Deadfall Adventures (Xbox 360), Review

Genre: First-Person, ShooterPlatform: PC, Xbox 360 (Reviewed)Release Date: 11/15/2013Publisher: Nordic GamesDeveloper: The Farm 51

A unique character can usually save an otherwise average game we’ve played time and time again by balancing out the game’s appeal. Unfortunately for developer The Farm 51 (also is responsible for Painkiller: Hell and Damnation), they didn’t get that memo in time for Deadfall Adventures, their latest attempt at an FPS.

In Deadfall Adventures, you’ll take on the role of Allan Quartermain, a run-of-the-mill, mildly annoyed man presented with an opportunity to become an adventurer, hunting for treasures around the world. His story begins in Egypt, where he and two other explorers are on the hunt for a treasure– they get the specific item they want, and he gets to keep everything else. But instead of taking the opportunity to create an original version of Egypt for video games, Farm 51 took the easy way out and used every cliché from every big budget Hollywood film set in Egypt. You’ll find mummies roaming beneath the pyramids of Egypt (a la The Mummy), the 1999 film, and you’ll find ancient booby traps (like in Raiders of the Lost Ark) that you’ll have to navigate in the correct manner in order to survive.

Oddly enough, there’s a moment during the Egypt segment of the game in which you’re shown a wooden plank over a pit of alligators, and you think that will somehow come into play, but unfortunately the game puts you on autopilot, as Quartermain crosses the plank on his own. The worst part about the entire scenario is that the plank breaks in half just after crossing the pit. Not only does the whole thing feel a cliché, but the plank would have more likely broken in the middle of the plank when the duo were actually on the plank. Later on in the game, there’s another action sequence that puts you on auto-pilot as you glide down a zip line to safety, instead of allowing you to actually control your character—you know, because who wants to actually control their character during a video game? You’ll also venture into the forgotten Mayan ruins and the Arctic.

You’re given all of the tools The Farm 51 thought you’d need to be a proper adventurer, such as a compass, treasure maps, notebook and flashlight. However, you’ll only find yourself using the flashlight. Because the game basically corridors you into the direction you’ll need, and places treasure in the only other direction you can venture, you won’t ever need the compass or treasure map. And, the notebook is used to attempt to explain the puzzles, and thankfully most of the puzzles are easy enough to solve, because you can hardly make out what is in the notebook, nevermind making any sense of it.

The campaign isn’t the only mode, though, as there is also multiplayer team deathmatch and survival. Survival is like any other horde mode/survival mode you’ve ever played, as you attempt to survive wave after wave of mummies. It’s not very amusing. Unfortunately, I was unable to play multiplayer before this review went up, but I’m going to branch out on a limb here and assume it is as poorly put together as the rest of Deadfall Adventures.

Minor quirks aside, there’s still many issues with Deadfall Adventures. The game lacks polish, and suffers from severe framerate issues on the Xbox 360. Graphics are not up to par, and the game looks like a launch title for the Xbox 360 at its best. While the variation in environments is appreciated, the presentation of them is not. The game is littered with bland textures, colors that seem to blend together, and it lacks polish. Character animations feel like they’re right out of a WWE video game, and the characters themselves aren’t unique, and say cringe-worthy things like “heart-doohicky” and “the man upstairs.” Yikes.

Another major issue with Deadfall Adventures is that the hit detection is extremely hit or miss. It seemed as though it wasn’t a problem earlier on in the game, but as you progressed and entered into new gun battles, the issue was more noticeable. Couple the issue with the fact that the controls are absolutely horrible for an FPS, and you’ve got yourself one frustrating first person experience. Also, there are many objects in the game that are low enough that Quartermain should be able to jump up onto, but can’t. This type of limitation may have still been okay in the late 90s, but it certainly won’t fly in 2013.

Deadfall Adventures is hackneyed to its core, and has bargain bin written all over it–even that may be giving it a little more credit than it deserves. If I were to compare Deadfall Adventures to any one of the Indiana Jones films which it attempts to resemble, it’d have to be The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I’ll be sure to welcome Deadfall Adventures to our Official Facepalm Games List of 2013 in a couple days, but for now, I recommend spending your cash elsewhere.

Story – 5/10Gameplay – 3/10Graphics – 5/10Soundtrack – 5/10Replayability – 1/10

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