Lest you thought there were enough
zombies in the world, think again. They do seem to be the new black, but
Metal Dead presents them in a colourful, offbeat, Adventure Game
Studio package that manages to be different and yet keep faith with the
rules (zombie and adventure).
Ronnie and Malcolm are Metalheads*
on a collision course (literally) with a zombie apocalypse. A surgical
intervention later, and they are off to the top floor of the MediGeniTech
facility to see what this apocalypse is all about, and why it seems to be
congregating outside the building.
You know it won’t be
straightforward.
It will however be witty and
funny, depending on your taste in humour and your familiarity with the
genres (zombie and adventure). Popular culture gets a look-in as well.
Metal Dead is irreverent, sometimes crass, and isn’t beyond a little
toilet humour and a good old fashioned risqué double entendre. It was a
mixed bag for me, not all of it hitting the mark, and some completely
missing, but enough of it worked across its five or so hours to keep me
entertained.
There is no spoken word and the
game is rather wordy, so get ready for a fair bit of reading. The sound
effects, especially the icky squishy ones, compensate for the lack of
voice, but that same lack tends to accentuate the somewhat repetitive
nature of the soundtrack.
The plot is rather fanciful,
outrageously at times, especially at the end. It’s in keeping with the
over-the-top nature of the whole thing.
I liked the look a lot, the
slightly big heads and bug eyes providing the right amount of weird. Ditto
the many and varied characters. The zombies, whether whole or in part,
remained pretty much focused on their culinary goal.
Ronnie and Malcolm begin as pals
and continue as such, even after a mishap or two. You control Malcolm, the
less metally of the pair, but Ronnie is never far away. Too close for
comfort perhaps, but always there with a helpful hint when the going gets
tough or for just a bit of repartee.
Like the games from the time of
the luminaries mentioned above, this is third person point and click
through and through. Cycle through a small array of icons to interact with
the game world, and to select and manage inventory items. Conundrums are
all inventory based, and while some held me up, it isn’t a hard game,
helped by the Ronnie hint system. It plays in a medium sized window,
rather than full screen, or perhaps I just couldn’t work it out. Save at
will.
It’s also cheap.
There is talk of another game in
the Metal Dead world, and there was enough in this one to make me
come back. Malcolm himself warrants another outing. And I will certainly
check out whatever else might emerge through these walls.
B
I played on:
OS: Windows 7
Processor: AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core CPU 2.2 GHz
Ram: 4.00GB DDR2 400MHz
Gx card: ATI Radeon HD 3850 512Mb
*A heavy metal music devotee for
those not in the know.
Metal Dead
