• Publisher: Biart
  • Release Date: Mar 1, 2012
Metascore
39 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 20
  2. Negative: 13 out of 20
  1. Mar 22, 2012
    78
    Deep Black: Reloaded is Halo mixed with Gears of War. There's nothing new, but it's a good hardcore shooter.
  2. Mar 14, 2012
    75
    Biart stresses that the game is very arcade and action oriented, not to be compared to hardcore titles; and this really gets to the heart of the matter. Deep Black offers waves of enemies on land and somewhat more strategic, cover-based battle in the sea. Included are boss fights, a decent multitude of weapons, and a nifty jetpack mechanic. Don't expect to fight Deus Ex or Battlefield 3 here. If all of that sounds great to you, I think the odds are that you'll enjoy Deep Black.
  3. Mar 12, 2012
    69
    For what the game does, it works relatively well. There are a few hitches here and there, but it was never enough to have me quit playing the game. For a cheaper title, you can definitely do a lot worse than Deep Black. If you're looking for a decent little shooter and don't mind a few inconsistencies here and there, you might want to check this game out.
  4. Apr 16, 2012
    63
    Deep Black: Reloaded is a third person shooter with great potential in gameplay and graphics, but the level design is simple, the gameplay offers no special features and one fights against the same enemies all the time. However, if you search for an uncomplicated shooter and don't mind some problems in gameplay, graphics and story, you could give Deep Black: Reloaded a try.
  5. May 4, 2012
    60
    After Depth Hunter, Biart shows once again their ability to manage the underwater worlds. Deep Black Reloaded though, is a FPS that has many problems, but it could also be the starting point for more successful products.
  6. May 11, 2012
    50
    Deep Black: Reloaded shows potential that may never be reached. The proprietary engine shows some promise, and the underwater action isn't that bad compared to what other games try to do. However, the land-based gameplay is quite poor with pretty bad AI, and the hit system lacks consistency. Your hero lumbers around way too much to make the player feel powerful, the weapon variety isn't imaginative or useful, and the water mechanic isn't used for anything interesting. With nothing of value to bring to the table, there's little reason for anyone to pick up this game over other, better executed titles.
  7. Mar 12, 2012
    50
    Ultimately, this game is an attempt by an indie company to make a good-looking, story-driven action arcade game. Bottom line, if you're looking for a really dynamic, fast-paced combat game, you'll want to consider looking somewhere else. If you're interested in seeing what an indie developer can do with a genre that hasn't really been tapped yet, then feel free to check it out. This game is different from your usual shooter, attempting to add depth (wow...bad pun?) to a possibly worn-out style of game. Did they succeed? Not really. I feel bad, because I wanted to like this game, but it's really just a beat up car with a nice paint job.
  8. Apr 12, 2012
    45
    On paper this was material for a blockbuster but good ideas were buried under incompetence and lack of experience. [May 2012, p.64]
  9. Apr 4, 2012
    45
    If you've got more money than sense, feel free to try it out. But if you're serious about gaming, and look for rewarding and engaging experiences, then stay well away.
  10. Mar 19, 2012
    40
    Deep Black: Reloaded falls short of its promising use of a predominately-water environment and instead casts that aside to become a below average shooter fest.
  11. Apr 27, 2012
    33
    Deep Black: Reloaded is an underwater Gears of War clone. While a good idea in theory, the execution here is all wrong. Frustrating action, poor checkpointing, boring level designs and enemies that take far too many bullets to kill. There are some good ideas here, but you have to dive deep to find them!
  12. May 14, 2012
    30
    Deep Black: Reloaded features incredibly repetitive gameplay and broken, frustrating shooting. It's devoid of the smoothness in controls and exciting action that made the Gears of War series such a joy to play.
  13. 30
    Underwater third-person shooter is good for one and only one purpose: if you want to see every possible game mistake, bug and bad design decision packed into one, you just got it. [Apr 2012]
  14. Mar 13, 2012
    30
    Deep Black: Reloaded squanders its potential on broken cover-based shooting sequences.
  15. Mar 8, 2012
    30
    With apologies to The Little Mermaid, perhaps third-person shooters aren't one of those things that's "much better, down where it's wetter, under the sea."
  16. Mar 15, 2012
    20
    A low budget game with no intention to entertain its audience. Deep Black: Reloaded is just a bad carbon copy of every other game released post Gears of War. Avoid at all costs.
  17. Mar 14, 2012
    20
    Deep Black: Reloaded manages to take a potentially good idea and turn it into a living hell. Due to the lack of variation and the high amount of bad technical performances, it is a nightmare to play this game. Everyone should wisely stay away from this one.
  18. 20
    Deep Black: Reloaded manages far too well in making me furious within just a few minutes. Bad conveyance, poorly executed action elements and the worst storytelling I've experienced in a long, long time makes for an ultimately broken game.
  19. Mar 2, 2012
    20
    There's no discernable ironic enjoyment to be gleaned from this game, and it's certainly not fun-bad like Deadly Premonition. It's just plain old depressing bad-bad. Like drowning.
  20. May 2, 2012
    10
    It's a collection of repetitive gameplay, bland levels, a horrible story with forgettable characters, and a poor system of checkpoints that forces you to keep replaying sections of the already tedious levels. The overall experience is mind-numbing and frustrating, making it hard to play it for more than 30 minutes at a time without wanting to throw something or burn things.
