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Deep Black: Reloaded
Biart's new third person
shooter, Deep Black: Reloaded, continues a growing tradition of
underwater-themed Biart games albeit in a more serious, edgy style. The
hero of the story, Pierce, will traverse air, land, and sea (okay, just
land and sea) to stop a terrorist organization's nefarious plans.
Alright, so the story isn't a huge selling point: Action is. Consider
Deep Black something of a mix between Gears of War and Metal Slug.
There’s a lot of fighting, but with a third-person strategic element to
it, using lots of cover for the best effect.
The main single-player mode is the meat of this game.
With around 40 levels to hack through, there's no lack of effort here.
The environments sport considerable detail and obvious planning. That
having been said, much of the game does not incorporate a great deal of
clever puzzle elements. Pierce's harpoon device is what you generally
use for puzzles, but it essentially adds up to shooting a button to
lower a bridge or open a door. An underwater jetpack is one of the
game's mechanics, and that sometimes becomes involved as well. Of
course, you aren't looking for Resident Evil here, but one of the
challenges that arcade-style games have in design is keeping the play
from becoming too monotonous over the course of the game. Unfortunately,
so much repetition does become a tad boring.
Keeping the game afloat are intense battles, usually
in the form of "drones" under water. In the best of situations, this
means a gunfight where expert players will learn to utilize their
jetpack to the best effect and enjoy the challenge. In the worst cases,
it's just another repetitive situation that doesn't challenge you at
all. One early-game enemy quickly grapples with you before you can repel
it, and then you are presented with what at first appears to be a "quick
time event" mini game... but turns out to just be a prompt to repeatedly
mash "f" to win every time. On the bright side, boss-style fights are
refreshing and intense, generally providing an interesting layout of
cover objects and a definite feeling of accomplishment afterward.
The sound for Deep Black is for the most part quite
decent. The sound effects are satisfying, underwater noises have a good
feel to them, and the voice acting is, though a little corny, fairly
well played. One issue, though, is the "death gurgles" of slaughtered
enemy humanoids. Virtually every enemy soldier downed results in a
hearty "Urrrrggggghgggghgggggg" which, though it might make you giggle a
little at first, quickly becomes very old.
Multiplayer is not a big selling point for this game.
It gives off the impression of having been included for completion's
sake, and features like room selection are not available - instead, you
either create a match and wait for players to enter, or attempt to be
"quick matched" to somebody else's game.
Biart stresses that the game is very arcade and
action oriented, not to be compared to hardcore titles; and this really
gets to the heart of the matter. Deep Black offers waves of enemies on
land and somewhat more strategic, cover-based battle in the sea.
Included are boss fights, a decent multitude of weapons, and a nifty
jetpack mechanic. Don't expect to fight Deus Ex or Battlefield 3 here.
If all of that sounds great to you, I think the odds are that you'll
enjoy Deep Black.
Josh Waters |
