Random Video Game Review - Deadlight

 

There's probably a lot of us that were confused when this came out. Not by the game itself, but more around the title because it does sound familiar. So familiar that I confused it for Dead by Daylight which itself is a very different game to this one. In fact its so different that people confuse that with Friday the 13th: The Game because its basically near enough the same game, but featuring every other horror or Halloween related franchise. But yes it is a completely different game that aims to be a homage to cinematic side scrolling games that were very popular in the 80s and 90s but seem to be on hiatus for some reason in more recent years. It was also published originally by Microsoft Studios (now Xbox Game Studios) which have basically become the Disney of gaming. Both companies are on a spending spree to buy as many different things as they can in an attempt to boost their already rich library of content which has led to Disney now owning Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm and the film and television assets from Fox (excluding the news and sport things from what I have heard). In turn, Microsoft now own Double Fine, Mojang, Rare, Ninja Theory, Obsidian and are awaiting approval to buy Zenimax which are the company that own Bethesda and id Software. So yeah they are huge these days. Gone are the days when it was just Windows and Xbox. Now they have their pockets in all sorts of things, but will always be known for the Windows operating system on PCs and their line of Xbox consoles. So with all that said, let's take a look at this game:

In the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse in a fictional 1986, Randall Wayne (voiced by Stephen Hughes) sets out to find his family which leads him to leave the group he was in and traverse on his own while battling zombie hordes and vigilantes known collectively as "New Law". He also begins to question his memory of the early days of the apocalypse. Gameplay is pretty much as expected from a game like this as you get to move left to right, jump, crouch and use actions such as hitting switches or pulling levers. Like with Sunset Overdrive wanting the player to avoid the ground, Deadlight encourages the player to avoid any and all zombies where possible with each level designed in such a way that they can on the whole be able to avoid the enemies where they can. Of course there are weapons available, but a limited amount of it would make for a difficult experience in unavoidable combat scenarios. But as it is a zombie game of sorts, you need weapons and the game has a few lying around. Some items used cannot be used in combat, but to make up for that, they can instead be used for puzzle solving. In the unavoidable scenarios, it's still encouraged that you avoid combat which I guess is when taunting and lure is the way to go. Wayne uses health and stamina which while limited at first, can be upgraded over time when finding power ups. Though only one of them will refill over the time while the other needs first aid kits (you can probably guess which is which). As it is a homage and throwback, there are some collectibles that are both related to the story as well as a bit of fan service to those who played video games in the 80s and those interested in the serial killers of those times (and I mean the real ones, not the ones I review on every Monday at present).

It's one of those games that does have exclusive content to only one of the platforms and that platform is PC with the exclusive content being an ending. It can be easy to die and some of the puzzles don't work quite as well as others. But what you are getting here is a decent game that has that nostalgia value, but unlike the Dead Rising games, it's not forced in your face (seriously the last couple of games from that series had way too many things from other Capcom franchises). It's not a perfect game, but its decent and that's good enough for those wanting their zombie fix while The Walking Dead is off-air and nearing its end. 8/10