The following review is based on the game’s demo that’s currently available on Steam. Not every feature is included due to the circumstances.
Roguelike games aren’t a genre I usually play, so playing DIESELDOME was a yet unknown experience for me. But with the time I played with it, it managed to hook me on some areas, while leaving me with questions mostly.
DIESELDOME is a currently in-development game, that released its demo in October, 2024. Developed and published by GHST Studios, it’s a Fast-Paced, Bullet Hell, Roguelike game, that takes you to the Ancient Rome days. The game has a unique artstyle using a low-poly retro 3D style. It reminds me of the old DOOM days with its genre-type.
Enter the Amphitheatre
When you first launch the game, it will welcome you with a demo warning, that this is a demo, and the game is in-progress. Right after closing that, the game will load us into an arena’s waiting room, where the menu is located in. There are several menus, with the most important ones being the ‘Shop’ and ‘To the Dome’.
The Shop contains upgrades for characters, unlocking several gladiators, abilities and skill tree unlocks. These all need coin which are given by the game based on your performance. There are 3 gladiators, and several unlockable things, which makes the strategy has more variety. To The Dome will make you choose between Survival and Tournament modes. Survival is a quick, 10 minute mode, where you have to survive for 10 minutes. It’s a quick, non-stop bullet hell, where you have to constantly move, watch and manage your health, while also defeat enemies. Tournament mode is also a chaotic level-based mode, where you have to fight multiple enemies and bosses. In the end, no matter the choice, the game will offer you the tutorial first.
Choosing the tutorial will land you on the tutorial level. Here you are welcomed with a talking helper, who will guide you through the tutorial. The game here introduces the movement mechanics like sliding, wall running, jumping and double jumping, and also the health pickups which are important throughout the game. However, the tutorial has flaws. It is mostly bugged. After I reached the weapon room, where I picked up my first weapon, the game didn’t give a clear task on what to do, and the talking minion helper just got stuck in its line. Other than that, I am not sure if it’s intentional, but the weapon animation was stuck and constantly moved even when I didn’t shoot. It also didn’t explain me some mechanics which I later found, for example when I right click I dash forward.
After you select one of the gamemodes, you will be given the option of which gladiator to play with. Selecting your gladiator and continuing will land you on the next window which will give you the ability to choose the difficulty and a new, interesting mechanic, betting. The difficulty is between the scale of a 0 to 6. 0 is the easiest, 6 is the hardest. Betting works interestingly. The game will give the player several choices in the menu to bet on, for example “Killing X amount of Weasels in 10 minutes”. You bet on it 750 coin, and if you complete it, it can give you up to 2500 coins which you can then use on upgrades in the shop. This is a nice, and unique way to help progression in the game, giving you an extra option if you don’t want to grind coins for hours.
Blood and Glory
After landing in the arena, the game gives you a weapon, and all you have to do is shoot the enemies. The arena is an oval shaped arena, based on its texture, inspired by the Ancient Rome Amphitheaters. Combining that inspiration with its unique, retro 3D artstyle, and its ‘Argent Metal’ soundtrack, which was inspired by other similar games, like DOOM, and you get a special feeling.
During your 10 minutes, you will level up frequently. Leveling up can happen once the ‘Crowd Hype’ meter is filled up. The ‘Crowd Hype’ is located on the top part of the screen, under the time. It forces the player into an aggressive style, and punishes passive playstyle by reducing it. The only way to fill it up, is by killing enemies. That’s why passive playstyle here is a punished one. Once you level up, the game warns you about it, and if you press ‘F’, the game will freeze the game, and loads you into the level up screen. Here you can select perks. There are 5 of them, and you can choose one. Be careful what you choose, because some can help you greatly, while others doesn’t help much. Between them are company perks, which will give you little helpers, like tank helpers, an eagle helper or even a round orbit that clears the area around you. This makes the game feel easier, and more simple when a lot of enemies are around you and you can’t separate them. They can also be upgraded by these perks.
The game features multiple enemy types. They all work differently. Some are small, minion-like enemies, while others are ground enemies which throws fire at you. This gives the game enemy variety, making it harder and makes the game feel more exciting than boring.
During your game, the game will often present you challenges. These can be destroying a specific unit, or just avoiding bombs. Completing them will reward the player with a chest, located in the middle of the arena, under a statue. These rewards work like perks, but can be more special, like giving you gold.
Once the 10 minutes pass, you are victorious. You will get a screen, saying it out, and the timer is also on the top, so you can follow your time on the screen. You will get presented with a scoreboard, showing your stats from the session. I found a bug during this time, if you press ‘Escape’, the game will resume your session in the background, while keeping the scoreboard on the screen. This is probably going to be fixed later in the game, but I hope it doesn’t ruin the progression by getting us killed and losing everything. There’s also a popularity meter, which fills up each time you play, giving you new ranks after reaching a certain amount of score. After the results, you will unlock extra perks as well, which you can revisit in the shop in the menu.
The Final Verdict
Overall, this game is fun, but not my type of game. The game is exciting, non-stop aggressive, which works great for this genre and type of game. Since it’s a demo, not every feature is available. The game has its foundation which it can be built on. It has a unique artstyle, a unique arena design, and a soundtrack that fits the environment. The game also took inspirations from other games, and utilize these elements well. If you enjoy a fast-paced, non-stop bullet hell game, like DOOM, Serious Sam, or even POSTAL, then this demo is for you.
