Deadfall Adventures Preview

In recent years, the Lost World genre has become less scarce in the gaming industry. Tomb Raider and Uncharted are just two big-name franchises that have spawned from the adventure and exotic locations. What with such concrete games already in place, what can Deadfall Adventures bring to the table and make itself a foothold?

Told from the first-person perspective, Deadfall Adventures has you play as James Lee Quatermain, grandson to great adventurer, Allan Quatermain (the protagonist of King Solomon's Mines, the book that sparked the creation of the genre). Making his living purely off of his grandfather’s name, James is hired by individuals wanting to brag about travelling with a Quatermain. This is where the story begins as he saves Jennifer Goodwin, a US agent, and ventures into an ancient Egyptian tomb to recover lost treasures.

The character James Lee Quatermain is the sort of person you always dreamed of being as a child. He shoots first and asks questions later, is witty to the nth degree and can keep a cool head in sticky situations. However, he doesn’t come without his downfalls. He has a nasty habit of gambling which means he continuously has to escort individuals around these ruins and tombs.

Whilst our time with Deadfall Adventures was not vast, it was enough to give us a nice, round view of the title. The story is based heavily around exploration, guided by your grandfather’s notebook. Sure, you can take the shortest possible route to your destination and get through the main section of the narative, but by doing this, we believe you would miss the point of the game. It’s about branching out from the set path and finding treasure, not just running from A to B.

We were told that there are over 100 bits of treasure to find in the game, some more obvious than others. Whilst some of these treasures are easy to find and obtain, others are not so simple, often locked behind puzzles involving the classic mechanics as well as light and logical puzzles. It won’t be as simple as pulling a few rocks around and jumping from platform to platform. Once you’ve found your riches, you can use them to unlock extra skills for James at ‘Oracle Statues’ dotted throughout the game.

There will be three main locations in the game: Egypt, the Artic and Mayan ruins. Whilst this may not sound like a lot, we were told that you will be constantly traveling over and underground, which changes the gameplay and scenery up a lot. These locations will each hold their own enemies such as mummies and darus (a mythical tree creature) as well as human enemies like nazis and soviet soldiers.

Moving onto multiplayer, we got the chance to compete in a deathmatch. Here, Deadfall Adventures doesn’t shine as unique, but it’s still fun to play. You have a handful of set classes such as Sniper and Assault and you can create your own classes later on, should you desire. There are then set killstreaks which allow you to view players’ positions, get a rocket launcher, use a minigun and become a mummy. From what we saw, it was a pretty run of the mill add-on to a game, but it worked well enough, minus a few clipping issues.

Deadfall Adventures is out later this month and, if you’re someone with lust for adventure whilst remaining in the comfort of your duvet, then maybe suggest grabbing a copy, laying down on your sofa and letting James take all of the bullet damage whilst you reap all of the rewards?