Devil Jam is a music-themed survival roguelite game set in Hell. Developed by Rogueside Studio, the title will be released on Steam on November 3. We had the opportunity to try it out ahead of its release.
Update (13 March 2026): Following a warm reception and ‘mostly positive’ reviews on Steam, Devil Jam is also set to be released on consoles (PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S). It will be released on 26 March 2026, and we had the opportunity to play it in advance on Xbox Series S.
Devil Jam: where metal and survival meet!
If you are familiar with survival games such as Vampire Survivors or Brotato, you will have a good idea of what to expect from a survival roguelite. While Devil Jam shares some basic mechanics with the survival roguelite genre, it also introduces new features that make the game unique.
Devil Jam is essentially an auto-shooter, but you can choose whether or not to enable auto-aim. Aiming is particularly important when using the main weapon. We have to face hordes of enemies — demons that often have a musical appearance. For example, there are bats that resemble speakers. As singers who have signed with the devil’s record label, we must defeat our opponents with riffs.
As with any good survival game, the basic mechanics are as follows: we defeat enemies to gain experience, and each time we level up, we can select an upgrade. In Devil Jam, we can choose between different upgrades, such as secondary weapons to add to our main weapon, or passive skills. However, it is not enough to simply choose which weapons to equip in this game; we must also position them strategically.
There are 12 slots arranged in four columns, with each column representing a ‘beat‘ of the instrument. Weapons are then activated sequentially based on their position in the grid. The grid system also allows us to arrange weapons and upgrades strategically, as each upgrade has a different pattern and therefore only applies to certain squares.
The strong point of Devil Jam is its weapon activation system and the strategy required to find the best weapon combinations and position them appropriately in the slots.
Waves of enemies alternate with bosses, with a new boss appearing every 10 minutes. When a boss arrives, we are confined to a small arena where we must face the boss and any accompanying minions. The boss battles are extremely challenging. The bosses are randomly selected and each has different attack patterns.
However, what makes the battles particularly challenging is the presence of attacks, often targeting attacks, that appear impossible to evade (we have two dashes available, but certain attacks seem unavoidable).
Between runs, you can spend the items and coins collected during the game to acquire character upgrades and new weapons, which will then be made available to you during subsequent games. However, the character upgrade system seems to be limited / very slow.
In our case, after about 7 hours of play, we had unlocked all the available upgrades, but this was not enough to balance the character’s power and defeat the second boss. After a further 2 hours of play (9 hours in total), we unlocked a new set of character upgrades.
Another issue during the runs is the scarcity of healing items. The only way to address this is to acquire the Sun Eater weapon, which increases the chance that defeated enemies will drop healing items. However, these items are random, disappear after a few seconds and restore only a limited amount of health.
The difficulty is so high, particularly with regard to the bosses, that it becomes virtually impossible to continue once you reach a certain point.
Another wave is coming
Devil Jam has all the hallmarks of an excellent survival roguelite. Its music-themed, hellish setting contributes to a consistent and engaging experience. The original and stimulating weapon and upgrade system adds variety to the gameplay. The game is perfectly optimised for the Steam Deck. In fact, on our Steam Deck OLED, we were able to play at a stable 90 fps with minimal concern for battery life.
However, the difficulty balance is problematic, and there is a lack of linear progression that would allow you to upgrade your character to the point where you can take on the bosses. Progression is limited and only unlocks once certain objectives have been achieved, but these objectives are not visible until they are unlocked.
The game also seems limited in terms of map, character and boss variety. Over 9 hours of play, we unlocked one map, faced three different bosses and unlocked three characters.
Devil Jam lands on consoles
We had the opportunity to play the Xbox version of Devil Jam before its release. The console version includes the upgrades introduced by RogueSide studio after the initial release.
Thanks to improvements such as waves being shortened from 30 to 20 minutes for the main stage and faster character progression, we can now enjoy a more balanced gameplay experience.
We also appreciated the four new challenges, each with a new soundtrack, and the two new maps. These additions are the result of the developers’ constant attention to player feedback.
The original review was posted on 31 October 2025 concerning the Steam version, and was updated on 13 March 2026 to include an opinion on the Xbox version.
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