I don’t know why I am here but I know what I have to do—kill all of these horrific fiends and survive.

Devil Daggers is hard, really hard. Created by Sorath, it was inspired by classic FPS like Duke Nukem and Star Wars: Dark Forces. Devil Daggers is a quaint and addicting game that places the player in a room where endless horrific looking creatures will eventually kill you. The mix of horror, survival, and classic FPS genre elements benefit one another, making Devil Daggers distinctive among similar series. The screams, cries, and decapitations will crawl under your skin and attack your psyche. Take care, as you will only last a few seconds against the hordes of hell!

Devil Daggers does not have a storyline or plot thrown at the player. Instead, you start in a dark room where a single floating dagger waits to be snatched. Once you are equipped you can see that you are on a platform and enemies appear within seconds. The player shoots endless red daggers from their hands to kill waves of baddies. The player earns points by lasting as long as possible and they go towards a global leadership board that holds the high ranks just like most arcade style games. There is one unlockable option in Devil Daggers: homing daggers. When looking at the high scores for Devil Daggers I was surprised to see my score compared to scores that hit half a million! I played for a couple hours and was only able to last about a minute or so. To earn half a million must have meant a couple hours of surviving. I have seen people constantly trying to beat their recent score to rise up on the leaderboard.

The daggers have two attack options, a steady stream of daggers or a shotgun blast. The left click on your mouse are the two dagger attacks, killing certain enemies depends on your ability to use both. Holding the left button creates a steady stream of daggers that does weak damage. A single-click fires the shotgun blast that’s powerful-but-inaccurate at far range. Fighting the fiends requires extensive maneuvering around that can lead to you falling off the edge of the level to your death or getting hit from behind because you were not paying close enough attention. Stronger enemies that get destroyed drop red gems that increase your sight range. Being able to see farther allows the player to see the enemies as they spawn. One hit to the hero means you’re dead so being swift and deadly is the only option. The character can strafe, jump, and attack which leads to some interesting tactics as you are only working to get a high score and get homing daggers which give the player an advantage against the horde.

The smooth FPS controls and frame rate in Devil Daggers are great.

The controls are easy to get used to and anyone who plays FPS’s regularly will agree. The left mouse button, space bar and WASD are the only controls you have which makes it more challenging than others in the same genre as usually players are given extra powers or weapons. The sounds heard throughout gameplay are eerie and eldritch. As more enemies appear they create a mix of garbled yells, screams, wails, and screeches that remind the player of nails on a chalkboard. It adds an atmosphere of fright as you try to slaughter the endless monsters that are going to kill you. There are 13 enemy variations and each comes with its own frightening attacks and grotesque appearance. Harder and larger enemies appear more often as time progresses along with a greater number of weaker enemies. Devil Daggers relentlessly tries to end the player's life.

Working towards a high score and getting the homing daggers is daunting but I do wish there were other options that could be unlocked after receiving the homing daggers. Increasing damage or an additional attack would be good additions. Stage progression modes would give some players a bigger reason to play more as some players prefer a more visible sense of completion. The straightforward gameplay is alluring I have to admit. Simple videogames like this where you can sit down and play for 5 minutes or 5 hours are always impressive to me. They often have some sort of addicting quality that is distinguishable amongst others series in their respected genre.