Deadlight: Director's Cut Review

Deadlight is a 2D action-platformer and the first game from Tequila Works - the team now developing PlayStation 4’s Rime. You play Randall, a father searching for his family during a zombie apocalypse by making his way downtown from the outskirts of Seattle and through the sewers below. Deadlight was originally released way back in 2012 as part of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade and exceeded expectations, especially in regards to its sales.

This was despite Deadlight’s less than stellar critical reception, with praise being given to its atmosphere and presentation but then knocked for its gameplay and story. At the time, Deadlight did look great visually and stood out amongst its competition; it’s quite clear why it was the second most popular Summer of Arcade title of that year - it was dark, gritty, and full of zombies.

Now, in partnership with Deep Silver, Randall returns in Deadlight: Director’s Cut for Xbox One, PC, and for the first time on a Sony system, for PlayStation 4. This version boasts 1080p visuals, “superior controls”, and new animations, along with an additional Survival Arena mode. It’s a basic affair that has you surviving hordes of zombies in a single environment, changing the dynamic from “fight or flight” to “fight or run to the other side of the room”.

It’s alright, but it’s not a great selling point, for me. It was clearly a mode tacked on to sweeten the deal when it comes to buying this remaster, as otherwise all you have is the original single-player story.

Split over three chapters, Deadlight’s campaign is only a few hours long, at best, with lost diary pages and other collectibles scattered across each level to encourage exploration or invite more playthroughs. It’s almost a blessing they’re there as otherwise I don’t think anyone would feel the need to revisit Deadlight after completing it once - there’s just not much to it.

As you would expect, each level is made up of a number of set pieces - sometimes there are a number of zombies you have to get past, or maybe there’s a puzzle you have to solve. But then I am loath to really call them puzzles when their solutions are so clearly signposted: at one point, there’s a fire in the street that stops you from passing. How do you clear the way? Just follow the one other path the game offers you until you reach the water tanker.

There’s no feeling of achievement in most of Deadlight’s biggest moments, making for quite a boring experience. Every problem has only one solution, and finding it is never taxing for the player.

As for the improvements made for this version, all I can say is that they’re barely noticeable. In regards to the animation, the way the screen is laid out has Randall and much of the immediate scenery in shadow, with the background lit - with the character model near constantly in darkness, I never noticed anything different about the animations.
The same goes for the “superior controls”. This is a 2D side scroller, and they aren’t exactly famous for having a great depth, control-wise. You move with the stick, jump and swing your axe with the face buttons, crouch and sprint with the shoulder buttons and triggers… it’s exactly the same as before. The only thing I can imagine is maybe it’s easier to adjust direction during a jump. That doesn’t need to be a feature on the box.

Some of the same issues from the original release are still present here, too. Things like framerate don’t seem to have been improved, with even the PC version from 2012 running smoother than this update. Aliasing is also an issue, with many objects in the world still having the same shimmering effect that comes from the fragmented lines - with the power of the PlayStation 4, I would expect these kinks to be fixed.

If you’re a die-hard fan of Deadlight, then you probably don’t even need to read a review to know whether or not to buy it, you’ll just do it anyway. For everyone else, this is an average game that has been surpassed in the years since it came out. There are far better 2D platformers available. You can give this one a miss.