If you only play games in single-player, then chances are Dead Block will leave you wanting more. But if you're lucky enough to have a real-life friend to play with, you'll find Dead Block to be one of the most addictive co-op experiences available on the Xbox Live Arcade.
Gameplay is simple enough to grasp and packs enough of a challenge to keep you coming back for more. Played from aIf you only play games in single-player, then chances are Dead Block will leave you wanting more. But if you're lucky enough to have a real-life friend to play with, you'll find Dead Block to be one of the most addictive co-op experiences available on the Xbox Live Arcade.
Gameplay is simple enough to grasp and packs enough of a challenge to keep you coming back for more. Played from a third-person perspective, you will control one of three character classes--each with their own strengths and weaknesses--as you attempt to survive a zombie onslaught.
These zombie invasions take place in a number of real world locales, including houses, schools and storage facilities. In order to survive you'll need to build a variety of different traps, including those that freeze zombies in place, blow them up and poison them. There are also a bunch of different environmental objects that can be used to aid your survival, including jukeboxes that cause the zombies to dance like nobody's watching and soda machines that restore health.
As you play you'll need to search various objects in order to acquire the goods you need to finish the level. Searching objects is done with a number of simple mini-games that require you to bash buttons in a certain order or align simple shapes with one another. Other reviews have criticised these mini-games for being too simple, but I disagree--the mini-games are simple because they NEED to be. This isn't a mini-game collection, after all, but a game about a zombie invasion. To this end the mini-games achieve exactly what they need to: they hold you in place for a few seconds at a time, while your co-op partner yells for you to "watch out!" because they've spotted a zombie creeping up behind you.
And this is what Dead Block gets right--the frantic sense that you're only a moment away from death. Co-op really shines here and if you don't work together then you'll more than likely end up in trouble. Resources are shared, which means you'll need to actually communicate with your couch co-op partner (no online play is available) and work together to plan your defenses. Forget to barricade a window and you'll be overrun by zombies in no time, especially on the game's hardest difficulty setting.
Players are also encouraged to work together by the fact that each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as particular traps that no other class can build. This means that one of the characters is great at putting up barricades, for example, while another can search through items much faster for the vital components you need to build decent traps.
Throughout each level you will earn upgrades that gradually turn the tide in your favour, until you're bashing in zombie heads with reckless abandon and crying "look at me, ma!". Every level has medals on offer for completing certain goals, like searching through every item, or killing a certain number of zombies.
The only REAL downfall of Dead Block is that there's not enough of it. Although the medals look nice alongside the list of levels, it's unfortunate that they don't actually serve any purpose. Also lacking is any sort of endless invasion mode, or a "Very Hard" option for us masochists. Additionally, some of the traps seem poorly conceived and it's likely you'll come to rely on only one or two to get you through each level. In closing, Dead Block is addictive co-op fun with plenty of old-school charm. For only 800 MS Points, you'd have to be crazy (or undead) to not give it a go!… Expand
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