BDSM: Big Drunk Satanic Massacre Review

Developer Big Way Games has released BDSM: Big Drunk Satanic Massacre with a certain type of audience in mind. They describe their game as filled with sexual content, nudity, profanity, graphic violence, and that this should be considered in case it might offend a player. From beginning to end, the game is filled with pop-culture references, but the time and effort would better have been spent making the gameplay less of a repetitive slog.

Players take on the role of Lou, son of Satan, and head out on a series of missions with the initial intention of earning enough money to keep the drinks flowing. Lou’s drink of choice is not alcohol though. Instead, he prefers to down bottle after bottle of milk. Throughout the game, the player is thrown numerous cultural references as the underworld has been turned into a tourist attraction.

One of the earliest characters we meet is Niac, which is Cain spelled backwards, who invites you to, “Stay awhile and listen.” This Diablo reference is one of many scattered throughout the game, which aim either to simply serve as a pop-culture reference or something to offend, with results often mixed.

Shock Value

Combat is broken up only by dialogue for mission objectives. There is little coherent reason to go and do most of the quests in the game, but Lou seems to have all eternity ahead of him, so that does not seem to be much of a problem. It becomes apparent rather quickly that the game attempts to shock its players with its content, but often falls flat.

One of the earliest attempts at satire that walks far too close to the line of bad taste is when Lou is tasked with “rescuing” the girlfriend of a demon. Finding this demon reveals that she is being forced into sexual acts by a pair of Hollywoodesque types names Harvey and Kevin. This is most likely meant to represent American film producer Harvey Weinstein and disgraced actor Kevin Spacey. Killing both men in the game accomplishes the mission before the player is placed into a mini-game that will pop up throughout the game to have sex with the demon Lou was tasked to rescue.

Every subsequent female demon Lou meets in his journey is equally desperate for sex. It becomes clear that our protagonist is one that no woman can resist, even in hell. If such low-hanging, ridiculous fruit appeals to you, this might be an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, most conversations throughout each mission plays a game of walking between good and bad taste, and sadly, this is not the worst part of the game. That award goes to the combat system.

A Hellish Combat System

Big Drunk Satanic Massacre is a top-down shooter, with movement controlled by the left stick, and aiming with the right. Combat consists of walking around a room to kite a group of enemies that materialize from thin air and circling even more to pick up the cash they drop, which for some reason disappears after a short while. It takes only a few minutes to master everything the game has to offer. The rest becomes a grind of rooms that look all too similar thanks to the lack of variety in opponents faced.

Combat feels never-ending because after killing a wave of enemies in a room, one expects to be able to move on, only to see the door is still locked, and another set of green energy spawns more opponents to fight. Wave after wave of identical looking demons attack until finally the door opens to the next series of hallways, only to lead to another room. Rinse and repeat. That’s the entire game.

Boss encounters are more of the same, except that they take far longer to deal with. Once again, the prevailing strategy is to just move around the room in a circle and never stop firing. There are always demons spawning and slowly chasing you to kill if you need to restock on ammunition, but the game is generous in the resources provided and this is never necessary.

Upgrades And “RPG” Elements

There are upgrades to attain as the game progresses, and they range from ability points to ability upgrades purchased with cash. Neither feel particularly impactful on gameplay, and if a player is dumping points and cash into upgrades, they become stronger overall.

The developer describes Big Drunk Satanic Massacre as having “strong RPG elements,” and that simply is not true. The selection of upgrades is superficial, and this would probably not be the case if combat were more varied and less repetitive. Spells eventually become an important part of a player’s arsenal, but everything feels too repetitive to matter.

A Missed Opportunity

At its core, combat is what fails this game the most. The poor “RPG” mechanics of upgrades and perks, along with the ridiculous story and offensive content could be far more bearable if at least the combat system were engaging and enticing. It is no single point that misses in combat, but several small things: Lou is too slow, his dash is on a cooldown and mainly for environmental hazards, weapons either feel overpowered or like peashooters, and the prevailing strategy is to rotate around and around, firing non-stop before moving to the next room and doing it all again.

Best to let this one stay in Hell. It feels like an appropriate punishment to play it for all eternity.

A review copy of BDSM: Big Drunk Satanic Massacre was provided for this review to TheGamer. The game is available now on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC.