Top-down shooter Daedalus – No Escape has a demo on Steam

This minimalist take on the arena shooter is definitely worth a look

Daedalus – No Escape is a neat take on the arena shooter formula. Take the fast-paced competitive fragging from games like Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena and present it from a minimalistic top-down perspective, using a fog of war to restrict what each player can see while in-game. On paper, it might sound somewhat simplistic, but this reductive interpretation of the genre works out pretty well in practice. Have a look at the video above to see it in action.

An interesting side note about the title is that Daedalus – No Escape is the work of only one person. An engineer by trade, Patrice Meneguzzi has spent the last three years crafting the type of game that “he wanted to play” in his spare time. The programming, art, and music are all him and the end product has turned out fairly well polished, especially for his first published game.

Titles like Daedalus are probably best explained by getting some hands-on with them. If the idea seems like something you’d like to try out for yourself, you’re in luck. A demo has recently been added to the game’s Steam page; so go on, then — take it out for a spin, free of charge.