Vincent Daggerhood is a man of a skill that raises some eyebrows as he is a thief. But he’s not your typical run of the mill thief; he was quick with his hands, and because of his deeds he quickly rose to fame as there was no loot he couldn’t plunder or chest he couldn’t escape with. However, like all good things in life, nothing is eternal, so on a fateful day he was finally caught and to pay back for his crimes. He was thrown into the forsaken caverns, now any other man could be discouraged by this, but not Vincent. Filled with the desire of freedom, and the King’s gold now in his sight, and armed with only his trusty dagger, he sets up for a new adventure. That is Daggerhood’s story in a nutshell.
This game is a level based adventure, in which your objective is simply getting from point A to point B. However, it’s easier said than done, because the caverns are filled with traps and enemies. Now being the thief he is, he has a hidden ace, his trusty magic dagger. This dagger is not your run of the mill dagger, when he throws the dagger, if you press the button again, he will teleport to the dagger’s location. This set up some really clever and interesting puzzles, as well as a really innovate way of playing the game, and honestly, it’s one of the things I like the most about the game. There are other objects in each level besides getting to the end of the area. For example, each area has 5 treasures and a fairy you need to find; this sets up the game to be a speedrunner kind of game. For example, the fairy goes away after certain time has passed on the clock, sometimes at the 10-second mark she disappears, though in other stages she stays a little longer, so it is a good challenge to get all treasures and the fairy within the target time. So for those who like these type of challenges, you have your work cut out for you throughout the 100 levels and 5 different areas the game has to offer. I like how the game introduces new mechanics in each area, for example temporary upgrades to your dagger like the ability to destroy some rocks; this adds another layer of challenge and fun to the game.
Now if there was one thing I didn’t like about Daggerhood, it was how terrible the wall jump is. I believe that is affected merely by a design choice used in the game. Not only does it affect the wall jump but it also affects the normal jumps. In Daggerhood you can impact the way Vincent jumps, if you press the jump button lightly he will do a jump more resembling of a small hop, but if you press harder he can do a bigger jump. In theory it shouldn’t interfere with your gameplay, but it does especially when wall jumping. For those of us that grew up playing Megaman X the wall jump action is done pressing the jump button quickly. But in Daggerhood, because of the underlying jump mechanic, anytime I was wall jumping I would press the button quickly to wall jump thanks to having a target time, but instead of advancing I was just hopping. This can become extremely annoying when you are close to the edge of the platform since you need to press hard to get there, and this caused unexpected deaths. The same can be applied to normal jumping as well because the game fails to register the double jump, then just like that you lose again. There is hope at least, since we live in a digital era, that this issue could be solved in an update. And, if it doesn’t, as long as you keep your expectations in check, there is some fun to be had.
Bottom Line, Daggerhood is a fun platformer with puzzle elements, and a innovate dagger teleport mechanic. If you are looking for an affordable game with some challenging puzzles to play from time to time, look no further. Even with the jump issues I described, the game’s appeal was stronger.
A Review Code was provided for this review.