Gah! “An interjection denoting frustration and/or excitement.” At least this is what the dictionary says because in our game here, "Gah" is a demon in a realm beyond our understanding. And he has some challenges for us to dive deep into this isometric roguelite experience. What will it be for you at the end? Frustration or excitement? You can't know that without giving it a try, but in this review, I will provide you some insight about what to expect from this early access dungeon crawler game. 

The game starts with a short cutscene and this is also a small presentation about the game world. The introduction part is good because even though the game is based on a dungeon system which means you should be prepared to do over the same levels most of the time, we still got a storyline behind the gameplay. I also get the vibe of the developer wants to talk to us through as Gah and breaking the 4th wall from time to time. You can observe this in some dialogues or in text. It is unusual but I love the way the developer used it. After the cutscene and checking out menus, I was ready to jump into the ultimate challenge that Gah prepared for me.

If you are also ready, this is the part that we will make our first of many choices. There are 7 playable characters at this moment and 3 of them are already unlocked. It's up to you who or how. The game provides various classes to go with. For start King, Rogue or Sorcerer. For me, it was an obvious pick and I started with the ranged character. If you decide on yours, now you can continue to the next phase which is choosing your path. Before every level, the game gives us an option between two dungeons with different benefits, difficulties or bonus objectives in them. You can also go and visit the village, catch some breath, shop or check out your permanent upgrades of course.

I tried this game with both a keyboard & mouse and a controller. Controls with k/m wasn't something I used to. You can use the left click for both movement and attack but also "WASD" is available for movement if you feel more comfortable with it. Also, the developer provides an option to disable the left mouse button attack. Even though it feels weird at the beginning, shorty I warmed up with controls and didn't encounter any issue. After a while, I continued with the controller and I can say it is more fun to me in this game. But I can say that it would be nice if there were button configuration options and haptic feedback.

To be honest, the gameplay is more fun than I ever expected. There are various enemies, skills, stats to upgrade as you desire, and some destructible environments with rewards underneath. So, the game world offers you a lot of interaction and possibilities to choose. Depending on which character you choose you can determine your playstyle and overcome an adventure through chapters. Until a certain point I mostly used ranged character but after unlocking new ones I also noticed a melee character that fits my playstyle and I enjoyed more with experiencing different classes and skills. Enemy AI is also not bad, their positioning and reactions are mostly accurate but of course with certain characters like rogue it can be manipulated in certain areas.

Gah! is a game designed using the Unity engine and it has cartoon style characters and environment. Personally, I love the artwork in this project but needless to say, the game is still in early access, a little bit of polishing would be nice. But I can confirm that the game is well optimized and in the range of system requirements, you can get a stabilized experience already.

Navigating through menus and UI is also intuitive. You can examine detailed character stats, spend your orbs as you like or check your inventory for better pieces of equipment that you find on the way.

On the audio side, the game gives me different vibes. I didn't find some voiceovers quite matching the theme and tone of the game world, but most of the character voices are nice, and the sound effects are also successful. If you listen carefully, you can navigate and use that sound to your benefit in the game world without the need to check UI or map even. Some themes get boring after a while so it would be nice to have more OST but overall I enjoyed the music. Additionally, at the moment the only supported language is English and there is no information on the roadmap regarding additional language support.

How much you should be scared about the dose of the ultimate challenge? In my opinion, the game is not as difficult as it claimed at the start. Permadeath is a feature that always keeps me vigilant and gives me tension. In this game even if you die it may still count as some progress for your playthrough, because Gah lets you keep your yellow orbs to use them for permanent upgrades. Overall, the word I'd say for this game would be grinding instead of hard. But if you want more challenge, also you should know there is a nightmare mode too.

"Gah!" has two chapters at the moment and every chapter comes with a fresh new environment which is very positive for replayability. I don't want to go into details so you can experience for yourself, but the game is not bad about new rewards, innovations and secrets along the way as you progress further. But after all it is a dungeon crawler so I can't deny that it felt repetitive from time to time.

Completionist Corner

My total playtime when I wrote this review was 20 hours. But I have failed you guys on this one and couldn't manage to earn all the achievements yet. If you want to try you should be prepared for some grind and dying along the way. Especially in the endless chaos mode, where you can find yourself in a horde of enemies and poison cloud out of nowhere. It might be a little bit frustrating but don't worry, for now there are a total of 36 achievement and nothing is missable. You can always try again where you failed or give a break because the game has a save feature through every level.

Failed it or Nailed it

As you can tell from my playtime, this game definitely didn't fail me. Maybe I can't say "nailed it" at the moment but certainly "Gah!" provided some fun and challenge to me. Don't think this is over because the game is in early access right now and the developer has pointed out a long roadmap. "Chapter 3" is already live as I write these lines. New chapters, playable characters, environments, and additional features are forthcoming. If you feel yourself ready for the ultimate challenge, I would say: "Dungeon, this way" --->

My Review Score: 6.5/10

Game Title      : Gah!

Developer       : Jasio Games

Publisher         : Jasio Games

Release Date : 4 Sep, 2024

OS                       : Microsoft Windows

Platform           : Steam

Current Price: $ 11.99 / € 11.79