I really enjoy snack boxes. For the uninformed that is 2-3 pieces of chicken (wings or thighs) with chips served in a nice little box. Personally, I prefer wings to thighs, I just think they are tastier and there is not as much waste. While I do like them I have had terrible experiences where the chips are almost soggy and the chicken is just full of fat and gristle. Playing Deadbolt I found myself asking was I eating a nice snack box or a nasty one?
Story
The story has you take on the role of the Grim Reaper, the dead are rising and seem to have something sinister planned. One of the things I found interesting about the game is that your missions are given to you by the flames in your fireplace. I always had the idea if the Grim Reaper existed as an entity that he would pick his own targets, but I suppose when the dead are rising things change.
Naturally a game involving the Grim Reaper and the undead is going to be very dark but this was actually one of my favorite aspects of the game. While the story overall was not fantastic it was very different from anything I had played previously which I felt to be a positive.
Visuals
Visually it is not the most colourful but with the type of game it is this actually works really well. The character designs are really interesting especially the Demons that are dressed in rockabilly styled clothing and the Dredged which look like skeletons dressed in 18th century naval outfits. There were some really good level designs, my favorites were:
- 'Amber & Evelyn'
- 'Drive Thru'
- 'Supply Demand'.
What the game lacks in colour scheme it certainly makes up for in level & character design.
Music
The soundtrack was composed by Chris Christodoulou, who is from Greece and whose previous works include: Risk Of Rain, Wanderlust Adventures & The Sea Will Claim Everything. Similar to Risk of Rain the score is rather diverse featuring genres such as rock, dance and electronic.
The score runs at little over an hour and I thought the score was significantly better than Risk Of Rain (even though I really enjoyed the music in that). There is a distinctly grim sound used throughout the score which really highlights the bleakness of the world and what you are trying to do. My favorite pieces from it included: Now I Am Become Death, Blood On The Dance Floor, The Parrot Is No More, The Proverbial Dust Bitters, Hemolysis, The Banality of Eternity, Reaped by Death, Die Irae, The Choir Invisible.
Gameplay
The gameplay type can best be described as a stealth side scroller with action elements, you are never forced too much to play the stealth route but for best results I would highly recommend this option.
Let's start by talking about the good parts of the gameplay. Have you ever wanted to travel as smoke through a sewer pipe up a toilet someone is sitting on and make them explode? Me neither, until I did. It's a great way to kill enemies and is highly amusing. The more you play the more weapons you have access to. My favorites were the Tactical SMG (great for silent kills) and the Scythe because...well it's awesome.
The enemies in the game are quite interesting - there are four main types; Zombies, Vampires, Demons and the Dredged. The Vampires were one of the most diverse as they could hang from ceilings, run at you with knives, there were those that looked like bats and they had access to Cerberus dogs. The Zombies were the least exciting with the exception of the scared Headless Zombies who positioned their heads elsewhere to gain a tactical advantage.
Following on from the visual side of things there were some great level designs that offered some interesting gameplay, most notably; 'Roland', 'Amber and Evelyn' and 'Drive Thru'. The level Roland was interesting as technically you only need to kill Roland himself but as he is so well surround you need to really think how best to reach him. Amber and Evelyn required you to kill two enemies simultaneously which required quite a bit of prep to get it right, but the pay off is worth it. Drive Thru was great as it is the first proper introduction to the Demons and features a warehouse/garage full of cars and attacking grease monkeys.
Onto the bad, all of which I will say could have been prevented, had the game been tested fully. There were a number of times I found when using the vents to move around the game would freeze and I would have to quit the mission. Shooting enemies in the head is a quick way to drop them, that is if the game registers it, which, especially in later missions, it failed to do. The end boss was far from being the hardest, but was made tough by the fact that on multiple occasions he would either disappear from the map (I checked everywhere) or it did not register that he had been killed. While the next thing is not a glitch I did find it a major flaw - no controller support. It is not always necessary but I like the option. Developers claimed it was too 'clunky' and did not offer enough precision.
While there was a lot of great gameplay there were a number or relatively small things that could have been fixed to greatly improve the player experience.
Final Thoughts
So after just under 10 hours of play was it a nice snack box or a nasty one? Honestly a little of both, there were many great things about the game but there were far too many bugs and glitches in it. I feel there was a lack of testing which would have really helped improve the end product. I would love to score the game higher but with so many issues I just can't. I give this one 3 out 5.
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