Dragon is Dead Early Access [Impressions]
PM Studios and Team Suneat’s Dragon is Dead has arrived on Steam Early Access in all its gruesome glory.
Dragon is Dead. Credit: PM Studios / Team Suneat
Dragon is Dead is a dark fantasy sidescrolling action roguelite with gorgeous, bloody pixel art. Despite just releasing and the developers stating the Early Access period will be at least a year, there’s already plenty of meat to bite into here. Dragon is Dead has an addictive gameplay loop that’ll suck you in.
From the developers:
All dragons who have challenged the gods have fallen, except for Guernian. The leader of the Dark Dragons, who has lost all of his kind to the Gods and has embraced evil, is corrupting the world with his rift. Filled with rage and madness, you must become the Dragon Slayer who can stop Guernian. Slay Guernian and free the survivors from their suffering. Defeat the twisted monsters and giant, terrifying foes that Guernian has created. Armed with a variety of skills and equipment, as well as dragon-tongue runes that amplify their effects, adventurers can take down any foe. Don't be afraid of death and take on the challenge to perfect your skills, master your abilities, and equip yourself with powerful equipment.
Dragon is Dead. Credit: PM Studios / Team Suneat
Dragon is Dead plays like a grittier, heavier Skul: The Hero Slayer, another excellent action roguelite. You’ll travel from room to room, able to advance once you’ve dealt with all the monsters and claimed your choice of reward from the giant chests that spawn. Before each run, you can buy goods from shops in town, and you’ll run into more vendors in between some levels. When you die, you’ll start back from the beginning, keeping only your runes and equipment. Levels, experience, artifacts, and skill tree progress are all reset.
Dragon is Dead. Credit: PM Studios / Team Suneat
Combat consists of running, jumping, dodging, and slashing. As you gain levels, you unlock spells and additional attacks in your skill try that allow you to change up your fighting style. Elemental sword slashes can burn, shock, and more, while projectile spells can give you ranged flexibility. Picking the right equipment for bonuses and judiciously selecting what artifacts you select each run can greatly enhance the abilities and attacks you choose. I had a ton of fun creating builds with a flame or lightning focus. Enemies are varied and will surprise you, so there’s plenty to consider when tuning your character.
Dragon is Dead. Credit: PM Studios / Team Suneat
There are currently hundreds of piece of equipment of multiple rarity levels that grant different bonuses. My only complaint here is that despite multiple kinds of weapons existing, they only affect stats as opposed to combat—regardless of what you equip, you’ll always swing a sword. Artifacts you can find that augment your abilities are also quite varied and offer many opportunities for ability and stat synergy.
I loved the art of Dragon is Dead. The pixel art is suitably grim, and enemies have great animations, especially the bosses. A giant blade spider that is the bane of my existence appears with an intro animation that involves biting a soldier in half, gruesomely leaving his bottom half to flop on the ground. Sometimes I wish there was a bit more contrast, but overall the game looks great.
Dragon is Dead. Credit: PM Studios / Team Suneat
I’m looking forward to seeing how the game shapes up for the next year. There’s already a rock solid core to build from here and I’ll be on board all the way until the 1.0 release and hopefully beyond.
Dragon is Dead is available now on Steam Early Access.
Played on: Steam Deck
