Simplicity is a virtue, and one that’s easy to overlook in games where upgrade systems, complex enemy AI, and intricate level design often steal the spotlight. Yet the best games prove that, even stripped of their bells and whistles, strong cores can carry the entire experience. Death by Scrolling is an admirable attempt to follow this philosophy, throwing its hat into the roguelite ring with clear inspiration from Vampire Survivors. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stick the landing. Instead of trimming the fat to keep itself grounded, it overcorrects, trading meaningful depth for a gameplay loop that feels overly bare.
Death by Scrolling skips narrative and throws you straight into the gameplay loop. After picking a character, run and gun through various levels until you collect enough gold to pay the ferryman to escape the afterlife. Weapon and gem pickups for minor upgrades along the way do their best to help you, but success ultimately comes down to your endurance and ability to read the chaos on screen.
Unlike Vampire Survivors, where the entire map is open to you, in Death by Scrolling you’re constantly racing upwards as the hellfire rises from below, threatening to swallow you and end your run. Checkpoints at the top of each level offer a momentary reprieve, but they’re fleeting—mere pitstops before the game pushes you back into the upward scramble.
Grim Reapers occasionally appear as invincible, insta-killing enemies to keep you from mindlessly sprinting upwards, but are easy to ignore thanks to their habit of getting stuck on level geometry, undermining whatever danger they posed to the player.
Sadly, most of Death by Scrolling‘s enemies aren’t nearly as memorable as the Reaper unless it’s for all the wrong reasons (though in fairness, the Reaper is accompanied by a screenwide overlay and a hilariously corny “YOU WILL DIE” voiceline). Engaging with enemies can feel more punishing than rewarding, whether it’s massive, incurable damage over time from a venomous snake bite or a tumbleweed clobbering you with a dash attack that was charged offscreen.
But perhaps the bigger sin here is the lack of real player agency in well… everything. You have no actions beyond basic movement and a sprint (which is also gated by a minuscule stamina bar). Though power-ups occupy different colored inventory slots, ostensibly suggesting build variety, the lack of interaction renders the core loop painfully flat. Passive effects you pick up at the end of each level feel minimal or overly restrictive. There are no game-winning synergies to chase in Death by Scrolling, no smart outs you can build toward, nothing that lets you meaningfully shape a run. Just run to the top and pray you don’t get clobbered.
Further reinforcing this is how fleeting most power-ups feel. Many barely last more than a single level, preventing any real sense of build continuity. Some restrictions make sense: defensive blue power-ups, for instance, offer potent effects like temporary invulnerability or invisibility, but applying the same limitations to weapons (orange), their modest synergies (purple), and other offensive options (red) strips the core loop of depth. Instead of encouraging meaningful decisions on the fly, these systems feel overly constrained, lacking the fast-paced, reactive gameplay seen in games with similar mechanics such as Dead Cells.
Your only real incentive to keep playing Death by Scrolling is to unlock permanent bonuses by picking up gems during your runs. While the sheer number of unlocks initially seems impressive, the steep costs relative to how few gems you earn per run, and the rather tepid bonuses to overall gameplay, quickly kill any desire to engage with them.
Death by Scrolling‘s Audiovisuals also unfortunately lack depth, though I did get a good laugh out of the default sound mix; the first time I heard the “KACHING” from collecting gold had me jumping out of my seat like a horror jump scare. The music is stuck in a never-ending 30-second loop, while the sound effects lack any real punch.
Individual biomes are visually distinct and well crafted, but their layouts repeat quickly, to the point where you’ll start recognizing entire sections within just a few runs. Enemy spritework is detailed and varied, but stiff animations, such as charging enemies simply sliding toward you at higher speeds, keep them from standing out.
Death by Scrolling is a functional game. It controls well, is feature complete, and is mostly bug-free, but it lacks the spark needed to make it truly compelling. Recent updates have added new content and breathed some life into the experience, but the core remaining so bare still makes it a difficult game to recommend, unless you’re specifically looking for a stripped-down, low-commitment take on the genre.
