Dead As Disco Early Access Review

Developed and published by Brain Jar Games Inc, Dead as Disco is game where you not only do you listen to music whilst you kick some ass, but you kick ass in time with the music – and not just the tracks the game produces, you can also kick some ass to your own music library.

            You play the role as recently deceased Charlie Disco, a cool character who wants to reclaim the spotlight, get the old band back together, and reconnect with musical legends who were once friends. You need to solve the mystery on how you were killed. But to do so you have to dance/fight your way through each of the levels of the former bandmates and idols and win over the fans to build up your popularity. Then with your new found popularity you can buy upgrades to the bar or upgrades to Charlie to give you a better chance at beating levels at higher difficulties.

            Graphically this game is a neon dream, it’s not cutting-edge realism and nor should it be. It’s cyberpunk – or at least futuristic – in its artistic style and each level plays like a fever dream. I found the artwork immersive, like you are interacting in a massive music video as you’re kicking the enemy’s ass to the music of the level. Each of the levels feel massively different in terms of artistic themes and the music genre. You have a gritty rock themed level with a guitarist and then there is a level with a rapper dropping bars and a variety of other objects your way.

            The gameplay feels like the combat system from either the Batman Arkham or Assassin’s Creed series. It’s crowd control combat with a twist, so using an Xbox controller to play, you mash the X button to hit enemies and occasionally you have to press Y to counter an enemy’s attack. Occasionally you can perform finishing moves with B which look pretty cool. But there is more to just mashing the buttons. You need to try and mash the button to the beat of the track. The more rhythm you have whooping the enemies, the more points you score and the more your special fever meter fills to be able to pull of a special attack. The standard special attack is frenzy attack that allow you to hit an enemy multiple times quickly to raise the combo level and deal some good damage especially to tough enemies or the boss of the stage.

            There are upgrade options which you can using the games currency which is the fans you have accumulated from playing stages and performing well. The upgrades allow you to do extra moves like a heavy kick to knock enemies back or a drumstick toss as a ranged attack to keep the combo flowing. As you best some of the stages you can unlock other special attacks as well as further upgrades to health which is required when trying out harder difficulties on certain stages.

            Currently as this game is in early access there are only 4 stages story stages with what looks like 3 more coming. There is also a free play mode called Infinite Disco where you can fight endless enemies but to your own music which is a super fun element and is what drew my attention to the game. Dead as Disco comes with a decent variety of music, but it does guide you on how to add your own music. You then choose how you want to play the level with either pre made objectives or custom objectives like survive until the end of the song or not allowing your combo to break for 5 minutes. This allows you to extend the fun of the game by kicking ass to your favourite tracks that you always wanted to kick ass too. There is other replay value in that some of the other stages have hidden items found on the levels that you have to track down as well as defeating the enemies.

Conclusion

Its bright and spirited with a cool concept and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed what I have played of the early access. Each of the stages felt fun and unique and I look forward to playing the other stages when they become available.  A fighting rhythm game is everything you expect it to be and it doesn’t disappoint. To be able to kick ass to your own music is something everyone should experience.

This game was tested and reviewed on PC (via Steam). All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.