Twin-stick shooters seem to be experiencing something of a renaissance at the moment.
The latest game added to the stack is Mad Devils: Damned-Finitive Edition by Itzy Interactive. Can it bring something new to the genre set in World War II or is it another follower?
We start as Sergeant Jack Asher, one of a squad of soldiers nicknamed the “Mad Devils”. The Mad Devils are sent to stop Major Strauss, who plans to open the gates of Hell itself to aid the Nazis’ attempt to win the war using the occult. Unfortunately, things don’t go to plan and the Mad Devils end up dead. Dead, but not out of the war! Although they have been damned and defeated, the Mad Devils must come together again for one final mission. Can they stop the gates of Hell from opening from the other side?
Mad Devils: Damned-finitive Edition is played in the traditional 3D isometric perspective, and since it’s a co-op game, the whole idea is to keep both players on the screen at the same time. The screen will zoom out to a certain extent, but no further – and here it’s entirely possible that the characters you’re playing will get stuck in the scenery and unable to move. This happened several times when I tested with a co-op friend (that would be my son), so we basically stayed as close to each other as possible, which led to other problems.
The actual design of the Mad Devils’ members is pretty good though, and the game moves along at a decent pace – but the animation of our characters and the enemies leaves a lot to be desired, to put it kindly. The depiction of Hell varies from the traditional burning landscapes to a frozen area and everything in between, and the creatures in the different levels vary a lot too. And as for the sound, it’s quite fine, the requisite gunshots and grenade explosions are all present and correct, while the use of the squad’s new demonic powers is well represented.
But now to the heart of Mad Devils: Damned-finitive Edition – the way it’s played. At its core, it’s a twin-stick shooter, and while you can play it solo (which is debatable, to be honest, but it says you can), it’s very much designed as a co-op experience. You’ll see that when you play, you’re not asked to press “Y” to switch the character you’re controlling until quite late in the tutorial – but it’s impossible to get far enough to learn that information without someone else controlling the second player. And yes, I did raise my eyebrows at that. Why you’d want to play a game where you can run for about ten meters, then have to switch characters to catch up, and then it all starts over again is beyond me.
Luckily, couch co-op and online co-op are available, and both methods work well; although the online side is a little quieter. Playing it as a two-player game makes Mad Devils: Damned-finitive Edition make a lot more sense, so I’d suggest looking at this game as a multiplayer game only.
Combat is pretty straightforward and thankfully you can’t shoot your co-op partner as there are bullets flying everywhere. You can blow them up with grenades though, so be careful when throwing them around!
In addition to the standard weapon, which uses the traditional dual-stick controls (left stick to move the character, right stick to aim at the firing position), each of the playable characters has a new set of demonic powers – Asher can use fire magic in a pinch, while others can make cover appear out of thin air to protect you while you fire. These demonic powers certainly add some spice to combat, and using them at the right moment can make all the difference. At the start of a level, you can choose which of the unlocked characters you want to play as, so it’s a good idea to try each one out. Provided you can find them…
There are a few niggles with Mad Devils: Damned-finitive Edition, and the main one is the camera issue I mentioned earlier. It’s really frustrating to get stuck in scenery, and it happens more often than you’d think – if your co-op partner isn’t careful, you’ll end up having to reload from a checkpoint. Other silly niggles include the character spawning without a weapon, not being able to shoot for an entire level, and annoyances with multi-level platforming – the top level becomes transparent so you can see what’s below you, but then you can’t see where you’re supposed to go.
There are other problems too, and at times Mad Devils: Damned-finitive Edition feels like it was rushed out before it was finished. If just a little more polish had been applied, the end result would be much better.
It’s possible to have fun with Mad Devils: Damned-finitive Edition, especially when playing with friends or family. It’s bumpy, but if you can look past the flaws, it’s a good game that’s determined to make its mark.
