Never Dead Review Xbox 360

Story: You play as Bryce, a demon hunter by trade who was cursed with immortality by the demon Astaroth. Now 500 years since you have been cursed you hunt demons alongside a mortal paranormal agent, while seeking revenge and of course money.

Gameplay: NeverDead is on it’s surface is just another run and gun, action adventure title ala Devil May Cry or God of War. The hook and I guess ingenuity of NeverDead though is the protagonists inability to die. Upon taking damage Bryce’s limbs fall off leaving you with just a head at some points. Sounds pretty gory right? As a head you will roll around and collect yourself just like the T-1000 in Terminator 2, minus the awesome liquid metal effect. A standard RPG like skill tree is also in place allowing such things as limb regeneration, which for me would have been great because I found a gamebreaking glitch early on in the first chapter. At a point in the first chapter you must jump down an elevator shaft, when I did this my right leg and arm were severed and left above me in the shaft. After a brief encounter with enemies a checkpoint is saved and then you must solve a puzzle requiring all of your limbs. I was unable to go back and had to restart the game, sure I only lost 45 mins of my time, but it was still annoying and a bad oversight. There is also a certain enemy that eats your head when you are dismembered, but it seems to have infinite range and has perhaps the most annoying mini game in video game history to escape it’s stomach.

Graphics/Audio: Starting the game I was surprised to see how gorgeous NeverDead was. The game gives most Triple A titles a run for their money. It for sure is prettier then Gears of War 3 which is a great compliment. Environments are wonderfully detailed and pop with color, so no brown and bloom here folks. In the music department NeverDead also shines, touting a Megadeath title song helps. Music fits the game with a thrash metal soundtrack to go along with the slicing and shooting carnage that ensues .

Overall: NeverDead is a good game that suffers from a crappy mechanic of immortality. Nothing turns me off as a gamer more then knowing there will be little to no challenge in my new $60 purchase. Sure some enemies are hard but there is no penalty for taking damage other then the fact that if you’re eaten by that one annoying enemy type, then you must suffer through a terrible mini game. The music and art direction again are almost triple A worthy, but the gameplay holds the game back at every turn.

Pros:
-Graphics are beautiful
-Music is pretty spot on
-Fresh Idea

Cons:
-Can’t Die (yes I know it’s part of your characters story but it’s still dumb)
-Annoying Mini Game
-Monotonous Almost Boring Gameplay

6 out of 10
A copy of this game was provided by the developer for reviewing purposes.

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