1. Xborn74

   8

   Deadlight is an XBLA game, exclusive to Xbox 360, which costs 1200MS Points, being a game of platform, action and puzzle-Side Scrolling, with a basic concept of the gameplay comes from the old classic games like Flashback PC 1985, mixed with new concepts, inspired by Dawn of the Dead and its various sub-products such as the games Left for Dead and Dead Rising and TV series / comics like The Walking Dead. The story of the game is set in an alternative Seattle in 1986, in the 150th day after a patient zero of an epidemic that turns everyone into zombies. It begins with Randall Wayne (the protagonist, the tough guy style) killing a girl from a group of survivors that he belonged, because she had been bitten, and the game really begins when he separate from them, to try to find his family, amid what remains of a devasted world. In this world the zombies are called Shadows, and to top it off, still left new paramilitary forces, such as The Law, who makes its own laws and that such kills those who steal things from places where people died. The graphic style of the game is heavily inspired by comics and in games like Shadow Complex / Limbo: a narrative of the story is told in a series of cartoons in stop-motions, such as comic with gross traits and contrasting colors. The graphics in the gameplay where backgrounds are detailed, in depth, and very colorful, rich in detail and in itself the elements of the action, such as platforms, stairs and characters in the foreground, are often as dark shadows. Not always the contours of the elements are pefects and sometimes features have noticeable jaggies or coarser outlines, but the action shows motion capture was used in the movements of the game. The scenarios change perspective and undergo changes in accordance with the actions and what happens, and it's nice to see something of the background interact with you. Some objects you find have a pixelated look, if to give a retro look or not, I do not know. The objects that are found are displayed in mini-windows on the screen, and everything that can interact in the scenarios have a more clear and distinct boundary (when approaching them), although slight, which stresses that exploration you do - the same applies to portions of the scenario that does not seem to have anything at first sight. Audio: the game features a own nice soundtrack in the Menu that suits the game, and generally good performances and well deployed lines, with the voices very clear. The background sounds in general are in an atmosphere almost always silent, and increase the atmosphere of suspense that the game has, with noises of things falling, dripping water and grunts that make up much with the gameplay. The gameplay is of a platform game, like the classic Flashback, using the environment to progress in the scenarios of the three chapters of the game, killing enemies and surviving, and the movement is typical consisting of walking, running , duck, jump and climb things, having a slippery action, so to speak, as I mentioned in the reference game. At the top of the screen, we see two indicators, one life (a red cross), divided into segments and an energy (or stamina, if you prefer), blue, which get shorter with some actions, like hanging, running or beating enemies (as in I Am Alive), but that regenerates at rest - letting this end up in the middle of the action, can be fatal The game features several extras, such as pages from the diary of Randy, and photos from your album, which are hidden in stages, and beyond these collectibles that I mentioned, we also found 3 different mini-games that simulate on-screen 80's games, Donkey Kong style. We also have several weapons, the most basic the axe and the gun (in which uses the analog to point) - of course in addition, we can use different things in some scenarios to kill the zombies. Despite having an axe things are not so easy: it takes several blows, and even with the gun - if the shot is not accurate in the head, you must fight them, and 3 of them together can more than easily kill you... therefore, considering the number of enemies, the action is not always the best solution and should try to think and act with cunning. The life ends with the depletion of the bar mentioned above, or come in contact with something lethal, and the screen glows white, back to a checkpoint, usually at the beginning of the sequence of the current platform sequence. Summary: in the genre of platform / Puzzle is a great choice, among the best - think a mix of The Walking Dead, Shadow Complex and Limbo you have this game. An experience that is not as difficult as other recent games of the genre (even the Limbo or the very difficult War of the Worlds), but having a nice difficulty and gameplay that attach you to the end, being a pleasant experience. If you like games like those mentioned and the topic of zombie apocalypse / survival this is a game for you.… Expand

