Death Squared

There's nothing more harmonious than sitting down after a long, hard day at work with a challenging and engaging puzzle game, and these last few weeks we've done just that with Death Squared, a unique puzzle game that was recently released on Nintendo Switch (although it has already been released on PC, PS4, and Xbox One). Trust us when we say: it's puzzle torture on the highest level.

Much like with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, you're tasked with moving two characters simultaneously in Death Squared. You control a robot with each analog stick and your main objective is to bring them both to a circle-shaped target zone each, which is easier said than done and the slightest misstep will lead to your untimely demise. During the first 10 levels of the game we died a total of 23 times, and if it wasn't due to laser beams melting our robots, it was on account of a slight error on our part that saw us tumble into the abysses that line each map.

It's not enough to fill the maps with dangers, as SMG Studio have upped the brain gymnastics by introducing some counter-intuitive elements to keep you on your toes. For example, the red robot always starts on the right side of the map and it's this robot you control with the left analog stick. We're not sure how many times we died as a result of mixing up the robots, but one slight mistake is often enough. Failure is a learning experience though, as you'll figure things out and you're not made to wait long for your next try, so while you will fail a lot, it doesn't frustrate much.

The levels themselves in Death Squared are full of variation and everything is colour-coded, which lets the game introduce new and exciting puzzle elements without further explanation. A red button will only activate if the red robot triggers it, for example, and invisible blocks with a blue shade only allow the opposite coloured robot to pass. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that, and this exemplary clarity is maintained while the game still manages to offer variety over the 80 levels.

Another element that entertains is the sarcastic comments you'll get as you fail. David, an employee at Omnicorp, enjoys dishing out some sick burns and the conversations he has with his colleague are genuinely entertaining. It actually serves as our main motivation to carry on, as the story itself is rather pointless, not providing enough hooks on its own to get us to push through.

Unfortunately the level design grows a bit dull after a while, and the levels tend to feel grey and generic, which makes us tire sooner than we would have thought. It's a shame, as the concept holds a lot of potential, and it's a good thing then that things improve if you invite a friend to join you in the co-operative mode. Thanks to the unforgiving nature of the game, you're going to have to be very careful and communicate in order to progress, as two players double the risk for mistakes at any one time. This is still the more satisfying experience and the co-op mode in Death Squared can be compared to something like say Snipperclips: Cut it out, together!.

This is a game that is at its best if you try different methods and combinations until you've found a solution. It feels rewarding, particularly in the later levels, and even more so if you play with a friend, although we would've wished for a more gentle difficulty curve as it gets hairy pretty quickly.

Death Squared is a fun and challenging experience that unfortunately suffers from somewhat uninteresting level design towards the middle, which maybe would have benefited from less puzzles, whittled down to only the very best. Nevertheless, Death Squared is a solid experience that you should play with a like-minded friend this summer if you got the opportunity.