By Athanasios 03.12.2017
When it comes to traditional adventure games, Daedalic Entertainment is this era's LucasArts… sort of. While certainly the best publisher in the genre, the vast majority of its titles tend to not "go the distance," and be something more than 'good' or 'very good.' Dead Synchronicity, which Cubed3 originally visited on the PC, is pretty much like that, as it's entertaining, but far from a classic gem. Long story short, should adventure fans bother with trying it out now that it has arrived on Nintendo Switch?
Everything in here, from the voice acting and music, to the (otherwise very good and striking) character design and dialogue, is slightly inconsistent, in the sense that it won't be obvious from the get-go what Dead Synchronicity is. The more you play, however, the clearer it gets that this is a very dark adventure. In fact, this might possibly be the grimmest title currently on the Nintendo Switch - sure, DOOM had violence and all, but it was popcorn violence; horror for the whole family…
Taking place after the 'Great Wave' event that wiped out civilisation, this follows the odyssey of Michael, an amnesiac who wakes up in a refugee camp where morals are in a far shorter supply than food and water; a world where army 'Pigs' are making the rules, 'Moles' are doing the snitching, and the rest are trying to survive by, as the crime lord of this corner of the universe puts it, "doing what you got to do," which perfectly sums up the transformation that Michael will go through.
Since this was inspired by The Road and Twelve Monkeys, don't expect this to be a feel-good journey. In fact, don't even expect something that's just a bit dark like, for instance, Bethesda's take on the Fallout franchise. Dead Synchronicity is brutal. There are thugs who force a mentally ill girl to become a prostitute, army officials who don't mind killing little children, and most of all, there are the 'Dissolved,' the unsettling patients whose illness everyone is scared off; patients who, as the name of the disease suggests, simply dissolve when their time comes.
The biggest mystery at hand seems to be the nature of time itself, as Michael frequently witnesses some strange events where time seems to warp right before his eyes. Without spoiling too much, time seems to "die out," and the hero must try to find out why, and, if possible, not let that happen. The problem is that the game itself does all the spoiling, as it is somewhat easy to predict what's going on here after an hour or so into it. Furthermore, these "time glitches" happen so often that they soon start feeling annoying instead of mysterious.
It's important to note that this is a somewhat short trek that takes place in an equally tiny world. This hand-painted, bleak dystopia admittedly looks very good, but due to the limited, red-ish sepia palette used, as well as the fact that there aren't many areas to visit, repetition soon kicks in. As for the character design, its fine and all, but too many characters (including the main hero) look as if they are people from the same family of Slavs… if that makes any sense.
The biggest flaw, however, and the one that will irritate even those who will absolutely adore this title, is none other than its disappointingly bad ending. While it's extremely abrupt and ends on a pretty negative note, keep in mind that this isn't really the main issue here. Instead, it's the fact that it feels as if the finale is actually the beginning of the much-needed, yet non-existent, final act.
As far as gameplay goes, it's one of the most traditional point-and-click adventures in existence. In other words, genre aficionados will feel right at home, and haters will keep on hating as this doesn't try to stir things up a bit. This basically means that the "puzzles" are all about collecting all sorts of junk, and then using said junk to solve them. Thankfully, while the gameplay can surely feel like an item fetch chore at times, and the puzzles themselves are nothing to write home about, there aren't any major problems to talk about, either, as the vast majority of the solutions are not illogical.
A weird omission seems to be the lack of touch controls, something that, while surely annoying for those who will want to do some post-apocalyptic adventuring in handheld mode, is not that much of a problem, first, because this offers a neat hotspot highlight option, and, even better, lets you quickly jump from one to another through the use of the directional buttons. In conclusion, far from a classic, and, luckily, far from a mediocre game, Dead Synchronicity should only be approached by genre diehards.
Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today doesn't try to reinvent the wheel or fix some of the genre's frequently occurring, yet small, flaws, but that's not a problem, as point-and-click adventures are mainly about the story and presentation. In that regard, this will surely offer a fun, and heavily dark, ride in the few hours that it will last. The only problem? It strongly feels as if it is missing its final chapter.
6/10
0 (0 Votes)
Comments are currently disabled