There’s something entertaining about high-difficulty 2D action platformer games with free reign maps to explore. Progression in these types of games always requires players to defeat bosses and unlock abilities in order to go back to a mostly explored area that now has a new path to venture through thanks to a new ability. This is the type of game Serenity Forge published years ago, but developer White Rabbit wasn’t ready to let the game end with the initial launch. So, now we have Death’s Gambit: Afterlife, and it is quite a worthy title, or expansion if you had the base Death’s Gambit game already, to experience!

Story

In order to reach a personal goal of reuniting with your loved one, you have signed a contract with Death himself to be his right-hand man. With this newfound immortality, you must set out to complete a mysterious job for him. Prepare to take on the immortal guardians of Siradon and to learn the truth of what it costs to be among the immortals.

Gameplay

Before diving into this, I want to clarify that I never had a chance to play the original version of Death’s Gambit and I will admit that I got stuck at one point in the game, making me turn to a walkthrough. This is when I learned that the Afterlife update changed so much about the game that following a walkthrough doesn’t do anything for me because the map layout alone was different enough to make it impossible to follow, let alone the enemies. So, even if you played Death’s Gambit before, this will not be a copy and paste playthrough.

That said, when you start the game you will be shown the different weapons that are available to choose from. After picking the one you like, you get a moment to test play with it before settling on your choice. This gives you a chance to figure out which weapon you like to use best without having to test them out as you collect them and in the midst of danger. From here, I learned my favorite options are the daggers and the greatsword.

As you make your way through the game, you will end up killing countless enemies before you. Every time you kill an enemy, you are given a bit of essence. Bosses give the most essence, of course, but you can always rack up some essence from running through enemy-filled zones over and over. This essence is used for everything in the game, be it purchasing things from the store, restoring the lost plumes you can’t collect for any reason, or leveling your character up. I will say this because I made this mistake - make sure you look at what stat your weapon uses before throwing all your level-up points into a stat. I started with daggers and got my strength to level 16 before I realized that daggers get a bonus from finesse, thus I switched to the greatsword for the rest of my playthrough.

Finding your way around the map will require a bit of memory and a lot of exploration. You will want to try and find boss rooms, even if they aren’t the main bosses because they will unlock abilities that become incredibly useful. Starting the game off with a single jump and my fighting options was rough, but exploration became fun and there were tons of secrets to find once you unlock abilities like double jumping, air dashing, collecting the white orbs for 10 seconds of infinite double jumps, and so on. You can also find extra hidden areas with a bit of parkour as well. For instance, you can get the most distance in the air travel by jumping forward, swinging your sword, air dashing, double jumping, swinging your sword again, and then air dashing again.

There are tons of items in this game as well. You can wield some gear, such as helmets, boots, and capes, which will add bonus points to your stats. There are usable items with varying uses, ranging from providing a small area of light, giving essence, restoring health, bomb attacks, and so on. The most useful item though is your plumes. There are a lot of different types of plumes, but basically, these provide a chunk of health and are refilled every time you rest. You can also unlock talent points that can make picking up a lost plume become extra useful or use an ability that does so.

Since I mentioned those, you get talent points every time you defeat a boss. While you only get one point, there aren’t a ton of options when it comes to talent choices. I found it best to pick the path I want to unlock first, focus on those talents, and then moving on to other options. Abilities aren’t the same as these can either be purchased from various people in the sanctuary or found out on the open map. The range of benefits that abilities and talents give is a bit vast, so just be ready to see a lot of ways to get a little extra push in your gameplay.

Audio and Visuals

Giving this world an aesthetic that blends hand-drawn art and hyper-pixelation really brings a clean and enticing art style for players to enjoy. Every boss seemed unique and the environments they were in, along with the general map surrounding them, was all very fitting. There wasn’t a moment in this game that didn’t seem vibrant yet theme fittingly dark in ambiance.

Sound effects and music were all fitting as well. I can’t say that it was as impactful as the aesthetic aspect this game had, but I definitely enjoyed the musical tones used to bring out the different areas and pronounce boss fights.

Replayability

Given that the Afterlife chunk of this game is an expansion, I would say that there is a bit of replayability. However, this game will take a while to get through in the first place, so I can see this being a one-and-done playthrough for many.

Of course, if you can’t get enough of the challenge then there is always the New Game+, Insanity, and Heroic difficulties to check out after you beat the game the first time.

What Could Be Better

I do always enjoy the find-your-own-way map style setup, but there are times that need to be a bit more guided. The part before that I mentioned I got stuck at was because I couldn’t figure out where to go on the map and it seemed all my options were blocked off. Eventually, I happened to find the part of the map that I was supposed to break the floor on in order to progress, but it was such a small indicator on a huge map that I am surprised I saw. A hint option or vague guide in the dialogue would have been greatly appreciated at times like these.

Conclusion

Death’s Gambit: Afterlife is an exciting action-platformer that was fun to figure out and fight through! I would say that it is probably the easiest game I have played with the souls-like tag, but there was some definite difficulty to push through in quite a few areas. The game also featured plenty of humorous dialogue that would lighten the overall game’s mood and even give some relief after dying a few times to a single boss. It had a great setup and execution throughout the entire experience and it is a 2D action-platformer I would suggest to anybody looking for a new challenge to eat up tons of hours!