The game dead core firmly places a unique set of skills on to the mouldy, scummy, stained table which is the fps genre; it is a platformer-fps published by Bandai Namco and created by 5 Bits games.
Dead core strikes me as one of those games that would have been a colossal hit 15 years ago. Not that the game isn’t good, it just seems a dated idea for something of the 21st century. A century where fps requires absolutely zero skill and is about pointing at things with a thing until the thing you are pointing at ceases to exist as a state. This is a pretty accepted game culture in the fps genre and for 5 Bits games to bring out a platformer-fps; which requires a lot of hand-eye coordination and thinking almost affirms their passion for their game and if there is one thing I love about game developers it’s a passion for games and not for that dollar. So I enjoyed it and I surprised myself massively, I thought it would be a chore to play through but it’s not.
So to start this game has good controls and I know for people who enjoy platformers there were those games out there that had abysmal controls; controls so awful that the game was virtually unplayable, no matter how much pizazz it possessed. So dead core is looking pretty attractive from across the bar already, the controls don’t constantly wrestle with the gameplay and jumping around the platforms feels liquid, when you move you feel light so it’s fun to jump from platform to platform effortlessly, until the game ramps up the difficult curve.
Briefly mentioned last paragraph, the difficult curve ramps up but it ramps up with you on board; it introduces you to the controls and new abilities before it throws you into the shark infested water. Granted, this game is difficult but it feels like a necessary difficulty to allow you to draw challenge from the game with a sense of progression, what’s the point of heading for a goal when you can float there effortlessly? I almost didn’t want to compare it to Super Mario Brothers but I am; this game is one of those games that you have to perfect every instance to get past to the next level, you have checkpoints and you keep respawning until you have done everything perfectly, like Mario. Anyone who views this will probably be thinking “Wouldn’t that be frustrating?” but it’s not as bad as you think, when I played I had a lust for getting past the level I wanted to see what they could possibly do to make it harder than what it is right now. And it got harder, indefinitely.
This game isn’t to the standard of Dungeon Crawler puzzles but it stands up on its own two legs. There are instances where it virtually tells you nothing and you have to use your set of skills that you learn, granting them a relevance to being acquired. The puzzles are less about brain power and are more about speed and ability; some of the puzzles might include a mob that pushes you off platforms but you can disable him with your gun for a couple of seconds. So you have a time a right moment before you take that leap, there also may be turrets which don’t kill you but knock you back into objects and off platforms.
No game is perfect and there are some minor faults with gameplay which can cause you to stop playing the game or can cause you a lot of frustration. Maybe this only happened to me but when I went onto settings in the menu the game completely crashed, I had to load it up again.
In this game there are bits where it doesn’t give you any information or help in what your must do, sometimes it can work to the games favour adding a little bit of challenge and allowing you to use your own noggin rather than relying on a game holding your hand but one instance I genuinely didn’t know what to do, I was completely stuck not only this I didn’t know how to use a skill that I acquired called jetpack, stumping my progression through the game. This didn’t stop me from playing because I have an obligation to play this game and I passed it after multiple attempts but for someone who is trying to just complete the game to acquire a sense of progression and challenge then they might leave the game to one side.
So for an Indie low budget game this well worth it, for the hours you get out of it, it is fun and leaves you satisfied. So Dead-core did look attractive across the bar and definitely fulfilled their side of the deal when it came to the crunch. For the minor faults I mentioned, most can be fixed with a little patch it’s no big deal and it’s not a game ending fault. Dead-core’s world is interesting and it has a Si-fi feel to it, like you’re inside a computer chip. It’s enjoyable and you can play it competitively with your family with speed runs.
I enjoyed it and for an indie game it filled its boots very well.
Callum