Ultimately, Dead Horde is in an unfortunate position. It is a technically well-executed game, and its flaws are easily overlooked when you consider its budget pricing. However, the game doesn't really try anything different, and many other games have done it better in the past. The heavy reuse of assets makes it a chore to get through levels after you've done a couple of them, and the gameplay boils down to little more than using jump as often as possible and shooting your assault rifle, regardless of what you're facing or where you are. The title isn't particularly bad, nor is it particularly good; it finds itself in an uncomfortable middle, where it lacks glaring flaws as well as any memorable qualities.
Besides some technical flaws, this is a really funny game. Gotta play it with another player and a 360 gamepad to fully enjoy it.
I hope the next title comes with a lighter and smoother engine.
Keep it up DNS
After playing this game I realized that this game is best played along with a friend. Playing alone yields no new experiences for those who are already familiar with diagonal zombie shooter games. Even though this game takes it's difficulty to a level that may be challenging yet frustrating at the same time, there are still things that would need to be revised in order to make this game different from other zombie shooters. Overall, the concept is ok, the execution is average, the gameplay is limited.
It's competent. Solid. Inoffensive. Somewhere down the line, DnS Development got mired in the details and neglected to inject the spark necessary to make the run-and-gun fun.
Dead Horde is a game that is riddled with bugs that could have been easily prevented. Sure the graphics are good and the co-op is pretty fun, but the gameplay gets very boring, very fast.
You can't come up with an idea for an interesting, varied gameplay, your budget is very limited and your breathtaking script is being digested by a dog? Don't worry – just make another mediocre zombie game and publish it on Steam. Someone will buy it. [September 2011, p.73]
Was initially excited when I found out about this top-down game but gameplay, weapons and animations let it down. Most often you just find yourself running backwards while shooting groups of zombies, the same tactics work every time. Player and zombie animations are poor and weapons are limited and lack any punch. Could maybe have been better with some extra work done on it, but as it stands, meh..
Well, if this game didn't kill our Lorde then nothing will.
Oh wait, Dead HORDE.
Meh, my concept was more interesting.
Welcome to a world where everything adds nothing, and nothing does anything. You are plopped in this world of zombies... *ahem* MUTANTS; and told to get to a military base where it's supposedly safe. There. Story done, basic motivation achieved. Any interest or concern for this character or world not even attempted. That's fine; not every game needs a lorebook to accompany it to be a good game. It just needs said basic gameplay motivation and context. But geez people, even if the story is bad have some self-esteem (I state hypocritically). It occurs in a loading screen, but rather than play out while the loading takes place to provide distraction it waits until the loading is done and then slowly and barely visibly fade in half a barely-English sentence at a time. Was the audience for Dead Horde 4 year olds who need to sound out every syllable? Or 94 year olds who need to do the same?
But unlike the worlds slowest text crawl for Dead Horde's final credits, we shall move on. What do you do in this game? You run and gun. No innovations here, just back to basics. Take the Left 4 Dead enemy archetypes of swarm fodder, fat belchers, cocaine-addled runners and Olympic high jumpers and you got this game's cast of zany characters. Then take the mechanics of... nothing and you got this game's mechanics. Then take the weapons from Serious Sam and strip them of anything resembling fun and you have this game's loadout.
This game boasts an immersive movement system including actions such as lightly jogging like the undead population of Beijing isn't on your ass, and dodge rolling which is both highly necessary and completely f&^king useless. Anything stronger than the most basic zombie will have no problem catching up to you after rolling a grand total of 3 feet, 1 of them before you even finish the animation. You run backwards slower than forwards as an attempt to balance out the still primary tactic of backpedalling in circles mowing down your adoring fans. Once again however, besides the most basic zombie type, not including the random regular zombies that are faster than the other regular zombies, these lil' fellas run as fast as you or faster. So ankle nibbling is a hot new trend that you literally cannot help but join in on sometimes. And that's ignoring the awful aiming for dodge rolling that will more often end you up stuck on some shin-high piles of trash that stop you dead horde in your tracks. That part is particularly annoying. The maps are designed like a kid scribbling with an invisible ink pen, and you forgot to bring your trusty black light. Every tiny prop next to a wall or large object acts as a corner to trap you in helplessly before you even realize what happened. And that's still forgetting the ACTUAL invisible walls everywhere. So far we actually take the run out of run-and-gun gameplay, and yet don't at all.
