Now Playing: Deadlight

Deadlight is a ‘sidescrolling survival horror cinematic platforming video game’ according to wikipedia. I guess that sums it up fairly concisely. So yeah, it’s a platform game with zombies and some basic combat. You play as a guy called Randall Wayne who is trying to survive in a world overrun with zombies (or shadows, as they are called in the game).

You essentially run from left to right (and occasionally from right to left) jumping over gaps, avoiding traps and smacking zombies with an axe. Sometimes you shoot them too. Tip: Aim for the head.

There’s a story or something like it, about Randall trying to find his wife and kid and escape Seattle. It’s fairly straightforward, with a ‘twist’ towards the end that’s easy to see coming from the get go. It’s nothing terrible, but nothing particularly exciting or engaging either, nor are the characters who suffer from some shoddy dialogue. There are a couple of ‘dream’ sequences mixed in for story purposes, but these just feel like pointless filler and don’t really add anything to the narrative. In terms of story and characters, it’s just hard to really care.

Graphically, the game looks good, with some impressive backgrounds and a high level of detail throughout. It makes good use of lighting and sound. So it’s a very pretty game, but it’s also a very short one, only clocking in at 2-3 hours with practically zero replay value. It’s also very, very easy.

Gameplay consists of the aforementioned jumping and climbing, with a bit of combat mixed in. You have health and stamina bars, but you never really need to pay attention to them. Your path is completely linear which isn’t really a negative issue as such, but given that the game only lasts a couple of hours it doesn’t do anything to encourage repeat plays. Even the ‘hidden’ collectibles are easy to find on your first run if you can be bothered.

The best thing about the game really is how pretty it looks, which isn’t saying much. The game excels when Randall is moving through urban environments overrun with zombies. Through houses, streets and hospitals. You don’t even need a story for that. Just playing as a survivor trying to escape the city would have been fine.

But then the game goes and introduces one large, irritating section where you have to navigate a series of deadly traps involving jumping over spikes and such, which just feels ridiculous and out of place. Then towards the end you’ll come up against human enemies and guns and that too just isn’t as interesting as the zombie world stuff which unfortunately only makes up about half of the experience.

Overall, Deadlight is a short, forgettable game. There’s nothing inherently wrong with how it plays, and certainly not with how it looks, but there’s nothing to make it stand out either. It was mildly entertaining for a couple of hours. That’s about all I can really say about it.

5/10