Deaths Gambit

This game has a robustly defined personality and identity, so i wont be comparing it to other titles of the genre. Its biggest strenghs are the story (actually quite complex for a title this size, very good), the characters (the main ones actually have motivations, hopes and dreams and are morally ambiguous - the player character included) and the bosses (mechanically well thought out and lore wise interesting). The down sides i can think of are mainly lack of modding support (xd) and the low budget that sometimes shows although strongly overshadowed by the love the devs put in the game. For some odd reason i find myself constantly returning to this game in spite of owning much bigger metroidvania titles, there must be something magical in the world of Siradon. Hop in and see for yourself and remeber to kill the lizard man right away :)

This is my favorite MV, so this review might be a bit biased.
I will go with the typical and boring pros and cons list.
Pros.
+ The story really surprised me in a good way, this is probably the story i enjoyed the much within the genre:
+ Death and the main antagonist are really interesting.
+ The gameplay can be hit or miss, it really depends on how you approach the game, want something easy and steam roll the game ? go with nothing but the Hammer and it will be boring, or try to dive a little more with the build diversity, at first it seem that you can't do much, but in that regard this game have a very good diversity of build that you can experiment with, just don't stick with the logic of, this class should only use this weapons.
+ The map is huge, like really huge but doesn't feel like a chore to traverse, some may claim that the lack of fast travel is a mistake (the horse is, but it was designed for the vanilla release in mind and is not that great with the afterlife update), i would just say play a bit more.
+ Voice acting is good, like better than a lot of AAA games that i have played.
+ The soundtrack is also very good
+ Combat feedback is great, the vanilla release was way more soul-like oriented (you can still play it) when the afterlife update toned down the clunk of the combat, boss difficulty is fair and the only real challenges are coming from some of the heroics fights.
+ Unlocking the secret boss without a guide is beyond insanity, beyond La-mulana tier (yes i looked for a guide), and there's the possibility that there's still an undiscovered secret.
Cons.
- Audio balance is debatable, one music track is way louder than the rest and it's one of the first that you hear. The issue mostly come form voice recording, a lot of dialogues that came with the afterlife update have a different volume, it can get a bit annoying, this game have an impressive voice acting quality for an indie game, and this issue kinda make no sense and it was never fixed. There's also another audio issue where a voice line desync at the very end of the true ending, this issue appeared after a patch (ConfirmClassSelection, pls don't fix) and it never got fixed.
- At some key points of the story the game will tell where to go, which was in my opinion a mistake, some players tend to tunnel vision and to rush to the objective ending up being stuck or missing a large chunk of the afterlife update.
- The normal talent tree is kinda disappointing, the build diversity that you could get from it with the vanilla release of the game is gone, i know that class have theirs own skill tree now but it remove the possibility of using some old builds, such as the overpowered gun build from the original release, and thrust me there's way more overpowered build that you can do now.

- The afterlife update did some poor decisions compared to the vanilla release.
Removing some important story elements such as the expedition cutscene when they get wiped by Endless, I know there's a reason for that, but that's story spoiler, still i don't see much reason for his removal.
And the scene where you storm the castle with spoiler and spoiler was removed.
A massive chunk of the final dungeon for the C ending was totally removed from the game and as well as a piece of the lore that was also removed with the giants.
The entrance of Garde Tum had a way better design.
The ice giant area and the orange forest were linked to other areas, in afterlife they don't make much sense.
The nightmare fight was more tense and harder, I still wonder why they nerfed it, it was already easy.
- The removal of Myrthil greaves with afterlife also make no sense, these are the best in slot shoes for the Hammer weapon, and the only way to get it is either play with the randomizer mode (need ash of vados) or play the vanilla game (by selecting Beta under the game propriety) until you kill Forgoten Gaian (third boss), save and revert back to afterlife and load the save.
Don’t get me wrong, afterlife clearly made the game better, but these are the decisions I don't agree with at all.
And because of that it's worth playing the old gambit at least once.
- Unlocking the secret boss without a guide is beyond insanity, Think La-mulana nonsense, but harder.
- The lack of storage is a bit annoying, making throwing item such as knifes near useless.
- The ash of Vados dlc is kinda disappointing and kinda bring more questions than answers.
Get it if you want an easier grind for late game, but don't except much, for exemple the randomiser is not that "random"
Fink mode is also terrible, not counting the fact that it can lock you out of the best dagger in the game.
Heroic mode is interesting, but not recommended at all since some heroics boss at low level is a real pain and you will need to script the whole fight.

When I realized that this game was basically a 2D Dark Souls, I feared the worst, namely getting stuck on its difficulty. I did not, but I did sometimes get stuck on where to go next, or what to do. I had a good time nevertheless. it looks good, it sounds good, ans the atmosphere is great, punctuated by a bit of humor. I'd happily buy a sequel.

Great Experience, good story, fun and challenging combat.

I didn't like it at first. Hell, I even refunded it before. But after coming back to and beating it, I really enjoyed it.
I got ending A the first time around, and I intend on re-revisiting the game to get ending B. The story is pretty neat also.
Just beat ending B. I had a lot of fun. I still recommend.

Awesome hidden gem. I loved the gameplay and especially the visuals.

A game I wish never ended, ironic considering the plot. Playing Death's Gambit has been one of the highlights of my year. Smooth combat, snappy platforming, a great sense of progression, quirky humor that (usually) doesn't overstay its welcome, and one of the best soundtracks I've had the pleasure of listening through. Although the story goes a little off the rails at the end, and a certain secret boss has the most obnoxious mechanic I've ever dealt with, this version of the game is damn near a masterpiece. Don't trust the lizard in the Sanctuary.