Synopsis

• Graphics: 6/10
  
• Sound: 9/10
  
• Gameplay: 8/10
  
• Replayability: 8/10
  
• Total time to 100%: ~6.5 Hours

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Graphics

Arguably the weakest aspect of Theatre of Doom. The game itself is far from ugly, but it has the graphical appeal of Path of Exile in its early days. There is much left to be desired, especially after being inundated with well optimized UE4/Unity titles these past couple of years.

There's a lot of repetition in monster variety in Theatre of doom, but the levels themselves are somewhat varied and help keep the campaign from feeling too stagnant. Your character also remains visually consistent throughout the entire game, and the only time you will see a switch up is during versus/couch co-op modes(each player is a unique color[red,blue,teal,etc]).

Sound

Apart from the gameplay, the sound is my favorite part of Theatre of Doom. The main soundtrack seems to have been created/produced by an artist known as Hexenkraft. It's an excellent throwback to the 80s synth horror genre, and reminded me a bit of the soundtrack to 2014's "It Follows." The difference between the soundtrack of "It Follow's" and the soundtrack of "Theatre of Doom" is intensity and speed, with the latter being more supersonic.

Gameplay

Gameplay will be hit or miss for a lot of folks. For me, the gameplay was largely a huge hit.

There are times when you'll be frustrated at the controls: target lock-on might not lock-on, even though you swear up and down that you and your target indicater were facing your target while mashing your lock-on bind furiously. There's also moments of aggrivation because the depth perception in the game is somewhat poor; given that one of the central movement mechanics is the ability to use a jetpack to ascend/descend, the isometric camera can make for difficult depth perception which will lead to many failed strikes and shots.

But failure and practice are key elements to success. You'll be able to better orient your character after a few hours of zipping around with your jetpack in combat, but your depth perception will never be flawless in this game's environment.

Replayability

I found this game to be immensely enjoyable, but rather short. At nearly 7 hours game time, I got all trophies and for all intents and purposes am completely done with this title. However, I'm in game writing this review and listening to the soundtrack because it kicks ass.

I DO think that this game's replayability would benefit with a character customization system tied to all of the extra Ectoplasm that you get once you cap out your character's power triangle/skills. I've got around 5-600 EP just buring a hole through my coffers, it'd be nice to spend it on skins or camos for my character, or maybe even skins and camos for enemy NPCs. Perhaps a customized HUD(think DOTA2 customization packs), or maybe a cheatcodes menu where we can do cool things to our playthrough or graphics (like Max Payne).


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The game's currently on sale for 7 dollars and in my opinion is an absolute steal. Even though the game is short, the experience is still excellent and the setting itself intensely unique (you're fighting on stage in a marionette show).

Excellent job, Artery Games!

Bit easy, but pretty fun.
I actually prefer Mouse + Keyboard as opposed to Controller for this.

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Awesome game! It reminds me of devil's daggers for some reason :) It's strange it has so few reviews. Definitely worth buying and playing!

Just a fantastic top down, twin stick action game. Looks slick, sounds slick, and plays at a slower pace that manages to avoid being frustrating and is actually really fun. I'm not saying its a masterpeice, but its definitely worth the $10 risk to find out if you like it. It's atleast worth that to someone who's meh on it. I know I don't have much time on it, but the game is a small experience that just gets harder.

Fun little twin-stick shooter with a 'lasso' variation where you lock-on to the enemy by clicking the right stick (ugh), then you're tethered to them making it easy to shoot or whack them with your sword/bat. Bonus Ecto if you finish them off with your sword.

The levels are short and perfect for jumping-in for a few minutes at a time on the Steam Deck. Very addicting gameplay loop so you always want to finish just one more!

Jumping is critical for hopping around the platforms to avoid getting surrounded. Keep mashing the jump button if you fall off the ledge to make it back. There are crates that block your path you can smash to gain pickup items. The broken crate debris stay scattered around and hinder your movement so you must jump around them to avoid or sweep them away with your bat.

The controls are a little wonky, it's hard to lock-on consistently. The camera movement can also be wonky making it a little more challenging, and sometimes the lighting gets really dark making it more likely to fall off the edge.

The top bar is not your health meter and no idea what it is. Your health is the little number next to the little blue heart. You collect red orbs and a white orb but no idea what they do or their purpose. Upgrade abilities can be purchased with Ecto- some must be purchased before others but it's not clear which ones or why.

There's a mode you can activate after collecting enough Ecto but couldn't figure out how to activate/start the mode without remapping the controls as follows:

Made the left bumper the lock-on, and the left-trigger: jump. This lets you keep your thumbs on the sticks and not have to use the face buttons as much. Then made A and X multi-shot and Ectorage respectively. Not perfect but a big improvement for me.

A fun and a bit of a unique game that well worth it on sale. Really looking forward to see what this developer makes next!