If The Charlie Daniels Band is to be believed, the Devil accepts defeat with humility when he goes down to Georgia and loses a fiddle contest. Would that same thing be true if the Devil stood to lose something much more valuable than a golden violin? 2021’s Rogue Lords sees you play as the Devil as he sends out his underlings to lay the groundwork for his return to the mortal world. With the stakes that high, the Devil isn’t above using his powers to unfairly improve his odds at the expense of any who dare stand in his way.

The exposition with which Rogue Lords provides states that you, as the Devil, and your armies of demons were defeated and driven from the mortal plane by Van Helsing and his demon hunters in an event referred to as “the Great Hunt.” You’ve been biding your time in Hell since that defeat, but now you’ve noticed a significant reduction in new souls flowing into your domain. You know that can’t be a good sign, so you decide you can’t afford to wait any longer to return to Earth for round two against the “forces of Good.”

There’s just one problem: You know you’re still too weak to stand a chance against Van Helsing and his allies in your current state, not to mention the fact that your enemies have had nothing but time to grow stronger in your absence. However, you do have several aces up your sleeve in the form of mythological figures who once signed a pact with you and who are now sworn to do your bidding for eternity. Through these “Disciples” of yours, you can weaken the mortal realm and maximize the odds that your return will be a triumphant one.

Even though your Disciples are minions of Hell, they’re able to walk among mortals while you cannot safely do so. You can establish links with your chosen Disciples to see through their eyes, learn what the mortals have been up to since your forced retreat, and use this information to help you determine what you need your Disciples to do to sap the collective strength of the “forces of Good.” Thankfully, even what seem like resounding defeats are merely temporary setbacks for you and your chosen soldiers, so you can afford for your efforts to go awry more than once.

Rogue Lords has been described as “the Rogue-lite in which you play as the Devil,” and that’s pretty much exactly what it is. As you start each portion of Rogue Lords’ campaign (referred to as individual “Books”), you’ll quickly see all the various aspects that make Rogue Lords live up to that description. You’ll begin by choosing a group of three Disciples, guiding them through an overworld of procedurally-generated events and encounters, either until you reach and overcome the current chapter’s ultimate goal or fail somewhere along the way.

During your last confrontation with Van Helsing, the famed demon hunter took 6 magical artifacts from your possession. Your first order of business will be to help your Disciples reclaim these artifacts however necessary so that the powers of these items can be used to further your campaign to conquer the world of the living. Once you’ve gotten back what’s rightfully yours, you can ultimately turn your attention toward the strongest obstacles in your way, namely those pesky demon hunters and a new religion that has united much of humanity against you and your forces.

You start with three Disciples at your disposal: Bloody Mary, Dracula, and the Headless Horseman. As you gain experience and level up, which happens at the end of each story run regardless of whether you succeed or fail, you’ll start to unlock new playable Disciples and different combat abilities for them. Each Disciple’s abilities and strengths can complement their teammates in comparable ways in the heat of battle, so you’re encouraged to experiment with different combinations of Disciples as you progress and add more notable names to your roster of chosen soldiers.

A few examples of this are as follows: Bloody Mary can use an ability that reduces the damage she and her allies will take during their foes’ next turn; Dracula can provide buffs to himself and his teammates, as well as recharge the combat abilities of all three Disciples at once so you can use them more often than you otherwise could; while The Headless Horseman can force enemies to attack only him during their next turn, and he gains a stack of a passive buff each time he takes damage that causes his own attacks to become increasingly more powerful.

I mentioned that you’ll guide your Disciples through a procedurally-generated map of events and encounters while progressing through each book of Rogue Lords’ story. You can more closely examine this map at nearly any time you’re in the overworld. When you do this, you’ll also see a legend that explains what each icon on the map represents so you’ll have a better idea of the exact paths you want to take. The first icon you’ll see on the map in every new run is always a combat encounter, but you’ll often be able to choose one of multiple paths from then on.

