You’d think people would have had their fill of zombies by now but it seems people just can’t get enough of them. Deadlight continues the trend and delivers an atmospheric side-scrolling action platformer – think of it like a cross between Prince of Persia, Another World and The Walking Dead.
The story is simple, you play the role of Randall Wayne who not only suffers from the same affliction as Elton John of having his name the wrong way round, but also the inconvenience of being separated from his family and having to travel through the wilderness to find them whilst avoiding shambling figures that want to eat him they’ve named Shadows. Before I carry on, what is it with these people? Walkers, Shadows, have none of these characters in these situations never watched a George A. Romero movie? They’re zombies, don’t act so surprised!
There’s no denying that Deadlight is a beautiful game and it’s actually the scenery that is the star here. Most of the time Randall is actually in silhouette so you’re left to admire the amazing 3D depth around him as you run, jump and fight your way through the levels. You can sprint, mantle, leap and monkey bar across the landscape and gameplay is a mixture of avoidance and facing up to your fears depending on your situation. There are times you’ll be unarmed and have to use your noodle to figure out how to use the environment to get by and others where you have access to a fire axe, catapult, pistol or shotgun where you can solve problems more directly. Always aim for the head.
Later on you’ll also have to deal with the environment itself being the enemy and later still even humans are trying to end your life – I won’t go into things more for fear of spoiling things for zombie fans.
There are moments where you may fall to your doom with no warning if you misjudge a jump or get overwhelmed by the dead but thankfully checkpoints are very close together so you never have to backtrack too much if you die and restarts are almost instant.
Cut-scenes are also told through 2D animations and whilst they do look great, I have seen this style many times before and it would have been nice to maybe go for something more original.
You’ll get through this game in around 2 hours and if you’re really bothered you can go back and find all the secrets and lost diary pages to get yourself a big fat 100%. It’s a shame there’s not more too it though – it does suck you in but the replayability factor is low.
It’s plain to see that Deadlight has been made with a lot of love, it’s just a shame that Hank Marvin was nowhere to be seen. What it does it does very well so it gets 9 out of 10.
Related: Prince of Persia, zombies, Deadlight review on Youtube
