Demon's Crystals

This has been sitting in my library collecting dust for years and I figured I would give it a go finally. Overall it's a pretty basic indie twin-stick shooter with very little depth, but I honestly wasn't expecting much from a $3 game from 2016 with barely any updates. I did have a little bit of fun, but it was very short lived as the game felt very repetitive after about 40 minutes or so. From my understanding one of the strongest points of the game is it's co-op, however I only played solo, so my review is for the single player experience. It was better than I thought it was going to be, but it's not something I would recommend. There's a good amount of twin shooters out there that are just way better than this for either the same price or around the same price.

I'm ngl I found this game on total accident bc I was looking up "red steam badges" to decorate my profile with later, and it has a really cool red demon lookin one lol. Plus its just 3 bucks so I bought it and it was better than I thought tbh. Music is great! The artstyle is appealing, it reminds me a lot of Plants VS. Zombies. And the gameplay loop is addictive enough even if its not as in depth as other games in this genre. Though I cant say I'd recc it to anyone who's dying to play a game like this due to how annoying some later levels can become on a single player run. It's not impossible but some enemies will kill you just because they feel like it and not because of any error of your own. For example the L4D like boomer zombie things will explode but wont show you the AOE to avoid until the LAST frame they explode and they take a GOOD chunk of your health. Also leveling up lowkey feels pointless? Did not feel much of a difference at all between level 1 and level 60+ at all. This game is probably more so meant for multiplayer so I'm just speaking from single player experience lol. But yeah! It's an okay game not bad at all but also not amazing. Its a good time killer if anythi…

Demon's Crystals, developed by Byte4Games and published by BadLand Publishing, is a fast-moving twin-stick shooter that embraces old-school arcade sensibilities with a focus on constant motion, dense enemy swarms, and crystal-collecting objectives. From the moment play begins, the game establishes a no-frills approach to action: enemies flood the screen, projectiles fly in every direction, and survival depends on reflexes, positioning, and an almost instinctive sense of when to push forward or retreat. Rather than aiming for deep systems or narrative complexity, Demon's Crystals commits to delivering immediate, kinetic fun in compact arenas designed to keep pressure high at all times. The core gameplay loop is built around short, intense encounters in isometric arenas where players control one of the Urican demons, mythical beings reclaiming their world from invading forces. Movement and shooting are handled through classic dual-stick controls, making the game instantly readable to anyone familiar with the genre. The emphasis is on relentless momentum: stopping for too long or hesitating in a corner is often fatal, as enemies spawn aggressively and quickly surround careless player…

Some of the criticism for this game is entirely valid. Some elements of game design here are just flat bad. In the first few levels there are 'grasping hands' which are very difficult to see and you have to sorta memorize where they are for example. Though I'd say things get better at they go that some of the hazards become more visible. The level design is also pretty cluttered, but I do really love all the colors. There is something about the visuals that I very much enjoy. I do find the fact the on screen indicators for stuff (press A or B button) is annoying since I played mouse and keyboard, but the game does, in fact, work just fine with M&K. For anyone curious, A is enter and B is escape I guess? No rebindable controls but really you only have left click, aim and then AWDS keys. I suppose someone might be annoyed by this though especially if you have a weird or foreign keyboard. As far as the gameplay itself, it's a pretty simple gameplay loop with some minor additional things like leveling. As you level up, you gain more hp and damage I guess but it's not really a visible thing since it feels like the monsters steadily get more difficult too. So a lot of the time the 'le…

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Good and fun, gets a bit repetitive though.