Deathtrap (PC) Review

Ultimately, Deathtrap just isn't very much fun, and it's hard to pinpoint why this is the case. Standard to tower defence, traps must be set up to defeat waves of monsters, while also running around, controlling a single character, and attacking the enemies. Although it sounds great to combine the tower defence of Orcs Must Die! 2 with elements of Torchlight II, something is undoubtedly missing.

With all of the customisation options outside of the action sequences, it is surprising to enter a stage and find that Neocore Games has already decided where which traps can be set and left players with no room for working outside of that. In this way, it's similar to the Kingdom Rush series, which only lets towers be built at marked locations, but Deathtrap goes one step further: each location can only have particular traps built there.

Deathtrap, then, is more about choosing which traps to activate than it is cleverly positioning and combining traps to be most effective. Essence is used to build traps and activate upgrades on them, but, again, the options are extremely limited. A given trap can only be constructed at the spot Neocore Games has dictated, and the upgrades and enhancements, while they can be activated in any order, are nearly insubstantial in the effect they have on total damage output and utility. Levels play out almost exactly how the developer has decided they should play out, there's not much room to screw up.

Playing through these stages earns experience and lets the character gain levels. This is where the action RPG elements come in, as abilities can be purchased and stat points distributed. Separate to this, points are earned that can be spent across the various traps to unlock permanent upgrades. All of this is done through complicated menus that require a keyboard and mouse; even though Deathtrap has controller support, these menus are nearly impossible to navigate with one.

Too much was borrowed from Torchlight II, and this is immediately obvious when a treasure chest opens. Loot bursts forward and then litters the ground in exactly the same manner as that game. Also, just as in Torchlight II, the Shift key can be held to make the character attack without moving; otherwise, Deathtrap is click-to-move. It's so reminiscent of Torchlight II that it was surprising to find Deathtrap was made by Neocore Games and not Runic Games.

There is also an entirely unnecessary equipment system, and a crafting system because of course a crafting system. Crafting systems are the "in" thing right now, and they can be found in myriad games that don't gain anything from them—Deathtrap is a fine example of this. Carefully managing equipment, stat points, and ability points yield a total increase in damage of about ten percent, which is hardly enough to justify the effort.

Enemies all use the same colour palette (meaning they are all grey and brown), and it's extremely difficult to tell one enemy from another. Each trap has a specific enemy it is strong against and weak against, but with options being what they are, this hardly matters. This is similar to the Fort Condor attacks in Final Fantasy VII, where it didn't really make much difference that Attackers were strong against Beasts. Even if it was possible to tell at a glance which enemies were which, the limited options available when setting up traps means that players have very little room to actually take advantage of the weaknesses.