Deep Black Reloaded developed by Biart is their third person shooter released on Windows. It is also being released on Xbox 360 and PS3 online stores.
Deep Black is set in the near future following Lt Pierce; a solider specialized by his armour allowing advance land and underwater combat. He mission is a simple one of taking down terrorist forces in a semi underwater complex, packed to the brim with enemy soldiers and robotic death machines. The plot doesn’t really evolve into anything special other than the normal B movie plot frequently seen in most action games.
Deep Black plays standard to most cover shooters, with the typical chest high walls placed close proximity whenever enemies lurk round the corner. For the most part the cover works fine, excluding the frequent issues it runs into with enemy AI and character animations. Many weapons and character animations leave the player wide open to pot shots, leading to many frustrating and unfair deaths. These issues only gets aggravated by poorly placed checkpoints, many of which are placed before tedious obstacles, only causing more frustration.
Deep Black at many points seems like it has more than a few good ideas, with certain weapons feeling fun to use or interesting like the pulse gun, or just a sick joy from cutting a throat with a large knife, the game still has a few tricks. Much of the joy from these commodities are short lived when you’re forced behind cover, waiting for the enemies to switch from shooting at you, to just standing waiting to get shot, or alternatively just waiting a long while for your health to regenerate. Enemies never know how to attack you either, leaving many of them when in close to charge towards you with no concern for their own life, it does at least add a more dynamic threat, but just forces you to either blind fire him before he reaches you, or get yourself killed while pulling of a melee kill animation.
Deep black has at least its underwater combat to redeem the game… and makes you question why the game wasn’t set entirely underwater. Lt Pierce’s suit allows quick movement as well as the use of a harpoon/grapple gun while underwater, leading the game towards a nicer place with bullets sailing through the water, and ducking and weaving through rocket fire. It’s a vastly better game underwater; however the underwater sections give the feel like a lack of potential. After the bullet slowing in the water doesn’t make the game feel different to others at all, as nothing really make use of the physics to make a difference, it’s not helped by many situations that water is used in, are just an unnecessary actions. These situations are not too frequent, but just don’t aid the game when your only way to progress is to raise the water levels as you can’t climb over a small create.
Graphically the game is good, it’s far from the next graphical upgrade but it does its work to look better than the average game. Again the game is vastly better in its underwater sections with improved lighting, and particle effects, not to mention many sound effects being slightly over dramatic at points, with dyeing enemies gurgling out their last few attempts at life, for extended periods of time. The game’s voice overs lean towards comical at points, but never enough to make the game funny. It occasionally feels it was trying its hand at comedy; by replacing swear words with the likes of “Frag” whenever Peirce feels angered, not to mention one computer AI which caused me to break out in hysterical laughter at wondering if it was intentionally bad.
Gameplay
Game play is a mixed bag but overall nothing to write home about. A strain and a test of patience to play through the ground sections of the game, but are occasionally assisted by some average underwater sections.
Presentation
The graphics are great in the underwater sections, which are lost when on foot with the sudden lack of particle effects and good lighting. Nothing truly is going to grab the player by surprise but Deep Black is far from offensive either. Some B game or movie enthusiast may enjoy the voice work, but for the most part it’s not going to be a cult hit for them.
Longevity
The single player will last more than several hours with 40 missions; many of this level will feel much longer through deaths and waiting a while for your health to regenerate. Its length is fair; however it is questionable if you will want to play through the whole game. Deep Black aids the single player with a set of multiplayer maps and, however at the time of reviewing the multiplayer mode was barren of any players.
Overall
A game with some with some undeveloped ideas, and misses getting some of the core gameplay which could have made it a reasonable game, sadly however its core gameplay is lacking and isn’t saved by its underwater combat. Some players will be interested in playing for the underwater combat, but as shooters go, this is far from a must have title.
Closing Comments
The game seems like its core principles of underwater fighting could have really set this game apart, however this section of the game never feels like it was truly taken advantage of, and just feels like wasted potential of an interesting idea.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
