The Devil has just taken your soul in a poker game, and you’ve got a pretty good idea where things went wrong. Perhaps you should have folded earlier. Maybe betting your eternal existence on a questionable hand wasn’t your finest decision. Either way, you’re now trapped in Hell, surrounded by demons who seem awfully confident about their poker skills. Fortunately, you’ve discovered something that might give you an advantage. Nobody said you had to play fair.
The Devil’s Due launches today, bringing a devilishly entertaining twist to roguelike deckbuilding. Developed by Norwegian studio Games People Play, this dark comedy poker battler challenges you to escape Hell by defeating monstrous opponents in card games where cheating is practically mandatory. You’ll manipulate hands, sabotage enemies, collect powerful relics, and try to avoid getting caught. While the Devil might appreciate a good trick, his minions aren’t quite so forgiving.
A Royal Flush Beats a Punch to the Face
Combat in The Devil’s Due revolves around one-on-one poker battles against grotesque creatures inspired by the seven deadly sins. Instead of swinging swords or casting spells, you’ll deal damage by assembling powerful poker hands. The better your combination, the harder you hit.
Your cards also provide defense, with their combined numerical values determining how much protection you receive against incoming attacks. That creates an interesting balancing act. A hand that delivers a devastating attack might leave you vulnerable when your opponent strikes back. Unlike traditional deckbuilders, both players draw from the same deck.
Every card you add, remove, duplicate, or modify affects your opponent too. Loading the deck with powerful cards sounds brilliant until you realize the demon sitting opposite you has access to them as well. Building a winning strategy means thinking about which cards benefit your own tricks without accidentally handing your enemies the perfect opportunity to destroy you.
Cheaters Never Prosper? Hell Disagrees
If you’ve ever wished you could slip an extra ace into your hand during a poker game, The Devil’s Due is happy to indulge your questionable morals. You’ll collect an assortment of dirty tricks that let you bend the rules in your favor.
Hidden cards can be swapped into your hand, individual values can be boosted, and enemy draws can be sabotaged to ruin otherwise promising combinations. The catch is that your opponents aren’t completely oblivious. Every suspicious move increases their suspicion meter, and pushing your luck too far can trigger a devastating counterattack.
You’ll need to decide when a little dishonesty is worth the risk. Perhaps you’re one card away from a winning combination and a sneaky swap could save your life. Or maybe you’ve already attracted enough suspicion that another trick would be the equivalent of waving a giant sign reading “I’M CHEATING” directly in a demon’s face.
Winning requires knowing when to bluff, when to cheat, and when to keep your hands where everyone can see them.
Seven Deadly Sins, Countless Dirty Tricks
Your escape attempt takes you through seven layers of Hell, each filled with monstrous opponents and increasingly dangerous encounters. At the beginning of each layer, the Devil lays out tarot cards that determine your route through battles, shops, healing shrines, and minigames.
These encounters provide opportunities to improve your chances, although even the activities between battles aren’t guaranteed to be entirely respectable. Shops can be scammed, suspicious minigames can be manipulated, and relics can provide powerful advantages for future confrontations.
You’ll gradually assemble combinations of cheats, cards, and upgrades that complement your preferred strategy. Maybe you’ll focus on manipulating the shared deck to ensure your opponents rarely receive anything useful. Alternatively, you could invest in tricks that transform mediocre hands into devastating attacks.
When a demon finally sends you back to the beginning, you’ll retain access to permanent progression systems that unlock new cheats, relics, and strategies for subsequent attempts.
The House Always Wins… Until It Doesn’t
The Devil’s Due brings its hand-drawn monsters, dark humor, and underhanded poker battles to PC, with a free demo available for anyone wanting to test their cheating skills.
There’s a wonderfully fitting irony to the whole premise. You lost your soul because you couldn’t beat the Devil at cards, and now your only hope of escaping eternal damnation is becoming an even bigger cheat than the creatures keeping you there.