It’s always more fun being the bad guy, isn’t it? Ask any actor or wrestler whether they prefer being the hero or the villain, and I reckon nine times out of 10, it’s the latter. Angelfall gives you this chance by assuming the form of an Archdemon who pulverizes puny humans to power up and become more formidable.
I downloaded the free Angelfall demo to see what the debut title from The3rd.One Group is all about, and I was pleasantly surprised by its engagingness and effervescence.
Think Fast, Kill in Mass
You are an Archdemon. You kill humans, LOTS of them, which earns XP, helping you level up. Along the way, you gain access to new Augments, which enhance your current skills, gain Modifiers that increase critical damage, among many other effects, and inherit new abilities and attacks.
It’s a self-playing game, in that you control the movement of the Archdemon, but the attacks are on a timer with cooldowns. This adds an element of strategy: Do you back off for a second, waiting for your primary attack to recover? Do you retreat to complete a nearby objective and ignore the ever-growing horde in favor of potential extra strength?
You have to be constantly alert playing AngelFall, as the game won’t wait for you. But it’s hard not to be razor-sharp once you start dishing out huge AoE projectiles and spewing giant beams of light that would make you think you were ascending to heaven. The game runs smoothly, and there’s so much going on at once it’s impossible to look away for even one second.
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It’s only a demo, so you can only pick a couple of characters, and you’re limited to one location, but it’s more than enough to get a sense of Angelfall. Understanding the synergies and what to prioritize is a learning curve. In my first run, I just about made it to the first boss and was quickly squashed.
I’m intrigued to see how the objectives evolve with harder levels and more intense waves and enemies, but one thing that isn’t in doubt is the music. I’ll say it: DOOM (2016) has inspired many games since, with people realizing that, yes, heavy metal is awesome!
The soundtrack is very stompy and industrial, and serves as the perfect backdrop for a dark game. Needless to say, I want to know more about Angelfall, as it shows me the light.
What do you think of Angelfall? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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