The PAX East build Suda51’s Free-to-Play action survival game, Let it Die, made in cooperation with Gung Ho Online Entertainment, drops players in an abandoned amusement park in nothing but their underwear. From there, it’s a constant battle to survive against weird, intelligent creatures in a world that mixes horror elements with Suda51’s unique humor and style.
Let it Die contains a lot of gear to outfit the mostly-naked player character. Clothing can be found on enemies and in cases, with each piece boosting the player’s base stats in different ways. They will also change the player’s look, helping to create an avatar that is truly the player’s own.
Clothing may be important, but with odd monsters about, weapons are a bigger concern. The demo build had several, offering baseball bats, pickaxes, and a circular saw with what appeared to be an attached drill end. Each weapon would swing or behave differently, tasking players with keeping track of attack speeds and unique abilities to best suit their combat tactics.
Besides found weapons, blueprints could be located that would show how to create other pieces of equipment. This feature was not fleshed out in the demo, though.
Players could equip three weapons per hand, toggling through them using the D-pad. These can be switched quickly, letting the player change their attack plan whenever they needed to.
The third person combat was straightforward, with buttons assigned to attack with the weapon in the player’s left or right hand. L1 and R1 also allowed for secondary attacks for their respective hands. Players could also guard using the circle button, which would double as a dodge roll if the player was moving when it was pressed. Occasionally, when an enemy got close to death, the game would prompt the player to do a weapon-specific finisher by holding triangle as well.
Should the player wish to avoid combat, they can also try sneaking around the area by crouching. This made the player a little more difficult to detect, and unsuspecting enemies could be defeated with instant kill moves. One of the moves demonstrated was a suplex that seemed to come straight out of No More Heroes.
Much of the gameplay in the demo came down to trying out various weapons to see which would stun or be most effective against the enemies. The game dropped multiple pieces of equipment, seeming to encourage players to experiment with the constant stream of new gear and weapon abilities. It gave the impression of being a deadly toy box filled with things to smash, using constant variety to draw the player in.
When the monsters smashed the player back, the player would need to eat an animal to recover. Rats and frogs were present in the game, and could be snuck up on and captured alive if the player wanted a healing item. These could also be stomped for a boost to the Rage Gauge, which would normally build when the player took damage and would allow use of some stronger attacks when filled.
Demo players would need to eat frogs often, as it only took a few hits to drain the player’s full health bar. This was even more serious during the demo’s boss fight against a living mass of flesh that used dead bodies as bludgeons. It was much more difficult to stun with basic attacks compared to previous enemies, and did even heavier damage.
Due to the open nature of the game’s levels, the Player Data monster was missed during this run at the demo. Suda spoke to how the monster would work, though, saying they would be challenging, but balanced, creatures that would be based on other players that had gone through the game’s world. They would be controlled by AI and use similar equipment to the player, also having the same name as the player.
Being able to dress and arm a character, knowing that whatever absurd or tough build you make could be out there attacking other players, made for feelings of attachment to the player’s creations. Creating a pantsless handyman wielding a bloody circular saw added an extra layer of appeal when knowing it might show up in another person’s game.
This small addition turned a fun action game into one that had a unique player connection within it. Combat was complex and varied due to the constant influx of new gear, and finding the best setups to use on certain enemies kept fighting interesting. Even so, it is that sense that players are creating a permanent piece of the game’s world that makes the player’s character creations feel much more important.
Suda couldn’t speak to the music that would be in the game, but stated that he desperately wanted to talk about it. Even so, the over-the-top finishers, wrestling moves, varied weaponry, and goofy narration from a Grim Reaper in 3D glasses showed Suda’s unique style is firmly in place for the online action game.
Let it Die is projected to release sometime this year.
