Get Sliced Up In Disc Room – Review (PC)

It may seem counterintuitive to say that you need to die repeatedly in order to progress in a video game, but that’s exactly the scenario you’ll be faced with in Disc Room – the newest game from Devolver Digital and a merry gang of independent game developers. Best known for games such as Minit, Ridiculous Fishing, Sludge Life, Enter the Gungeon and more, this group of famed developers have come together for a collaboration that will have your head spinning or, rather, separated from your body.

Disc Room puts you into the body of a scientist in an oversized HAZMAT suit. Through a series of cutscenes reminiscent of comic book panels, players control our daring protagonist as he journeys through a mysterious UFO full of blades. Why are we attempting to infiltrate this death trap when certain death awaits? Because of science, of course.

Players board the UFO and have access to only a few rooms at first. In order to progress they must accomplish a variety of goals displayed on screen. Goals range anywhere from surviving for a certain amount of time, dying in under a certain amount of time, using powerups, or being slain by a particular amount of different types of discs. Progression may unlock immediately after only one run of a particular room while others will require players to sacrifice themselves over and over in order to gain access to the next zone. But don’t worry, as soon as you die the room will instantly reset with no loading time, allowing for more insanely fast-paced gameplay.

Also inside each Disc Room is a mini leaderboard for the level, but it doesn’t necessarily compare you to other players. You’ll be encouraged to beat your own best time as well as be presented with a “Beat the devs” time. This, along with global challenges for beating the game with certain parameters, encourage ultimate replayability in an otherwise relatively short experience. Disc Room is not infuriatingly difficult, at least not all the time, but there is some skill level involved that not all players will be able to achieve on their first playthrough. This factor means that completing the game could be accomplished very quickly, or it could take literally forever. If you find the game too hard, or if you want to make it more challenging, there are a ton of options to increase and decrease the difficulty which make it much more likely that, whatever your skill level, you’ll enjoy it.

Through accomplishing different objectives players will unlock new skills for their brave little scientist. These skills include a dash ability, a clone ability, the ability to warp time, and several more. The only catch is that players are only able to equip one of these abilities at a time, and different stages may be more suitable for one skill or another.

Recommendation: Disc Room is a fun, fast, and challenging experience with nearly infinite replayability. There isn’t much to the story, but that isn’t the point. In arcade games such as this, the focus should be on gameplay mechanics and it definitely is. At a price tag of $14.99, we recommend Disc Room for those looking for a challenging experience that can be played over and over.

Disc Room is available on Nintendo Switch, Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG starting October 22nd for $14.99.

Disc Room was provided to the reviewer by the PR representative for the publisher, but this did not influence our score in any way.