Deadfall Adventures
Review
Full of pulp adventure clichés
by Quinn Levandoski
reviewed on PC
Gorgeous backdrops
While the story and characters are all over the place in quality, there’s no doubting that Deadfall Adventures is a pretty game. Some of the character models didn’t floor me, but the environments consistently had me stopping to look around. Huge temples, mountains, pyramids, and more provide gorgeous backdrops for gunfights and puzzles and make them each all the more enjoyable.
Just as pleasing as the overall quality of the visuals are the switches from one environment to the next. Desert, jungle, and arctic biomes are all present, and each one feels just like it should. The deserts feel scorchingly barren even when the players are surrounded by buildings, the jungles feel lush and dense, and you can feel the biting of the falling snow on the arctic maps. Many games struggle to make one environment type feel this engaging, but Deadfall Adventures does a great job with many. Non-human (or at least undead) enemies are also generally fantastic, looking just as creepy and detailed as they do dangerous. Living human enemies are the generic baddies we have seen hundreds of times before, but I was always excited when mummies or other ghouls popped out.
FPS/Puzzle/Adventure game hybrid
Being a FPS/Puzzle/Adventure game hybrid, it’s worth noting how each part of the game functions. Those strictly looking to quench their thirst for puzzles would probably be best served looking elsewhere. There are a number of puzzles, but most of them you will finish fairly quickly. It’s not that there aren’t any good puzzles, there certainly are (I’m always a fan of having to hit objects with light by bouncing it around numerous movable mirrors), but it seems like more often than not they boil down to matching symbols with those found on a wall or in James’ notebook.
The game doesn’t function perfectly as a strict shooter either. The shooting mechanics themselves are fairly solid, but there isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. Most of the shooting segments consist of just walking from point to point shooting everybody/thing that pops up. The reason the shooting isn’t as fulfilling as it should be is that the enemy AI leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the time human enemies’ tactics are limited to popping up and down from a pre-determined cover. They don’t really flank or work together at all. It makes it easy to just flank and shoot everyone. Luckily most of the paranormal enemies fair better, as their “overwhelm” battle philosophy lends self better to mindless AI. The added bit of having to “burn” off enemy defenses with light before being able to damage them a la Alan Wake adds a little more to think about and makes it easy for James to become overwhelmed if the player isn’t careful.
Mixed bag
Overall Deadfall Adventures is a mixed bag that does some things really well, some things so well, and a lot of things pretty average. The story and characters are a mix of lovable throwback pulp adventure and bland under-development, the gameplay is a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none, and it’s all wrapped up in a beautiful looking package. It is also worth noting that the game does feature a multiplayer mode, but at the pre-release time of this writing I was unable to try it out. I’ll hop on for a few sessions after release, and if it substantially adds or detracts from the experience I will update the review accordingly. I think a lot of people will have fun with Deadfall Adventures that aren’t looking for something to reinvent the genre, and that’s perfectly ok. But it’s a shame that the title wasn’t able to elevate itself to the upper echelon that it had the potential to reach.
7.0
fun score
Pros
Dedicates itself to its pulp adventure roots, beautiful environments, and cool paranormal enemies.
Cons
Flat characters and plot, inconsistent voice acting, and serviceable but ultimately forgettable puzzles and shooting mechanics.
