Deadlight Review

In what is developing in to a zombie based theme (in my gaming or in gaming in general?), I've recently played Xbox Arcade title, Deadlight.

The game is a 2D side-scrolling puzzle, adventure, platformer in a similar vein to previous Xbox Arcade game Shadow Complex or Limbo.  It casts you as the near instantly forgettable, gravel voiced protagonist Randall Wayne in a far less forgettable 1980s Seattle.  The world has been ravaged by some undefined virus and (for a change) people have been turned in to 'shadows' (read zombies of the lumbering George Romero style).  As an aside this game suffers that peculiar zombie game, film and book issue, in so much as they call them shadows not zombies.  We've all known about the idea of zombies for a long time now, why do characters in zombie fiction seem to have so much trouble identifying a name for these humans that rise from the dead and eat flesh?  Anyway, quite enough of that.  If the recent spate of zombie based games hasn't put you off yet then you'll be fine with this.  I still prefer zombies since the Twilight series managed to ruin vampires AND werewolves for all but mid-teenage girls.

As you would expect from a team that includes former employees of Weta Digital (Peter Jackson's studio), the graphics in Deadlight are fantastic and the game looks consistently beautiful.  Looking a little like Limbo with its dark silhouette at the front and drab, well realised vistas behind.  Also, whilst it is a 2D side scroller for the player, the levels do have depth with Shadows approaching from the background and on rare occasion flitting across the foreground to spark a little jump.  The graphics manage to convey a strong atmosphere and the game is mildly nervy and well designed throughout.

Deadlight's story is standard horror film stuff and even the 'shocking' finale doesn't shock quite as much as it thinks it does.  I found it hard to particularly care about the generic protagonist or barely fleshed cast of characters.  There is nothing here that you will remember beyond the end of the game (and you might not particularly remember it whilst you're playing).
The gameplay itself is a mix of platforming and puzzling and both fall a little short of being great.  The gameplay is marred by clunky controls that require slow animations to be completed before carrying out more moves.  This led to often swinging my axe a number of times as the game slowly responded.  It also often led to my death, in particularly when requiring a precise wall jump and Randall didn't respond to my presses in time. 
The puzzles are often fairly simplistic with a clear direction to your jumping and moving of boxes etc...  Any gamer who is even mildly accomplished with this sort of gaming will find nothing too taxing in the move the box/flick the switch based puzzles.

Most deaths in the game are due to a distinctly trial and improvement method.  Perhaps Tequilla Works had taken their 80s setting too seriously and decided that we needed a 20 year throw back in game design to control pad smashing frustration and cheap tricks.  Perhaps games these days are too easy but they generally feel like they're playing fair.  Playing Deadlight did remind me of the frustration of cheap deaths that couldn't be predicted and it wasn't a memory of gaming I particularly wanted to recall.  I guess this replay of sections following an array of cheap deaths does add some length and it's worth noting that this game is short, and I mean VERY short.  My playthrough clocked in at under 2 hours with an 85% completion and secrets found.  At a cost of 1200 MS Points (a little over £10) it's not cheap for such a brief experience.  But even though it was short, I wasn't left craving more.

Sadly it's hard to recommend Deadlight without reservations.  From a combination of shaky controls, a mostly seen it all before story and short campaign Deadlight is a game with a number of problems that fails to live up to some of the previous Summer of Arcade greats like Braid, Trials HD and the earlier mentioned Limbo or Shadow Complex.  There is an experience worth having here though and if you're not put off by the price, length and some likely control irritations then it's probably worth a go in these game starved summer months.  After all, it won't take long.

The Good

• Beautiful graphics throughout.
• An enjoyable and underused 1980s, North West American setting.
• Zombies again.  Yay!

The Bad

• Very short for it's 1200 MS Points price tag.
• Unresponsive controls can lead to a number of frustrating deaths.
• Trial and improvement gameplay.
• Zombies again. Boo.

Average performer

(Zom)Believe in giving little games a go.

For the last few days I've been satisfying my wait for The Walking Dead Episode 2 by playing a little indie game called Project Zomboid by Indie Stone.  The version I have been playing is the current 'full release' of version 0.15d which is several months old and is soon to be replaced by version 0.2r which addresses some of the issues I faced (if this is the case then I have not included any gripes about it here).  I can't claim to be an expert on this game having played for a length of time in low double digit hours but have tried to get a taste of much of what is available at present and some of what is to come.

The game itself is about survival; plain and simple.  It challenges you to tell the story of your own death in the game world.  There is no pretence that you can 'win', you simply last as long as you can.  I guess a little like Tetris in that respect, you'll never finish it, simply increase the delaying of your inevitable flesh chompy death.  In order to help you survive you have a deceptively detailed crafting mechanic to help you.  You can use planks and nails to board up windows and doors, you can chop down doors to get planks, you can use sheets to make bandages and to cover windows and so on.  There is plenty of food to eat although some of this spoils and goes off if you don't do anything with it and can be combined with other things to be cooked.  The player has some simple 'moodlets' that let you know if your character is tired, hungry, scared, sick, wet etc. This allows you to carry out actions accordingly.

There is a basic introductory story mode that includes a nicely tense lead in to the game and some good character introduction with a shotgun toting psychopath.  The true heart of the game however lies in its sandbox mode.  The opportunity to choose from a small set of similar player characters, choosing some skills from a skill tree and surviving for as long as you can is thrillling for a number of play throughs.  Do you want to sacrifice being overweight to have the bonus of strength or hard of hearing to have the bonus of great sight but remember, when you're dead, you're dead!  No save points!  No chance to try again so you better not make a mistake or it's game over for good. 

My personal longest survival was a fraught affair, holed up in a house with as much food as I could muster early on.  All the windows sheeted over and spiked baseball bat in hand I even managed to hold out through a few days with a sickness and fever.  The problems came as food (and Whiskey) began to run low after a dozen days and I needed to venture in to nearby houses for supplies.  On reaching a warehouse the goods were too good to turn down and I overstocked.  Weighed down by a shotgun, stacks of food and gas canisters progress home was slow and I was caught out in the open at night.  Even an expertly crafted Molotov Cocktail in their midst wasn't enough to hold off the drooling hoards of flesh-eaters and I was destined to be starting again.

The crafting system is still limited in what you can create.  There are bugs and crashes early on.  The graphics and moodlets are reminiscent of The Sims from 12 years ago.  But it's unfair to judge Project Zomboid for its flaws as it is clearly in its early stages with big plans for growth.  Playing like The Sims meets Left 4 Dead, if Indie Stone can apply some polish there is clearly a diamond here waiting to be discovered.

The Project Zomboid community looks as if it's thriving with tens of thousands of views of posts in the company's own forums and an impressive 11,000+ likes of the company's Facebook page.  Even celebrity gamer Graham Linehan is a fan.  It's certainly a community and a game that I will be keeping a close eye on in the coming months and years to see what they can do with this with more and more input.  Is it possible that this could become the next Minecraft and go big?  I say, why not?  This is doing something that I haven't seen anywhere else and clearly there is a desire for what Indie Stone are doing.  Whether the core of the game will be able to be kept as the game becomes more popular and there is more call for casual features to be added will be interesting to see.  Whilst some sort of ability to save and return is a necessity, I for one hope that we don't see too many more casual friendly features added as the fear of death is the mechanic that keeps tension in each playthrough.

If you want to know more you can find the game at http://projectzomboid.com/