Dead As Disco: A Surprisingly Addictive Rhythm Brawler
Dead As Disco takes the rhythm-game precision of Beat Saber and transplants it into a traditional beat ‘em up format—and the result is far more compelling than it has any right to be. The game hits that sweet spot where accessibility meets depth. Currently in development, the team is actively addressing various technical issues, but even in this early state, the game shows tremendous promise.
Combat That Clicks
The combat system strikes an excellent balance between simplicity and tactical depth. Your arsenal includes standard melee attacks, charged strikes that consume a gradually filling meter, devastating finishing moves, precise counters, and combo attacks that capitalize on stunned enemies. The flow feels intuitive: land enough hits or execute a well-timed counter to stun your opponent, then unleash a combo for maximum damage. Most enemies fall either to a single combo or just a few additional strikes.
Rather than overwhelming you with endless enemy spawns, the game organizes encounters into distinct waves, creating natural breathing room between intense sequences. The enemy variety, while limited in this demo, shows promising diversity with three types of basic enemies, one ranged attacker, a buffed variant, and two distinct heavy enemy types—enough to keep encounters from feeling repetitive.
Infinite Disco: The Heart of the Experience
The standout mode is undoubtedly Infinite Disco, where songs loop seamlessly as waves of enemies pour in. This endless format perfectly captures the addictive “just one more song” mentality that defines great rhythm games. The demo includes a solid selection of tracks with global leaderboards, giving competitive players something to chase.
What makes the gameplay particularly engaging is how it dynamically adapts to each song’s BPM. This isn’t just window dressing—the tempo directly influences enemy spawn patterns and attack timing, ensuring that every track feels distinctly different to play.
Custom Songs: Promising but Rough
The ability to import custom songs adds significant replay value, though the implementation needs refinement. While inputting BPM data is straightforward, the wave generation system sometimes produces timing that feels slightly off compared to the carefully tuned stock tracks.
The foundation is undeniably solid, and strong mod support could transform this from a great game into a community-driven phenomenon, especially if players can easily share custom tracks and potentially create new enemy types or arenas.
You can try Dead as Disco’s demo on Steam and experience this unique rhythm brawler for yourself.
