Developer Tequila Works have decided to make a side scrolling zombie puzzle game. With the recent increase of zombie games in the gaming industry, does Deadlight become another fad or a game to remember?
Gameplay
As seen above in the gameplay Deadlight starts off unlike most zombie games, someone’s been bitten and a scruffy bum looking guy just shoots the victim in the head. Quickly you find out that you are playing as Randy and he is with a group but needs to find his family. Classic story but then gets interesting down the way. Once the game starts you are running into zombies aka Shadows and solving puzzles to overcome obstacles and avoid being eaten alive!
The task and puzzles re different and don’t seem to repetitive. Because of this you truly feel that you are progressing though a story rather than repeating the same task over and over. The beauty of the game is that there’s no puzzle that is to hard or frustrating to the point that you remember it out of frustration or just put the game down because you rage. That doesn’t mean all the puzzles are easy or you won’t die. Like most puzzle games it’s all trial and error. The games isn’t impossible to not die either if you run through it a couple of times and get your jumps timed correctly. That’s the other aspect that not only are puzzles an aspect of the game but so is timing jumps and such. Checkpoints are great in this game and never make you have to go back to far that it becomes frustrating.
The presentation of the games is dark and gloomy, kinda like Seattle is portrayed you can say. The lack of life within the city resembles the invasion of the Shadows.
What a lot of people might like are the items and hidden areas that you can find throughout the game. With finding these items you are given a glimpse to strangers lives, more on the events of Shadows and even parts of Randy himself. Although some of this adds to the story, it doesn’t take away if you don’t find all the items. Some things you find can even lead to mini-games. You can find one handheld per act and there are three acts.
There’s no online play but there is a leaderboard that places you depending on the percent of items found and how quickly you have finished the game. This is a great addition for bragging rights but might not lead to a tons of replay value. Runtime for this game can be done in total in about 2-3 hours. Now might seem super short but it is an XBLA game and some of the items that you can find will add longer playtime.
The best part is the story, I don’t want to ruin it but once you play the game you will understand why it’s the best part. The folks over at Tequila Works did a great job overall with presentation and the level of difficulty for the puzzles. If you’re looking for a great story and a good puzzle game I would suggest you purchase Deadlight. If you get this side-scrolling puzzle game you will remember it most for its story.
