Deadlight - An Independant experience

I've just bought Deadlight on Steam. It's an indie RPG platformer set in Seattle circa 1986, but it's not the world that many of us knew during that era.

This is a 2D game that focuses upon survival in a nightmare world of the living dead. There has been an apocalyptic viral outbreak which has reduced humankind to a handful of survivors. Those that have the virus are in a zombie state, but this is not your standard zombie shoot 'em up, quite the reverse.

You begin in a warehouse having just executed a woman that has been bitten. The shot stirs up those zombies in the surrounding area and in order to allow your friends to survive, you draw attention away and set out on a single person adventure to reach the nearest safehouse. Rather than the focus being on shooting the zombies, you use your surroundings to evade, block, taunt and entrap your enemy. You sneak, climb, leap and run out of trouble. In the opening stages of the game, if attacked you push the zombie to the floor and move - fast. There are hotkeys for slingshots (to distract allowing for evasion) and 2 types of gun, but it would seem the emphasis is on finding alternative ways around how to survive.

As you play Deadlight, you're looking at a flat 2 dimensional world and your pathway is left or right, up or down. This is not a remotely open world, but the graphics are quite incredible (I've got them on the highest res and detail setting), they appear hand drawn and are beautifully detailed. Tones of black, grey and sepia are used to good effect as they serve to emphasise the level of destruction and decay that has occurred. Background music isn't intrusive, it adds to the atmosphere rather than detracts, and the grunts of the character after a heavy fall, long jump etc., also add to the ambience and immersive nature of this game.

I've only played Deadlight a short time, but the controls are already becoming very instinctive. The engineering and structure of the gameplay is well thought out and realised, as are the points where the game automatically saves - creating checkpoints to return to if you die. At certain points your diary updates and/or your character comments on the current situation.

Like most games Deadlight has various levels of difficulty. I'm playing on Normal and there are some situations that require thought, but nothing has been impossible. However I suspect the Nightmare mode lives up to its title. I'd suggest anyone interested watch the trailer, on full screen, as you get a good idea of what the game involves, but not of how immersive it is.

So, to sum up, despite being a 2D platformer, the RPG elements of Deadlight are strong and the controls quickly become intuitive. These last two elements, plus the immersive, tense qualities imbued by excellent graphics, VA work and low-key music make this an exciting and enjoyable game.

A game set in Seattle? Well, I've got to see this.

I picked it up along with FTL and Amnesia. Steam and their damned sales. I've already got more games than I have time to play.

I hope you enjoy it Kana. A bit further on in the game and I feel the RPG elements are more to do with the immersion and narrative than actual gameplay. See what you think.