[h2]DownTheDead[/h2]
[h1]An Attempt Has Been Made[/h1]
When I first saw this game, it instantly reminded me of games like Dead Space and Dead Effect. But those games take place on a spaceship. DownTheDead takes place in an underground research facility that is disguised as a normal hospital. The gameplay mostly involved sneaking around and trying to be as stealthy as possible due to the lack of a stable source of ammunition. I mean, it’s possible to take the guns blazing approach if you’re skilled enough with your movement.
So, before we get into the review, I’d like to point out that during the game’s early-access stage, the developers were extremely interactive with the players. They read the reviews and made changes accordingly. The game is now out of Early-access. But this didn’t stop the developers from listening to player complaints and taking the necessary actions. Kudos to the devs for this! More developers should be like this. It would aid in improving their games while improving dev-player relationships.
[h1]About This Game [/h1]
[h2]Storyline [/h2]
The storyline is a bit of a mess. There’s no proper narration or anything. Everything is spontaneous if you know what I mean. But I was able to get a rough idea of the game’s plot. Here goes nothing:
[code] You basically play as a male test subject who wakes from a coma in this undercover research facility. When he woke up, there had been a zombie outbreak there. His main aim is to survive this chaos and escape from the facility in one piece. He would be encountering several types of zombies and armed humans who also pose a major threat! Do you have what it takes to survive?[/code]
So yeah, it’s a very simple story with okayish narratives. I wasn’t really intrigued by it at any point. They could’ve done better in the narratives at least. Voice-overs would’ve been a good option that could add a bit more spice to the overall game.
[h2]Gameplay Mechanics [/h2]
Finally, a game where I don’t need sub-categories to talk about the game mechanics. Okay so, the game has fairly basic mechanics. Firstly, the movement is pretty normal. There’s the usual walking, running, jumping, and crouching. All of these are pretty smooth except for the crouching. For some odd reason, it feels janky asf. It’s probably because of the transition animation which feels like a jump cut.
So, my keyboard’s left shift key is broken. I usually rebind the left shift key to the caps lock. In this game, Left Shift is used to sprint, a very vital part of this game. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t allow you to rebind the controls. This forced me to use a controller to play the game. I’d prefer if the developers would consider adding rebindable controls since it will be a huge help to players to customize it to their comfort.
Next, combat. This game gives off heavy Half-Life vibes since the primary weapon is a crowbar. It’s obvious that you can only engage in close-range combat with this weapon. Since you’re kinda forced to take the stealthy approach most of the time, you would have to perform stealth kills. You do get two guns later in the game, a pistol and a shotgun. The weapon mechanics are a bit janky but they do their job. For some reason, the muzzle flash’s position is a bit too off. It doesn’t affect the gameplay in any way but it just feels odd. My Ocd do be acting up.
Apart from those three weapons, you also get a flashlight. This light source requires batteries to work. Batteries are like the ammunition for the flashlight. I have only one problem with this. The flashlight is a bit too bright. It immediately kills the realism feel. I recommend reducing the light’s intensity.
The enemy AI is too janky. They just feel very off. They don’t attack you properly. For instance, the armed humans, you can go very close to them and start hitting them with your crowbar while going around them and crouching constantly. They will still shoot at certain intervals, but they won’t aim at you but you still get damaged. If you do this thing properly, you can manage to kill the person with your crowbar and a few medkits. I feel this happens because the AI gets confused about what to do when you get too close to it and keep on moving around it. Oh, and the combat with enemies felt as though I was playing a turn-based combat game since the enemy waited for me to land a couple of hits before they attacked me. The enemy AI could use a heavy re-work.
Surprisingly enough, this game has something called the “Special Vision”. This is something like heat vision which allows you to see enemies and interactable objects. Unlike other games, this doesn’t have a cooldown. Instead, everything becomes slow asf when you use it. This is useful to keep track of enemies when you’re in cover and for locating collectible ammos, medkits, objects of interest, etc.
[h2]Visuals & Audio[/h2]
This is purely an indie game. So, don’t get into it hoping for AAA-level graphics. The assets used aren’t very high poly but they are pretty decent. They’re fairly detailed. But there’s a lot of recycling of assets. Most rooms look very similar, you’ll see the same objects scattered around randomly, etc. Apart from that, the animations are a bit rough. They could be made a bit smoother. But they did nail the dark setting in the game. The zombies’ red glowing eyes looked pretty good in the darkness! The sound design in this game is very minimalistic. It’s quiet most of the time. I would’ve loved it if they added voice-overs for the dialogues.
[h1]Pros[/h1]
[list]
[*] The game has a pretty good dark setting.
[*] I love the red glowing eyes of the zombies!
[/list]
[h1]Cons[/h1]
[list]
[*] Everything in the game feels janky and rough.
[*] The enemy AI needs a heavy re-work.
[*] The flashlight is a bit too bright.
[*] Gunplay could be improved.
[*] The animations are pretty rough.
[/list]
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
This game doesn’t introduce anything new in the genre. But it can still be played by people who enjoy such games. In its current condition, it’s a bit buggy and annoying to play. But since the developers are working hard to release bug fixes and implement features through player feedback, I can confidently say that this game has room for improvement. Give it some time and it will become better. The game isn’t very expensive so you can buy it at its base price if you want to give it a shot!
[b]Note:[/b]
Okay, so one of the developers took the liberty to message me and ask me to elaborate on the cons I mentioned. I did and they actually called me and shared their screen, showing me how they're fixing the bugs and asking me if that was alright. This was a really unique experience and I found it fun! Most of the stuff I mentioned were fixed and they also added an option to get unlimited FPS. They mentioned that they'll try to rectify the rest sooner or later! The patch was just released today! So, due to this, I am obliged to change the rating of the game! Here are the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1936250/view/3400797688636402327]Patch notes[/url].
[b]Reviewer:[/b] Midplayz
Red Eyes are hot.
[b]Rating:[/b] 7/10 [spoiler]Previously, it was a 5/10[/spoiler]
[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38888018-United-Critics/] Please follow [b]United Critics[/b] for more quality reviews.[/url]
