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Review: NeverDead

If you’re like me, you die in shooters. Often. Violently.

When I first heard of Rebellion’s NeverDead, my spirits were lifted. The game’s protagonist, demon-hunter Bryce Boltzmann, can quite literally never die. What I expected was a shooter a la Doom‘s God Mode, where I could waltz down corridors, mercilessly shooting anything in my way.

Let’s get something straight: NeverDead is not a shooter. NeverDead is also not a romp through God Mode. The first statement there? Surprising. The second? Probably for the best, really.

The main mechanic of NeverDead is that Bryce can’t die, but he can certainly be ripped apart. During combat, Bryce can lose each leg, each arm, and have his head removed from his torso. On the hardest difficulty, Bryce’s head can be gobbled up by enemies, causing a “Game Over” screen as Bryce will be spending the rest of his immortal life in a small intestine. Goodbye, thoughts of “God Mode,” eh?

As Bryce has dedicated his immortal life to slaying evil demons, you can bet most of your opponents can attack and cause various limbs to fall off…almost too easily, to be honest. To gather your bits back up, Bryce has to combat roll into each appendage to re-attach it, meaning most fights consist of hacking and slashing at baddies, then rolling. Then rolling some more. Then repeating. It should be noted that with enough regen-juice, a click of the left thumbstick can also cause your body to re-form, but it’s a bit slow during combat and leaves you too vulnerable.

Bryce’s unique situation gives the game a wealth of opportunities to create some rather different puzzle situations. If you can’t get past a barricaded door as a full person, maybe you can rip your head off your body and roll your noggin through a smaller path. You can also rip off your arms and cause them to attack enemies independent from your main body, but it’s a bit too hard to pull off in a combat situation.

On combat, let’s revisit the statement that NeverDead isn’t a shooter. You start the tutorial of the game equipped with guns, and you’re told to shoot the initial bad guy with said guns. Then, in the next level, you learn Bryce has a sword. From that point onward, you won’t use the guns anymore. They’re clunky, hard to aim, and enemies seem to be bullet sponges. Not with the sword, though; you cut through demons like a hot knife through butter with that bad boy.

Basically, NeverDead is a more forgiving Devil May Cry clone that doesn’t take itself seriously (this is a very good thing), but still tends to be a mindless hack-and-slash that provides little variation (this is a bad thing). Boss battles provide interesting and challenging situations that do require some brain power, but normal level progress will have you repeating the same actions over and over again.

NeverDead‘s humour is sometimes spot-on and sometimes lame, but on the whole it had me smiling. Whilst the game delivers some gorgeous visuals and breathtaking cutscenes, both main characters detracted from the experience with their two-dimensionality. I just couldn’t connect with the stereotypical anti-hero Bryce nor his straight-laced, yet flirtatious partner, Arcadia.

Overall, NeverDead provides an enjoyable experience that I found more likeable as I progressed through its story. The repetition can wear on you though, so it’s best to take on the game in short bursts. Since reviewing this game early, I wasn’t able to participate in the multiplayer-based challenges, so that might provide a little more replay value than I currently anticipate. It’s definitely worth a rental, perhaps a purchase if you’re looking for a slightly new take on the hack and slash genre.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.