Review — Deadlight: Director’s Cut

Deadlight: Director's Cut

We sit down and review Deadlight: Director’s Cut. It’s another remaster for a game that didn’t get much love before. Here’s our review of Deadlight: Director’s Cut

It’s only been a short four years and now we have Deadlight: Director’s Cut landing on the PS4 and Xbox One after a nice stint on the 360 and PC. This would be Tequila Works‘ side-scrolling zombie adventure that aims to focus on story more than just exploding brains. It was decently received the first time around but now we have a more definitive edition of the game here now with all of the extra mixed in that the original Deadlight just didn’t have. We sat down with it and had a chance to experience it all. Here’s our review of the game.

Story

Get ready to take on the role of Randall Wayne. He’s just some guy from Seattle in 1986 who know how to survive given the fact that he was a park ranger in Canada before the outbreak. He’s doing his day to day after the outbreak and gets separated from his core group and family and he is on a mission to get back in touch with them all. Can he swing, jump, slide, and kill “Shadows” to do it? Well that is all up to us to see if we can get a happy reunion for everyone.

Hated

Deadlight is a side-scrolling title through and through. One of the things that makes a good side-scrolling title is the ability to try and figure out just how to get from platform to platform. The thing here though is that most of the time there isn’t any good indicators to show when dangers are coming or they don’t come soon enough to give you a solid chance to survive. In fact, most of the traps have no real indicators or signs of bypassing until you go through a lot of trial and error. Given that there is a mode that has a one-hit game over mode it would have been nice to have something so hours of play were not wasted.

Slightly linked into the above issue would also be some of the combat actions that we are allowed to take that put us more in harm’s way than actually helping. As Deadlight: Director’s Cut was my first taste of the IP I am going to assume that the tackle feature was also in the original and left in. Mainly because it made no sense to be able to tackle the Shadows to get past them only to have to fight them off of you as they now hold you down. I thought this was supposed to be an optional method but really turned into something I cursed every time I accidentally pulled it off.

Loved

Right out of the gate Deadlight brings us a narrative that is already a winner in my book. That is a story that takes place in a zombie apocalypse that is more about the humans then the undead. One could say that in an age where The Walking Dead has cornered the market there that we just don’t need another addition. While I will say it went along the same lines of a tried and true story we know, it deviates and has its own interesting characters we get to interact with and enjoy. It may sound alike but it really just boils down to a similar theme that is delivered in a completely different way with a great twist.

While there was a whole lot of trial and error with the platforming in Deadlight: Director’s Cut I do have to say that there were so many fun sections and puzzles that made it all intriguing and not as frustrating as it may sound. I may have died quite a bit do to the issues I saw but it was never to a point that made me want to throw my controller at the screen and curse the day that game was ever made. Everything was perfectly balanced in that department and this is just another great addition into the side-scrolling genre of video games. Excellent work Tequila Works.

The last thing I have to place here in the loved section for Deadlight: Director’s Cut has to be the Nightmare Mode that is unlocked after everything is said and done. In this mode it is one death and you start over from the beginning. This may sound like a horrible addition into a game like this but I found myself constantly coming back to try and do better. I was hooked and had the right amount of tension involved that made it another enjoyable part of the overall game. I has still yet to make it all the way through the game in this mode but I’ll be damned if I give up anytime soon. It is that good.

Overview

At the end of the night here I would have to say that Deadlight: Director’s Cut is just how to do a fun side-scroller as well as how to do a “remaster” of sorts. In fact, I am glad that it was done as I completely missed out on everything the first time around given the close similarities to other IPs at the time of the original launch. If you have yet to experience Deadlight at all and love side-scrollers in any form than this is a must pick up for you. It has a few faults but what game doesn’t really? If nothing more it is a nice short way to pass some extra time between the many other games yet to release out there.

I give Deadlight: Director’s Cut 18 Hand Gun Bullets on the Hand Gun Bullet scale.

Deadlight: Director’s Cut was developed by Tequila Works and published by Deep Silver for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on June 21^st, 2016. A PS4 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.