goal is to make it eventually through all tiers of the pit. But that will be hard to do right off the bat, so instead your goal initially becomes just making it back to the town. You'll collect D-Tokens on your runs and, assuming you make it back, you'll be able to spend these in town.

One shop has items you can purchase such as a potion for healing yourself (but they're heavy so you can only carry three at the most), or a rope that lets you climb out of the pit and make it back to town without losing any tokens. The other shop is a blacksmith who crafts weapons based off of blueprints you can find in the pit. For me, these only dropped after completing a boss fight, so if there are other conditions then they are random and I never triggered them. The last "shop" is the bar where the gang all hangs out, and you need to dump your tokens into each of them to be able to unlock them, with the exception of the two I mentioned earlier.

If you're a fan of twin-stick shooters, then Demon's Tier + is a game that is absolutely made for you. The combat is very smooth and easy to pick up. One of my favorite things about this was how many stats could be upgraded between levels. Most games usually only let you upgrade your amount of health, attack strength, and sometimes your armor/defense. Here, you're able to upgrade those same things but more, including your movement speed and the distance your shots can travel.

This game takes what's already great about a fun genre, and adds things that just makes it even better. Once you pick up Demon's Tier + you're most likely not going to want to stop playing it. Nor should you stop, because this game is that good.

Game Rating : 9 / 10

Pick up the game HERE on Xbox Marketplace

Also available on Nintendo Switch and

Playstation 4, original Demon's Tier

available on Steam

A code for this game was graciously provided

to the site for the purpose of review.