Deadlight Directors Cut Review

Deadlight Director’s Cut is set in an apocalyptic 1986, a zombie outbreak has brought humanity to its knees. You play Randall Wayne, a father searching the destroyed streets of Seattle for his family. You’ll encounter many life-threatening situations, but combat isn’t always the answer against the undead, fight back using scarce resources or hide and sneak past them utilizing the environment. Deadlight: Director’s Cut is the ultimate Deadlight experience, now with improved gameplay, controls, and extra game modes.

I’ve always been a fan of side scrollers as there is not much but go right or left and it is simple yet effective and that is what Deadlight is. Set in 1986…good year for me. You control Randall Wayne who of course is dead set on finding his family in the post apocalyptic Seattle.

Visually the game is quality dark and eerie, with a noir aspect added, it’s what the telltale walking dead games would be if they were set in an RPG environment, The game plays very much like the assassin’s creed series…the side scrolling ones not the major games. You have a health bar, a stamina bar which depletes when ever you swing away with melee weapons or sprint.

Controlling Deadlight is so simple and effective, B is used to melee, A is used to jump, X is interact and the shoulder buttons either sprint or crouch among other maneuvers.

I did find that the combat is a little hack and slash until i found a gun, now don’t get me wrong hack and slash is fulfilling but in a small environment it can get a little tedious and does get a little repetitive, you can set traps for the zombies by taunting them with Y and then activating the trap whether it being a car dropping from a crane you’re controlling or loose wiring that shocks them.

Shooting your gun is a little fiddly using the RB button and guiding the cursor with the RS and then shooting with the RT, i feel they could of made this a little easier but what’s done is done.

There are certain points in Deadlight where a simple hint system would suffice but i  suppose that’s the joy of RPGs. Deadlight has a big similarity to an old favorite of mine Abe’s Oddysee but without the saving of all his buddies.

When controlling Randall he can perform a wall jump but doing so can be tricky especially when in a tight spot but when you master it what an effective move to pull off. Throughout the game Randall has dream sequences which bring more light effects to the game and gives it that beauty. Act two sees you meet The Rat, a crazy old man living in the sewers who sets you on an obstacle course filled with traps and puzzles…I can’t lie it brought me back to my Tomb Raider days.

Tequila Works did a splendid job remastering this 360 game with 1080p graphics and intense encounters that will leave you on the edge of your seat. They also added a nightmare difficulty mode for the first time on consoles as if the game wasn’t tricky enough. Survival Mode pits you in an arena where you face off against waves of shadows/zombies with new weapons and an online leaderboard for you to match off against your friends.