Paris is gone. The streets you once knew are crawling with demons, reality itself is unraveling at the seams, and the last scraps of humanity are hiding behind holy wards, praying someone can find them a way out. That’s the grim stage set by Armatus. With a Steam Next Fest demo coming soon, I dove in to see whether this demon-slaying romp through the ruins of the City of Light can carve out its own identity in an increasingly crowded genre.
What is Armatus?
- Armatus is a third-person roguelite shooter from Counterplay Games and publisher Fictions.
- You move room to room along a linear path, clear the enemies, collect your rewards, and push forward. The gameplay resembles Returnal without the light Metroidvania exploration and less punishing.
Armatus is a third-person roguelite shooter from Counterplay Games and publisher Fictions. The game puts you in the boots of the last supernatural warrior of an ancient order, scythe in one hand and a gun in the other. Your mission is to carve a path through demon-infested Paris in search of the Sunless Gate—a lost gateway to heaven that represents humanity’s last shot at survival. The world has already ended. The streets are overrun. The remaining survivors are holed up behind holy wards, and you’re the only thing standing between them and total annihilation. It’s pulpy in the best way, and the mythology hints at a richer world the full game will hopefully have more room to flesh out.
The structure is straightforward and, crucially, it works. You move room to room along a linear path, clear the enemies, collect your rewards, and push forward. The gameplay resembles Returnal without the light Metroidvania exploration and less punishing. Each run builds on the last through knowledge and upgrades rather than unlocked shortcuts, and the momentum rarely lets up. It’s a lean, focused experience that wastes little of your time getting you into the action.
A Nice Gunplay Foundation
- Shooting feels crisp and satisfying, with a nice weight behind it. Melee combat evolves from a basic fallback option into a legitimately powerful and fun tool in your arsenal.
- The upgrade and abilities system is genuinely exciting, even in this early slice.
The core gunplay is where Armatus makes its most convincing case. Shooting feels crisp and satisfying, with a nice weight behind it. Melee combat, especially once you start stacking upgrades onto your scythe, evolves from a basic fallback option into a legitimately powerful and fun tool in your arsenal. Quickly going from a string of melee hits to a volley of gunfire is the kind of gameplay that never gets old when done right.
The upgrade and abilities system is genuinely exciting, even in this early slice. Each run sees you stacking celestial powers and passive enhancements onto your chosen loadout, and there’s a real sense of snowballing momentum as your build starts to click. The demo only scratches the surface of what seems possible, but the tantalizing promise of a truly godlike late-game power fantasy is enough to get me excited. If Counterplay Games can deliver on that curve all the way to the end, Armatus could be something special.
The Rough Edges
- The weapon system is questionable early on. You select your gun at the start of a run and commit to it entirely.
- The dash is functional, but the travel distance feels too short.
Not everything lands as cleanly. The weapon system is questionable early on. You select your gun at the start of a run and commit to it entirely, upgrading that same weapon as you progress rather than swapping it out for something new mid-run. To be fair, locking you into a single weapon isn’t inherently a flaw. Hades is a crown jewel of the roguelite genre and operates the same way, with each weapon feeling distinct and deeply customizable.
In Armatus, the gun does transform meaningfully the more you invest in it, and to the game’s credit it feels noticeably different and more powerful with a few upgrades, but the overall selection and depth in the demo didn’t provide enough to leave an enjoyable taste. That may change with the full release, but for now the absence of mid-run flexibility is noticeable.
The dash also needs some work. It’s functional, but the travel distance feels too short, leaving it without the punch you want when dodging a rushing demon. A good dash should feel agile and flashy; right now, it feels more like a shuffle. It’s a small thing, but in a game built around movement and reaction, it matters.
Enemy sponginess is a little too much in the demo’s later rooms. Encountering hordes of enemies that soak up multiple clips of damage disrupts the otherwise snappy pacing. Enemy variety in the first area is serviceable but thin—enough to keep things interesting initially, though the full game will need considerably more diversity to sustain momentum across multiple runs.
Boss Fight, Presentation & Narrative
- The boss didn’t really have much to show in terms of phase shifting, but it was a highlight nonetheless and a good sign for what’s ahead.
- Visually, Armatus is competent without being remarkable. The music, similarly, didn’t leave much of an impression
The demo culminates in a boss encounter that is, to put it plainly, fun. I died on my first attempt, learned the attack patterns, and came back to finish the job on my second. The boss didn’t really have much to show in terms of phase shifting, but it was a highlight nonetheless and a good sign for what’s ahead.
Visually, Armatus is competent without being remarkable. The demon-ravaged Paris setting has atmosphere, but the environments don’t yet have the kind of distinct visual identity that makes you stop and stare. The music, similarly, didn’t leave much of an impression—it’s there, it does its job, but it doesn’t elevate the experience the way a great action soundtrack can.
On the storytelling side, you play as a silent protagonist, with a guiding character providing narration throughout gameplay. The intention seems to be world-building on the fly, keeping the lore moving while you’re in the thick of gameplay. In practice, it faded into the background for me and I can’t say I retained any of the info. It’s a shame, because the premise has real potential, and a stronger narrative hook and more robust cinematics could do a lot to give each run emotional weight beyond the mechanical rewards.
Verdict So Far
Armatus is a game with a strong foundation and genuine potential. The combat feels great, the upgrade loop is compelling, and the boss fight at the end of the demo suggests Counterplay Games knows how to build meaningful encounters. There are legitimate concerns around weapon and enemy variety, enemy sponginess, and the short dash, but none of these feel insurmountable. With some tuning and a full game’s worth of content to fill out the experience, Armatus could be a standout in the roguelite space. For now, the Steam Next Fest demo is well worth your time. Just be prepared to die a few times first.
Armatus is set to release in 2026 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Game Pass, Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5.