"Okay then, Qarren, you pre-object permanence dunce," you say, "why not just fight back then?" Haha, Billy, you stupid, insolent zombie snack.
No.
Weapons in this game, yeah those aren't top military weapons. Those things be nothing more than fancy water pistols. You can upgrade them so you think "great, you just have to invest and you'll eventually get a satisfying weapon of mass mutant destruction."
Haha Billy.
Just f%&king no.
Upgrade any weapon 100% and you'll find you just spent a third world country's entire wealth to turn your water pistol into a low-pressure hose. Enemies aren't going down any quicker, lad. Not to mention the particularly bullet spongy enemies like the fatsos who can take 3 fully upgraded missiles to the face and wonder why that annoying fly keeps landing on them. So there's also no gun in this run-and-gun game, and yet once a-f&%king-gain there still absolutely is.
I should mention there are vehicle sections. About 3 of them to be precise. They're cool for the whole 10 seconds they last each time, before disappearing from the game entirely after level 4. At this point I start to believe they didn't even have the time or budget to make budget cuts. Just had to rush out a product.
Then there's animations. I mean, there's 1 or 2. Zombie run cycles are so clearly choppy you wonder if they were coded to run at 1 frame a step. Then there's the attack animation. Oh wait, NO THERE ISN'T. They simply get in your general vicinity and your health just drains away like a funnel itself made out of water. Even the fatsos who do have a noticeable attack animation function this way. Think you dodged their caustic upchuck? Think again, Billy, you belch-covered buffoon. The attack happens WAY before the animation. It's just there to let you know that the fat sh$t attacked you 20 minutes ago.
You start to understand what I mean by everything adds nothing, and nothing does anything.
Well good for you Billy, you stingy tap-weasel. Don't play this game.
I wanted to like this, I saw the game play on youtube and it looked like fun and it would have been if the game didn't lag for no reason. I don't have the best system, it's a laptop but it can run games pretty good on a medium setting like Skyrim or Arkham City, there really is no reason for this game to run like I am playing it on a toaster. I even turned everything on low, still got the same lag. I only payed a dollar for it so it is not that bad of a loss, but now I wish I spent that dollar on something worth it.
Generally poor game play, poor graphics, bug ridden. Old concept done wrong. Get's boring and repetitive quickly. Unimpressive story. However its weapon upgrade system keeps it interesting for an hour or two. In the end though, this doesn't save it. Don't waste your money.
I'm sad to have to give this game such a low score, because it's otherwise quite fun. But it has an unforgivable flaw: you can't save your progress. No, seriously. Forget all your progress. Forget all your upgrades. Forget the loot you accumulated. If you leave the game, it's all gone. Oh sure, the game has checkpoints, but they're used only to resurrect you during this specific game session. If you leave the game, kiss your checkpoint good bye. Even an indie game can't be forgiven for not having a save feature. Even a very inexpensive indie game. People wouldn't tolerate this of a free game, nor should they. If you're the kind to play a game from beginning to end in one sitting and you have a generator to ensure that you won't lose your game in a power outage, maybe you won't care about this. Personally, I find in unacceptable. And they have the gall to present you with a menu option, when you start the game, that says, "continue campaign." Do you know what that does? It lands you right back at the beginning! Thanks a lot!
SummaryAs a survivor of the mutant virus together with a comrade or alone, you must make your way through the city levels, every new area uncovering new challenges to overcome and mutants to destroy. With a large variety of weapons at your disposal, together you must wipe out the hordes of flesh eating mutants. On the way you can use vehicles a...