''Deathtrap'' is a

tower defense Tower defense (TD) is a subgenre of strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usually achieved by placing defensive stru ...

action RPG An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

released in 2015 by NeocoreGames for Microsoft Windows and

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

. It shares the

gothic fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ...

setting with NeocoreGames' '' The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing'' and features a lone protagonist who is sent to a border world in an alternate dimension ("Ink") to defend a series of ancient strongholds against a horde of monsters invading from the depths of that dimension and trying to break through to the physical world. The

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

version was released on 3 January 2017 under the title ''The World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap''. NeocoreGames released a

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

port on 28 September 2020.

Gameplay

The player chooses a character out of three possible classes (warrior, sorceress, or marksman) which determine the action aspect of the game, and progresses through levels fighting off hordes of enemies. Each map features a number of pre-set routes for enemies that come in waves, and slots for building various trap types. Those are built and upgraded using the mystical currency "essence" with predetermined amount at the start of each level. Essence can be gained during the level by killing enemies and completing waves, and spent to build new traps or upgrade existing ones. The player wins if they kill all the enemies in a level and loses if a certain number of enemies manage to reach the base portal. Trap actions that damage and kill enemies are augmented by the player's attacks where the character can move across the map freely, whereas traps are stationary and have a limited range. Role-playing elements come into play between levels where the player can upgrade their character on the basis of experience points received, and buy or craft equipment to provide a boost in abilities (either action- or trap-building related). Some trap types and trap upgrades must also be unlocked separately. The basic story mode features 13 levels, but after the player's character has gained enough experience, two additional modes are unlocked: scenario and endless. The scenario mode allows the player to increase map difficulty by selecting various restrictions, while "endless" is a non-stop survival mode with limited resources and increasingly tough enemies. ''Deathtrap'' also features a

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

mode (

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

and versus for up to 4 players) and a map editor.

Reception

Some reviewers have noted close similarity of the action aspect to '' Diablo'' series of games, and that the tower defense aspect likewise doesn't introduce anything significant compared to existing such games, but the genre mix was considered innovative and refreshing. The game has received generally favourable reviews and has a metascore of 77 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

(PC version).

References

{{reflist

External links

*
Deathtrap
' on the NeocoreGames official website
Deathtrap Wiki
on GamePedia 2015 video games Action role-playing video games Tower defense video games MacOS games PlayStation 4 games Video games developed in Hungary Windows games Xbox One games Multiplayer and single-player video games Cooperative video games NeocoreGames games