THE LAST DEADEND Review: A Fun Game With A Few Issues

When I play a horror game, there are a few main aspects I look for. Is it based on jump scares or another element to create fear? How well does the story fit for the setting provided? What is the main interest value of the game itself? While that only covers a few things, I have to say that I enjoyed The Last DeadEnd by AzDimension after taking these aspects in to account, but it still has a few problems as well.

Story

Play as young scientist, Farhad Novruzov, and begin to study a mysterious book that was found by a research facility. After visiting the building and having the book given to you for further research, he quickly learns through words that appear to him within the books blank pages that he is the chosen one.

Shortly after learning this, he finds himself using wells to travel between the world of good and the world of evil. With December 21, 2012 approaching on just a few days and dark messages from the book stating the end of the world to take place on that date, it's up to him in order to defeat the evil and stop the apocalypse!

Gameplay

It is easy to say that the gameplay was the focal point of The Last DeadEnd. While there are a few puzzles to solve throughout the game, the action is a fully loaded battle around every turn.

While there are sections of the game that take place in third place, the best of game takes place in first person. When in first person is where all the action takes place. Whether you choose to fight with a melee weapon that you found around the map or your pistol, you never know how the attacks will go. It is a lot of fun to take on a horde of zombies or a handful of snacks, but how much damage it takes to kill them tends to vary. Parts of the game, zombies will go down from one melee hit while other parts of the game it takes more. A headshot of always a one hit kill though.

Despite that, the most fun in the combat arena are the boss battles. You will be faced off against a variety of bosses consistently as you progress through the games. Ranging from an evil swordsman to a werewolf all the way up to a dragon, these boss fights each have their own challenge and style needed to beat them. By far the most difficult and entertaining sections of the game; thanks to there being a bunch of bosses, this game maintained my interest.

The puzzles are all really simple, but fitting to the story. There won't be any brain teasing in this game since the puzzles are really scavenger hunts within a small area of the game.

Graphics and Sounds

There isn't anything special to mention about the graphics. The entire game is made with low poly figures and the same texture that shows what each creature is. Assets for various city characters and the same creatures are heavily reused.

The music used in the city is fitting to the culture of the chosen location and relaxing when in the third person sections. The first person sections get a more ominous style music that changes to dramatic music when enemies arrive. The sound effects mixed with the music choices really helped bring the atmosphere to the dark setting that most of the game takes place in.

What Could Be Better

As mentioned before, the combat features enemies with various health levels. If this is done on purpose, the enemies with more health should look different enough to signify that they have a greater health bar.

The AI for enemies, including bosses, were broken half the time. The game has sections that are quite difficult to beat and when I would find myself replaying through a section of the game, there were occasions where the enemies AI simply broke. Zombies would sometimes just keep running until I attacked them first, snakes didn't leave their spawn point, and even bosses would stop mid battle for no reason at all. This needs to be fixed.

The dialogue throughout the game was poorly done as well. Sentences didn't flow well together and the conversations didn't seem natural at all.

Final Verdict

The Last DeadEnd is a lot of fun for the combat sections and proves to be a challenging game on it's own, but the puzzles were simplistic and the dialogue needs some work. Not to mention the buggy system that affects the best part of the game. It is a good game, but could be better with a few patches to fix some of the issues mentioned.