Dead Block is a third-person tower defense game set during a 1950s zombie apocalypse. You play as a construction worker, a boy scout, and/or a police woman as you attempt to hold off a horde of zombies. Each level involves you searching a building for an electric guitar, amp and subwoofer. Why? Because zombies love dancing to rock and roll, and they will dance themselves to death! Obviously.
Game: Dead Block
Publisher: Digital Reality
Developer: Candygun Games
Genre: Action Tower-Defense
Price: $9.99
Pros: Amusing level introductions
Cons: Boring if you win, frustrating if you lose.
Verdict: Skip it.
Acquired via Publisher
Unfortunately people in the 1950s were somewhat ashamed of their musical talents and they decided to hide their equipment throughout their homes. You will have to search through the various toolboxes, cacti, and globes in order to assemble your apparatus of rock. Holding off the horde of zombies slowly shuffling your way will require you to build traps at the doorways and windows. These range from simple boards to bombs to freeze traps. Building traps is essential because your generally weak melee attacks simply won’t do the trick.
When you aren’t maintaining your traps, the majority of the time is spent destroying furniture and searching through containers. Destroying furniture means “mashing circle.” Searching through containers and the actual tap building is slightly more interesting. Slightly. Hold X. Press R2 and L2 back and forth. Hit X when the sliding arrow is over the green spot. Then repeat these simple tasks over and over again.
For a game all about zombies, there isn’t a lot of excitement. You have to search EVERY object in a room because once it gets overrun there is no going back, and any container could have one of the three objects you need to complete the level. Once you finally get all three key items, you must play a guitar rift reminiscent of a criminally over simplified guitar hero.
Victory is less than satisfying. Achieving victory boils down holding them off until you’ve searched every nook and cranny. When I beat a level, I found the game boring. If I got overrun and lost, I was extremely frustrated. Games are all about having fun, and Dead Block just wasn’t fun. The cartoon aesthetic is charming and the B-Movie style introductions to each level are amusing, but that can’t save it from poorly executed gameplay mechanics. The game features four player couch co-op, but there are far better ways to spend your time with friends.
GrE Grade: D
Popularity: 1% [?]
