I love shooter games. I love FPS games, and they`re probably my favourite types of games to play. They have been for a rather long time. I also love Horror games. Zombie games like Resident Evil and The Evil Within have been rather particular favourites of mine within the past few years. So, what happens when you cross FPS with the horror genre, and in the ID bracket? You get Dead Effect 2, by Badfly Interactive. Is it a game that BadFly have done well and is a good addition to the genre? Or will it be a rather disappointment? Well, I must admit, I`ve been finding myself playing this a lot recently, and I quite like it.
Dead Effect 2 is developed and published by BadFly interactive and was originally released as a i0S and Android game back in October 2015, before a release in February 2016 for Windows and Steam, before a console release for Playstation and the Xbox One back in January 2017. It follows the story on from Dead Effect, and after the death of Professor Wagner, you have to carry on the fight against soldiers who have been sent to infiltrate the ship. Alongside other characters that have been born on the ship as experiments, you`re going to be able to use a range of weapons and upgradements in order to defeat the enemies that will horde you in their waves.
Now, from the off, there`s something about the game I really like. It has a feel too it that we`ve seen in the past perhaps in the Dead Space games. A range of characters are available for you to choose from at the start, and this is the character that will be see as the main protagonist of the game. After completing a mission to get back to the main base that involves you getting use to the controls and killing some crew now turned zombies on the way, you`re taken to the main base where you`ll be able to choose what missions you want to do. Using a hologram of the ship, it`ll give you different areas and each area will have a mission. If you complete that mission, the percentage of completion for that area will rise, and you`ll be given another mission. Talking to other members of your crew and engaging them in conversation will also trigger missions for you to complete.
Now into each mission, and it`s going to be a case of cracking puzzles to get through doors, picking up ammunition and supplies to help you, and of course, to kill any zombie that gets in your way. With a range of zombies that are going to come at you, you`re going to need to be prepared as you never know what`s going to come behind you, from the side of you, or face on. Many time did something drop or jump out in front of me that I never saw. Each mission will consist of the those three key things, but of course, as the further into the game you go, the harder the missions do become in terms of their difficulty and their zombie ratings, meaning they become a lot more difficult to kill, and they come in their packs more often. Of course, as much as the zombies can improve and become more difficult, you can improve and upgrade armour and guns, making you a hell lot more stronger and one tough dude. There are also several health chambers throughout each mission, meaning that you`ll be able to keep yourself in full health at several points.
It follows the same sort of controls and configuration that you find across move FPS games, and it`s not something that`s going to be difficult to pick up. The main ones you`ll need to know is your right trigger and left trigger and your left stick. But of course, if you`re a FPS lover, then you`ll know those controls off the back of your hand. The only button to remember is A will be to interact with things such as door puzzles etc.
Graphically, I think BadFly have actually done quite a good job. If you think about when it first started as a mobile game, and how it has progressed, it`s not an easy step to make the jump from a mobile game to a console game. But BadFly have done quite a good job with making that step, and it feels like you`re playing a console game, and not something that`s not really had any effort in terms of stepping it up for console.
Dead Effect 2 is a game that is a good addition to the FPS genre and the horror genre. If you`ve played something like Dead Space before then you`ll enjoy this, as there are some similarities between the two. But BadFly can be very proud with their game, and I`ve rather quite enjoyed my time on board.
A huge thank you to XCN for supplying us with a review copy of Dead Effect 2
Game: Dead Effect 2
Developers: BadFly Interactive
Publishers: BadFly Interactive
Genre: FPS
Price: £9.59 (From Xbox Store)