Deadcore Review – Stairway To Heaven

<p>I am a huge fan of the game <em>Mirror&&num;8217&semi;s Edge&semi;<&sol;em> I loved the first-person parkour of the title and was sorely disappointed in the prequel <em>Catalyst<&sol;em>&period; One can only play the first game so many times before getting bored of the short campaign and challenge maps&period; However&comma; the folks at 5 Bit Games seemed to have shared that sentiment&period; <em>Deadcore<&sol;em> is a pleasant mix of plenty of favorite game mechanics from all over the spectrum&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ve got <em>Mirror&&num;8217&semi;s Edge<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Portal<&sol;em> and <em>Super Mario Bros 2<&sol;em> all meshed into one and it makes for an entertaining and pretty darn good looking experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story of this game is a pretty simple one&period; You find yourself falling through fog and electrical storms only to find yourself at the bottom of a tower&period; You remember nothing but somehow know that you must get to the top of this tower&period; Armed with nothing but your &&num;8220&semi;Switchgun&comma;&&num;8221&semi; you start your long ascent into the ether&period; Unfortunately you don&&num;8217&semi;t just get to jump your way easily up this tower&period; The builders left plenty of traps&comma; tricks and puzzles for you to conquer as you ascend&period; There are multiple paths that you can take to the top&semi; just be sure to choose the road less traveled&period; That road usually has less turrets and obstacles for you&comma; but that path is also hard to spot&period; Jump&comma; shoot and jump you must&comma; or you will never see what is at the top of the tower&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127699" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127699" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-127699" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;23000335&sol;Deadcore&lowbar;launch&lowbar;screenshot&lowbar;08&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127699" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Deadcore<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Bandai Namco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>One might think that getting to the top of the tower would be daunting&semi; seeing as this game is making the jump from PC to console&comma; they would be wrong&period; As with most first-person games&comma; the right trigger is camera movement and the left trigger actually moves your character&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s the easy part&comma; what threw me off was the fact that to jump you had to press the left trigger&period; After a few failed jumps&comma; because muscle memory told me to press A&comma; I finally got the hang of it and wasn&&num;8217&semi;t continually sent back to the &&num;8220&semi;checkpoint&period;&&num;8221&semi; If you do find yourself falling to certain doom though&comma; you can press Y and be whisked away to the last &&num;8220&semi;checkpoint&&num;8221&semi; you were at&period; The &&num;8220&semi;checkpoints&&num;8221&semi; are strewn about the tower very liberally&comma; so you won&&num;8217&semi;t have to re-do certain tough parts over and over&period; When you get the Switchgun&comma; your life gets somewhat easier&comma; you press right trigger to shoot your Switchgun at turrets that are trying to knock you off the tower and blocks that shoot air at you&period; When you shoot them&comma; they turn off for a limited amount of time&period; You have to get good at running&comma; jumping and shooting and moving on so you don&&num;8217&semi;t get knocked off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The look and feel of this game is pretty amazing as well&period; They programmed the jumps to actually give you vertigo if you&&num;8217&semi;ve got a weak stomach and the tower is not a boring place to be&period; The tower looks like <em>Mass Effect<&sol;em> and Tron had a really tall lovechild&period; The colors are vibrant&comma; the special areas you need to get to are very distinct&comma; and the turrets and air blocks are easy to spot and shoot&period; The developers were even nice enough to make you somewhat of a superhero as you can double jump and you can float around to your destination like Princess Peach did in <em>Super Mario Bros 2&period;<&sol;em> Those mechanics look great in the tower&comma; and there is no buffering or slowdown at all&period; If the place wasn&&num;8217&semi;t a huge death trap and I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t afraid of heights&comma; I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t mind renting a room here due to ambiance&period; While the game is nice to look at and fun to play&comma; it gets very repetitive&period; I would find myself wanting to play other games on my Xbox One because I grew weary of jumping and shooting and falling over and over&period; 5 Bit Games needed to add a bit more diversity to the levels&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127706" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127706" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-127706" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;23010223&sol;Deadcore&lowbar;launch&lowbar;screenshot&lowbar;04&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127706" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Deadcore<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Bandai Namco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Deadcore<&sol;em> is a very good game that like most other games does have a few drawbacks&period; The graphics look great&comma; the game controls well and the premise is a very different one&period; However&comma; the story is lacking and the game is insanely repetitive which may make it a non-purchase for some folks&period; I enjoyed this game in small spurts &lpar;due to the repetitiveness&rpar;&comma; my love for <em>Mirror&&num;8217&semi;s Edge<&sol;em> and the <em>Portal<&sol;em>-esq gun brought me a lot of fun&period; I just wish that there had been more gameplay types other than timed-runs&period; I cannot stand being timed in a game&comma; even if level completion isn&&num;8217&semi;t part of the process&period; Games are meant to be enjoyed and adding a timer to any level makes me dislike them&semi; I&&num;8217&semi;m looking at you <em>Dead Rising<&sol;em>&period; However&comma; if you are a fan of platformers and enjoyed the parkour antics in <em>Mirror&&num;8217&semi;s Edge<&sol;em>&comma; you will not be disappointed in this title&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>An Xbox One code of Deadcore was provided by Bandai Namco for review purposes&period; <&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;