Meet Bryce Boltzmann. He’s a fast talking, cocky, arrogant joker who hunts demons for a living. Hired by the NADA (National Anti Demon Agency), he tracks the devil spawn with his partner, Arcadia, to fund his alcoholism as he wallows daily in 500 years of despair. He is immortal you see, and cannot die no matter how much he’s hurt. Once a young charismatic knight who hunted demons with his wife to bring honour to his family, his story is a rather tragic one. The married duo fought a rather powerful demon which resulted in the death of Bryce's wife, and the subtraction of an eye and his mortal soul. Mixed with the loss of a loved one and the curse of immortality, Bryce is less than cheerful about this sorrowful ever-lasting life.
Set in present day, Neverdead follows Bryce as he occupies himself with slaying demons allowed into the human world by the demon king, Astaroth. Bryce has somewhat of a history with Astaroth, being as it was the demon king who cursed Bryce and killed his wife 500 years ago. While the demon fodder bring in the coin, Bryce's true motive is the pursuit of revenge.
Never Die?
Due to NeverDead’s unique story that follows a man who can never die, the game’s director, Shinta Nojiri - the man responsible for scripting some of the Metal Gear Solid series’ best set-pieces - has the freedom to create some interesting game mechanics. A long understood way of losing a game is if the main character should die, therefore the director has had to adjust gameplay to cater for NeverDead's protagonist. With Bryce having an AI partner throughout the game, it could possibly negate the positives of Bryce having immortal powers. Keeping Arcadia alive is looking to be a main focal point of the game, with her death resulting in the failure of the level.
AI characters have been the bane of many a game in the past, and missions where players have to protect AI characters such as in GTA and Resident Evil, have been criticised highly in the past for being frustrating and chore-like. The team behind NeverDead have taken this into account with the aim of creating a game that hinges off of supporting and defending an AI character but to a much less frustrating end. One way of alleviating the annoyances of such a gameplay scenario is by having this immortal character. Bryce can run into the action without a care for his own health and effectively become a human shield when his partner is in trouble. Arcadia is no push over either; the stern-looking, smart-dressed blonde can handle herself when the time calls, and it seems she has a great proficiency with guns.
Get Out There And Break A Leg
Bryce is able to survive any barrage of blows and can even have his limbs and body parts blown off at any time. This can change the gameplay on the fly, with the loss of some limbs either hindering Bryce’s attacks or allowing for some more unique moves, such as break-dancing, gun-toting attacks. This means that no playthrough of a section will be the same, as Bryce's limb-flinging abilities allow for a myriad of possible outcomes. Due to this fairly innovative design, maybe we are not giving NeverDead as much credit for variety as we should be.
As a whole, NeverDead adopts the standard third-person run and gun gameplay seen in games like Uncharted. However, as Bryce is able to use a variety of different weapons such as swords and other melee based weaponry, there are hints of the more exotic fighting styles of Devil May Cry in there too. On top of this, NeverDead distances itself from typical traditions of the third-person shooter by allowing players to use destructible scenery and items within the world to destroy Bryce’s demon foes. Bryce also has the double-edged ability to tear limbs off at will, then using his limbs to distract foes or use as weapons. What has not been made clear is how long it takes for missing limbs to regenerate and obviously how much of a hindrance this will be until then.
Dead On Arrival
There are many aspects of NeverDead that intrigue, but there are also those that disappoint in terms of gameplay. The ability to lose limbs allows for some creative gameplay mechanics, but not being able to die in favour of having an AI character to look after are perhaps a slight let down. Are Konami really stupid enough to produce a game that entirely focuses on keeping your AI partner alive? If so, that concept is only going to lose interest before even being released.
NeverDead has just so many redeeming factors in the end though, that we are forced to pay attention to such an interesting title. Grotesquely designed enemy characters such as the dapper-dressed, fat slug type duke, Sangria and a whole host of different demon types to slay. Fighting on Bryce’s side, the near Vamp-clone Alex piques an interest too. Unfortunately these wondrous creations will be irrelevant if NeverDead does not deliver on the gameplay front though. Armed with a character who cannot die, Nojiri’s team has the freedom to make something very different and hopefully they will live up to that potential. How can a video-game endorsed by Megadeth possibly fail anyway?
