The concept for NeverDead, a new action beat ’em up much like the beloved Devil May Cry games, probably went something like this at the Konami studios.
“Let’s make a hero demon-fighter who is cursed with immortality and can never be killed. Now that we’ve established the hero, let’s give him a useless sidekick with big boobs who he has to protect otherwise the game will be over, completely rendering his immortality utterly useless. Oh, and let’s throw in some dull combat, repetitive enemies and levels, and squander any and all hope the game has for being good.”
Okay, maybe I’m being too harsh (and, indeed, I am), but NeverDead could have been SO MUCH MORE than what it is. Read on…
You play the game as Bryce Boltzmann, a 500-year old demon hunter who carries a big knife and a pair of handguns to dish out death to demons. As far as characters go, he’s fairly standard. Nothing about him scream originality. Come on, Konami, we’ve got plenty of pissed off and aggressive protagonists already: Dante (Devil May Cry), Marcus Fenix (Gear of War), Kratos (God of War), hell, even Duke Nukem, and those are just off the top of my head! I can see the potential here, but instead Bryce is just an ordinary (by video game standards) player character with no real redeeming factors.
Okay, sorry. I had to get that off my chest. At it’s core, NeverDead is a third person action game. As Bryce, you are contracted out by this demon-killing agency to make sure the forces of darkness don’t rise up and take over, apparently, and the story is fleshed out through missions and random bits of Bryce’s backstory. Bryce comes equipped with a pair of pistols which he dual-wields as well as a “butterfly knife”, a comically large blade reminiscent of Cloud’s Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII. Eventually you’ll upgrade your arsenal with shotguns, assault rifles, and SMGs to replace your pistols, and you earn experience which can be used to teach Bryce new abilities like jumping higher, doing more damage with bullets, and even a very useful slow-motion move when damage is forthcoming. Like I said, pretty standard stuff.
NeverDead sets itself apart by capitalizing on Bryce’s immortality. Instead of being killed, when Bryce takes damage his limbs and head can get chopped off, leaving his torso a mangled yet functional mess. But is in this core mechanic that the game fails the most. Enemies can brush by Bryce and that will send his head flying halfway across the stage. When you lose an arm or leg it’s not that bad, because you can still walk and attack with your missing limbs, but losing your head is a different story. If Bryce gets decapitated he’ll have to roll his head back to his body in order to really do anything (i.e. attack). This becomes infuriating at many parts of the game. Take for example a fight I had with the game’s second boss, a three headed chimera-like demon. I got too close to the beast and it completely obliterated Bryce, lopping off all his limbs and his head. The head flew up to another level in the stage I was in, so I had to roll all the way back down to his body, which was still lying at the feet of the creature. Of course, after I get my head attached i get decapitated again before I can even dodge roll out of the way. And this happened for some time. After some time passes you can hold a button to magically regenerate your limbs, but this power can’t always be used. Having to constantly put yourself back together slows the game down, is not fun at all, and comes as a huge flaw with the game. If Bryce was even a little bit more resilient the game would have been better, but right now I’m pretty sure a LEGO set is stronger than our hero.
Strangely, the game’s upgrade system is fairly complex and rewarding. There are some abilities that are essential, like the aforementioned slow-motion detection, as well as “Exploding Limbs” which, as the name implies, allows Bryce to turn his severed arms and legs into mines. Of course, there are some throwaway abilities, but you’ll get that with plenty of games, so no biggie. The game also misses some great opportunities to capitalize on exploration and puzzle solving with Bryce’s special abilities. Some parts of the game have you purposefully ripping off your head to lob it into an air duct in order to roll to the other side and unlock a switch, and at other times you need to tear off your arm to throw it at an enemy that is out of reach. These moments are, quite frankly, genius gameplay moments, but they are horribly held back by the game’s poor controls and combat. Using the guns is almost a complete waste of time because it’s too damn hard to aim, and switching to the more precise aiming slows you down so much you’re just asking to get chomped to death by the enemies. The Butterfly Knife is a bit more user friendly, having you hold down the Left Trigger to lock on to an enemy (thank god) and wiggle the Right Stick to swing in the desired direction. Mediocre combat isn’t helped either by repetitive enemies, constantly spawning foes coming from generators, and rooms that can’t be progressed through until all enemies are cleared out. Again, Konami: we’ve all played these games before. Give us something new!
Though I’m only about half-way through NeverDead, I can say safely that the game isn’t too exciting. I can always see the shining moments any developer had when coming up with a game, and NeverDead has them but they are hidden underneath mounds of trash and demon insides. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere if you’re thinking of picking this one up. There’s another immortal demon hunter out there that’s a much better hero…
Laters,
Jsick
