Some of my favorite video game experiences as a kid (and I’m going to date myself here) started with biking down to my local Blockbuster with one of my friends, browsing the shelves until we found a co-op game with cool box art, and biking home with our rented prize. We’d spend the next couple lazy summer evenings glued to a TV, controllers in hand, traipsing through whatever fantastical world we’d luck into. We didn’t really know what we were doing; we weren’t subscribed to the magazines de jour. The most we’d do is print guides off of the internet. But those evenings were pretty magical nonetheless, whether the games were good or not. If the game was smooth and played well and had us laughing and feeling good, so much the better. But they didn’t need to be for us to have a good time. It was about facilitating a space, and giving us an excuse to play together.

Crimson Moon reminds me of one of those games, and I mean that as a compliment. One of the good ones, specifically, where we did enjoy the act of playing, and the kind you’d remember fondly years later when it would spring to mind unbidden. “Remember that game,” you’d say, if something reminded you of it. “Yeah, man, that was great. They should make more games like that.” Crimson Moon isn’t a particularly new idea. It’s a third-person co-op hack n’ slash with roguelike elements, and before the last part of that sends you running for the hills, know that my time with Crimson Moon was actually pretty enjoyable.

The setup is that you’re a Nephilim – a half-human, half-angel hybrid – tasked with battling demons, vampires, the undead, and other generally nasty besties besieging the Gothic spires of Gildenarch. Sounds like something catching, doesn’t it? “Oi, mate, you’ve got a nasty case of the Gildenarch!” Not so! Here it is a city, and you’re fighting to reclaim its districts from all the monsters running around. I won’t lie to you: I vibed with Crimson Moon’s art design, which I’d describe as “Gothic architecture meets heavy metal album cover.” Familiar? Sure. But we return to old favorites for a reason, and Crimson Moon’s art is just the right combination of “bright and colorful” and “Oh my God there is so much blood splattered all over this magnificent stonework.”

What makes Crimson Moon cool is your walk speed. No, I’m not kidding...“

My demo was a solo run, but getting a feel for what Crimson Moon was doing was pretty easy, mostly because it’s a Soulslike. So, you know, you’ve got the whole kit and kaboodle here. Light attack, heavy attack, stamina meter, dodge roll, block, parry, yada yada yada. You’ve seen all this before. What makes Crimson Moon cool is your walk speed. No, I’m not kidding. A lot of Soulslikes are fairly slow, lumbering affairs, where you rely less on good moment-to-moment positioning and more on i-frames from your dodge roll to get you out of trouble. Crimson Moon may have adopted Souslike mechanics, but it’s heart lies with the third-person hack n’ slashes of old. Most of the time, I didn’t need to dodge. I didn’t get in range of somebody’s sword or axe or mace until I wanted to attack.

Speaking of, just about everything else in Crimson Moon shares that sense of speed. Attacks, even heavy ones, come out quickly and land with satisfying crunchiness – and everything feels just the way you think it should… or, at least, the way I think it should. They felt great, especially when you parry a bigger guy with a massive hammer and break his stamina long enough to deliver a stylish execution that begins with a knee to his face and ends with your avatar using the big guy’s hammer to spread his brains across the floor.

Naturally, you’ve also got special attacks that both require a resource to use and live on a cooldown. I had a quick-as-a-flash charge, perfect for getting in somebody’s face and announcing that I was about to be a problem, and a massive, two-handed overhead “eff off” swing for when I was really tired of that dude in particular. Both felt good and allowed me to pile on the hurt when I wanted to, though I will admit chaffing at the cooldown restrictions. Dear developers: please stop putting fun on a timer. XOXO, Will.

So you’re doing all this smooth and breezy (if you can hit your parries, anyway) action as you’re navigating these burning/bloody/generally ruined streets/houses/other buildings, finding collectibles that give you a hint of Crimson Moon’s story (I regret to inform you that things are grim, but in a well-written, “Oh, I like finding these” way), opening chests, and generally doing light puzzle solving. I particularly liked one section that had me navigating the gear of a clock tower, jumping down from spinning cog to spinning cog, or the little bits that would lock you in a room with an elite enemy and be like, “Yo, it’s him or you.” Gives things some flavor.

What I’m not as high on are the loot and roguelike elements. You’ll find the former in chests and the corpses of your foes, but mostly it felt superfluous unless I was getting a new class of weapon or some enhanced armor, and the rarity of the items rarely corresponded with better stats or additional abilities, which felt… odd. Admittedly, I’m not a loot guy, and this could easily be worked out in the final version of the game, but it was a sticking point for me in my demo.

The roguelike elements, meanwhile, are mixed. On the one hand, making it to a certain point of a run and being rewarded with your choice of one of three buffs is a well-worn video game trope, and we uphold tradition in this household. On the other hand, your choices are usually “increase X stat/effect by Y percentage” which is a lot less exciting than getting a shiny new toy to play with. Once, my options all essentially did the same thing (stacked a cold effect on enemies); my only real choice was how I’d like the effect to be applied: by hitting them, blocking, or dodging. I chose hitting, of course, because I like active play, but it wasn’t exactly like being at a Michelin-starred joint and being overwhelmed at the variety on the menu, you know? Again, I could easily see this being fixed later on, but the best roguelikes generally aren’t just stacking percentages, and I hope Crimson Moon has other cool things to offer here.

The roguelike elements are mixed. “

I was one of two people in my session to make it to the final boss of our demo (I walked into the room as time expired), but I was determined to see Crimson Moon through. I went back for a second helping a bit later, tore through the demo (still enjoying myself, a positive I have to note), and more or less smoked him. How, you ask? Well, by using one of the mechanics I have deliberately and not-at-all-by-accident avoiding mentioning until just now: your ability to transform, via a meter, into a gloriously incandescent member of the heavenly host and go hog wild on any fool unlucky enough to be close to you.

Listen, I think there’s some contract every developer signs that says they have to have this thing when they make a melee action game with fantasy elements, but it works well and feels good and you absolutely smoke lesser foes and even elites with it. Against the boss, a giant muscley abomination that spews poison everywhere and attempts to stomp you, flatten you with a fist, or hit you with The People’s Elbow, it allowed me to get in without worrying about all the noxious green goo on the ground and go nuts until I ran out of juice and actually had to fight him proper. That meant picking my spots, watching out for his attacks, and doing my damndest not to stand in the poison. It was a solid fight, and I did buy the farm a couple times, but you know, fortunately I’m a half angel. A glowing light comes down and you stand tall again. That said, I am glad I came back for it, and I enjoyed watching him fall once I landed that final blow.

Crimson Moon probably isn’t going to wow you with something new, but maybe it doesn’t have to. Sometimes, you just want one of those lazy summer afternoon games, and if Crimson Moon can make its roguelike and loot elements as interesting as its combat, I think developer Probably Monsters will have something here. It feels like the kind of game I’d want to play in co-op with a friend after a long day at work, or on a lazy Sunday with my wife, something you could pick up for a run or two and have fun with and keep coming back to. I hope they pull it off. You know what they say: the pair that slays together, stays together.

Will Borger is an IGN freelancer. You can find him on Bluesky @edgarallanbro.