Dead Effect 2 Review

​Name’s Gunner Davis
By Brett Wolfe
Reviewed on Xbox One
Released on January 13th, 2017 on Xbox One 
Also availible on PS4, and PC
Developer: BadFly Interactive    Publisher: BadFly Interactive

​Sergeant Gunner Davis reporting for duty sir! What’s the mission today, sir? What...Zombies? And Mutant Clones! What in the hell are we dealing with? The Dead Effect? What the hell is that? Ughh…this is gonna be one hell of a day! 

Dead Effect 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter developed by BadFly Interactive and tells the story of a mutant clone that is woken up from stasis after a malfunction in the ship’s systems. Upon waking, you are greeted by a woman named Danette that requires your help to repair the ship’s systems and informs you that the vessel is overrun by zombies. There are three characters at your disposal when starting this game: Kay Rayner, Jane Frey, and Gunner Davis. Each character has their own special ability tree and a unique starter weapon. For example, Kay is a Close Quarters Combat Specialist and is equipped with a sword, while Gunner Davis is a Heavy Weapons Specialist and dons a classic assault rifle. Although having these unique starter weapons, you are able to purchase weapons of any type later in the game, as I have purchased various shotguns and melee weapons while playing as Gunner Davis. The story consists of twenty levels that tasks you with various objectives to repair the malfunctions happening around the spacecraft and killing a boatload of zombies. In addition to the story missions, there are a variety of side objectives that can be completed. The side objectives that you can complete are Generic Missions, Biohazard Mode, Infestation, Survival, and Lone Wolf Missions. While Generic Missions and Survival are just run of the mill fetch quests and “defend the zone” type missions, the other modes are pretty interesting. Biohazard and Infestation are very similar as you are tasked with going to a section of the ship and killing every zombie you see, however; Infestation usually has a larger enemy they denote as the boss and the main reason for the infestation. The Lone Wolf Missions are the most unique as it tasks you with infiltrating a military base and hunting down soldiers.

​Visually this game has an average feeling towards it and is reminiscent of the graphic styles of mid-life Xbox 360 titles. The visuals have a Borderlands feel to them. They look nice and will probably not fall as the game gets older. The audio direction, on the other hand, is where this game aesthetics shine. While the voice acting can get choppy at times and can be cut into by other noise, such as gunfire or the noise of a mechanism you are standing by, it is still rather good voice acting. The characters don’t feel like soulless robots that are just getting the lines out so you get some kind of story. They were given emphasis and passion in fighting for what they believe in and I feel it worked out really well for them. The second notion towards the audio in this game is the music that plays during the game. The music is very atmospheric and gives that stranded deep in space vibe.

This title was another one that I personally saw and asked if it could be requested. I thought the screenshots and trailers made this game look like it would be worth my time to sit down and play it and I was not disappointed. I had a lot of fun with this game and didn’t find a dull moment in it. While the missions got repetitive with a few fetch quests, there was a lot of other interesting things to do. Mowing down hundreds of zombies, fighting cool bosses, and going into slow motion (when a grenade goes off, everything slows down…it is really cool, I promise) are just a handful of things that you will experience. Previously I stated that I felt this game looked a bit like the original Borderlands and that isn’t where the similarities stop. After a few missions in Dead Effect, you meet a character named Minikin. He is an engineer and becomes the weapons dealer for you throughout the game. Once he becomes available, he can sell you various types of weapons. Want a shotgun? He will have it! Want a badass sword for slicing n’ dicing? He will have it! Want an orbital laser weapon that destroys enemies instantly? He has…oh…nevermind, he doesn’t sell those! With all these combinations, it just brings me back to playing Borderlands with my friends and switching from sniper to assault rifle to shotgun to any bizarre weapon that was featured. Although Dead Effect 2 doesn’t feature millions of weapons, it gives a little taste of the experience and then goes on and provides its own unique experience. This game’s port to the console went really well in my opinion and I am glad that it got a second chance to succeed. It is just meant to be played with a gamepad, end of story

In the end, Dead Effect 2 is an interesting sci-fi first-person shooter and I fully recommend picking it up. It is priced at $12 USD which I feel is fair. The game provides a good amount of content with the story and the side objectives. I was able to get about 6 hours out of the story and I feel you can get another ten out of playing a lot of side missions that are also present.

*Note: A copy of this game was provided for the purpose of the review.
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Final Score: 9/10

​+Interesting Concept
+Atmospheric Vibes
+Fun Gameplay