Deadlight

Deadlight is probably the best downloadable title on the market right now, but that comparison does the game a disservice. Tequila Works have taken a step further to reduce the gap between retail games and downloadable titles and Deadlight will likely be the shining star of this year's Summer of Arcade.

Tequila Works delivers a breathtaking adventure that mixtures the best elements that we've seen so far on Prince of Persia or Flashback on a 2D survival horror base. Although the main campaign lasts only five or six hours, there are plenty of reasons to enjoy the story of Rusell Wayne twice and explore this world to discover all of its secrets and enjoy its great atmosphere.

Deadlight, not as innovative as Limbo, is a nice potpourri of known elements, mixed with a unique style and definitely a must-download of this gaming summer.

Deadlight is a blast that reminds me of a game I loved in my youth (Flashback) without soiling that nostalgia or feeling like a blatant ripoff. It's a bit short, but it's perfectly suited for spending a lazy summer evening with.

Tequila Works show how to inject fresh ideas into a theme as worn-out as the zombie apocalypse. The mixture of puzzles and challenging fights works extraordinarily well to make Deadlight one of the most atmospheric XBLA games of the year.

Deadlight lacks neither style nor substance, and it lasts just about the perfect amount of time. The story is minimal but engaging, and the ending is unexpected -- in a good way. A couple of sections stumble a bit, but not enough to detract from what is an engaging, memorable experience.

Deadlight is a good game, a bit too short and with good mechanics which should have been put to a more intense use by Tequila Works' level designers. If you can stand the taste of a somehow rushed storyline, you are up for an intense and entartaining experience.

As simple as it all may be, it makes for a frantic, dizzying, four- to five-hour rush. And that's Deadlight's strongest suit: you feel a constant, adrenaline-fueled urge to just. Keep. Moving.

Deadlight is a fantastic game with wonderful platforming segments and magnificent art direction. It is a bit short, but is probably one of the best downloadable titles on XBLA right now.

Some of the technical issues hold the game back; however, I for one will keep coming back to Deadlight as it is an experience I will want to enjoy for weeks if not months on end.

Ignoring the price, Deadlight is a solid and entertaining game that brings crude oil-thick atmosphere to Xbox Live in the same way Limbo did two years ago.

Deadlight is a mix between storytelling, side-scrolling, puzzle solving, and good old fashion survival horror. It reinvents nothing, but it successfully integrates components from each genre.

Deadlight, long-awaited highlight of this Summer of Arcade, does not disappoint the fans. Mixing platforming, action and survival in a wise manner, the title conquer all the favors of the public.

Deadlight will bring you a short but thrilling ride trough the apocalyptic world of Seattle. The gameplay is really good and despite some minor shortcomings, the game works really well. The surroundings in the game look magnificent and you'll be sitting on the edge of your seat the entire game, because zombies always stay unreliable.

Creating a compelling zombie game in a generation with too many of them is a hard task. Tequila Works manages to do this while successfully merging it with the unlikely action-platforming genre. The lame narrative and lack of consistent challenge can't overshadow the fun I had with Deadlight. I'm crossing my fingers for a sequel.

With Deadlight, Tequila Works has clearly taken inspiration from the critical and commercial recent success of Limbo on Xbox Live Arcade. The gameplay in this original survivalist horror title nods to PlayDead's masterpiece, but that is not a bad thing.

Deadlight is an original zombie platformer in which the emphasis lies on surviving and puzzling. The graphical style reminds us of other XBLA games, but Deadlight gives it its own twist. The few downsides to the game make it a living hell every now and again, but you'll quickly forget them when you chop your hatchet into a zombie skull.

It's inevitably going to be lumped together with other "zombie games" in the minds of some, but it actually does something fresh and unique both with the theme and with the inspirations it pulls together from games as disparate as Another World and Mirror's Edge, and it puts them together with enough aplomb that – for my money – it's certainly worth the asking price.

