Deadlight is one of the newest additions to the Summer of Arcade. This platformer looks good with its dark cell shaded style. The game is not like a normal zombie game due to the fact that the zombies are dangerous. The game is very much like a survival game, in that you can’t plow through the enemies that are in front of you. The game has a great depth to it, making it very playable. There are almost no flaws in the game, and overall it is fun to play.

Deadlight is a platformer mixed with a little bit of survival. The player takes control of Randal, who is a survivor of a zombie (or as the game calls them, shadows) apocalypse. The game takes place in the pacific North West, specifically near Seattle,Washington.  The player has to get to a safe zone that takes them through cities, and across the countryside. The platforming aspect of the game really shines when the player has to get around the rubble in the destroyed world. While not as fancy as the platforming in Triple AAA titles, the platforming feels right. Randal cannot run up walls to get to higher locations, but he can move boxes to get higher. The platforming is more realistic in some senses.

Deadlight is a very dark game and uses grays, blues, reds and blacks to set the mood. This use of color makes the game feel dark and foreboding. If the game were to use bright colors, then the storytelling would be vastly different and the story is a huge part of the game. The story is set up in the opening cinematic and is revealed by finding collectables through the game, which I will talk more about later on.

Unlike many zombie games, Deadlight makes the zombies strong. In Left 4 Dead, people can plow through waves of zombies without so much as a scratch; the same thing can happen in Dead Rising. In Deadlight, if the player takes on more then three zombies, then it is very possible that they will die. It is made harder because you are only given a fire axe and later on a revolver with limited ammo. The revolver makes killing shadows easier, but fighting with only the axe is almost a sure way to lose health and get yourself killed.

The game has amazing depth to it. Throughout the game you can run across collectables, but if you aren’t careful, you can miss them all together. You can collect pages to Randal’s diary that explains the back-story to the game. You are also able to find I.D.’s on dead people which allows you to 100% complete the game. I find this a good enough reason to explore the world, but by making this a requirement for an achievement, the player is able to appreciate the work that the game designers have put into the game.

While the game is well put together and looks great, one flaw got kind of annoying. This flaw occurs during combat. Your axe will not always hit the shadows and knock them back. I would be fine with the shadows not being knocked back at all, but if they do get knocked back only 75% of the time, then we have a problem. This is such a small problem that I was tempted to not write about it, however since I died several times because a shadow didn’t get knocked back when it was inside my arc, I feel justified.

Cons:

• Combat can be buggy
• Zombies are hard to kill

Pros:

• Cell shaded style
• Lots of collectibles
• zombies are hard to kill

Final Thoughts:

Deadlight is fun to play. It is a nice deviation from the normal zombie games. It is also a nice change of pace from the platformers that come out. The storytelling is well done and is helped along very nicely by the style of the game. The one small problem that I came across while playing the game is so small, that unless you are killed as a result, you would never know it was there. The game is a good game to play, and will be enjoyed by zombie and platformer fans alike.

Final Score:

Deadlight gets a 9 out of 10.

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