Death Squared Preview
One of the Nintendo Switch’s greatest strengths is that it’s a co-op system out of the box. Players can immediately share the experience with two Joy-Con controllers, and this is leading many developers to embrace Nintendo’s new console as a home for multiplayer games.
Death Squared from SMG Studio takes the twisted humor from the Portal series and injects it into a cube-based puzzle game where up to four players must cooperate in order to succeed. Anyone who has ever played a co-op game knows that the more players you add to the mix, the more likely mayhem will rear its head. Death Squared looks like it could test the limits of your friendships, since everyone must escape the the hazardous science facility together in order to succeed.
The game’s levels will progressively get more difficult, and in order to escape each new challenge every robot on your team must be escorted to their respective color-coded destinations. This won’t be easy with hidden hazards, like spikes and electrical arcs of energy, just waiting to take out your team. Just one misstep and you’ll have to start the room over! No need to worry, however, as the game will instantly respawn everyone back to their starting locations for another go.
Death Squared features a Story Mode that can be played solo or with another player in co-op. Here a technician named Dave works at the evil OmniCorp and his AI assistant, Iris, will help him run a group of robots through a bunch of deadly challenges. The Party Mode expands the experience up to four players with unique puzzle rooms to solve together.
No official release date has been announced at time of publication. SMG Studio is aiming to have it available sometime in second quarter (which is now), so we expect to see it released by the end of June if all goes well. We’ll keep you updated on its progress!
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
