The Devil's Due Review – Cheaters Always Prosper

I like unlocking trophies and achievements in video games. I might even say it is a sort of obsession of mine. For reference, I have 97 PlayStation Platinum trophies unlocked; pretty nuts, huh? To achieve such a goal, you have to dedicate a lot of your free time, and during this very long journey, I always dreaded one type of trophy: minigames featuring any sort of card game.

Now, imagine my disappointment when I saw a game where the only thing you do is play poker, relying heavily on luck and cheating. Definitely not my type of fun. However, as is usually the case, I judged a book by its cover before I had a chance to try it out, and I can say now, after several hours with The Devil's Due, that I was "devilishly" entertained; definitely more than I care to admit.

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One lost hand against the Devil, and Jack's next poker table is in Hell.

Story – A Soul on the Table

The story of The Devil's Due has a very simple premise, and it plays out entirely during the opening cutscene. You play as Jack, a poker player and petty cheater who played a hand against the Devil himself and, of course, lost. The Devil promised him untold riches if he won and asked only for his soul if he lost. After losing the bet, Jack is sent to the deepest depths of Hell.

However, not all is lost for Jack, because the Devil gives him one more chance: win his way out of Hell by playing poker and cheating along the way. On his journey, Jack meets plenty of strange characters he has to beat to earn his ticket out.

The story is really nothing special, and all there is to it happens during the opening cinematic. What spices the whole thing up are the characters and the comments they make after winning or losing to Jack, along with Jack's own smarmy charm. I cracked a smile at his remarks more often than not, and that's probably the most entertaining part of the entire narrative in The Devil's Due.

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Hell seats some real freaks across the table, and Jack has a comeback for every one of them.

Gameplay – Cheating Is a Virtue

The Devil's Due is a classic poker game seasoned with a pinch of extra spicy cheating. The entire concept revolves around it, and the Devil himself encourages you to cheat, because cheating is a sin, and the Devil lives for a good sin, right?

Victory in this poker game is paid for with health. Both you and your opponent have a glass of wine that represents your health, and whatever you lose in one duel stays lost until you find a way to heal. Hitting different combinations – one pair, two pairs, three of a kind, four of a kind, a royal flush and more – earns points, and the more points you score, the more damage you deal to your opponent. Once either glass is empty, the duel is over.

On top of the classic poker rules, you have cheating rules as well. Different challenges let you perform different cheats, and the higher you climb, the more the stakes and the difficulty rise. Each challenge has three or four stages, each themed around one of the deadly sins, and during those stages, you play against opponents, purchase cheats and power-ups, and ultimately face bosses.

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The Devil deals your path through each sin, and every card on it is another chance to win or lose your soul.

Perhaps this entire concept reminds you of roguelike gameplay? Well, that's because it is a roguelike; the difference is that winning a single challenge simply checks it off your list, and you can then tackle another one. It's a bit different from a classic roguelike, but in essence, the core gameplay is there.

Some opponents require different strategies to beat, which brings a bit of variety to the gameplay. In those cases, you have to keep an eye on the objectives panel. For example, I played one opponent who kept chipping away at my health no matter how strong my hand was, while his remained intact. I didn't know what was happening until I read that I had to match his hand with mine to damage him. After that, everything became clear as day, and, of course, he fell like countless others before him.

What I didn't like about The Devil's Due's gameplay are the core poker rules. They are classic, not Hold 'em, and as soon as the cards are dealt, your opponent shows his hand, which kills any opportunity for bluffing and makes the cheating feel very simple.

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Read the sign before you play, because some opponents shrug off even a strong hand.

I'm not sure if this changes in the later challenges, since I didn't finish every single one; new challenges unlock progressively as you complete previous ones. Sometimes, opponents are extra strong, and you won't be able to damage them with simple hands. One, for example, was immune to all damage from one or two pairs, so only stronger hands could hurt him, and since playing your hand is obligatory, a weak one turned the damage back on me. The only way to beat this opponent was to get lucky with the right set of cheats at the start of the run, so at times, the game depends heavily on luck alone.

All in all, if you're a fan of simple, classic poker games and roguelike gameplay appeals to you as well, this one will offer a lot of fun. The two blend seamlessly, and if you like those genres, The Devil's Due will definitely deliver.

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When the right cheats never show up, luck decides how far a run goes.

Visuals, Sounds and Performance – Hell Has Never Looked This Charming

Graphically speaking, The Devil's Due is little more than a set of moving images on your screen, and truth be told, this art direction fits the game perfectly. Hell's rooms turned into poker tables look fantastic, the atmosphere hits all the right notes, and the character design is among the craziest, most charming and weirdest I've seen, all at the same time.

Every opponent you play against could be the villain of their own game, yet you meet each of them only once, beat them and move on. The Devil's Due loses no sleep over throwing such characters away, because every new one is better than the last.

Your opponents' death animations are even more memorable, and hilarious to boot. For example, you'll play against a bloke with a very short fuse who literally explodes once he is beaten, leaving a huge mess all over the place, or a lady with a dozen breasts that fall off and scatter across the room when she loses. The visual presentation manages to be gruesome, hilarious and beautiful at the same time, and I lived for those moments.

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Madame Mammaria has enough personality for a game of her own, and you'll only ever meet her once.

The soundtrack features country songs, and the opener is so good that I listened to the entire thing every time I started the game. Its lyrics lay out the story's premise, so if you ever forget why you're stuck playing cards against Hell's finest fools, the answer lies in the opening song. The Devil's Due doesn't feature voice acting, only gibberish accompanied by speech bubbles, but this isn't a minus at all; it's just part of the game's charm.

The performance on my PC was top-notch, without a single hiccup and with a very high framerate throughout, but that's to be expected, since The Devil's Due is, as I said, little more than a showcase of moving images.

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Every beaten sinner left in the dust brings Jack one step closer to the door he's been playing for.

Conclusion

I went into The Devil's Due dreading every hand and came out wanting to play just one more run. The story is thin and over before the first card is dealt, but Jack's smarmy charm, a cast of grotesque opponents who could each carry a game of their own, and a country soundtrack I would happily listen to outside the game carry it a long way.

It isn't flawless. Seeing your opponent's hand the moment the cards are dealt takes the bluff out of poker, and some opponents can only be beaten if luck hands you the right cheats early in a run. Still, poker and roguelike progression mix far better here than I ever expected, and if either genre is your thing, this is a deal worth taking.