Deadlight is a dark side-scrolling platformer that will undoubtedly strike a chord with the very same audiences who fell in love with The Walking Dead, Shadow Complex, and Limbo. It should be immediately obvious as to the bond those games share and the content each brings to the table for Deadlight — The Walking Dead’s copious usage of zombies and grim imagery, and the silky smooth platforming mechanics perfected in games like Limbo and Shadow Complex. It’s easy to see where this mature creepfest siphoned its influences, but that doesn’t make it a bad trip — it’s simply utilizing all its resources to create a quality product. And for the most part, it succeeds.
If you’re playing to immerse yourself in some sort of new and inventive narrative that expands upon previously established genre conventions, you’ve got the wrong game. Deadlight makes it clear early on that it is content to pull from every tired zombie apocalypse saga cliche out there to weave its stoic tale: missing family members, a grizzled protagonist, and a dreary world where you’ve gotta be looking out for number one nearly constantly. Randall is our substitute Rick Grimes/Survivor/Zombie Hunter Extraordinaire, but he’s still just an ordinary man searching for his daughter and his wife — all the way from Canada, to Seattle to find an established safe area for survivors. Of course, traipsing through the now-ravaged lands is going to be his biggest obstacle.
“Shadows” are lurking everywhere, and when you least expect it their numbers only seem to multiply. It’s your job to guide Randall through numerous run-down, dreary urban areas to hopefully be reunited with his family and possibly other survivors.
It’s all fairly standard stuff. If you’re a horror buff or even a zombie enthusiast you’ll have lived through these very same scenarios many times over, even if only in your mind. Deadlight allows you to explore the fantasy by having you scavenge and survive the zombie-riddled wasteland by way of side-scrolling platforming. Utilizing an art style similar to that of Limbo where Randall is nearly silhouetted against the muted grays and darker earth tones of the background, you’re immersed in a decidedly depressing world. You’ll mostly move from left to right and occasionally from the background to the foreground in order to reach point B from point A.
Usually it’s best to sprint as long as you can, as long as your stamina bar will allow, to simply flee from any advancing zombies, as facing them one-on-one (or three or four on one, as is usually the case) is not the best course of action. When trying to combat the zombies, Randall’s sluggish melee combat is a dealbreaker. Aiming is a chore that never becomes any less of one, no matter how many times you pick up a firearm. And swinging an axe is not enough protection when you’re on the run from six or seven of the undead. That’s why it’s better to try to do your best parkour expert impression and shimmy up ladders, leap from ledge to ledge, and take bounds between rooftops to keep away from the danger below. While it gets repetitive, there’s still something exhilarating about the constant feeling of being on the run and being forced to re-evaluate your escape plan over and over, even if it does make for some frustrating moments here and there.
Puzzles are quite rudimentary button pushing and crate-pulling affairs, and rarely will you ever be stumped as long as there are action triggers abound to make note of. Collectibles are littered about each area, like pages of Randall’s diary and other personal belongings, but other than that there isn’t much going on in-game beyond brief comic book styled cut scenes and the clipped segments of narrative interspersed with gameplay.
Platforming is easily Deadlight’s biggest strength, and it does this with the greatest of ease. Where normally I would be annoyed with the constant acrobatics, running leaps, and wall jumping, it felt so natural here that I found myself looking forward to these things the most. There was a simple thrill in going into an abandoned garage, trapping some undead baddies beneath a car, and zipping up a ladder to start again, all the while avoiding the zombies like the plague. It kept me coming back for more, even when disgusted with the otherwise annoying aiming mechanics and samey feel to the story.
That’s what Deadlight is — a familiar and comfortable platformer that attempts a new spin on the same story we’ve heard before, only with a different aesthetic. It’s certainly far from perfect, but it’s a perfectly serviceable and intriguing adventure that you might truly enjoy if you’re into the games mentioned previously or you’ve been bitten by the zombie bug. For future outings, perhaps Tequila Studios’ first order of business may be to forage for some updated narrative concepts — with the right ammunition, their next project could be killer.