The only problem is that while Sony's system tends to bring in games that are still relevant, Microsoft seems just willing to skim games that are several years old or Xbox Arcade games that they must feel not enough people cared about.
That isn't to say none of their games in this are good. I've just found myself more often than not downloading the games just so the system shows "paid" and I can get it in the future if the mood strikes me.
The newest game to become free to download is "Deadlight," a remnant from an old Summer of Arcade event featuring zombies that don't go under the name "zombie" because some worlds apparently don't have the word in their vocabulary and have to make up new ones.
You play as Randall Wayne, forest ranger and (apparent) world champion parkour participant. You run, jump, roll, and crawl your way across levels that attempt to invoke a three dimensional world by letting dangers and monsters strike from the background but don't allow you to move in more than two dimensions.
Randall is attempting to locate his missing wife and daughter as he maneuvers over the rooftops and through the sewers of Seattle (because there's always a sewer level) as he uncovers a dastardly plot where a group of para-militia men have transformed a safe spot into a place where they capture, torture, imply rape towards, and rob other survivors.
Oh, spoilers from here on in.
Now, the game isn't subtle with its story. I figured out a majority of the twists within the first hour of the story, because no zombie story that involves looking for a missing family ever ends well. Letting someone have a happy ending in a zombie story would be akin to Ferris Bueller getting home from his day to find that Principal Rooney slaughtered his family.
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| "My total defense is the kid had it coming." |
If this review makes it sound like I don't like the game, you're not entirely wrong. It's not a bad game, it's just frustrating. Because you're a silhouette running on top of other silhouettes, it can be extremely easy to get confused as to what is part of the stage and what's just part of the background. Many times I lept for an overhanging wire just to flail through the air and land in a zombie!s waiting mouth. Other times I'd be in a mad sprint away from zombies just to trip over a chair and land on my face (seriously).
The game requires a lot of trial and error, not just because of the surroundings but because of what the game wants you to do with the enemies. Sometimes you have to do your darnedest to run away from anything with a gaping orifice your flesh might fit in, other times the game will suddenly give you a weapon and expect you to turn the game into a scrolling shooter. Other times still, you'll think the game expects you to shoot your way through a hallway just to find at the end you were supposed to reach a room and knock over a bookshelf. I regularly found myself without ammo when I needed it and feeling pretty foolish when the zombies swarmed over me.
Oh, and I really wish game developers would stop putting water into their games if they can't figure out how to make the character not die instantly upon touching it. The main character is a park ranger, I'm pretty sure he should know how to swim.
On the plus side, the graphics (besides the silhouettes) are extremely well done, with a lot of detail work going into the backgrounds and even foregrounds of every scene. You'll spend a lot of time wishing you could move towards and away from the screen to explore this world deeper, especially when you wind up needing to go under a stadium floor instead of simply around to where there's no wall in order to get to where you need to be.
Overall, the game is a basic diversion with okay acting and a standard story. It's nothing mind blowing and won't shatter any new levels of game development, but with awkward controls and the need for incessant trial and error means that I wouldn't really recommend this game if it wasn't free.
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