The satisfaction of solving well-designed puzzles set in a visually interesting post-apocalyptic version of an alternate-history Seattle is worth it. The tone and excellent aesthetic design of the title only increases its value as a gaming piece of art.

Great visuals and animations are partially countered by unexciting game design and a banal story. It's still a decent buy for zombie lovers, but it could have been much more.

Beautifully styled puzzle platformer held back by movement frustrations and cheap kills. [Oct 2012, p.84]

Once you've beaten the two and a quarter hour experience you'll find little to go back for.

A brilliant platform in many ways, that is unfortunately ruined by the lacking storyline and extremely short campaign. Still a great buy for fans of the genre though.

Deadlight looks absolutely gorgeous in motion, and I adore every bit of it that involves me ducking through open windows into abandoned motel rooms, houses, warehouses, and just seeing the absolutely wrecked world surrounding it all. It feels and looks like you'd expect a post-apocalyptic world to be, but all within a 2D space, which is unique enough to make Deadlight worth your time.

Delivers good story with oppressive atmosphere combined with stunning 3D visuals on 2D action spiced with great music, but trips over stiff gameplay and repetitive puzzles. [Sept 2012]

For all of its shortcomings, its flaws, and its failures, I still enjoyed my time with Deadlight. I wanted to find out what happened to Randall and his family. I was driven, compelled to finish, and I would still recommend that it be played. Fans of side-scrolling platformers, and zombie games in general, will find an original, if imperfect, experience here. And while the price is a bit steep for the content, I think there's a great game to be found in here.

Strong atmosphere in an extremely stylish platformer is spoiled by some frustrating parts and overall shortness but yet Deadlight is definitely worth trying. [Oct 2012]

Despite its very short campaign and some other flaws Deadlight is a strong title with great atmosphere. [10/2012, p.73]

It's full of a unique dark atmosphere and character, but its very short campaign will leave you wanting more.

Captures some of the brilliance of its setting, but fails to take advantage of it with gameplay, which is a real shame. [Issue#88, p.84]

Tequila Works certainly understands the 2D space and there is some sense of satisfaction in navigating Randall Wayne through miles of hallowed out buildings, a treacherous underground, and zombie-infested roads.

The game is a bit high priced; the production value is very good. For some players this may make it well worth the Microsoft points it costs.

Deadlight a game is quite interesting to know and to finish, but after that we are left with practically nothing to do.

Deadlight will take you around 3-4 hours to finish. It's not the longest of games, and there's a big chance you probably won't want to play it through again. That said, it must be noted that Tequila Works should be commended for trying to spice up the use of zombies, and while that doesn't make this game great – silly things like that dumb underground lair spoil it - Deadlight is still an enjoyable title to play. When it's at its best, the game is a thrilling experience that tickles nostalgia for the genre it represents.

Your enjoyment of Deadlight is dependant purely on what you want from the game. The gameplay is a solid compliment too, it is a shame it ends so soon, but it was an experience we could enjoy before moving on to the next game.

An atmospheric 2D platformer. Even though the game is extremely short, it still manages to touch your very heart.

It's a really pretty and atmospheric platformer that lacks ingeniuity and something new. I have been waiting for something exceptional to happen, for a situation that would make me understand that I just did something intriguing, uncommon and difficult. Instead the game offers uneven scenes, frustrating parts and a somewhat disappointing ending. The game should be bigger and perhaps a little more daring. Right now Deadlight is a game for people heavily interested in a zombie apocalypse and platformers in general.

Yes, Deadlight is a short game, one that feels especially brisk when the puzzles lack challenge.

Part of that fault lies in the game's dialogue. Some of it's rather cheesy, about on the same level as Resident Evil, while other lines just drag out the usual examples of poorly exploited horror. It just doesn't add up in spots.

Tequila Work's debut's confident craftsmanship and considered design more than compensates for its shortfalls with the narrative's impact and the intermittently niggling handling. It's by no means a smooth ride, but this dank and desolate landscape is worth braving.

