Developer Games From The Abyss and publisher QUByte Interactive bring you a slice of frantic arcade action with Death Elevator.

“A short and minimalist roguelike where every hit is lethal but time slows down whenever you are in danger. Reach the top floor or die trying!”

As the blurb up there states, Death Elevator is minimalist. The graphics are low-polygon, the game itself boasts – no upgrades, no skill tree and no progression system at all. It is you, a handful of weapons, loads of bad guys to shoot and the very basic goal of using the elevators to get to the top of the building… that’s it. All you have to do is clear the floor of enemies, get in the elevator, go to the next floor up – rince and repeat. Death Elevator is basic, it’s minimalist – it’s also really good fun.

With no complex plot to pay attention to and no deep gaming mechanics – Death Elevator is all about fast-paced arcade action. Shoot bad guys, get in elevator, reach top of building. There is a nice mechanic where, if you are in danger, the game auto-slows down. If a bullet gets too close to you, or if an enemy gets close enough to try to hit you with a melee attack, then everything slows down and gives you a few seconds to react. You can then use the dash move to swifty dodge or even jump over bullets, you can even shoot bullets out of the air. Those few seconds, and your reactions, can mean the difference between failure and success.

Now, don’t go thinking that this slowing down thing means that you can stand in the middle of a room and simply dodge bullets, you can’t. A misjudged dash or jump, and you may find yourself in the path of another incoming bullet. This adds a nice bit of strategy as you have to think before you act. The dodging becomes just as important as the shooting and as you progress up the building, the floors become more and more tricky to get through.

Death Elevator has a price tag of around £9, and it is available for everything right now. As I was playing Death Elevator, I was reminded of another game. Yeah, the awesome and surreal Superhot popped into my head. The graphics have a similar vibe and the gameplay is (kind of) similar… but that is not what Death Elevator reminded me of directly. I have to go back further than 2016’s Superhot – I need to go back to my youth playing arcade games in the ’80s. Death Elevator really put me in mind of Taito’s Elevator Action. For me Death Elevator is the love child of Elevator Action and Superhot, and it’s great fun. It is pure, unfiltered arcade gaming, like gaming use to be.