Some titles live badly the transition from console to PC, the less informed ignore the fact that in some cases to take care of the ports are external studios and not the developers, and the results can sometimes border on total disaster (read Batman Arkham Knight, a wound now healed but still burning). In this case we are talking about the reverse process, the interesting DeadCore, which took 5 bits Games studio two long years to land on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One after debuting in 2014 on PC.
So let's find out how this mysterious project lands on consoles.
How high can you get?
The playful offer is composed solely of the main campaign and the opportunity to try your hand at speedruns, to set the time record in completing a level.
Difficult to talk about a real plot in DeadCore, after a short introductory film we will find ourselves in a dark structure with a futuristic look, trying to communicate with us only short disconnected messages floating in the air: “staircase, tower, answers”. We can not help but throw ourselves into the maze of this structure suspended in the sky, with only one goal ahead, to continue.
It is possible to discover brief details on the plot through the logs, collectibles to collect placed in hard to reach or well hidden places, so sharpen your eyes and take your time to explore the various levels.
We could define DeadCore as a first person platform in which we will face jumps, puzzles and adventures worthy of the best mustachioed plumber, and here we touch one of the strengths of the game: the structure of the levels is extremely varied, we will often have choices to make, paths to take and secrets to discover. To some players, this project may remind of titles like Portal or Mirror's Edge, but it's a very narrow and dangerous comparison to make.
DeadCore is unforgiving of mistakes, and you'll lose every checkpoint you win (usually positioned after particularly difficult sections), and then throw yourself into yet another puzzle. The lack of a narrative in these cases is felt as there are no dialogues or anything else to change the pace of the adventure, just that thrill of personal satisfaction of a seasoned player for having overcome yet another challenge, but in the end it will always be you and the difficulties environmental in this world that doesn't even seem real.
1 2 SwitchGun
To accompany you in the adventure you will immediately have a particular weapon called SwitchGun, useful for activating and deactivating switches from a distance, in particular the choice of placing a limited number of bullets, which can only be recharged by passing through the various checkpoints. The weapon will also be useful against some enemies, however you will deactivate them for a few seconds, this choice is more frustrating than anything else, since often you will have floating robots ready to break the boxes while you try not to fall into cosmic nothingness.
Along the campaign (about four hours) you will also learn some skills that will then make up the leitmotiv of the various levels, the shot, the ability to change the force of gravity and finally a loaded shot for the weapon, useful for interacting with particular generators.
It is interesting that in the first levels you will find areas not reachable without skills that you will acquire later, the game certainly lends itself to the second run, since you will try to get all the collectibles (and if you do you will be rewarded, trust me).
In addition to the collectibles are there are also secret areas, unlockable through a particular object to be collected, unfortunately with these areas there was a serious bug that forced us to repeat the level from scratch (specifically the area was non-physical because it was not unlocked, but due to a programming error the checkpoint was clearly visible, trying to jump on it started a loop of falls into the void, death, and respawn on the incorporeal save point).
The design of the levels is certainly swirling and labyrinthine, but in certain areas it will involve a limp and unsafe gait, not to mention the areas where you will change the gravity, in those cases the patches for the air pockets could come in handy.
In general, the title always permeated by a continuous aura of Trial and Error, you will die often and willingly, but the problems arise when the fault of an untimely death is not yours.
I am a ghost
The sensation that you will have pad in hand with your alter ego will be quite particular, to make you understand it is as if you did not have the perception of your corporeality. Right from the start you will have the double jump available, but the programmers have well thought out not to insert the vibration of the pad when you land, moreover the camera will not move an inch: this will sometimes lead you to miss the jumps, or to use the double jump before landing, generating silly deaths. Often and willingly you will have to go through well-intertwined laser arrays, and you have no idea how many times you can die from putting on "a foot you had no knowledge of."
Frustration will not be lacking in DeadCore and many errors seem to be born precisely for the console version: areas that should be perfectly tangible (and in the PC version they are) on PlayStation 4 they have the consistency of oxygen, leading to what do you think? To an inexorable death, a respawn that forces you to repeat the section and finally some saint who will hear his ears ringing.
Just to conclude the bug front, it is our duty to report an error that occurred only once, but quite brutal: once one of the zones was concluded, despite having selected the next level, the game has well thought of transforming our choice into a "repeat the level ”(Without the possibility of selecting the next stage later).
Unfortunately, even on the technical sector there are not indifferent gaps, to expect we will find abundant tearing and some frame drops. The title made with Unity also seems to have suffered the years of development on the back and not all details are rendered at their best.
There is not much to say about the sound sector: a selection of sound tracks with a techno flavor ready to accompany you even if you will often only have silence and robotic noises around you.
DeadCore pays dearly for the switch to console, a title that in the beginning was acclaimed by critics for a particular design and a game structure that tests the best reflexes. What comes to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One is a good project torn apart by bugs, errors and gaps, a real shame. We hope for a painstaking correction work, to allow those who do not have a PC to fully enjoy the experience.