The sorts of things you might see on each map range from combat encounters (normal and Elite), “Styx Fountains,” and points where you can meet the Grim Reaper. Styx Fountains allow you to restore your devilish strength or remove a Disciples debuffs, while the Grim Reaper will allow you to purchase things like new combat abilities for Disciples and relics that might make progression easier and/or more interesting for you in different ways. Provided you have enough mortal souls to trade with Death in return for his wares.

That’s just scratching the surface of what an average run within Rogue Lords might look like, though. I think that brings me to Rogue Lords’ most unique selling point: Since you’re playing as the Devil, you have all sorts of demonic powers at your disposal that you can use to give yourself and your Disciples an unfair advantage whenever necessary. You can use these powers by entering “Devil Mode,” which allows you to cheat in whichever way benefits you at any given moment. I’ve personally found quite a lot of enjoyment in this mechanic and the context surrounding it.

Here’s what I think is easily the most basic example of how you can cheat using Devil Mode: If your Disciples are fighting an enemy who has a huge health meter, you can use your powers to simply reduce that enemy’s current health so that your Disciples can ideally dish out enough damage with their own combat abilities to eliminate their foe. Similarly, you can also use Devil Mode to heal your Disciples if they’re at risk of falling in battle, and steal buffs from your enemies to strengthen your Disciples as each fight progresses.

You can do quite a few more delightfully devilish things with this mechanic, but I won’t get too deep into the weeds here. If you’re anything like me, the prospect of being able to use your powers as the Devil to cheat at the expense of your enemies sounds like a lot of fun to you, but bear in mind there’s a significant catch. Using Devil Mode powers to any extent consumes a limited resource called “Diabolic Essence,” which represents the Devil’s own vitality.

If you run out of Diabolic Essence at any point, you’ll fail your current run and have to start the chapter over. There are ways you can replenish your Diabolic Essence during a run, such as by visiting Styx Fountains you’ll occasionally find in the overworld. However, since each overworld is randomly generated, you can’t afford to rely on Styx Fountains appearing as frequently as you would like, which means you’ll have to think carefully about each point of Diabolic Essence you spend rather than just throwing it away willy-nilly.

That’s why I quite like the existence of this limiter, even though I would just as soon use Devil Mode very liberally if not for that finite resource. That brings me to virtually the only thing I dislike about Rogue Lords: Its difficulty can easily be overwhelming much of the time. I suspect this might be off-putting to anyone in our audience like me who isn’t usually very skilled in games of this ilk. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, I’ve still had quite a bit of trouble in each run I’ve attempted thus far.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to condemn Rogue Lords just because I’m not great at its core gameplay loop, though. After all, I’ve played Darkest Dungeon for well over 50 hours and I still love that, even though I’ve never gotten anywhere close to finishing its story during all that time. I suspect the whole “playing as the Devil and attempting to conquer the world” concept might be a turnoff for some others, though in fairness, Rogue Lords makes virtually no effort to hide that on its Steam Store page.

If you’re not bothered by the idea of controlling the Devil and his minions as they conquer Earth, and you enjoy Rogue-lites that encourage you to tempt fate for the possibility of a significant reward if things work out in your favor, I have no problem recommending Rogue Lords. Personally, I’ve always really liked games that let me pick the darker side in the classic “battle between the forces of good and evil” trope and Rogue Lords scratches that itch exceptionally well for me even though its difficulty can be frustrating much of the time.

A PC review copy of Rogue Lords was provided by Nacon for the purpose of this review.

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Rogue Lords

$24.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• The story shows the opposite side of the “good vs. evil” trope in an appealing way.
• “Devil Mode” lets players feel like they have more control of events.
• Story events that require players to make choices can often be amusing.
• The story and setting might particularly appeal to fans of heavy metal music and mythology.

Cons

• Playing as the Devil trying to conquer Earth might be a turnoff for some.
• Gameplay difficulty can be overwhelming even on easier settings.
• Even with Devil Mode powers, you can sense when luck isn’t on your side.