Thank you Morne Venter, for submitting this game through our Steam Curator page

The old saying “the best defense is a good offense” is ever-present throughout media. No need to defend when you have such an overwhelming amount of force that the enemy is defeated before they retaliate. Enter Digiton by Morne Venter takes the saying more literal than others. Where many games give you a sword or a gun to fight, Enter Digiton has the main character, Ahab, wield a shield.

The premise is very simple. Ahab is tasked with defeating the four demon lords that reign over Digiton. Enter Digiton is an open-world 2D metroidvania, where you have the freedom to access any of the three available stages by traversing through a hub world. Except for the final world, access to the levels themselves are not restricted, although reaching every corner of each level may require the usage of items obtained by beating bosses.

Enter Digiton is best played with a controller as the developer designed it with controller usage. Ahab controls with the control stick and can either throw his shield with B/Circle or deflect enemy projectiles with X/Square. As bosses are defeated, Ahab later gains the abilities to shadow step (move quickly in any direction with RB/R1) and bubble (grants temporary flight with Y/Triangle). There are a few NPCs littered throughout the world and they can be talked to by pressing up on the D-pad. Controls cannot be remapped so better get used to them.

Every area has spikes, enemies and various platforms throughout. All enemies will take one point of damage out of the three total you normally start with. Spikes will always take Ahab out no matter how much health he has. There are no lives in Enter Digiton—instead replaced with a checkpoint system. Checkpoints are plentiful, but a game like this expects you to die over and over again, as enemies are fairly aggressive and spikes are placed in rather dastardly places.

At the end of each level, the boss lies awaiting. This is most likely the part where deaths will accumulate. Each boss is uniquely designed and will take a bit of time to overcome. Each boss follows a form of pattern recognition, which will either speed up or alter slightly as they come closer to death. Bosses can be a bit frustrating at times, but eventually, through perseverance, they will all be bested.

There are collectible souls in each area that can be exchanged for masks. Masks are equipable items that have an upside and a downside. For example, one mask grants two extra hit points but makes Ahab considerably slower. Another one can increase your jump high but increase the cooldown of your shadow step ability. Most masks are sold through the merchants that take the souls you collect, but a few of them can be found in secret places. Masks are a good way to change up the gameplay while fitting a specific playstyle too.

The graphics are simple 8-bit pixels, with an even simpler color pallet. There are only two colors used in any given world with the primary color changing based on the world (the hub world is an orange), and the secondary color always being black. It reminds me of the way the Virtual Boy or scientific calculators display their graphics. Each enemy is some kind of otherworldly monster while the few inhabitants still residing either look like anthropomorphic animals or snowmen.

There isn’t much music featured in Enter Digiton, with most areas filled with creepy ambiance or the sounds of the enemies within. Sounds effects can be grizzly at times with enemies sounding beast-like and when enemies are killed, a loud splatter sound echos through the area. The only actual pieces of music that I recall are from the title screen and the final boss music, which I believe is a darker remix of the ironically cheery title music. The lack of music isn’t a bad thing, as I feel it fits the dreary and more depressing aesthetics and tone of the state of Digiton.

In terms of moral warnings and concerns, there was more than I expected. Of course in a game like this, violence is abundant and enemies do explode into pixels when killed. However, to call it gory can’t exactly be determined due to the simplistic graphics. Language is present, such as “b*st*rd”, “sh*t”, and “a*s”. One strange enemy, a hulking female in one of the worlds, slams the ground often. Said creature has notable breasts and they jiggle with each slam.

One thing that I noticed that may fly over other player’s heads is the great Hebrew/Israeli influence Enter Digiton has. The main character Ahab may possibly take his name from the seventh king of Israel. The main demons Belzaboul, Asmoedi, Leviathan, and Akaman seemed to be based on the Philistine, Hebrew demon, and Hebrew beast Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Leviathan respectively. I do not know what or who Akaman is based on, but due to Akaman being a serpent demon, he may possibly be based on Seraphim. I also noticed that in Belzaboul's world, there is imagery of upside-down crosses and pentagrams. It’s rare (at least from my experience) for a video game to take inspiration from Jewish mythology.

The worst thing about Enter Digiton is that it is very short, even for metroidvania standards. It took me a little bit less than three hours to beat the game, and a little bit less than four to complete the rest of the content. Although a short experience, there are reasons to return. Recently, an update that added three new bosses was implemented, located where the first three bosses were slain. (Eventually, there will be another update where Ahab obtains a sword to defeat enemies with.) And of course, collecting the rest of the souls and masks is a thing to do. Enter Digiton is a good, standard metroidvania experience that may potentially turn away people with its heavy influence of religious themes. Fans of the genre will definitely enjoy this experience even if it isn’t anything new or innovative, but it may be a hard sell to others unfamiliar with the gameplay due to its short length and difficulty. It has gone on sale for as low as $5 so people of the latter may want to wait for a discount.