🔮Dead as Disco Preview - What Can You Expect From it?

Dead as Disco is an indie beat'em up that takes the combat of action games like the Arkham titles and gives it a rhythm system to creating something unique.

I previously showcased this title, but now that it's about to come out in Early Access in May 5th, it feels fair to share more details about this stylish game.

🤩First Impressions

From the moment I found this game's trailer I knew I had to try it out because it is one of the most interesting titles I've seeing come out from an indie studio.

📖The Story & Characters

You play as Charlie Disco.

He is a fallen icon who came back from the dead for a single night to find out the truth about his death and how his bandmates might be connected to it in a none-linear story filled with action, betrayal, revenge, and redemption.

I don't know much about the story because at the time I'm writing this, the full game isn't out at the moment I'm writing this article, however, I'll 100% review it once it is and I'll give my complete thoughts about it.

🎮Gameplay & Mechanics

The combat mechanics are similar to that of the Arkham and Spider-Man games where you attack, counter, dodge, and perform finishers to defeat your enemies.

You also have a Takedown to immediately knock out grunts even if they are on full health, the Fever Rush bar which fills up by attacking enemies and lets you unleash a barrage of attacks that consumes it, batons you can throw to hit far away enemies and then launch yourself to them, and emotes to style on them mid-fight.

If you time your attacks correctly, you won't just do more damage, but your counters can instantly take down enemies, and your dodges will give you extra points.

Speaking of points, you also have a counter that keeps track of your score and a leaderboard where you can compete against other players.

Different actions give you different amount of points and you have a multiplier which increases the longer you go without getting hit. If you get hit, the multiplier will reset, but your points will remain intact.

During the demo you only can check out two things.

• The Infinite Disco: a mode where you can select, upload, and create playlists of your favorite songs to automatically sync with the game.
• The Hemlock Mission: the only story mission available where you can get a taste of what's to come once the full game is out.

There was also a place called the Dive Bar, but it didn't let us do anything and just showed us some things we can expect from the full release. Like character customization, power ups, and lore.

🎨Design & Vibes

Dead as Disco has a stylish neon futuristic comic book design that doesn't just look good, but also complements the gameplay.

The enemies, for example, are easy to identify, their attack patterns change depending on the type of enemy, and they all have indicators showing whether you should counter, dodge, or finish them off.

Also, the stages seem to reflect the personality of the bosses so you can get idea of what to expect once you confront them.

However, the best part was the music because it is a combination of original tracks and licensed classics which was a big surprised for me.

📍Main concerns

I don't have any concerns regarding gameplay at this time, but I'm a bit worried about it using popular songs since I'm sure many content creators will play this game and some might be victims of false copyright strikes on their channels.

The songs are promoted as streaming friendly and copyright safe, but that hasn't stopped bad actors from trying to falsely strike channels before, so I hope they have a way to deal with them if needed.

💭Final Thoughts

I honestly think that Dead as Disco has a lot of potential and could possibly be the next big indie title.

The combat, the vibes, the design, and the music are fantastic and I can imagine many people will upload their favorite songs to the Infinite Disco just so they can kick ass at their beat.

The leaderboard adds a lot of replayability since you can compete for first place either with your friends or globally and you will need to master the mechanics to maximize your score.

I'll have to wait for the full release to comment on the story, but I have the feeling it's going to be engaging enough since the concept and characters are interesting but we will have to wait and see.

Thank you for reading.