Dead Party by developer Radiation Blue and publisher Snail Games USA—PC (Steam) review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes.
When I first saw Dead Party, I thought, "This looks like a fun game to play around Halloween." Then, when I actually started the game, I thought, "This game looks awfully familiar." Well, my hunch was right. I had played a game a long time ago on the PS3 with some of the same characters called Dead Block. Then I come to find out, it's supposed to be a sequal/spairtal suscsseser to Dead Block. Oddly enough, they never say so on Steam or anything, and I would think that's something they'd want people to know.
Dead Party is a 1-4 player co-op action base defense game. There are two modes of play: story mode, where I spent most of my time, and arcade mode. Story mode tells a story of UFO's causing a zombie outbreak in a town called Shady Hill.
In story mode, you play as one of the four characters: Jack Foster, Mike Bacon, Foxy Jones, all of whom are returning from the original Dead Block game, and newcomer Ashley Parker. Each character has their own levels and story, although I think the story is all tied together, as once you beat every level for each character, you will unlock the last level. The whole story mode can be played co-op with split-screen or online in private mode. There are no public games for story mode. You can pick levels in any order, so you can play one level for Jack and then play a level or two of Mike's story. It makes the story hard to follow, since it already feels like a mess and makes little sense. I am still glad they put a story mode in the game, but the story, although silly and meant to be like a B-grade 50s horror movie, still seems badly written.
In each level, you can build barricades on doors and windows and traps with material you find by searching items and destroying things on the level. Each trap uses a different amount of material, like wood you get from destroying things or bolts you get from searching and destroying things, and a certain type of zombie will also drop once you kill it.
There are four types of levels in the game, and it felt lacking with that few. The types of levels are Showtime, where you must search for four hidden items, like a microphone and three other items, so you can put on a rock concert as music kills the zombies. Skull Cannon is my favorite type of level, where you must kill zombies and pick up their skulls and load them into a cannon to fire at a UFO. You can only carry 20 skulls at a time, and the zombies' numbers grow rapidly. Fuel Run is my least favorite level type. In this one, you have to fuel up four generators with fuel you find on Fuel-Carrier Zombies. You must get it away from them by killing them without setting the fuel can on fire; if it does, you only have a short time to get it to a generator before it explodes. The last type of level is horde mode. Each character gets one once you beat their normal levels. Horde mode is pretty self-explanatory: you fight horde after horde of increasingly difficult zombies within a time limit, or it will send the next wave out. Beat all the zombies before time runs out, and you get a gift that could include materials, health, and other goodies. You can beat a horde mode level by making it to a certain level and beating the last of the zombies. I did experience one issue in the mode that seemed to be a glitch at times: when it awarded you a gift for beating the wave in time, the image would stick there for a whole wave, so I had no idea how much time or how many zombies were left.
A nice thing is that most levels let you recruit one or more of the other characters when you find them on a level. Once you do, they will set traps and barricades and help kill zombies and even revive you if you die, but you will have to do the same if they die. The only downside is that they won't help with a level's objective, so if you're doing a fuel run, they will leave the fuel canister on the ground and not put it in a generator. At the end of every level, you will get to rock the dead by instantly killing every zombie in the area, and you will have to go around and kill every one of them to beat a level. One other really annoying thing was that sometimes a locked door would block you from an area you needed to get to. It sometimes takes forever to find, and you will lose a level cheaply by being overrun because you are playing solo, or at least that's how I felt. It should also automatically pick up keys, but you have to press E to pick them up. And one last thing I really hated was that the game has no pause. When you try to pause, it keeps playing in the background, and I was playing solo!
Each character can use a kick that sends zombies flying and is needed to remove armor from armored zombies. Each character has their own guitar attack. Ashley, for instance, heals party members, while Jack causes lightning to strike zombies in the area, damaging and killing them. Characters will also level up as you kill zombies, search, build, and destroy things. When you level up, you unlock new cosmetics that not only change their looks but can raise stats like health or how fast they can search, and also can grant you a skill like critical hits that will kill enemies in one hit occasionally.
Aside from your normal melee weapon, kicking, and your Guitar, you can find weapons by searching things. These all have a limited number of uses. There is a decent variety, like a shotgun, dynamite, and a hamburger with dynamite that will attract zombies and then detonate, bear traps, and more. As for the traps that you can put in windows, there seems to be a lack of them. My favorite one was one that freezes zombies when they pass through. At the beginning of a level, it shows what traps you will have, but it won't let you pick which ones you want to bring, and I found that a little odd.
In arcade mode, you can have public matches and play co-op with random people. In arcade mode, you can set up your own rules for a set of levels and play them. You still have to pick from one of the four types, but you can decide things like how often an item drops, what character you want to be, the weapons that will show up in the level, and you can even add bots if you don't have enough players for a full party or if you like to play solo.
The sound in the game is decent enough, but the music sounds a lot like the music used in the 2011 Dead Block game. The theme song is meant to sound like Elvis, but I can't understand a word he says. Graphically, the game also isn't the best. It looks like it could have been a slightly upgraded PS3 game, maybe allowing a lot more zombies on screen. The original game even had some voice acting, and this game has none! It feels more like a step down rather than a sequel.
Overall, it's much like a B-movie; it's not great, but it can be fun at times. The story mode is short; I beat it in less than 10 hours. The story doesn't make much sense either, but I did enjoy some levels, while others felt more annoying than fun. I could see the game being fun in couch co-op with 3 friends or online, but as a solo player? I don't think there is enough here. I think I enjoyed Dead Block on PS3 a little more than this, but it's been a long time since I played it.
Score: 6 / 10
