Damsel Reviews
When you envision what a game that involves killing vampires and saving innocent humans would play out like you're probably figuring on something high on intensity and action...
Damsel is a fun and chaotic game, where you need to know what to shoot and when to shoot it. The arcade shooter has its fun times, but with the repetitive levels and the sudden changes in difficulty, it is hard to keep on playing Damsel.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
The game lives up to this award, as one of the best independent developed games I’ve played, and so near and dear to my heart that it is from our homeland of Australia. It serves itself well as a casual title that appeals to a niche crowd that absolutely have no love lost for their platformers. Damsel is an intense experience, that will leave hardcore devotee’s for their love of platform shooters, coming back to this title for years to come.
Damsel is a mixed bag of emotions for me. I came into this really excited for another experience like Katana ZERO and games of a similar fashion, especially because that is still one of my favorite releases in 2019. While there are elements that I enjoy, I can’t get behind the game as much as I initially expected I would. The odd technical issues and way too repetitive missions holds this back into the good department, instead of thrusting it forward into the great department.
There’s lots to love about Damsel and on Switch, it’s perfectly suited to playing on the train, tram or backseat of the car
Damsel is a fast paced and stylish affair that keeps your heart racing with intense gameplay, despite some eventual repetitiveness.
Slaying creatures of the night are something many of us gamers are quite familiar with. Whether we used swords, magic or guns, it always gives a bit of a rush and frankly quite fun.
Damsel delivers a fairly solid experience with a narrative told through neat comic book style strips prior to levels.
Damsel gets a middling recommendation. If you’re looking for something you can file under “slightly difficult to get used to, eternity to master” then this would be in that rather specific category. As I said at the start, this won’t look out of place on the Switch or Steam library, as those two are bread and butter for this kind of game. Whereas on the supposed powerhouse that is the Xbox, it just seems like a waste of potential. Granted, this is only an indie title, so there isn’t going to be mass dollar behind it. It’s just that the end result on the Microsoft flagship is a bit of a damp squib.
I certainly do not recommend Damsel to arcade fans because these people follow this genre and the weaknesses of the game are easily reflected in their experience. Those who do not experience arcade titles should also know that there are better experiences to enter this genre and Damsel can easily make you pessimistic about this category of games. At its core, Damsel clearly has good basic mechanics, but unfortunately in all directions it is one step away from "getting better". It is clear that the development team intended to develop a challenging game, but they do not do it in meaningful way. My final suggestion is to choose better titles if you want to get into the arcade style.
Review in Persian | Read full review
or the average Joe Schmo, it may make you feel as if your life forces are slowly being drained away. (Check your necks, people!)
Damsel manages to be a competent action platformer that speedrun enthusiasts and leaderboard junkies should get a kick out of, but it achieves little beyond this. The constant dashing around while shooting vampires proves fun in short bursts, but doesn't have a ton of longevity.
Damsel is far from being a bad game. It looks nice, controls well, and has a decent soundtrack. But its moment-to-moment action grows tiresome when played for a considerable length of time. It’s a game best enjoyed here and there – a handful of levels at a time – otherwise it just gets overly repetitive and your interest starts to wane.
Damsel will seep hours from your timestream. If you're up for a fast action game like the days of old, Damsel has you covered
Generally, vampires aren't given the satisfaction they deserve, and Damsel on Nintendo Switch further proves that. Despite providing an interesting premise, the game is held back by its art style & baitful gameplay.
Damsel is an engaging, challenging platformer that has a little something for everyone. It may get too hard too early for some people, but mastering the mechanics is incredibly rewarding.
Damsel's gameplay never comes together, and it's too repetitive to be particularly fun.
While not a bad game by any means, Damsel seems to lack polish and direction. With a mediocre story and overly cluttered environments, it struggles to find its footing as either a story-rich game or speedrunning twitch fest. If one direction was chosen, the potential seen here could certainly be reached.
Overall, Damsel is a cute little game that anyone can get into.