NeverDead – Review
Platform | Release Date
X360, PS3 | January 31, 2012
Developed by Rebellion
Published by Konami
The Pitch:
Over 500 years have passed since a mortal named Bryce Boltzmann endured a life-altering tragedy at the hands of Astaroth, the Demon King. His wife murdered, left defeated and rendered immortal, he now moves through life without aspirations other than where he will find his next drink. Lending a hand to the clandestine group, the National Anti-Demon Agency(NADA), he pursues redemption through the extermination of demonic forces within the modern day world along with his agency partner, Arcadia.
NeverDead is a third person action/shooter offering a radically new game experience within the genre based on decapitation and regeneration. Lose any limb and still have the ability to endure the fight as death has already passed you by…
I wanted NeverDead to be good. I wanted it to be a romp of limb-losing fun. I wanted the capability to roll around as just a head to be a fun game mechanic. As soon as I read the description, I crossed my fingers and prayed to a few deities that NeverDead’s new take on gameplay would be successful, fun and all the things I have been looking for in a campy action shooter, but as the Rolling Stones say, “you can’t always get what you want”.
The concept is great. Throw out the most basic mechanic in almost any game, death, then sit back and enjoy all the trouble you can get in and out of now that you have ditched that pesky problem of mortality. You newfound immortality comes in the form of lead character Bryce Boltzmann, and in no time you’ll realize that being a 500 year old demon hunter who can’t die is not the greatest of situations one can find themselves in. His character is miserable and underpaid, dreaming of a glorious past that no longer is. Playing in the fragile shoes of Bryce left me feeling just as sad, angry, and frustrated as he must feel. I now know how it feels to have limbs attached with bubblegum or some other equally fragile substance substituted for my tendons.
I could hardly make use of my dual wielded pistols as I lost both arms and a leg so frequently. The mechanic for retrieving body parts was the combat roll button, making for annoying running about the map, ducking and rolling around until I hit the sweet spot for reattaching of my dismembered limb. If you become just a head rolling about you can be eaten by a little round demon and digested for eternity, totally ruining the entire idea of never dying. Bryce may not ever die, but if your head gets eaten, it ends your in-game life, transporting you back to a checkpoint. Basically that’s dying, right?
But what about the guns!? Dual wielded SMGs? One pistol, one assault rifle? This is a third person shooter right? Wrong, all wrong. This game may be classified as a shooter, but in all actuality it is a poorly made hack and slash. I abandoned my guns as soon as I discovered the large sword on my back. At least with my sword I had a chance of keeping my head. Gun use is almost pointless, with nerfed damage and close quarters gameplay. After the initial level, the guns are altogether useless.
The game has perfected rinse/repeat gaming. Every level consists of traveling and escorting your partner through the level to a spot that becomes an arena like area. A magical roadblock appears on the exit and entrance, 
and the player is greeted with demon spawn points that you have to destroy, all the while trying to keep your body together and fight the spawned demons. The spawn points are not difficult to destroy, but keeping your absolutely useless partner safe from the hordes of demons is. After you finish killing the spawns and every last demon the doors open and you are on your way again. This happens in every single level many times. Rinse. Repeat.
All my want went to waste on NeverDead. The story wasn’t interesting, the mechanics were not even mediocre, and by four hours in I was so annoyed by the half-assed puzzles that required getting down to just a head to traverse the terrain and the constant chase and search for my body parts that I gave up. The game was just too bad, repetitive, and frustrating. That’s right folks, I didn’t finish NeverDead and this comes from a person who did finish Call of Juarez: The Cartel.
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David Hughes 74 days ago.