Neverdead - PlayStation 3

NeverDead Review: A Bloody Mess

Matt Helgeson — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:16:00 GMT

Designing games is hard work. NeverDead is a great example of just how hard it is. The main gameplay hook – your character being able to detach his own limbs and roll himself back together again – sounds novel on paper (and was tailor-made to sound awesome in preview coverage). However, if you’re going to use a unique mechanic, you have to design a game around making that concept fun (Portal is a great example). Rebellion may have come up with a new idea, but these days that’s simply not enough. By shoehorning this oddball idea into a terrible, unoriginal third-person action game, it created an experience that is too clichéd to feel fresh but also fails at delivering on the basics of the genre.

The plot, which I won’t waste too much time on, is pure drivel. You’re Bryce Boltzmann, an undead employee of a government agency that is tasked with killing off the various demons that threaten our world. Without spoiling too much (though I guessed the big plot “twist” after about 15 minutes), a parallel story told in cutscenes eventually sheds light on Bryce’s origins. Frankly, the writing is so bad I couldn’t care less about the story, and Bryce is armed with some of the worst one-liners in recent memory.

With your fellow agent Arcadia, you proceed to the end of this stolid adventure by shooting and hacking through endless waves of demonic creatures and increasingly frustrating boss battles. The basic combat is divided between standard third-person shooting and analog sword action. The levels are dull (you generally have to kill every enemy in an area to open the next door), with the exception of some amusing platforming you do as a disembodied head.

While there’s nothing wrong with the basic combat design, myriad technical issues mar this experience to the point where, at times, the onscreen action is incomprehensible. The camera is erratic, the targeting suspect, and your body flies apart nearly every time you take significant damage (forcing you to roll your head back to your body before your head is inhaled by enemies). Sometimes, you’ll get caught in a loop of getting hit, rolling your head back on your body, and being hit and flying apart again.

This is even more difficult when the camera wigs out and you can’t tell where you are. The boss battles, which are long, multi-stage wars of attrition, rarely offer anything more creative than “shoot him in the glowing part” and feature such annoying tropes as regenerating health bars. Even worse, a few times I encountered bugs like my severed head rolling through the floor into a weird, blank dimension with only a city skyline and another, more serious bug that left me cut off from the last enemy I needed to kill to advance through the next door.

This lack of polish wouldn’t be nearly as frustrating if not for the fact that the game’s primary feature – the dismemberment of the main characters – makes the game less fun than it would have been as just a plain old third-person action game. Sure, it’s a unique idea – but not every idea is worth pursuing. In the case of NeverDead, this concept should have been left on the cutting room floor. You could say the same about the game itself.

Konami Severs A Few More NeverDead Screens

Matt Bertz — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:06:21 GMT

More images surface of the Japanese publisher's quirky action game.

For those of you who haven't seen this game yet, NeverDead is the brainchild of Metal Gear Solid vet Shinta Nojiri and Rebellion Studios (Rogue Warrior, Aliens vs. Predator). To recap, this crazy plot stars an immortal with a dated fashion sensibility who works for the National Counter Demon Agency (my favorite government bureaucracy by far). His speciality? Using his dismembered limbs offensively and defensively to turn the tide of combat.

Check out the image gallery below, and if the screenshots pique your interest, check out our E3 preview.

NeverDead ships on January 31 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, so you can keep your limbs attached to your body for at least another month.

Being Dismembered Is Frustrating

Tim Turi — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:32:00 GMT

I was intrigued when I first heard about NeverDead’s unique gameplay involving undead protagonist Bryce’s ability to lose all his limbs and still fight on. In theory, throwing your arm to distract a herd of hungry demons or using your head like Samus’ morph ball ability is awesome. In practice, having your body fall apart while trying to play an action game is very annoying.

The E3 2011 demo at Konami’s booth involves Bryce running around killing monsters with his scantily clad female partner. Bryce has a pistol and SMG at his disposal, one attached to each of the controller's triggers. If an enemy bites off Bryce's hand holding the SMG, you’ll be left with just a pistol. At this point in development the aiming mechanic feels very loose, and I had a hard time lining up the dual reticules and gunning down enemies. My dubious marksmanship drained ammo in no time, so I switched to Bryce’s blade. Holding down a button turns allows players to control Bryce’s sword swipes with an analog stick. Move the stick, up, down, side to side, or diagonally and Bryce will unleash a volley of swipes. The swordplay was entertaining when I got a handle on it, but still sloppy.

Getting a handle on the game’s mediocre controls would’ve been more bearable if it weren’t for the sheer inconvenience of being continually dismembered. It turns out losing your arms and legs while trying to stave off demon hounds isn’t very much fun. Additionally, using Bryce’s head to roll around and explore environments is very unrewarding at this point in development. You can grow back all your limbs with a click of a button, but only if a meter is fully charged. For almost two full minutes I was pinned legless in a corner by a raging beast, impotently firing off pistol rounds as I futilely attempted to escape. Additionally, Bryce’s completely useless A.I. partner must be revived every 30 seconds, a task no gamer wants to be burdened with.

NeverDead has an interesting premise and core gameplay that has potential, but the dismemberment mechanic feels gimmicky and ends up disrupting the flow of the game. I’m hoping developer Rebellion can salvage the fun bits of the game and improve the limbless gameplay in time for NeverDead’s release later this year.

NeverDead Fires Off Trailer/Screens

Matt Miller — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter how many arms and legs you lose along the way, so long as you get the job done and see Konami's latest video for NeverDead.

Last week, Konami posted an extended gameplay demo of NeverDead to its Facebook page. This week, we got a glimpse of the newest trailer for the strange dismemberment-focused game, along with some great new screens.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Lose Some Limbs With NeverDead's E3 Demo

Matt Miller — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 18:12:00 GMT

Just don't lose your head over Konami's unusual upcoming action game.

If you'd like a sneak peek at Konami's latest and strangest title, NeverDead, the development team has posted an exclusive early look at the game's E3 demo to its Facebook page. Check it out here.

In the video, you can see how protagonist Bryce Boltzmann is able to survive the most grievous of injuries and come back swinging. A big part of both the humor and gameplay is built around the loss of various appendages, whether purposefully or accidentally. Dog-like enemies can charge and rip an arm off. Or Bryce can pull off his own head to throw it up to a high and otherwise unreachable location. All sorts of dismemberment is played for laughs and unique in-game mechanics. Also on display is how Bryce will need to work together with his partner Arcadia in order to progress, including occasionally reviving her -- the beautiful young woman doesn't have the same recovery powers as our main hero.

It's a pretty strange idea, but certainly something new we haven't seen before. We'll have to wait and hope that our editors get hands-on with the game at the show to find if the whole experience turns out to be a fun ride.