Even being extremely short, Deadlight is one of most captivating downloadable experiences available right now on Xbox Live.

Tequila Works pushes the presentation and production values of the genre past where anyone could reasonably expect, and has a game that stands out because of it. If it were longer, it would suffer more, but the time investment required and the ultimate rewards Deadlight offers make it a standout for this year's Summer of Arcade.

A charming game with a lot of great ideas, but too short. Its atmosphere is perfect, its gameplay varied and interesting, but its duration is too much of a flaw.

Like its original and captivating art-style, Deadlight's gameplay has shadows and lights to share with players, but it's quite a good first-try for Tequila Workd team.

Deadlight was a fantastic idea whose execution just didn't do it the justice it deserved. It's too short, its challenges too cheap at times, and it occasionally loses focus of what it wants to be-and yet, at the same time, Deadlight is also a surprisingly beautiful adventure through a world of chaos that does more right than it does wrong.

So Deadlight can lay claim to being as smart and atmospheric as previous 2D XBLA hits such as Limbo or Shadow Complex. There's one problem, though: Deadlight is an incredibly slight experience. A single play-through comes in at under two hours, and that running time's been bloated by an uncomfortable number of trial-and-error moments.

You feel more as if you're performing a repetitive series of tasks rather than surviving by your wits, but there's still a certain satisfaction in overcoming the game's challenge.

Drawing inspiration from games such as Limbo and Prince of Persia, but also from TV Shows like The Walking Dead for the storyline, Deadlight doesn't actually propose an original zombiefied experience. Because despite a pleasant art direction, Tequila Works' title suffers from a classic gameplay and a terrible game length that only some players who are not very particular about this kind of details. will enjoy for a short afternoon.

It's obvious that Deadlight is a game that was borne of passion. It's not perfect, but it is by no means a cookie-cutter cash grab. Given the short length, limited replay value and 1,200 MSP ($15 USD) price point, it is difficult to recommend across the board. For genre fans, though, Deadlight is a refreshing take on the zombie trope and an experience that stands on its own.

Deadlight draws you in with its rich, pervasive atmosphere, but doesn't give you much to do once you're there.

Deadlight tries to do something new with the zombie genre by paying more attention to solving puzzles and using platforming elements to get away from zombies. While I applaud the effort, it just falls flat. Dodging the fast, pack-forming zombies is extremely frustrating, and if caught by one, you are as good as dead. Topped with jumping that requires absolute perfect timing, the result is multiple retries that add frustration and suck the fun out of the game.

In Deadlight you play as an ordinary man instead of an indestructible hero, who just wants to survive in a rotten world. It's one of the graphically prettiest games on Xbox Live Arcade to date, but the gameplay unfortunately doesn't reach the same heights and the length of the game is disappointingly short.

The game's fleeting moments of atmosphere are occasionally striking, and will be what Deadlight is most remembered for. It's just a shame that there just isn't enough brains to truly sink your teeth into.

Deadlight is an amazingly beautiful game. The combination of a simplistic foreground and incredibly detailed backgrounds is breathtaking. However, the gameplay isn't as elaborate. It relies heavily on trial and error, especially in the second half of the game. This made the game both frustrating and boring.

Spectacular, state of the art dowloadable gaming that struggles to deliver interesting gameplay to match its technical accomplishments. [Oct 2012, p.52]

Deadlight had everything to be the perfect Summer of Arcade killer game. But its Prince of Persia like mechanics seem as dated as their reference, and it comes a little bit short of the expectations we had for it.

Deadlight shows a lot of promise but ultimately falls short.

There are elements of the game that are both enjoyable and disappointing and for me I would recommend saving your money until this Summer Arcade title gets put on sale and just enjoy the summer.

Still, Deadlight has many visually striking and mechanically satisfying moments in store for you... In some ways Tequila Works might just have reached their goal: The punishing qualities of their game does indeed evoke its older cousins – Flashback and Another World. It's just a shame that they had to use the wrong means to do so.

