Reviews// NeverDead

NeverDeath is, indeed, a fun mechanic. It's a shame the good ideas and fun mechanics are let down a little by the execution of other elements of the game.

The main problem is the sword-based combat. Once it's armed, the swings of your sword are controlled with the right analogue stick. This is an idea I like, and occasionally it can be used to very good effect, striking an enemy in the exact spot you were aiming for. All too often, however, it's hampered by the lock-on system. Holding the left trigger will lock on to a nearby enemy, meaning that whether you go for a horizontal or vertical slash, it will go in the direction of that enemy. You're often being swarmed by enemies, however (they'll usually keep spawning until you murder the mollusc-y bastard that's spitting them out), and the one you lock onto won't necessarily be the one you want to cut up. Swapping enemies is a faff, though, so what ends up happening is that you wildly spam the analogue stick in the hope you take out whatever's around you, without having much control over the direction of your swings.

The shooting's a bit better, but some enemies are surprisingly bullet-resistant. Generally speaking, a gun seems like a pretty good tool for attacking most things that get in your way, but in NeverDead it can prove very ineffective. This happens a lot early on in the game and you start to wonder what the hell your guns are even for. Thankfully, as new enemy types start cropping up later in the game your bullets become more useful and shooting becomes more fun. The shortfalls in both sword and gun combat can, however, prove frustrating.

It doesn't help when you encounter obstacles that should be easily surmounted – rubble, low-down railings and the like – but find that you have to go round them. When you've got one of the affectionately-named puppies (bone-plated hellhounds) snapping at your heels, that can be a pain.

Looks-wise, NeverDead does OK but doesn't excite. There's some strong design work been done on the demons, and a series of rendered cutscenes set in the past is gorgeous, but locations tend to look a little plain.

For the sake of completeness – NeverDead features a multiplayer mode with special levels for up to four. I can't really tell you any more about it because I was playing the game pre-release and there was no way to test it out.

In a nutshell – NeverDead's mix of gameplay elements that are fun and novel with mechanics that are sometimes vexing throws up a cocktail that's passable, at times enjoyable but that overall 'could do better'.

Pros:
+ Interesting use of 'death' in games.
+ Dismemberment is fun.
+ You get to play as a rolling head.

Cons:
- Annoying swordplay mechanics.
- Sometimes bafflingly-ineffective guns.

SPOnG Score: 6/10