If you’ve ever reached a state of flow in a beat ’em up game, you know that their biggest fights quickly become something like a combo-driven dance. If you adapt to the choreography, you are rewarded with a symphony of violence and high scores. Developer Brain Jar Games’ Dead as Disco feels like the next natural step for the genre — a literal “beat ’em up to the beat.”
And make no mistake, you’ll definitely be overlooking some eclectic acts like Charlie Disco, a chart-topping rock star who’s just come back from the dead and is looking to resurrect his career by putting together a band. There’s only one problem: His bandmates are the very people who betrayed him, left him for dead 10 years earlier and went on to sell and sign a major record deal. Awkward.
What follows is a boss rush where Disco brainstorms with his old friends one by one, dragging them back to the club they used to play at before they made it big. It seems like an honest, simple take on dark revenge stories like The Crow and The Drive — I mean, just look behind the protagonist’s coat. A scorpion motif may also be struck on it.
While parts of Dead as Disco’s Steam Early Access release feel a little undercooked — the purchasable club decorations and side quests for partners appear as afterthoughts, at least for now — the core is solid. Combat is fast and responsive, and the four story levels in the current build play out like impressive, interactive concerts, where the visual spectacle alone might feel worth the price of admission.
The boss battles are special, multi-stage endurance tests full of flashy lights and unique mechanics, and they’re absolute tours de force, which they should be, given that they’re the biggest addition to Dead at the Disco’s Early Access demo.
Charlie Disco will have to recruit some of the best — and most dangerous — musicians in the world to assemble his band and take the fight to the record label.
Trope-y, flamboyant and with an imperfect love for the art of music
It’s hard not to wonder what kind of music Charlie Disco was making in his heyday, especially since his band is such a diverse mix of artists with distinctive character designs. Although several bosses haven’t entered the game yet, there are four main objectives that Disco can take on in any way he chooses, such as Mega Man fighting through a giant tunnel.
Charlie tracks down each of his band mates in their hometowns. Acidic, bluesy punk rockers Hemlock throw down on the subways. The refined rapper prophet takes the fight from the streets to the skyscrapers. Heavy-metal cyborg Dex strums an electric guitar while Tesla hums in the core of a power plant. And the AI-generated K-pop star Arora presents your show in space.
The boss battles are very creative and lend creatively to the real-life genre. Prophet, for example, attacks you with the appearance of his words, while Dex uses a biomechanical chair that would look right at home in a Nine Inch Nails music video. AI Arora even summons its own light construct to fight you (not so much inspired by Blade Runner 2049 — there’s that Ryan Gosling inspiration too).
Every stage has some kind of gimmick that turns Dead as Disco on its head. One moment you might be fighting in a 3D subway tunnel and the next, you’re defeating enemies in a side-scrolling train car. Fighting regular thugs can take a turn for the worse when you stumble into a foggy, narrow corridor. And just as you have your bearings, the earth shakes and lifts, and suddenly you are protecting the top of the obsidian pyramid from tens of dark shadows that rise up seeking your life.
The Dex boss fight is steeped in biomechanical grime, crackling Tesla coils and shifting enemy shadows. It plays like a heavy music video.
At times, Dead as Disco almost feels like it’s moving too fast, one spectacular vignette moving to the next before the entire moon hits the ground. But the game is clearly intent on high-octane fun above all else, and if something goes wrong, there’s always another flashback, a nod to the movie or a boss stage just around the corner — just keep moving up, it insists. Don’t stop moving.
Dead as Disco story stages and challenge levels themed around pop, metal, EDM, hip-hop and yes, even disco music. It sounds like an ode to all music lovers as there is something for everyone here. And, if you’re feeling left out, the Infinite Disco mode lets you add your own music tracks to play with. Yes, I added Miku’s song. And yes, it’s silly fun to beat the thugs on the street to the online theme song of the voice.
I expect to see an avant-garde game video online soon. For people who enjoy pushing rhythm games to their limits, Dead as Disco has the potential to be a timeless game — one that doesn’t need a sequel or sequel to stay interesting, especially if future updates roll out the challenge list once the remaining boss battles are added.
Hitting perfect blows against the enemy is the best way to stay safe on the streets and get new high scores.
The fight is solid, but how much meat is on the bone here?
Obviously, at first I was overwhelmed by Dead as the Disco battle moves and dominates. As I punched, dashed and dodged my way through the early stages of the game’s story, I struggled to find the depth of the mechanics. The beat ’em up gameplay feels solid but simple — that is, until the skill trees start opening up.
As you beat down bosses, you start unlocking abilities that are relevant to context. The standout is an electric guitar that connects lightning between enemies, but other highlights include the rapper’s golden gauntlet of improvised parries and a gnarly bass guitar that swings in a full 360-degree arc to knock enemies off their feet.
Using these skills costs a meter, a resource that builds up as you take out enemies. And all your attacks consume a high skill, fast KO. Each attack enables a different move, and before long it becomes clear that Dead as Disco is designed to encourage rhythm in every aspect of combat.
Since it’s still in Early Access, there are some ways to adjust the game’s combat. The game’s biggest sin is hiding an important skill — drumming — deep in the skill tree, as it’s essential for quickly closing the arenas. Once you realize that you don’t need to run forward to maintain the flow of combat, the whole experience begins to rise. Before long, you’ll have about a dozen moves to string together, and it’s hard not to start theorizing the right ways to take down enemies and increase your score.
It’s dead as high score competitions in Disco will be tough once the best players figure out how to optimize their dodges and parries in each level.
And once you start mastering a level, you’ll find yourself attacking the timing of its theme song — and it’s not just for show. Beating the beat rewards you with a satisfying thwack, high score multiplier and increased damage, meaning any serious opponent will need to balance speed and efficiency with carefully timed button presses.
Most importantly, Dead as Disco pulls off one of the hardest tricks in gaming: Whether you’re used to pulling unhittable or struggling to land one perfectly timed parry, you’ll leave each level feeling like the best player to take control. The game introduces its mechanics gradually, so Charlie Disco’s growing arsenal of martial arts doesn’t feel overwhelming.
No matter how much he makes her stumble, Disco always hits the spot, adjusting her dark shades or running a hand through her silky hair. It takes real effort to make him look like a failure; the cooling rule is always in full effect, which makes this beat ‘feel really special.
Dead As an early access build for Disco available now on Steam for $25. A two-week introductory discount is available, bringing the price down to $20. Console and mobile ports are planned, according to the developers, but there is no timeline for their release. And there’s no word yet on when the game will leave Early Access and boogie on its way to a full 1.0 launch.