Taken for a Quickie | Let it Die

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Grasshopper Manufacture and their bonkers CEO, Suda51, bring us the free-to-play PS4 exclusive Let it Die. Join us for a quickie to see where it falls in their, somewhat patchy, legacy.

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by Sam
​Sant

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@SlamShotSam

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Developer: Grasshopper
Manufacture
Publisher: GungHo
Online Entertainment
Platforms: ​PS4
Players: 1

What lunacy is this one about, then?

Just when you thought it couldn’t get weirder than blasting demons with your big boner in Shadows of the Damned, along comes Uncle Death to introduce you - literally you, you’re his senpai (yes, this game has memes) - to a DeathStation 124 game called Let it Die. The arcade game tasks you with fighting your way to the top of the deadly Tower of Barbs.

How exactly do you do that?

By utilising whatever weapons you can get your hands on and battling through the game’s procedurally generated floors.

What does it play like?

Combine Souls series combat, levelling and passive multiplayer elements with The Binding of Isaac’s wider roguelike mechanics, and you’re just about there. If those inspirations aren’t clue enough, you should know that Let it Die is pretty damn difficult! It’s only ever a matter of time until you’re bested in a bout of challenging combat, at which point, you’ll succumb to perma-death.

Really? I hate losing progress...

That’s where Let it Die’s microtransactions come into play. You can buy revives, which is definitely cheating, but it doesn’t seem like the odds are unfairly stacked against you in order to rinse your wallet (unlike the fixed arcade cabinets of yesteryear). You can also earn the premium currency required to do so simply by playing the game, but it comes few and far between.

Let it Die combines some of the strongest elements from a number of games we love, not only making them work as one, but also work in a free-to-play context.

What if I run out? Game over?

Thankfully, you don’t have to start entirely from scratch. Though the experience associated with and items carried by the departing character are gone for good, any stored items and currencies will still be available to you. Unlocked shop items also stick around, while beaten floors can be skipped for an in-game price, making deaths more inconvenient than devastating.

That’s not too bad then. How does multiplayer work?

Add a dash of Metal Gear Solid V's asynchronous online play to the pot. You can create/acquire multiple characters to switch between, so it’s advisable to put those that aren’t in active use to work elsewhere. They can either be sent out to hunt players for spoils, or used to defend your base from potential home invasions.

On the other side of the coin, you can be the aggressor and storm bases in an attempt to steal non-premium currencies from players, as well as potentially kidnapping and converting their defenders. 

Does it get your seal of approval?

It definitely does. Let it Die combines some of the strongest elements from a number of games we love, not only making them work as one, but also work in a free-to-play context. When you consider its genuine innovations - they are there, in spite of the cherry-picked DNA - it’s very easy to look past occasionally clunky controls and a few server issues.