Have you ever had a game that you’ve hated with every iota of your soul, yet you couldn’t stop playing it? Being the model of self-control, simply by not throwing the controller into the wall or kicking your dog? For most of my 32 years on this planet, Battletoads has held that crown, but recently I was given Deadcore, which has managed to challenge, if not topple it for the “most likely to push me to throw a console into a woodchipper” trophy.

You’re tasked with climbing a strange, Tron-ish tower competing in a one man race against whomever designed said tower. Visually, everything is extremely blocky and features designs and colors ripped straight from the Tron series. While not awful looking, it’s very bland. With little to offer in the visual or story departments, Deadcore’s main draw is the rush you get upon completing one of its many trial and error style challenges at breakneck speed.

I am not exaggerating when I say breakneck speed, as the game runs like Doom-guy was thrust into Portal after being given a hefty amount of meth and a case of Red Bull. Forcing the player to barrel through the level like Sonic on crack after you have gotten the lay of the land does work. However, the time prior to this will be kind of frustrating, as you will probably fall to your death more often than not. While there is a tutorial, it is very basic; you’ll be running, jumping, and utilizing parkour to climb your way up the tower. Eventually you will get an energy rifle of sorts. This rifle acts as a key to open doors, is a means of defense by deactivating turrets or mobile sentries, and is used to flip switches. The controls for said weapon are accurate and work as they should; however, the rest of the controls, particularly the ones for movement, could use some work.

While the buttons are limited to the triggers and sticks, aside from a reload button assigned to a face button, this game was designed to be played using a mouse and keyboard. While 5 Bits Games did an acceptable job porting this game to consoles, the controls are not nearly as accurate as they should be, especially for this style of game. This will lead to a number of deaths due to player error, glitches, or poor design choices. Luckily, you can reload at any time by pressing the button mentioned earlier, or simply by falling to your death. Additionally, load times are quick and let you get back into your run as quickly as possible, putting you back at your most recent checkpoint, which are frequent and fair.

The technical glitches mentioned previously are fairly minor; similar to a thug shooting you through a wall in Hotline Miami, the game will occasionally break its own rules. Just as often, I was able to manipulate one of the glitches to boost myself past a difficult challenge or cut a large chunk of my time from a run. The only glitch that really frustrated me was at the beginning of the game: I was forced to do the first mission a total of 4 times. While tiresome, it did show me how much fun the game can be when running through the level as quickly as possible to beat my previous time. Each level took me approximately 15 minutes to an hour on my first run, and with subsequent trials I was able to shave off minutes or even cut the time in half.

Upon completing each level, there is the option to go back into the game to attempt a speed run. There are also collectibles and leaderboards to see how you stack up against the rest of the community. With this being said, there is a lot of replay value offered here. While not as polished or pretty as other puzzle games out there, Deadcore is a worthwhile addition to your library if you’re looking for something different.

7 out of 10

Pros

• Challenging Difficulty
• Tons of Replay Value
• Great Adrenaline Rush when it works…

Cons

• …Frustrating when it Doesn’t
• Lack of Story
• Buggy Areas
• Controls Are Not Suited for Console

Deadcore was developed by 5 Bits Games and published by Namco Bandai. It is available on PC, PS4, and X1 for $9.99. The game was provided for us for review on Xbox One. If you’d like to see more of Deadcore, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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