Deadlight

Tenlo Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:07 pm

Developer: Tequila Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Price: 1200MSP

Ahh the 80’s - famous for bad hair styles, over the top clothing, giant mobile phones and the zombie uprising. Oh hang on, maybe not the last one unless you’re playing Deadlight. Yep, it’s time to go back in time and survive the zombie apocalypse once again but this time in the era that time tried to forget.

The story revolves around Randall Wayne, a forest ranger, who has been split from his family and has travelled to Seattle to try and find them in what is reported to be the last safe place in America. As you can imagine though this is not going to be that easy as there are tons of Shadows (as we all know the term zombie is SO last year!) and Randall has to jump, climb and fight his way through the undead masses to try and find his wife and daughter.

The gameplay itself is very reminiscent of Another World, the cult classic from the early 90’s, as well as visually. You play from a side-on view of the world but much like the recent Shadow Complex there is plenty of detail going on in both the background and foreground as well. The main portion of the game will have you guiding Randall through the landscape climbing around and jumping from platform to platform to continue on but more importantly avoiding the Shadows which swarm everywhere.

The combat in the game leans towards the realistic approach and as such Randall can hold his own against a single Shadow (and with the aid of guns 3-4 at most) but against large groups he has to use his smarts to overcome them by using the environment to trap or kill them. In most situations though you’ll find the best option is just to run as fast as you can away from the horde!

The challenge in the game comes from the puzzles you have to solve to progress through the stages and although most of them revolve around pulling levers and moving blocks there is enough variety that it never becomes dull, though the short length of the game helps that. The difficulty is nicely balanced so that the answer is never completely obvious but after a good check of your surroundings it become clear what your’e meant to do.

There are a few downsides though. The controls can sometimes be a bit clunky and non-responsive, especially the sprint button which can be temperamental at times. This wouldn’t be a problem but when some jumps have to be almost pixel perfect it can be annoying to continually miss the platform you’re aiming at just because you thought you were sprinting when you weren’t.

As I’ve also mentioned the game isn’t the longest either. It took me about 4 hours to finish the main game off and then a couple more hours tops to mop up all the achievements, however I still fully enjoyed the experience and the story was neatly tied together by the end of it so the short length probably helps support the game in many ways. I think a longer game would have just resulted in the feeling of everything being dragged out.

Visually the game is very striking. The majority of the game you will spend as a silhouette against the background in a similar style to Limbo but the world around is much more detailed with plenty going on around you, such as Shadows bursting through windows and helicopters flying around in the sky. It gives a real feel of oppressiveness and if you were going to compare it to anything it would be the same bleak apocalyptic feel that the Walking Dead TV series has developed. Speaking of the Walking Dead its worth pointing out that the majority of cutscenes are presented as an moving comic drawn in a style reminiscent of the Walking Dead comics.

The audio is very reminiscent of the 80’s with some great 80’s style action movie music in the more dramatic scenes. I’ve read several people complain about the voice acting but I personally found nothing wrong with it and it helped carry the story along nicely. True some of it was a bit hammy but this is the 80’s and well everyone was hammy in the 80’s.

A nice addition to the game are the collectibles and Randall’s Diary, which I would recommend reading before starting the game as it gives a lot of back story to the game. As Randall travels throughout Seattle he will find missing diary pages (no I’m not sure how they ended up somewhere he’d never been before either!) as well as various mementos and ID cards.

The mementos are a great addition as they make the world feel more alive as these are often people’s personal items and it gives you a glimpse of the other people who used to live there. But my personal favourite are the ID cards. Originally I thought they were the developers until I spotted a Bundy, Gacy and a Dahmer among them. Yep, Tequila Studios have killed off pretty much every serial killer and famous criminal who would have been alive in the 80’s. It’s a great touch and I actually looked forward to finding the next one and seeing who the criminal was! Also hidden away are three old school LCD handheld games to collect and play which will bring back fond memories of any who remember these.

The game is not a difficult one to max either. I managed 245GS on my first playthrough and it didn’t take me long after to max it. The main achievement that will hold you back is the dreaded collectibles but not only are they’re hiding places are relatively easy to spot but the scene selection screen will tell you exactly how many you are missing so you can find them quicker.

Overall this is a great game and will certainly give you a good experience while it lasts. However the clunky controls and pixel perfect jumps can be frustrating (be warned the second act is by far the worst for this) and hold this back from being awesome. However this is a game with a great tale to tell and a superb world to explore, full of detail which brings it to life. I for one hope to see Tequila Works re-visit the Deadlight Universe in the future as I’m eager to find out more. At 1200MSP it is a bit pricey for its length but I still think it’s worth the asking price. If it becomes a Deal of the Week though you’d be a fool to pass on it.

Overall 8/10

TreeMunky Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:52 pm

Great review Tenlo. I will be getting this for sure once I've finished Tony Hawk Smile

GrahamOfTheDead Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:22 pm

It's a fantastic game. Probably the best arcade game so far this year.

TreeMunky Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:17 pm

GrahamOfTheDead wrote:It's a fantastic game. Probably the best arcade game so far this year.

Double sold then Smile

Slayer1189 Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:11 am

Nice review. Already bought it and plan to do do it in the near fututre Smile

**minkey_monkey** Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:47 am

Great review tenlo!
i only got to play this for 10mins last night because it took all evening to download.

I thought from what i did play it really sets the atmosphere well. The controls have started to annoy me though. The pressings a to jump and pull up. I keep forgetting and thinking once im hanging the i can just press up on the stick. I find dropping down a bit awkward to but i should get used to it eventually Smile

Ba5sett Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:53 am

Great review mate, I am mega tempted by this slightly put off by the price for a short experience but I will definitely be getting it at some point

GrahamOfTheDead Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:22 am

See.....I never understand why people have an issue with games being short. I can understand it to a certain extent for full-price retail releases but not with games like this. 1200 points is roughly £10. It cost the same for me to go and see The Dark Knight Rises a couple of weeks ago, however I only got to see that once for that money. I own Deadlight....I can play it as much as I want and while the total play time is less than 2 hours, going back over it for the remaining collectibles has more than doubled the play time.

Guest Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:36 am

Great review mate. I will get this at first opportunity

Ba5sett Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:48 am

Suppose we're just spoilt when you can get a game with 100 hours gameplay for so cheap nowadays, that said I'd rather play a short game that is awesome than a long one that sucks Smile

would just be nice to see some consistency I've no problem in paying whatever a game costs if its good enough but they sometimes seem to pick the prices out of the air

Guest Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:30 am

basset matey

before you buy this refer to your other post about how to clear your backlog

Smile

Ba5sett Thu Aug 02, 2012 12:17 pm

haha true mate, I just can't resist!

Tenlo Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:21 pm

I agree with you Graham, I think if the game had been much longer it would have felt drawn out and repetitive. Sometimes things in small packages can be better because of it. Can you imagine how much better if some games hadn't been as long as they actually were?

TreeMunky Fri Aug 03, 2012 8:03 am

Downloaded the demo last night and that was enough for me, what a quality game! Good call fellas.

**minkey_monkey** Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:32 am

I'm really enjoying this, Last night I kept saying "I'll just play till the next check point" over and over lol.

A few of the controls are a bit annoying but easily over looked for the fact the graphics, story, atmosphere etc all draw you in.

**KENT HAMMER** Sun Dec 23, 2012 10:41 am

This is now half price today only!

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