For as long as action games have been accompanied by high octane, blood pumping music, creatives have been attempting to match the action on screen to the beat of the music. Recently, some ground has been broken in this novel concept thanks to the likes of Hi-Fi Rush, BPM: Beats Per Minute, and Metal Hellsinger, but few have amassed as strong a following as quickly as Dead as Disco.

When Dead as Disco’s demo launched last summer, I had some concerns that the game may have shown its entire hand too early. The Infinite Disco mode nearly immediately became a viral sensation, allowing players to import their own music and adjust the BPM to turn any song into a needle drop action sequence like a mixture of The Raid and Baby Driver. 

While this may be Dead as Disco’s main hook for a lot of people, it is not the best that the game has to offer.

Beat Em’ Up

Dead as Disco adapts the combat system of games like the Batman: Arkham series  to a more traditional rhythm game structure. Players are rewarded for attacking on the beat, as well as countering and dodging enemy attacks. This starts fairly simple, emphasizing pattern recognition, but only gets more engaging as unique abilities are gained from the skill tree and through beating bosses.

Currently, I’d argue the real draw for Dead as Disco should be the addictive and excellently designed main levels. These can be played in any order and follow a series of well paced fights set to a single longform track, culminating in a major boss fight.

The early access build of Dead as Disco features four main levels. There’s the rapper Prophet, the metal guitarist and singer Dex, K-pop vocaloid Arora, and the DJ Hemlock with a level set to an excellent cover of Michael Sembello’s “She’s a Maniac”. As of right now, it appears that three more levels remain to be added to the game, which seems like the right amount to complete the admittedly light story and offer a decent chunk of curated content.

So far almost all of these reflect a high level of polish and I immediately found myself caught in a loop of replaying all of them to raise my high score and earn more Fans, the currency used to gain new abilities. As of right now, the K-pop centered Arora fight feels like it needs the most work, with the slower tempo making the fight feel sluggish at times and the boss’s animations looking noticeably unfinished. 

Following each boss Charlie finds himself at a dilapidated nightclub called “The Encore”, which players will be able to restore and redecorate using Fans collected from the main levels. Upon beating them once, players can also interact with the boss enemies in this hub area for some more story interactions a-la Hades’ House of Hades, although these interactions are far more limited.

After this, all that remains is the Infinite Disco mode, which features the aforementioned ability to import songs and fight in a variety of environments. This is a great way to hone your skills and compete on the leaderboards, which I found myself caring about here more than usual thanks the addictive combat system.

There’s no denying that the combat fundamentals of Dead as Disco are in a really good place going into this early access period and I’m certain that things will only get better as fans jump in and experiment with it. I’m very optimistic to see how the game’s content will evolve and adapt to suit it as time goes on, and if changes will be made to some of the main narrative levels to accommodate them.

Style and Substance

Visually, Dead as Disco has an unmistakable style that shines even despite the rough edges of the early access build. Outside of a few that lack detail and seem unfinished, cutscene animations are striking and help distinguish the main fights, with the 2D animated transitions as particular highlights.

Beyond one somewhat egregious issue where the music briefly stopped during a boss, I haven’t encountered too many bugs. There are some issues during combat where scripted animations don’t complete or clip into the scenery. Thankfully, none of these distracted from the gameplay experience or threw off any of my high score runs.

The music production is also of a high quality so far. While recognizable licensed tracks are limited to covers (albeit, ones that are crafted with the game’s identity in mind), there are a series of well crafted original songs, some of which contribute to the storytelling behind boss characters. The Infinite Disco mode has a series of exclusive songs, including one from viral rapper bbno$, so there are some cases of collaboration tracks.

For story, content is fairly light at the moment, with the bar interactions offering some insight into Charlie’s relationships with his ex-band mates after they have been beaten. The story itself is fairly conventional, centering around the revived disco freak taking revenge on his crew after they betrayed him for a rival label. The presentation carries a lot of the interactions, with gorgeous portrait art and solid voice acting. Here’s hoping this materializes into something more captivating with the full release.

Final Thoughts

Even in early access, Dead as Disco is an exciting addition to the rhythm action genre. Brain Jar Games has not only crafted a strong combat system that already has enough depth to carry the game, but a set of levels that are continuously rewarding with each replay. I’m excited to watch as the game progresses to a full release, especially as some of the rougher edges get ironed out and new content is introduced.

Dead as Disco is available now for PC in early access. The game was reviewed across PC and Steam Deck.

Gamer Social Club would like to thank Brain Jar Games for the review code.