Game Reviews

Deadman's Cross

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Deadman's Cross

There are two possibilities for what Deadman's Cross has in store.

Either this is a game about an irate man called Mr Deadman, or it's another zombie game for your mobile device. The safe money's on the latter from what I've seen of the game in the App Store description.

Can this latest release from Square Enix shuffle to the edge of the horde and stand out from the undead crowd, or is it just another zombie game? Let's find out.

First impressions

After firing up the game, any illusions that Deadman's Cross might have a cohesive story go straight out of the window. You, a seemingly regular guy, have been holed up in your seemingly mundane apartment for three months now, and must descend into the zombie (sorry, Deadman) apocalypse you once feared.

For some reason, you already have a high-powered sniper rifle.

Pretty soon you're shooting bank robbers, alligators, and scantily clad nurses, all the while casually dropping F bombs and attempting to help the people of the perfectly named New Livingston.

The first-person target shooting is easy: you swipe about the left side of the screen to aim your gun, and tap the 'fire' button on the right-hand side to shoot. An arrow shows where your enemies are, and defeating them turns them into cards that you can add to your Horde.

When you've built up a sizeable squad of the recently re-alive, you take this team on missions handed out at the local tavern. The first mission sees you walking through a linear corridor to collect water from the various rooms along the way. Each step forward costs Stamina, which depletes a bar at the top of the screen.

Occasionally you'll run into the recently deceased, and your Horde battles them automatically - with victory seemingly based entirely on strength.

After claiming your reward for the mission you've been sent on, you can participate in tournaments against other Hordes in the Deadman Duels at the Boneyard to see who has the strongest deck.

If your team's looking a little weak, you can Feed lesser cards to better ones, or give them other Boosts found in missions, to improve their Stats.

It's a weird universe, but not an unpleasant one, and there's just enough of interest here to ensure I'm curious about what might come next.

Day 3: Mad Deadmen

I had a suspicion that Deadman's Cross would go down the convoluted mystery route, after it dropped hints about a secretive enterprise called Project Cross.

But no, I'm still eating pizza that I find in zombie-infested apartments to restore my energy, all the while looking for undead elephants that have run away from the circus. The game's bonkers.

I've gotten pretty good at the first-person shooting 'Hunt' sequences, and can now regularly capture five or six Deadmen each time.

I've got most of the common cards now, though, meaning that I end up with a lot of spares. That's fine, as they all make good Feed fodder, but if I want to see every card in the hunting area I'm probably going to need to plop down some real cash soon.

That said, I do have a formidable force already, and though I'm not the best in the world, when I do take on the hordes of other players I can hold my own.

The generous daily rewards for logging in and the free hunts each day do keep me coming back, and once I'm sucked into what I'm doing I do want to keep playing. If the energy system would only let me play for a little longer, I probably would.

Day 7: Just a little disappointed

Now that I've finished my time with Deadman's Cross, I find myself deciding whether or not I want to keep playing after the fact. I often get this feeling when I'm done with (what is essentially) a card-battler.

It's not that the gameplay is pulling me back in. Aside from the target practice sequences, this is a very standard card-battler that bases progress and success on how much time and money you've spent.

But because I have put so much effort into building my deck, it feels like a waste to just give up and walk away from my currently active quests - even if each of them now takes far too much time to complete.

I've dabbled with the available Elite Course to acquire super rare zombies, and I definitely want to see the bizarre and creative abominations that await. The card art is attractive, every menu zips along quickly, and the music has a sinister and eerie quality that fits the odd tone well.

Card battles could do with an 'instant skip' button, as you can't change the course of them once they're in motion, but otherwise Deadman's Cross is perfectly suited for 10-to-15 minutes of casual play at a time.

If there was a bit more substance to Deadman's Cross, it would have broken into PG Award territory, as it's just on the cusp of being a really good game. A more coherent world with a better integrated story would have edged it into getting a Bronze, as would a more lenient energy system, or snappier card battles.

As it stands it's worth investigating if you're a serious card-battler fan, but if you're not, or if you've already played the very similar Guardian Cross, you'll tire of it quickly.

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Deadman's Cross

A standard card-battler with a shooting gallery element tacked on, Deadman's Cross doesn't do enough to distinguish it from other titles. But what it does do, it does well enough
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Peter Willington
Peter Willington
Die hard Suda 51 fan and professed Cherry Coke addict, freelancer Peter Willington was initially set for a career in showbiz, training for half a decade to walk the boards. Realising that there's no money in acting, he decided instead to make his fortune in writing about video games. Peter never learns from his mistakes.