NeverDead

NeverDead is a supernatural hack 'n slash/shooter developed by Rebellion and released in 2012 on PS3 and Xbox 360. It stars Bryce, a demon hunter, and focuses on his 500 year struggle with immortality. After a brutal battle with the demon king, Astaroth, Bryce was left to suffer an immortal curse, and the loss of his beloved wife.

The story is easily the most solid part of NeverDead, being written and directed by Shinta Nojiri. Characters all have distinct mannerisms, personalities, and aesthetic design. They're developed through subtle emotions in their dialogue, and slowly become more complex the more you think of them as real people. You're never going to feel a tight bond, but you won't forget them or their journey, either. Bryce himself is the easiest to understand and connect with, mostly through his surprisingly warm demeanor.

The use of subtleties is also meant to clue in players about the world around them, and what kind of universe NeverDead is, exactly. Emotions have color, demons can taste souls, and existence itself is relative. While telling its story, the game also reveals more about its setting, allowing the player to fill in the intricacies for themselves.

This otherwise intelligent approach to storytelling is hindered when the pacing picks up speed, killing off and creating new conflicts with characters that had never gotten appropriate exploration. Thankfully, due to their strong appearance and personalities, they're memorable anyway.

As for the gameplay, NeverDead has often been described as a third-person shooter or hack 'n slash, where it's actually a distinctive blend of both, and creates something rather unique as a result. The hacking and slashing is done with Bryce's butterfly blade, and makes use of an inventive (and if not for Metal Gear Rising, unique) control scheme. Players lock onto a foe, pull the blade back in any direction with the right analogue stick, and swing it back down to, well... swing. It's a simplistic way to connect you directly with the combat, and feels very fluid and satisfying.

The shooting employs a similar idea, assigning a gun to your left and right arm, and as can be guessed, the left and right shoulder buttons. Dual-wielding is nothing unusual for shooters, but the mix of guns you obtain allow a combination of many different strategies, basically turning you into a swiss army knife. Having both a rifle and shotgun at the ready simultaneously is very useful, and thanks to the control mapping, once again makes the player's input feel more meaningful. You can even fire from your arms when they're detached, which isn't terribly helpful, but a rather cute detail that accentuates the design.

Oh, yeah, your limbs can pop right off. Did I not mention that? Being immortal, Bryce cannot be destroyed through any conventional means. When he suffers normally fatal damage, his body is instead torn to pieces. Depending on where he's struck, he can lose any of his individual extremities, which consequently affects his maneuverability and usefulness in battle. It's a rather dynamic system, and adds a lot to the game's overall design.

What does it add? Tension. Battles can only be lost in two ways: Bryce's head is gobbled up by a demon while separated from his body, or his partner dies. As such, getting knocked to pieces presents a situation where you need to literally get yourself together as soon as possible. On its own, it's a rather basic -although appreciably unorthodox- approach to combat, but there's far more in play here.

Ready for action.

Each fight is engineered from the ground up to be as chaotic as possible. One of the core means NeverDead uses to achieve this is through its environment. Every location is an absolute playground for physics objects, and there's no better strategy to eliminate demons than dropping the scenery on them. Everything from chunks of concrete to entire staircases will be reduced to wreckage around you, taking your foes with them. You can even run right through raging fire unscathed, catching opponents ablaze with your own body.

It's not all one sided, as the demons come in every shape, size, and absurdity. Throughout the game, you're slowly introduced to new concepts through enemy design, until eventually you're forced to switch fluidly between shooting and slicing to even stand a chance. Some enemies literally force you back when you try to get in close, while others are best killed by digging in deep and ripping them apart. Thanks to the often arena inspired set-pieces, demons and their attacks can come from anywhere at any time.

This, too, is kept in check, thanks to NeverDead's upgrade system. Some abilities, such as "Sixth Sense", which slows down time when Bryce is in danger, are almost essential. And while it may not be necessary to shoot flaming bullets, transform your arms into grenades, or send shock-waves through your sword, it's extremely empowering. You're given plenty of experience, whether in battle or scattered across the environment, allowing you to experiment with many different play-styles before the credits roll.

It's a very delicate, risky balance, relying on the co-operation of many wildly different mechanics to create a sense of chaos and intensity. And it works precisely because the mechanics are so diverse. The variety in enemy design, abilities, dismemberment mechanics, and environmental design all come together in a beautiful, messy behemoth of pulse-pounding tension.

Or, at least they almost do. In the giant Jenga tower that is NeverDead's mechanics, someone placed a crooked block. Put simply, the game is not nearly difficult enough. Tension is caused by a feeling of danger. A sense that something is at stake. In balancing the game's unorthodox combat, Rebellion accidentally tipped the scales a tad too far in the player's favor.

Your partners are rarely in danger, and can be ignored for well over a minute without being revived, even when they do fall. The only other way to fail is when a demon devours Bryce's head. Only one type of enemy may do so, and they aren't terribly aggressive. Even then, if you are eaten, a rather easy mini-game allows you to escape instantly. In fear of frustrating players with such a bizarre approach to game design, the developers inadvertently sacrificed a key element. NeverDead just isn't as chaotic or tense as it wants to be, which is a true shame, when such a risky gamble almost resulted in the perfect storm.

This is taken to a depressing extreme during boss battles, which would be the highlight of the game, if not for the above-mentioned misstep. Bryce tackles each of the big baddies one-on-one, and any sense of excitement is hard to hold when you're being utterly obliterated, but the all-powerful, demon monstrosity just cannot win.

Shooting yourself in the foot, literally.

But, even with a critical piece of the puzzle missing, I don't regret a single spent moment. This is still one of the riskiest, most experimental action games of its generation, if not my lifetime. It's built on a foundation of creative storytelling, powerful ambition, tireless dedication, and effortless idiosyncrasy. Regardless of how it all balances out in the end, NeverDead was made with something truly special, and that is worth celebrating.