Day Eight: Deadlink
But mega corporations bring me presents!
Deadlink would make Ganondorf Very Happy
Canceling a monthly membership is a pain in the neck. They always hide the option to cancel behind several menus, links and vague prompts. If you manage to find out how to stop getting charged, you still have to sit through several screens full of grovelling begging you to reconsider, using that horrid HR casual corpo-speak. “You’re a heckin’ awesome customerrino! Please stay with us! We’ll throw in a 0.6% discount on your next purchase (only valid for purchases over $200)”. In the future, it’ll be much easier. You just need to download your consciousness into an android and storm their headquarters while armed to the teeth. This was supposed to be a joke for the opening, but it’s starting to sound like a fedpost, so I’ll stop the train of thought here before this goes from “funny article introduction” to “actionable threat admissible in court”.
What is it?
DEADLINK is a roguelite first person shooter. You’re a brain in a jar, and your mission is to run combat simulations where you send a robotic body to conduct corporate espionage by shooting the company into oblivion.
Each stage is made up of several combat arenas. You enter, fight all the enemies, and go on to the next one. Between each stage, you pick one of three. This could be anything from weapon enhancements, character upgrades or, the more common option, implants that give you special powers. Pick wisely, and build a killing machine powerful enough to take down anything in its path.
The implant system is like any other roguelite power up thing, but the way it works here is different. Each implant is linked to one of your character’s abilities, and they activate when you use it. For example, you get an implant that lets you deal more damage to stunned enemies for a limited time, you attach it to your stun ability, and every time you use the ability, you get the temporary buff. Each implant has a power rating, from one to three. This indicates how much power they need to activate. Basic actions like switching weapons have a power of one, while using your stronger abilities has a power rating of 3. This system makes it so you need to be mindful of where you put your implants. The slots are limited, and you have to remember to do the action associated with it to activate them.
The game itself is a very fast-paced shooter. Enemies will swarm you from every direction, there’s constant danger, and you’re meant to move and act quickly if you want to make it past the first stage. There are four playable characters, each with three abilities and two weapons: a primary gun and a secondary heavy weapon. The primary gun has infinite ammo, the heavy needs ammo. You shoot your primary, use your abilities, and get resources to beat each level.
Resources are given to the player in an interesting way. There’s armor and ammo. You get these by defeating marked enemies. You can mark enemies by using your character’s skills or with a grenade. Grenades and abilities are limited by cooldown, which means you need to cycle through them to get the most out of them. Defeating marked enemies for armor is one of the few ways to stay alive, since your health does not regenerate during fights nor afterwards. The only way to heal is to buy healing at the infrequent shops. Your best bet is to keep getting armor so you never take damage to your actual health.
Movement is another way to avoid damage. You move at a regular pace, but you have a dash, which can also be used in the air. The dash is short ranged, but it’s enough to get you out of the way of enemy shots, since they’re projectiles. Circle strafing around enemies is very effective. You’ll be moving around a lot to collect ammo, resources and to get into better positions to attack. The game encourages constant movement, and rewards you for doing it well.
It’s a great shooter at its core, and the roguelite and resource management elements on top add an extra layer of depth to everything. It’s very well-thought out, and most importantly, a lot of fun.
Short
It’s a roguelite, which means a run can be done in one sitting. They last around 40 minutes to an hour, but you can get the time down as you get better at the game. It’s very arcadey in its progression. There isn’t much variety in the sense that there aren’t any platforming sections or anything to distract you. From the moment you start the run, you’ll be blasting enemies frantically until you end the run, but I think that’s a good thing. I don’t want anything unnecessary distracting from the fantastic combat.
The game is highly replayable. It has four characters to unlock, each with unique abilities and playstyles. They each have similarities, like how everyone has a movement ability, but they are different enough to bring some variety into the mix. There are also multiple difficulties to tackle, and each changes a lot about the game, mostly numbers. Enemy speed, damage and health are all affected, as it always is at higher difficulties, but the game also tweaks things like how long enemies can be marked, how many shields they drop on death, experience after battles, shop prices and player income. Each difficulty makes the game significantly harder in multiple dimensions.
Worse Graphics
Deadlink uses simple 3D models that look untextured. It doesn’t go for a photorealistic style. It goes for a chunky cyberpunk look, and it pulls it off well. It uses its limited visuals to full effect, creating stages that look different, but still into its world.
Enemies are well designed, with unique silhouettes that are easy to interpret at a glance, even through fifteen layers of explosions, armor drops and other particle effects.
The soundtrack is a high-octane blast of pure synthwave that will send you into fight or flight. Couldn’t ask for a better backing track to the chaos on screen.
Made by People Paid More to Work Less
Deadlink was made by Gruby Entertainment, a Polish studio. On their page they mention they’re fully remote, so they don’t have any of the overhead costs that come with having an office. I can’t find much info on their team, but they’re funded by Tencent, so they must be doing alright financially. They have other projects in the works, with not much information.
They seem to be doing alright, and they make the games they want to make, and they seem to be able to take their time with them.
I find it kind of ironic that the studio that made a game about wrecking mega corporations is partnered with Tencent, a giant multinational mega corporation.
Conclusion
Deadlink is a fantastic first person shooter. It’s fast paced, action packed and a real challenge. It has some neat roguelite elements with unique implementations, and a solid and well thought-out resource system that encourages active play. If you’ve ever seen how intense games look in old commercials from the 90s, you know what it’s like to play Deadlink. Give it a shot.
You can get Deadlink for $25, and it’s available on consoles, too. As with the other games I’ve mentioned up to now, it goes on sale often, and you can get it at half price. I think it’s worth it even at full price.
