Devil Jam has a great metal theme and one smart grid system, but the repetitive runs and frustrating combat flow make it feel just okay
Devil Jam opens with a setup that fits the tone perfectly. You are a musician down on your luck, the Devil offers one last shot, you sign a contract, and that contract drags you straight into hell. Your job is simple, survive the gig, kill everything that comes at you, and prove you deserve to stand on the same stage as Death.
The problem is that the story mostly stays at that pitch. You get a cool premise and a lot of style, but not much development. You do return to a hub area after runs, and you can talk to the Devil, who acts as your challenge and task NPC. Completing those tasks gives you coins for small permanent upgrades, but narrative wise it never evolves into something deeper.
Gameplay follows the familiar survivor formula. You run around a huge arena while waves of enemies keep growing in number and pressure. Enemies drop gems, gems level you up, and each level gives you a choice between three abilities or upgrades. Controls are easy to learn and the loop is immediately readable, which is good, because these games live or die on clarity when chaos starts.
The one system that genuinely stands out is the 12-slot layout, presented like guitar frets with four columns and three rows. When you pick a new ability, you choose where to place it. That placement matters because several passives and bonuses affect nearby slots, rows, columns, or specific weapon types. It adds a layer of planning that is more interesting than the usual stack-everything approach. There are also two other characters that you unlock and apart from their look and main attack, nothing really changes in any major way.
I liked that system, but it is not enough to carry the whole experience. The core moment to moment action is just okay, and that is the biggest issue. Enemy speed feels slightly overtuned, and because swarms close in so quickly, many fights become a cycle of panic movement. You dash out, create a little space, then try to circle back and collect the gems you left behind.
The game constantly pushes you to reposition, which is normal for the genre, but it rarely gives you that clean power spike feeling where your build starts deleting the map. Instead, especially early on, you spend too much time scrambling.
The hub loop helps a little, at least structurally. Going back, checking tasks, and buying minor permanent upgrades gives each failed run a small sense of progress. The issue is that these upgrades are modest, so they smooth the edges rather than change the run dynamics. You still need the same careful kiting, the same gem recovery route, and the same patience with enemy swarms that can feel a bit too aggressive.
Build variety also takes longer than expected to become interesting. The game uses the deadly sins as themed abilities and effects. Lust can debuff enemies, Envy can poison, Wrath leans into fire, and so on. In practice, for the first few hours, you keep seeing and using very similar setups.
This genre is at its best when each run feels like a weird experiment that might break the game in your favor. Devil Jam eventually allows some strategy through slot positioning, but getting to that point takes too long, and early repetition drags the momentum down.
Boss design is another mixed bag, mostly on the negative side. Roughly every seven minutes, a boss appears and shifts the pace. In reality, most of these fights feel designed to punish rather than challenge. Many attacks are messy, hard to read, or cover space in a way that feels unfair instead of demanding.
There is one boss I actually liked, Brutus, where the attack language felt clear and I could learn the pattern through mistakes. Most others felt like I was surviving nonsense rather than improving. The final showdown with Death is definitely hard, but the road to that fight already drains a lot of goodwill.
Presentation is good in broad strokes. The hand-drawn style is attractive, characters pop, and the hell aesthetic lands well. It does borrow that mythic, stylish underworld vibe people will instantly associate with games like Hades, but it does not match that level of detail or world building depth.
Performance on PS5 was generally fine in my sessions. I did not hit major technical breakdowns, and readability stayed manageable even with heavy enemy density.
Sound design is where I had the biggest split reaction. The heavy metal direction clearly fits the game and supports the theme. At first it works, but listening to very similar riffs for long stretches gets tiring fast.
That sums up Devil Jam as a whole for me. It has a clear identity, one cool system with the 12-slot fret grid, and enough polish to be playable from start to finish. But it does not push the survivor formula in a meaningful way beyond that one idea.
I do not hate it, and I do not think it is a disaster. It is just okay. If you are deep into this genre and want another one with a metal skin and a light layer of build placement strategy, you can get some fun out of it. If you are hoping for a major evolution or a game that consistently nails the power fantasy, this is not that. I finished my time with it feeling mildly entertained, mildly frustrated, and mostly ready to move on. Thanks for reading!
This game was reviewed on PS5 using a promo code provided by PR. Devil Jam is available on PC, and will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on March 26, 2026.