User Score

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 10
  2. Negative: 7 out of 10
  1. Like so many others, the conceit for this game was fascinating. Underwater open environments! New and interesting ways to fight in a dystopian, cyberpunkian future ruled by merciless corporations! Lots of other stuff that, at most, gets passing mention in this game and has no bearing on the gameplay whatsoever! Actually playing the game is the deepest (...hah.) of disappointments. Thrill at having trouble getting onto a half-submerged staircase! Marvel at the stiffest protagonist movement since Resident Evil 1! Experience the pulse-pounding irritation of trying to make the sloppy, broken aiming work! This game not only did not learn from the current generation of FPS games' mistakes, it's still not sure that the mistakes of the 90s were really something from which to learn. Did I give this game a fair try? No, not really. After about half an hour of already repetitive, narrow corridors, enemies so bland I'm still not sure whether there was more than one enemy character model, godawful broken shooting, and getting caught on boxes and corners while trying to run around, I gave up. Still, as the game is fairly pretty (except when it's actually moving or trying to do anything) and boasts mediocre voice acting to go with the atrocious script, as well as having at least attempted something novel, I feel that it has earned its 2. This would have been significantly higher, no doubt, had they opted for a novel, interesting concept which they had some sort of idea for using.
    This game is like neon underlighting for your toaster. It's a kinda neat, odd idea that looks cool for a little while then makes you regret spending your money on such an utter waste of technology.
    Full Review »
  2. Plus: A nice idea. Normal: normal modern/scifi settings. Bad: Clunky unagile movement, bad controls both above ground and below. Character cannot jump! A million invisible walls. Stupid enemies. Chest high walls. Cannot grouch unless in front of a afore mentioned chest high wall. A crappy crappy crappy console port. I'm sorry about offensive language, but the port is absolutely awful that I cannot stipulate it enough. I need to say that I usually play pc-end shooters an bought this just to see what the commotion was about. The port between a xb pad and mouse is so damn horrible that stay away! Full Review »
  3. Why is it that games set in the ocean even when few and far between correlate so strongly with bad design? Hydrophobia: prophecy, Deadly Tide, and now Deep Black: Reloaded. I suppose I should have been warned LONG before I even made it to the register with this tome after all the game's unique selling point, right there on the front of the case was the fact that it 'supports nVidia's 3D technology!' But even after the install, I was leaning far, FAR back in my seat from the intro sequence when I was given a set of bullet points in lieu of an ACTUAL introduction. Then the dialogue started. Oh my god. No the voice acting isn't terrible, and no it's not as bad as sitting through Space Marine, but if there wasn't a 13 year old kid with ADHD and an obsession with burning things on the production staff of this game I will be surprised. There's the hispanic mission ops lady with the predictible accent and poor grasp of enlgish aphorisms, the over-testosteroned banter and deadpan delivery in the face of certain death and the enemies who not only spout the same three lines at you, that often make no sense: 'Unloading Grenade!' What grenade? The only truly immersing part of the dialogue is the assortment of 12 or more death screams... Yeah. When you put MOST of your effort into how people sound when their shattered bodies finally give out I'm gonna want to keep you away from the sharp things.
    Oh and when it comes to certain death... Oh god the gameplay! What the hell were they thinking? I've never been a fan of Third-Person Shooters but this one is capital B.A.D. BAD. You run about 15 degrees to starboard of where you shoot and zooming in just exacerbates this disparity, if it wasn't for the auto-regenerating health it would be an even bigger headache. Even the underwater movement feels clunky. And in a game suffused with chest-high walls, only SOME of them are useable as cover, generally in combat areas, but even still that's yet another black mark against this game. The even MORE annoying thing about this cover mechanic is that the cover key is context dependent. Pressed when you're not taking cover you will do a roll in the relevant direction you happen to be moving. Wouldn't be so bad if the roll actually DID something, you move a total of about three inches while being completely exposed to enemies all over the shop. Also, why is there no jump key? Chest-high walls aside, it would be SUPER handy to be able to vault over cover and jump the odd railing. But obviously this was removed from the game to cover for the level design which features MANY areas which a player with a jump key could easily fall into and not get out of (unless someone invented say, a ladder), and the game would lose about HALF of it's ridiculously short key-quest style stair lowering 'quests' which amount to crossing a single room while facing maybe three or less braindead AI enemies.

    That aside, with a proper amount of polish this game would actually be quite good, but the big problem is EVERYTHING needs polishing. The control system is half-finished, the level design--while it flows okay-- is still too simple and suffers from the aforementioned puzzle mechanic, the AI is boring, and predictible resembling space invaders more than current-gen shooters, and the weapons are bland, uninspired and look like they were picked out of Master Chief's weapons locker. The writing needs a lot more flesh on it before it can be called a story, and the truly sad part here is someone OBVIOUSLY had an idea, had a coherent sequence of ideas which did in fact resemble a chain of events and not just a few footnotes hastily scribbled on a whiteboard somewhere. Were it not for the fact that this game apparently has its own proprietary engine I would have said that Deep Black resembles an indie game done by a bunch of high-school kids, but the fact is that someone sank a lot of money into what amounts to a giant turd, and not a very polished one at that.
    Full Review »