It’s 2015 and the zombie game craze is still going.. I’m not sure when it started but it has to be around the first season of the Walking Dead which was 2010. Since then there has been a billion games and movies that were “inspired” by anything zombie related. Deadlight is one of them, and although not the best… it’s enjoyable to play.
Deadlight is wannabe indie game, and with that I mean it’s produced and marketed by Microsoft and made by Tequila Works which seems to be a bunch of people that used to work for big companies like Blizzard, Pyro Studios and Sony Entertainment. As you can see.. a real indie game.
Cliché
As with most zombie games, the apocalypse already happened and you’re trying to find and save your family. You play as Randall (I had to look that name up after playing the full game for about 6 hours… probably tells you something about the story and investment you feel with the main character) and you have to make your way to the right side of the screen in its “2.5D” environment, chopping and shooting your way trough hordes of zombies and, of course, people that went rogue when the zombie outbreak happened… Just like in every other zombie game.
This is my main grudge with the game, it relies heavily on it’s story line as the gameplay is nothing more than your average sidescroller but it does such a poor job. It’s so cliché.
- Main character loses loved ones
- Find new group of people
- Loss those as well
- Finds other people, these turn out to be bad
- Bad people get killed by zombies
I’ve got the feeling that every zombie movie or game is like the above and Deadlight is no exception.
Gameplay-wise it’s pretty good, the jumping is alright but can sometimes be frustrating when it comes to jumping straight upwards or trying to kill a zombie that is standing too close. The best thing that the game does is it cutscenes which seems to be all hand drawn and the atmosphere it. The backgrounds looks beautiful and makes you feel like the world really has gone to shits.
It’s enjoyable and definitely a recommendation if you’re fan of the whole zombie craze… for myself, I can’t wait until a original zombie game comes around.
The game is out on PC via Steam and PS4.
