Short Thoughts: Deadbeat Heroes

Recently, I was invited to the London Square Enix offices as part of a press event to try out some games. One of them is Deadbeat Heroes, a 3D brawler where you take the role of an average guy who wields a powerful punch welding gauntlet. There were three levels on hand at the event, each featuring a unique mechanic as your power move. Your task as a deadbeat hero: clear the level of bad guys by beating them up and saving any caught up civilians in the fray, racking up a high score in the process of saving the day.

All good hideouts need sofas, it's a measure of quality.

Walking such a fine of line of playable and b-grade content, Deadbeat Heroes is a game that reminds me of Kick-Ass if the premise was made into a weird caricature of itself. The demo itself was a lot shorter than any of the other games on show, but what was nice and somewhat annoying in its own right. Curiously the game kept resetting my abilities, so whether or not they’re carried over in the main game is yet to be seen. But with a fast paced, run and punch system. The brief session proved fun and could prove to be an incredible short session game like Hotline Miami and similar small level games.

It’s cartoony action and over-the-top approach was appreciated, but one somewhat annoying gripe that ruined the experience slightly was the camera. When you perform a finisher, the camera would slow down and do a classic comic book “Wham!” or “BAM!”. Great in premise, except the camera would often obscure these moments. The restrictive camera angling left enemies as well as myself hidden, which led to some near death experiences. Now if only the game featured a certain bald headed, yellow jumpsuit, red cape wearing hero. I might start roaring in tune to the madness.