Deadlight shines in its detailed world-building: The art direction, IDs, diary entries and pieces of hidden lore are glorious. It's the gameplay that fails to live up to the standard of these beautiful fragments, with unresponsive controls and frustrating scenarios that can't decide if they want to be puzzles or action sequences.

You could finish Deadlight in a single sitting and forget about it completely by the next day. Not because the game is actually bad – it's mostly quite enjoyable – but it's too slight and unimaginative to make a lasting impression. It has some nice ideas and sections, but more than anything else it made us want to go back and finish Shadow Complex for a sixth time.

There are sparks of inspiration here and a beautifully realised setting, but beneath that veneer of intrigue lies gameplay that just doesn't cut it with the best. There's just about enough to enjoy in this broken version of 80's Seattle, just expect to be frustrated in digging out the treats.

For the game's opening third, this all works brilliantly as you move through claustrophobic, yet forgiving, urban environments. But a trip to the city sewers further down the line places platforming over survival and reveals that Deadlight's controls just aren't up to the task.

There aren't many action games in this particular mold to begin with these days, so those with fond memories of Deadlight's spiritual predecessors will likely have a reasonably fulfilling few hours here. Without an existing sense of nostalgia for the source material, though, you may find Deadlight's minor flaws collectively outweigh all the things it does right.

It's a game in which an early sense of delight and intrigue soon turns to weariness, the standout scenes and ideas failing to compensate for an increasing sense of deja vu with each new wall run and puzzle, wrapped in a tired storyline that does little to propel you forward. In the end, it's the zombies that make you flee to the conclusion, rather than the design that draws you towards it – a subtle distinction perhaps, but a crucial one.

Even with this lack of focus Deadlight is a fun game with wonderful fast platforming segments and magnificent art direction. But in the end the style stands tall, and the substance is but a shadow of what it could have been.

While the game itself is never diffi cult or badly designed, it consistently contrives to point out its restrictions: neither controls nor narrative are ever slick enough that you ever feel immersed.

The visual design is absolutely sublime, but these cinematic influences create a wonky gameplay experience much too afraid to do anything but guide the player through tedious chunks of unwanted script. Deadlight does not create a compelling narration no matter how hard it tries, and it's galling to see Tequila Works choose to sacrifice an entertaining game in the process.

Full of unrealised potential, Deadlight is a passable game that's as bland as the cookie-cutter zombies it presents.

Outsmarting zombies, rather than facing them head on with whatever weapon is handy, is a great idea, but the game's environmental puzzles feel too samey after just a short while. The story has its own share of clever seeds, but it's presented so poorly that you probably won't bother to find them. Without satisfying mechanics or narrative, there's nothing pushing you forward towards Deadlight's conclusion.

Deadlight isn't a poor game, just average. Mediocre. Inoffensive. If Deadlight developers Tequila Works developed another game with some more original ideas, I'd like to play it.

Deadlight has all the style, substance, and gameplay you could want, with none of the originality you need. The word "cliche" never left my mind, even for an instant. If you loved Limbo and want to recreate that experience, you could spend $15 on this, or you could just play the game you already own and have a much better time.

Deadlight, on the other hand, has an entire one third of the game that feels like it could have been utterly discarded. What's even more jarring is that the third act can also invoke that same feeling of redundancy. The game starts off as a bang, then descends into this fairly uninteresting second act, before presenting a largely uninteresting on the nose finale.

The environments and the reasonably compelling flashback atmosphere lend what would otherwise be a pretty poor game a glimmer of hope.

Deadlight begins well with a lot of atmosphere. But soon the illusion is shattered by clunky controls and a frustrating amount of trial and error.

Deadlight could have been something great. Unfortunately, it's as mindless as the zombies it features.

The cinematic atmosphere is highly impressive throughout, but that's about the only thing that is in this weirdly inconsistent 2D survival horror.