Dead as Disco review – CNET

If you’ve ever achieved a state of flow in a beat ’em up game, you know that their large-scale brawls quickly become like a combo-led dance. If you adapt to the choreography, you are rewarded with a symphony of violence and a high score. Dead as Disco from developer Brain Jar Games seems like a natural next step for the genre – a true “beat ’em to the beat.”

And make no mistake, you’re definitely going to take on some eclectic characters like Charlie Disco, a former chart-topping rockstar who recently returned from the dead and is looking to resurrect his career by reuniting the band. There’s only one problem: his bandmates are the same ones who betrayed him, left him for dead 10 years earlier and then sold their records and signed a major record deal. Clumsy.

What follows is a boss rush in which Disco literally knocks sense into his old friends one by one, bringing them back to the club where they used to play before they succeeded. It comes across as a serious, light-hearted pastiche of much darker revenge stories like The Crow and Drive – I mean, just look at the back of the main character’s jacket. It might as well have a scorpion pattern on it.

While some parts of the Steam Early Access version of Dead as Disco feel a little undercooked – purchasable club decorations and party member side quests appear as an afterthought, at least for now – the fundamentals are solid. Combat is snappy and responsive, and the current version’s four story levels play out like impressive, interactive concerts, where the visual spectacle alone can be worth the price of admission.

Boss fights are special, multi-phase tests of endurance, filled with bright lights and unique mechanics, and they’re an absolute tour de force, which they should be, considering they’re Dead as Disco’s biggest addition to the demo.

Trope-y, flashy and unapologetically in love with the art of music

It’s hard not to wonder what kind of music Charlie Disco was making in his heyday, especially since his band is such a disparate mix of musicians with remarkable personas. Although several bosses have yet to enter the game, there are currently four high-priority targets that Disco can attack in any order he wants, as if Mega Man were fighting with a lot more groove.

Charlie reunites with each of his former bandmates in their own distinct urban areas. Acid, green-tinted punk rocker Hemlock takes to the city’s subways. The refined rapper Prophet leads the fight from the streets to the highest penthouses. Heavy metal cyborg Dex shreds on an electric guitar while Tesla coils into the power plant’s core. And AI-generated K-pop star Arora literally launches your showdown into space.

The boss fights are extremely creative and borrow artistically from real-life genre fare. Prophet, for example, attacks you with physical manifestations of his words, while Dex uses a biomechanical chair that would be perfect for a Nine Inch Nails music video. The Arora AI even summons a massive light construct of itself to fight against you (it’s not so subtly inspired by Blade Runner 2049 – there’s that Ryan Gosling inspiration again).

Every scene has some sort of gimmick that turns Dead as Disco on its head. One moment you might be fighting in a 3D subway tunnel and the next you’re gunning down enemies in a side-scrolling train car. A fight against generic thugs can quickly become tense when you find yourself in a narrow, foggy corridor. And just as you get your bearings, the ground shakes and heaves, and suddenly you’re defending the top of an obsidian pyramid from dozens of dark shadows climbing up to claim your life.

At times, Dead as Disco almost feels like it’s moving too quickly, with one stage vignette giving way to the next before each mook has even hit the ground. But the game is clearly focused on high-octane entertainment first and foremost, and if something isn’t quite happening, there’s always another backdrop, a nod to the film, or a boss phase just around the corner – just keep going with the flow, he insists. Never stop moving.

Dead as Disco’s story stages and challenge levels are themed around pop, metal, EDM, hip-hop, and yes, even disco music. It’s like an ode to all music lovers because there is something for everyone here. Plus, if you’re feeling left out, Infinite Disco mode lets you add your own music tracks to play along to. Yes, I added Miku’s song. And yes, it’s absurdly fun to beat up street thugs to a vocaloid’s online theme song.

I expect to see some cutting-edge gameplay footage online very soon. For those who like to push rhythm games to their limits, Dead as Disco has the potential to become an evergreen game – one that doesn’t need a sequel or successor to remain engaging, especially if future updates expand the list of challenges once the remaining boss fights are added.

It’s a close fight, but how much meat is on the bones here?

Frankly, I was initially disappointed with Dead as Disco’s moves and combat controls. As I punched, parried, and dodged my way through the first of the game’s story levels, I struggled to find mechanical depth. The beat ’em up gameplay seems solid but simple – that is, until the skill trees start to open up.

As you defeat bosses, you begin to unlock thematically appropriate abilities. One of the highlights is the strumming electric guitar that chains lightning bolts between enemies, but other highlights include a rapper’s golden glove for enhanced parries and a gnarly bass guitar that swings in a full 360-degree arc to knock enemies away.

Using these abilities costs one meter, a resource that accumulates as you eliminate enemies. And all your attacks fuel an ultimate ability, a flashy instant knockout. Each attack fuels a different move, and it quickly becomes clear that Dead as Disco is designed to encourage rhythm in all facets of combat.

As it’s still in Early Access, there are a few kinks to iron out in the game’s combat. The game’s biggest sin is hiding a key ability – the Pestle Grapple – deep in the skill tree, as it’s essential for quickly covering ground in arenas. Once you realize you don’t need to go back and forth to keep the flow of combat going, the whole experience starts to take off. Before long, you’ll have nearly a dozen moves to string together, and it becomes difficult not to start devising optimal methods for eliminating enemies and maximizing your score.

And once you really start to master a level, you’ll find yourself synchronizing your attacks to its theme song – and it’s not just for show. Landing on pace rewards you with a satisfying hit, a higher score multiplier, and increased damage, meaning any serious contender will need to balance speed and efficiency with carefully timed button presses.

Most importantly, Dead as Disco pulls off one of the hardest tricks in gaming: whether you regularly perform no-hit runs or struggle to pull off a single perfectly timed parry, you’ll come away from each level feeling like the best player to ever pick up a controller. The game introduces its mechanics gradually, so Charlie Disco’s growing arsenal of martial arts moves never feels overwhelming.

No matter how much you scuff him, Disco always strikes a pose, adjusting his dark glasses or running a hand through his silky hair. It takes real effort to make him look like a loser; the rule of cool still applies, which makes this beat ’em up truly special.

The early access version of Dead As Disco is available now on Steam for $25. A two-week introductory discount is available, bringing the price down to $20. Console and mobile ports are planned, according to the developer, but there is no timetable for their release. And there’s no word yet on when the game will leave Early Access and head to a full 1.0 launch.