Deaths Gambit

Review
Death's Gambit: Afterlife is a very polished MetroidVania with punishing but solid combat, good exploration, a very nice RPG aspect, and a sense of uncovering that is quite rare to encounter. It has some minor snags, though.
The Highlights
You have lots of classes to choose from when you start. And after you level up, you can distribute points in your build, like in a classic RPG.
The RPG aspect is heavy; you have lots of equipment and items that you can use and get passive buffs. Also, there's a skill tree that you can branch into different skills and abilities.
The pixel art is not overly detailed and is somewhat rustic, but I like it. It's difficult for me not to like pixel art.
I didn't like the combat at first (as I don't like the "Souls combat" where stamina is needed to act), but after a while I adapted to it, and it became pretty fluid.
The dialogue has voice acting; it's nice; normally you don't find voice acting alongside dialogues (at least I don't), so it's cool when I come across it. But, weirdly enough, the protagonist has no voice lines. I got the true ending, but I still don't get this design choice.
You have a lot of freedom; the game allows you to engage in ways that feel like they're organic. For example, you can attack pretty much any NPC—kill Bast! Also, the exploration was very satisfying; I was always finding new things and items for wherever I was exploring.
The game is pretty challenging, the enemies are unforgiven, and the damage taken is substantial. And the bosses are equally hard. Although there are some difficulty spikes, they are quite preposterous.
The Drawbacks
One major negative point is that there is no fast travel until you reach the endgame. Like, c'mon, who thought this was a good idea?
There are several little minor nuisances in details that I noticed, like: some voice lines are missing from the dialogue. And other little technical things that I observed that were not polished.
But I gotta say... there are some design choices that are just perplexing. Like, I'm all on board for obscure secret puzzling stuff, but that invisible platforming puzzle to unlock the secret boss is abolutely atrocious. One thing is trying to make something difficult; the other is creating an obtuse, stupid section that sucks all the fun away from the game.
Conclusion:
Death's Gambit: Afterlife is a pretty big MetroidVania (40+ hours), with lots of content, challenging battles, prime exploration, huge RPG elements, and... it's FUN (for the most part); it's not perfect in totality, but it is a very solid game. The score can't be anything less than:
8/10

Honestly I've finished the game awhile ago. This game had a rough start imo, but the devs did an amazing job with it. Death's gambit is one of those games that are both fun and challenging. I have loved every aspect of the game. Especially with afterlife and getting it's ending. I genuinely liked the story everything about it from our relationship with death to the bonds created I know that there isn't much bonds created, but I just like it xd maybe it's one of those games that you fall in love with regardless of it's imperfections. Beautiful game I truly do wish the devs a bright future as you guys have given me a very fun time. Give this game a try fellas it deserves it. Much love!

Game is impressively simple and fun. I like Metroidvanias, top 3 genres, for sure. The end game is a little overly zealous with the heroic bosses being ridiculously hard and my processor can't keep up with Amulvaro AT ALL but I really enjoyed this game. I will play it again, in the future. It's more forgiving than other 'souls-like' games in the sense that you don't lose your currency when you die, just drop one of your healing items you have to go reclaim, but that's alright. Not everything has to be an immense struggle; that's what reality is for.
The plot is okay, I guess. There's nothing really surprising about it, I put everything together..pretty quick. The 'big twist' at the end isn't really much of a twist, just more of a "Protagonist is dumb as rocks" moment. After the first couple of scenes with Endless, we kinda all knew where things were going except for Soren. Although, I must say, I genuinely did not see the "Go fight these robots in an underground factory that are commanded by a lightning lizard" part coming. I guess that was..kinda neat..? Bysurge is alright, just stupidly easy on normal and then viciously difficult for all the wrong reasons on heroic.
My only complaint is sometimes I wish Death would shut up and just let me play the game. I died to a flower and he made fun of me for it. Not cool, man..

Tbh, there's better games out there. This doesn't even need to be something you buy, you don't miss out on much
But after playing through and beating it, I won't do NG+. Not because it's bad or anything, but because my character got their happy end
I won't make them relive the nightmare. I owe it to them as their Observer

I want to love this game, I really do. But i cant find purpose of finishing sadly.
Weapons is too slow, animations feels off. Small bosses fun, most others cheesy. No fast travel is very annoying.
Good voice acting, soundtrack. The art design is excellent, atmosphere is immersive. Difficulty is just right.
Mixed for me but you should try it, if you love metroidvanias.

Soulsvania with difficult but fair bossfights, good non-linear exploration, an interesting story (more fleshed out than most soulslikes), beautiful pixelart and great voiceacting. Biggest downside for me was the fact that most weapons of the same type play the exact same way but there are enough different weapon types to allow for good variety anyway. Highly recommend if you're into soulslikes or metroidvanias. ^^

I have played many metroidvanias in the last 3 years and this game is a must-play for every fan of this genre.
It's incredibly well done, complex, versatile and fun.
The story is immersive and interesting.
The mood is magical and dark.
Conversations and characters are unique and colorful.
Combat is very fulfilling and rewarding (I would say it's forgiving but only when you know this genre well).
Do yourself a favor and buy this game <3