God’s Trigger is the latest game to be announced by Techland developers of Dying Light and Call of Juarez. We sat down with one of the developers who explained the game and then there was a 15-minute demo with 50 deaths.

Adrenaline filled carnage is one way to describe God’s Trigger as enemies with melee weapons sprint across a bar to smash you into bloody pieces. Everything is so fast that you sometimes are able to see bullets litter the screen in between enemies swarming around you just before you die. It is reminiscent of the bullet hell games but from a top down perspective with a Hotline Miami theme spun throughout.

Playing with a partner you get thrown into the bar in slow motion which gives you a few extra seconds to react to your new surroundings. Guitar fills the background as you work out what to do by smashing enemies with your melee attacks and depending on your character Harry or Judy changes how you fight. Harry is an angelic warrior with a sword while Judy is a demoness with a chain that each excel at either close range or long range.

Regardless of your starting character, you will die a lot. Even with the Gamescom demo which was slowed down to allow media to get to grips with the action, it was still a hard task. One hit from a bullet or a baseball bat and your dead but more “downed” to begin with allowing your partner to pick you up off the floor. That is of course if they can live long enough to clear the room and come get you before you bleed out.

If one of you dies from blood loss then it is games over, if you both die it is game over but death is not really an inconvenience in God’s Trigger. Respawning is a simple button press and the checkpoint system saves your progress enough that you don’t backtrack too far if you die. This compliments the extreme brutality of the game, making you die over and over but not becoming a chore but rather enjoyment.

The quick action works well at least for the demo that we played with Judy and Harry who have supernatural powers that allow them to teleport across the room, stop projectiles and bounce them back or fling enemies around the room. Judy, for example, can also grab objects in the room to fling them at enemies or you can pick up a variety of weapons off downed enemies for many split second strategic options.

The story is not something that came out in the demo but two people who are looking to save the world after the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse descend on the world and they must defeat them before they wipe out all life. I’m not quite sure how this translates into killing loads of gang members in a bar but hopefully, the full game will better flesh out the story, although somewhat cliché.

God’s Trigger which supports local and online co-op and this is definitely needed as playing alone would be not as rewarding. Playing together is also built into the game by giving players who work together bonuses such as slowing down the game for simultaneous kills. You can play on your own and switch between characters but it’s just not a game to play solo.

From the demo we played, the game is fast-paced enjoyable and downright brutal but in a good kind of way like Dark Souls. The Hotline Miami theme has a great look and works well with the style of the overall game. Hopefully the game can stand up against a longer play through of more than just 15 minutes and the level design is able to change it up enough to keep it from getting boring.

Ultimately though, God’s Trigger was probably my favourite title at the show which felt a little different. I look forward to seeing more and if Judy and Harry can defeat the Horsemen and go back to their everyday “human” lives.