Death Squared is an appealingly colorful multiplayer puzzle game from SMG Studio. Released on March 14, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam, Death Squared has already made it to the top of my all ages multiplayer games list. With an engaging design, captivating puzzles, and a cool soundtrack, Death Squared avoids too closely emulating its predecessors, like the Portal series, while still retaining the enjoyment of solving a multi-component puzzle. This is a perfect gateway video game to entice your non-gamer friends with. I honestly couldn’t stop thinking of how much my grandmother would love playing a game like this—if I could tear her away from Rocket League.
I tried this game in both co-op mode and single-player—what the game calls “lonely co-op”. It’s much more difficult to play alone, but I relished the challenge nonetheless. However, where this game truly shines is in playing it with a partner. The puzzles range in difficulty, and the game offers a variety of Vault puzzles, if the regular game is still too easy. The game really is for all ages and has a great deal of family appeal. It’s very rare for many titles to carry that.
There are a few drawbacks however. After a while, the puzzles seem a bit repetitive, and I wanted more variation in style—from the soundtrack, design, and puzzles themselves. If you don’t have a partner, the puzzles can be a bit more aggravating, but the game is marketed for co-op play, so I can’t knock it too harshly for that. In terms of accessibility, it’s got a long way to go. Spoken menus, colorblind overlays (the game relies heavily on color), and more sound cues would open this game up to more players! The controls are very easily remapped to single-handed setups though, so I was grateful for that.
Summary
Overall, Death Squared is a successful, fun puzzle game for all ages. Entice your non-gaming friends with it before throwing them to the wolves of competitive first-person shooters. Just be sure to play it with someone.
Jess contributed 16 articles to ICXM in 2017, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @Enceladosaurus.