   • Helpful? 5 of 7 users said Yes.
2. blognorg

   5

   I'll start off by saying that it's not a terrible game, and a 5 by my standards is only moderately below average. I often enjoy games that I would call a 7, or even a 6. There is some enjoyment to be had in this game, but not much in my opinion. First off, the I didn't find the story compelling in the slightest. This is for several reasons. The whole zombie apocalypse has been done to death, and the "spin" they put on it just didn't do it for me (i.e. calling zombies "shadows" doesn't add much). While the art itself was solid, I didn't care for the cutscenes. The comic book-esque, still-frame visual style clashed with the straightforward dialogue and it came off as a little cheesy. Also, I just didn't care for the main character; it couldn't sympathize with his plight, and his constant whining about his family annoyed me more than it instilled sympathy. The secondary villains weren't explained; they just seemed to be there for no real reason other than to give some variety to the enemy types and set pieces. A lot of the story felt like filler; it didn't really feel like a logical string of a events (save a few). Much of the game just seemed like a series of placeholders that the developers filled in hopes to change up the gameplay. And the story element suffered for it. Finally, I thought that the twist ending was laughable, but I'll spare the spoilers. I could live with that, though. I've enjoyed plenty of games where I didn't care about the story; my biggest qualm is the gameplay and design. For starters, I didn't care for the controls. They weren't necessarily broken; they were just unintuitive. For instance dropping down from a ledge in pretty much every game that I've ever played has been down and jump... not this game. That, by itself, doesn't seem like a huge issue, I know, but many things like that began to compound. Another thing is that ledge-grabbing was treated more like a prompt, rather than actually jumping and grabbing a ledge. In some instances, I would end up jumping underneath a ledge because I pressing a direction instead of standing right below it and just pressing jump. When you are hanging on a wall, you press jump to climb up, unless you are just switching to the other side, then you press right (or left). Again, this may seem benign, however there are parts in the game where that distinction is not always clear, and your life literally depends on knowing that. There are countless instances where I didn't feel my deaths were my fault, but rather because of an unintuitive, and slightly sluggish control scheme. I would like to preface this next section by saying there are a few clever puzzles and design choices, but it seems like for every one thing they did right, they did two things wrong. Something that annoyed me until the end of the game was the prompts and indicators. Everything from ledges, to doors, to almost everything you could interact with was highlighted in some way, even in some areas where they didn’t need to (some accessible windows cleverly have curtains blowing through them to get your attention). That kind of indication works in an action or RPG games when you need to know what you can pick up or use, but it's not something that should be used in a puzzle game. I know if I were making a game and I realized that most of it was so unintuitive that I had to blatantly tell the player everything they could and could not do, or what they should do, then I would feel the need to rework some things. As for the puzzles, themselves, I found them to be somewhat challenging, but for all the wrong reasons. I get the impression that the game tries really hard to be Limbo, but falls short. For one, the whole “trial and error by death” clashes with the survival-horror setting that it established immediately. After all, the whole point to survival- horror is to survive. This flaw is only compounded by the fact that the game has to reload after every death, whereas Limbo made dying much more seamless. Perhaps my biggest problem with the puzzles was that I didn’t often feel like I learned anything from my death. Now, some of that could be on me, but with my experience with puzzle games like Braid, Limbo, World of Goo, etc, I felt like I got something out of most failures... besides frustration. This isn’t the case with Deadlight. Many of the obstacles were simply trial and error, and there were even a few times that I had the correct solution first, but a failed attempt (either by shoddy controls and sometimes my own incompetence) discouraged further attempts with the same strategy. This was sometimes due to that game making it hard to judge what jumps that you can make. Another irritant is when you pick up something (diary, ID, etc) a black message telling you what it is appears across the bottom of the screen, sometimes covering what you need to see. There are several other annoyances, and I simply don’t have enough allotted characters left.… Expand

   • Helpful? 5 of 7 users said Yes.
3. HercuIes

   4

   I will keep this short. Amazing graphics. Amazing atmosphere. Shocking length of gameplay. Shocking length of story (It ends abruptly. I thought I still had hours up my sleeve.) Voice acting is terrible sucks the believability out of the situation. The dialogue is shocking beyond belief. The control scheme is clunky. (It just doesn't quite work the way you want it to...intuitively) A large portion of the level design at one particular point is jarring by comparison to the rest of the game and, as a result, becomes a struggle to enjoy. Shocking story in general. This game probably boasts the worst closing moments of a video game. Badly written. Nonsensical. And whole bunch of other bad words are all that can describe it. The achievements are not achievements...they are gifts. No replayability, you will collect everything on the first try because the game is that linear. There might be a couple of items you miss, (if you aren't a curious gamer) but a quick scene select at the end of the game sees you find 'said item' in a matter of minutes. 1200 MP is over-priced for something that is under-delivered - This game needed to be twice as long at least. Puzzles are lame and easily solved...I'm not actually sure if, by definition, they can be called puzzles. Overall, this game is disappointing. I had such a big smile on my face when I started the opening levels. I even boasted it to my friends and showed them some of what I had already done. Within 20 minutes of actually playing the game properly I realised my mistake and the fact that arcade games on xbox live a non-refundable. Don't make the same mistake I did. Wait for this game to drop in price, or, better yet, wait for shadow complex 2...if it ever comes out.… Expand

   • Helpful? 7 of 10 users said Yes.

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