The “Survivor-like” or “Bullet Heaven” genre has become one of the most crowded spaces in PC gaming over the last few years. Ever since Vampire Survivors opened the floodgates, we have seen every variation imaginable: sci-fi survivors, fantasy survivors, anime survivors, and even deep-sea survivors. Standing out in this deluge requires more than just a fresh coat of paint; it requires a hook—a mechanic or a vibe that grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go.
Enter Devil Jam, developed and published by RS. Released back in November 2025, this roguelite attempts to marry the addictive, dopamine-drenched loop of a survivor game with the rhythmic aggression of heavy metal and the visual flair of Hades. It’s a bold mix, promising a “gig of the afterlife” where music meets mayhem.
After sinking hours into unlocking characters, fiddling with instrument grids, and headbanging my way through the circles of Hell, I’ve come to a conclusion: Devil Jam absolutely shreds, but it might have popped a string or two during the solo.
The Setlist: Hades Meets Vampire Survivors
The first thing that hits you when you boot up Devil Jam is the style. The comparisons to Supergiant’s Hades are immediate and unavoidable. The isometric perspective, the thick, comic-book-style outlines, and the vibrant, hand-drawn hellscapes all scream “God of the Dead.” However, instead of Greek mythology, we are diving headfirst into a Heavy Metal album cover come to life.
You play as a musician who has signed a cursed contract with the Devil (a classic trope that never gets old). Dragged to the underworld, you aren’t fighting to escape; you’re fighting to perform. Your weapons aren’t swords or shields, but possessed instruments and a soul full of riffs.
The atmosphere is undeniably cool. The enemies—deranged fans, vicious mobs, and towering demons—are animated with a bouncy, rhythmic energy that matches the soundtrack. It captures a specific “dark fantasy” vibe that feels less grimdark and more “arcade metal.” It wants you to have fun, mosh, and break things.
The Mechanics: Mastering the Grid
Where Devil Jam innovates is in its inventory system. Most survivor games give you a set number of slots for weapons and passives—usually six of each—and you just fill them up and evolve them. Devil Jam asks: “What if your inventory was a pedalboard?”
Instead of standard slots, you are given a grid—specifically, a unique 12-slot gear system where positioning is everything. The game operates on a “beat” system. A metronome effectively scans your inventory grid from left to right, triggering whatever weapons or amplifiers are in those slots to the rhythm of the music.
This adds a layer of strategy that is often missing from the genre. You aren’t just picking the weapon with the highest DPS; you are trying to build a rhythm. Do you want your heavy bass blast to trigger on the downbeat? Do you want your rapid-fire guitar riffs to fill the spaces in between? You have to arrange your items to maximize synergies. Amplifiers placed next to instruments can boost their damage, area of effect, or cooldown reduction, turning your inventory screen into a puzzle game in itself.
When it clicks, it feels fantastic. Watching your character turn into a walking wall of sound, with attacks firing off in perfect sync with the double-bass drumming of the soundtrack, is a sensory delight. It transforms the chaotic visual noise of a bullet hell into something that feels composed and deliberate.
The Soundtrack: Riffs for the Soul
It wouldn’t be a game called Devil Jam without a killer soundtrack, and thankfully, RS delivers. The music is a driving force, literally and figuratively. The tracks are heavy, driving rock and metal pieces that keep the adrenaline high. As one user review eloquently put it, quoting Slipknot’s Psychosocial: “I did my time, and I want out / So effusive, fade, it doesn’t cut.” The game taps into that nu-metal and classic metal energy perfectly.
The audio design complements the music well. The crunch of enemies being destroyed, the wail of the guitars, and the thud of the drums all mix together without becoming a muddy mess—a difficult feat in a game where hundreds of enemies are on screen at once. The voice acting is also surprisingly high quality, with characters that have distinct personalities, even if their combat barks can get a little repetitive after the tenth run.
The Grind: Content and Replayability
However, no game is perfect, and Devil Jam starts to show its cracks when you look at the breadth of content. Currently, the game offers a “Main Story” that can be beaten in about 2 hours according to “How Long to Beat,” though a full completionist run will take longer.
I have unlocked three playable characters so far, each with their own starting gimmicks and styles, and I’ve defeated the final boss, Death himself. The runs are punchy, lasting about 20 minutes, which is the perfect sweet spot for a “coffee break” game.
But the general sentiment—and one I agree with—is that there just isn’t enough yet. The foundation is rock solid, but the house is still being furnished. We need more maps to explore, as the current environments, while pretty, start to blend together after a few hours. We need more characters to shake up the playstyles, and, perhaps most importantly, more variety in the builds.
The Critique: RNG Blues
The grid system, while innovative, brings its own set of frustrations. Because positioning is so vital, the game becomes heavily reliant on RNG (Random Number Generation). In Vampire Survivors, if you get a bad roll, you can usually salvage it. In Devil Jam, if the game refuses to give you the specific shape or type of item that fits into your carefully constructed grid, your build can stall out completely.
It feels bad to level up and be offered items that simply don’t fit your puzzle, forcing you to scrap your plans or take sub-optimal gear. A bit more player agency—perhaps a way to re-roll item shapes or more flexibility in moving grid slots—would go a long way in smoothing out the difficulty curve.
Furthermore, there are reports of bugs, such as buffs suddenly disappearing after taking “Devil’s Deals,” which can ruin a good run instantly. While the developers seem active (a new story update just dropped on January 2nd, 2026), these technical hiccups can be a buzzkill.
Performance on Deck
For those of us who live on the Steam Deck, Devil Jam is a treat. It is marked as Verified, and it plays beautifully on the handheld. The controls are fully supported, and the pick-up-and-play nature of the 20-minute runs makes it an ideal travel companion. The visual style pops on the smaller screen, and the text is legible—a common failing point for this genre.
Devil Jam is a game that oozes style and potential. It takes the familiar Vampire Survivors formula and injects it with a shot of adrenaline, heavy metal, and a smart inventory puzzle system. While it currently lacks the endless depth of the genre’s titans, what is here is polished, fun, and incredibly affordable (often dipping below $5 on sale).
It’s not a masterpiece yet, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a fun, chaotic, metal-fueled romp through Hell that respects your time and your wallet. If the developers continue to support it with new maps, characters, and balance tweaks, this could easily become a cult classic.
For now, it’s a great opener that gets the crowd moving, even if the setlist is a little short.
| The Good | The Bad |
| Unique Grid Inventory: The rhythm-based, positional inventory system adds a fun layer of strategy to the auto-battler formula. | Content Drought: The game needs more maps, characters, and enemy variety to sustain long-term play. |
| Visual Style: Hand-drawn, Hades-esque art style looks fantastic and distinct from the pixel-art competition. | RNG Heavy: Bad luck with item shapes or types can ruin a build more easily than in other survivor games. |
| Soundtrack: A driving, heavy metal score that fits the theme perfectly and makes combat feel impactful. | Repetitive Dialogue: The voice acting is good, but the combat lines repeat far too often. |
| Steam Deck Verified: Runs perfectly on handhelds, making it great for short bursts. | Bugs: Occasional issues with buffs dropping or mechanics not triggering correctly. |
| Price: At $7.99 (often on sale), it offers great value for the entertainment provided. |
Devil Jam: Devil Jam is a stylish, rhythm-infused take on the survivor genre that trades endless content for a unique, strategic inventory system. While it suffers from a lack of map variety and some RNG frustrations, the core gameplay loop is satisfying, the art is gorgeous, and the soundtrack absolutely slaps. It is a solid foundation that just needs more content to reach headliner status. – ColdMoon