bobbytomorow

I wanted to like it. Horror is my favourite genre and I like to support indie **** they have to at least be decent. This game on paper looked like a winner and I did enjoy Daymare 1998. I expected this one to be at least as good as 1998 or better but it took a massive step back. Perhaps they got too ambitious? The worst aspect is the combat, it is just downright frustrating. Enemies move way too fast, they teleport in and around you, they swarm you and your player movements are just too slow to compensate. No matter what you do you WILL be swarmed by enemies before you can kill them time and time again. Enemies will teleport right in front of you then sprint towards you, as you try to deal with that another enemy will teleport beside or behind you out of your line of sight so on the off chance you can deal with the one or two in your line of sight the others will grab you and lock you into a QTE. Then there is the timed hacking puzzles that with a controller are more or less impossible. This game is just an exercise in frustration. I've tried to play through it a couple of times and each time I rage quit. I'll never touch it again.

Excellent zombie FPS that captures the essence of the movie genre of old circa 70's & 80's zombie flicks. I never did understand the harsh criticism this game received from professional reviewers back when it was released 10 years ago. The main criticisms, I think, are unfounded...poor enemy AI...really? They are freaking ZOMBIES, they are brain-dead...Would reviewers have rather the zombies used squad tactics, flanking and the like? I think the enemy AI is perfectly fitting, in fact it is so true to the genre (that is the genre of zombie horror) that I wouldn't change a thing about the enemy AI here. You can easily run past one, two or even a few zombies with little immediate repercussions because they are slow and unable to use projectile weapons however make no mistake if you are in a building, alley way or sewer and hit a dead end that forces you to double back those zombies you laughed at and ran past have now gathered into a horde and if you haven't conserved ammo then welp, you are in trouble.This game forces you to use your head and think ahead, "gee should I take out this random zombie even though I have 3 bullets or should a run past and hope I don't need to double back?" These are the conundrums you imagine you would be pressed with in a zombie apocalypse. The atmosphere of the game is also very fitting, it is very bleak, dark, desolate and lonely. You do start out in a rural setting but only for the first few minutes of the game, after that its urban decay, a city scape void of any life but chock full of zombie hordes. You play as a protagonist named Jack, just your average joe, a middle aged farmer with special abilities or super powers, just your wit and whatever weapons you can scavenge from the environment. The pacing is slow but methodical, bringing you though a fairly linear but well realized world with clear goals presented to you such as find doctor in hospital, get key card to free doctor from locked office, protect yourself when said doctor inevitably turns into the undead and push on to the next **** to stay alive and find other survivors. Reviewers who were originally harsh either completely missed the point in that how the game plays is a deliberate and conscious move on the part of the developers or the reviewers have never seen a zombie film pre-28 Days Later. Also 10 years ago there was a A LOT happening in the FPS genre of gaming, Half Life 2, Doom 3 and FarCry were relatively new still as well as many other new franchises that would go on to be juggernauts (Call of Duty, Brothers in Arms, Battlefield and FEAR among others) so perhaps reviewers were looking for something groundbreaking. This is the wrong game if you want groundbreaking, but if you are looking for a game to play late at night and get engrossed into the environment, if you are the type of person who would choose Day of the Dead (1985) over Day of the Dead 2008 then this game is for you.

Classic FPS thar hearkens the days of monster closets, b grade cinema story line and voice acting and a worl limited by arbitrary obstacles and corridors. If you are me and were a big fan of FPS in the 90's I say give this a chance, you just wax poetic and shed a tear in retrospect of simpler times...shall I say purer times? This is Doom 3 lite, Dead Effect doesn't innovate at all nor does it provide a deep gamelay experience . What it does provide is tight controls, excellent graphics, non stop action, great audio and real care that went into level design, however old school or derivative it may be. For old school FPS fans like myself there is a lot of fun to be had here, for the price this is a great value.