As part of the October 2025 Steam Next Fest, European studio Two Horn Unicorn released a demo for their upcoming game Life/Death. Read “Life Slash Death”, the title promises an isometric ARPG with a cartoon visual style. The demo delivers on these promises, but with so many bumps along the way that it’s hard to recommend.

Where Vegetables Roam

The plot is introduced in a quick animated cutscene upon creating a new game. The protagonist spills a drop of blood on some kind of magical contract at his office and is isekai’d away to a world where veggies walk upright. It doesn’t take long for him to be sent on a quest for the so-called ‘main ingredient’, and the game kicks off.

Life/Death isn’t a bad time, exactly. It has the skeleton of a great game bogged down by so many minor hiccups that at some point they’re all I could focus on. Credit where credit is due, the demo is playable front-to-back and then some. Once finished with the story, you’re free to continue slashing down sentient foodstuffs for as long as you’d like.

There’s a fair bit to say about Life/Death, so let’s start with the positive.

Fresh

Life/Death is a visual treat. The cartoon art style lends itself well to the isometric 2.5D point of view. Enemies are unique, animations are smooth, and backgrounds are satisfying. There’s even a point where the background can be changed from a dry, tan, field to a verdant, green oasis. The transition is seamless, and I was very impressed by the aesthetics presented.

Combat is what an isometric ARPG should be. Simple to introduce with the potential for devastating craziness down the line. Granted, the demo never reaches that point, but it does set the stage for the future.

Rotten

Life/Death has so many minor issues that serve to compound on each other so horrendously that I almost had to set it aside multiple times. Nothing egregious or game breaking, but when combined with everything else, I can definitively say that your time may be better spent with other demos until a later build is available.

To name a few of my grievances, the writing is spotty, to put it mildly. Granted, there are several translation issues. The team speaks Russian, their website is written in Cyrillic, and the English translation available in the demo is bland at best, nonsensical at worst. On top of that, it feels like the protagonist is trying to make a living as a stand-up comedian every time he speaks. There’s no setups, no sets of threes, it’s just punchline after dated reference after stale meme.

Hitboxes are touch and go, sometimes you’ll attack what you’re clicking on, sometimes you’ll send an arrow into a fence on the opposite side of the screen. Item rarity doesn’t indicate stats. I often received normal quality items that were better than rare quality items of the same name and description. The diablo-esque inventory system is wildly unintuitive, as the items you move do not end up placed where you want to move them.

Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs

Life/Death has some real potential. It has a unique art style and isometric ARPG combat, when done right, can be outrageously fun. Unfortunately, at this point in time, Life/Death just doesn’t meet the requirements it needs to stand out. It’s a rather short demo experience, clocking in at roughly 30 minutes for me, and I would personally recommend spending those 30 minutes on another demo that catches your interest this Next Fest.

Don’t just listen to me, though. If it sounds and looks like your cup of tea, give it a try, and maybe throw it on your wishlist to keep an eye out for future updates. I wish the team at Two Horn Unicorn nothing but the best, and I’ll be happy to give a second opinion of a more finished product, whenever that may be.

Life/Death is developed and published by Two Horn Unicorn. The demo is available now as part of the October 2025 Steam Next Fest.