I don't often play platformers, but when I do you can bet that it'll be a bloody hack and slash with tons of gore and creepy monsters. It's a high I've been chasing ever since finishing Blasphemous 2, and while I've not managed to find something that can rival the same theistic terror it offers, the new demo for Ichorous delivers on the gore.

The premise of Ichorous is simple: you play as The Warlock, an agile fellow who is bound to the god of blood by contract to kill monsters and collect their bloody ichor. The map itself is a puzzle with an unknown layout and number of rooms that you can only piece together by searching through them, killing as many foes as possible while progressing through the map.

The demo only has a couple of levels so far, the Thrall Grave being the first and the Squalor being the second. Each one has different grunts, mini-bosses, and a final level boss for you to tear to shreds. There's giant putrid flying insects that spit phlegm at you, angry cages with several arms all swinging swords at you, and multi-headed bloodthirsty maggots that also have, you guessed it, swords..

The ichor you get from killing these beasts can be exchanged for offerings, upgrades that scale as you progress through each level. But with each offering comes a curse. It's a random modifier that can change bosses or even the map layout. For example, after killing the first level boss I chose Mob Tactics, which gives my character the ability to dart between foes, rapidly slashing at them, after I kill an enemy.

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