Devil Engine: Complete Edition Review

Devil Engine: Complete Edition put players in the control of The Andraste which is sent on one final mission in order salvage and save the future from a potential disaster. Our heroic ships will have to go head-to-head with the biggest threat of all: the Devil Engine.

Devil Engine: Complete Edition is an intense, shoot’em up, a.k.a. shmup, gaming experience that will push players’ skills to the extreme. While the genre is known to be a hard as nail one, Devil Engine clearly shows that older games were a definite challenge compared to most games today.

Once you begin the game, you can choose between original and ignition mode. While the former is recommended for newcomers or those wanting to get a feel for it, the latter is one of the hardest modes of the shmup genre. Enemies come at you in greater numbers and incredible speed requiring top notch hand-eye coordination.

Players get the choice of three ship. All three ships, while having basic weaponry such as main attack, sub-attack and a feature to block enemy projectiles, their attacks vary vastly from one another giving players some variety and figure out which ships works best for their playstyle. You can also pick up a handful of power ups for some additional powers. They also differ from ship to ship.

For example, one of the ships allows players to pick up a spreadgun, homing missiles or a laser. They can also stack up to three. With the homing bullets, each H pick up will add a new bullet; up to three. While the portion of players that will finish this game on the first try can probably be counted on a single hand, players who still struggle with this genre will still be able to make a bit of progress as new content can be unlocked such as additional challenges, extra lives or various bullet colors.

The game looks great. It features a complementary color palette setting where there’s a dark backdrop (quite fitting for a space setting) where everything else is contrastically colorful as enemy ship have darker tone colors such as green or blue and where enemy projectiles are incredibly colorful to make things easier when trying to dodge them. The soundtrack is an incredible hard rock, with some jazzy flair score that matches the action on screen. It’s as 90s as it can get.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with Devil Engine: Complete Edition, but it does requires a lot of practice and patience in order to conquer normal mode (even on the easiest setting), let alone Ignition mode. While part of the challenge, there’s sometimes way too enemies and projectiles on screen, it can be dizzying. Despite being a game from the 90s, it holds up better than a lot of today’s games. If there’s an issue is that it’s not for newcomers for the genre.

If you’re a fan of the smhup genre or looking for something different to chew on to test your gaming skills, Devil Engine: Complete Edition is the game for you. Hardcore gamers and those hungry for challenges will definitely be busy for the foreseeable future. Conquering both story modes and the subsequently unlocked challenge will put your skills to the test. Unfortunately, newcomers looking to dabble in the genre might want to look elsewhere as this game will offer a new level of frustration.