This past week, alongside the ton of games that recently hit a variety of platforms, I’ve had the chance to check out The Devil Within: Satgat, a side-scrolling Souls-like that can certainly look to step through the Metroidvania door with its overall structure. While its full release is still a ways down the road, I found what was here to be fairly decent, if moderately impressive.
The Devil Within: Satgat has you slicing and dicing as swordsman Kim Rip, a warrior tasked with destroying demonic forces of evil. While there are aspects of a story to start off the experience, the edits done here only raise more questions, especially as the game prior to the patch I had played through the demo on initially had a great more clarity on what had transpired, complete with additional cutscenes and character turns that seemed to have been removed. The demo begins with Kim Rip on a mission to destroy some demonic force alongside his fellow warriors. As he begins to suffer from some sort of attack, a confusing series of events play out and suddenly Kim Rip finds himself somewhere else, unsure of what just happened. Yeah, me too, buddy.
After a short stint of exploration, you’ll be killed in a battle that is very much a fight you are not destined to win, similar to the likes of most Souls games. Upon your death, you are resurrected and joined alongside a shadowy figure who acts as your guide for this adventure. I will say that the first conversation the two of you have once you find the soulslike equivalent to a campfire takes place in the level-up screen, obscured by some UI and a washed out display covering the conversation, which has its text speeding along, making the act of leveling and paying attention to a discussion something that hopefully should be separate once the final game ships. Right now, it simply doesn't work.
While the story elements are fairly light within this demo, the gameplay is what is largely on display and for the most part, it doesn’t disappoint. Don’t get me wrong, some elements certainly need some additional development, but the overall foundation is solid enough to make me very interested in where the final game is something I genuinely want to check out.
Given the available slice of experiencing what this game has to offer, you’ll be taking part in equal parts platforming and combat, jumping towards and slashing enemies, as well as dodging and dashing through foes to counter their attacks. Your main weapon is your katana with a gun available to you just a short jaunt into your journey. How many weapons we'll eventually have and their variety is currently something we don't know. Still, the fact that we have that option makes the idea of loot in a game like this to be very enticing.
Combat is the most important part of what The Devil Within: Satgat is going to be judged by. Platforming works well enough, but the act of taking on numerous baddies is what is going to entertain you throughout its undetermined length. Kim Rip has weak and strong attacks, with the stronger option using AP, which reflects your ability to pull off dashes and attacks bound to the Y button. Thankfully, your AP regenerates fairly fast, making it easy to continue to roll out attacks if you pair them alongside your standard weak one. Think of AP as your stamina, a resource you'll need to manage throughout all of combat.
Through dodging and parrying attacks, you’ll come to grasp how the game handles its offensive options, especially as you start to build up your skills through several different skill trees, all mapped to different elements of Kim Rip’s skills. As you level up, or find them spread out across its environments, you’ll earn what are called “factors” and these are spent in their corresponding tech tree, which can be accessed via the campfires you’ll rest at. This system can sometimes require the pairing of different factors to level up a particular tech tree, meaning blue isn’t just for blue and red isn’t just for red. It’s a decent system that works, I just wish the tech tree’s had similar designs to make it more readable, right now, each tech tree is its own design and layout.
While it’s hard to say if everything The Devil Within is attempting to do will work once the game finally releases, I am pleased with what is here. I will say that the game is certainly not too functional on Steam Deck, but on any decent rig, such as my own basic gaming laptop, it ran extremely well. The Devil Within: Satgat certainly has some work needed to polish what is here, but the foundation remains solid with combat that is quite enjoyable, albeit in need of the depth the final release might possibly offer.