Death by Cube is yet another in a growing genre of two-stick arcade shooters in the vein of Geometry Wars. Early sneak peeks had us excited to experience more depth and story than other titles in the category, and the fact that Square Enix was the publisher behind it just made fans’ mouths water a little more in anticipation. So, is Death by Cube a resounding success worthy of its publisher’s pedigree or simply a miscarried me-too that falls on its face? The answer is both, and here’s why.

Be prepared to die. Quickly and often. The beginning levels of Death by Cube (DBC) are fun, strategy-filled ‘missions’ that introduce you sometimes not-so-gently to how things work. Then suddenly you reach a point where a level just feels unfair. You find yourself saying “well that was cheap”  to an enemy that spawned a millimeter away from you, or when a horde of laser-beam shooting enemies spawn on the opposite side of the map and their lasers create an nearly-impenetrable barrier that effectively cuts your maneuverable level in half.

Then there’s the fact that your ‘shield’ ability only allows you to catch and throw enemy projectiles, not actually deflect enemies. Oh, and an enemy running into you causes you to lose your shield and all the projectiles you were carrying, often resulting in death. While you may be able to dash forward and stun some enemies without taking damage yourself, you often find an enemy (or a laser beam) waiting for you on the other end of your dash, again resulting in a death. We’re not the most talented players in the world, but we’re at least representative of average gamer ability, and after we failed to beat a level 20-30 times, we just gave up.

But that’s not to say DBC isn’t entirely unsalvageable. There are some serious great ideas playing around here. Upgraded robots and the next stages are available for purchase via earning gold coins when you complete a level. The game forgivingly still metes out some cash even when you fail a mission, so that you can eventually unlock a new stage to try something fresh. The upgraded robots are a good idea, too.

As different ‘missions’ require you to do different things, things like defending and attacking a base, surviving on one life to achieve a certain score, or simply killing X amount of enemies, there is often a robot available for the job. You can stick with your default, balanced ‘bot, or pick from one that does high damage with almost no health, or one that does mediocre damage with high health. There’s even a robot that is specialized in attacking and defending bases. There are little nuances to how each bot should be played such that it is satisfying to try them all out, though you’ll probably find yourself rotating between only three or four of them.

Also, the music and graphics were quite polished for an XBLA game. The techno soundtrack simply blended into the background amidst the sounds of explosions and laser fire. The camera system is a top-down view of your robot on a sort of disco floor whose squares light up in a sort of coordinated light show to the music, and the enemies appear to be dancing along as they rain death upon you.

The online mode suffers from the typical chicken and egg syndrome we see only too often in games that have not yet penetrated a huge audience. While there’s plenty of customization options for creating your own lobby (hurray for default voice-mute!), there’s just no actual players to join said lobby. Thus, games like DBC include cool online modes to attract players, but as there’s no real installed base of players, you find yourself with no one to play with, and no one is going to buy a game for online multiplayer if there’s no one to play with.

Death by Cube has some great potential to achieve in a sequel; it’s just that right now there are some serious flaws that are holding it back from achieving commercial success. Did we mention that it soon becomes frustratingly, bang your head against the wall hard? DBC is fun for a good thirty minutes, and after that you are better off putting it down, which is not worth the 800 Microsoft Points ($10) to download. Just go for the trial version.

Final Score: 7.5 | Recommendation: Demo It

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