Creativity

The story is pretty simple, you’re one of 3 characters (some levels you’re all characters), and your job is to protect the area while searching for guitar parts. But why are you searching for guitar parts? Why is that important? Apparently the zombies like to rock out then blow up. If that was an essential part of how to kill zombies, surviving a real zombie apocalypse won’t be an issue. There’s not much in terms of storytelling here, but do you really expect a tower defense zombie game to have much of a story? I think not.

Graphics/Game Mechanics

The graphics look really cartoonish like. Its not what you’d probably expect after playing other zombie games which may or may not hurt the game. The controls are pretty simple to use and the game teaches you everything you need to know in order to make it through each stage. If you’re looking for somewhat of a challenge, you can raise the difficulty level between easy, medium or hard. The enemy AI doesn’t scale through difficulty, but their attack power sure does.

Features/Length

There’s 2 options of gameplay. You can play on single player and go through a dozen levels of gameplay goodness solo. Or you can give mutiplayer and shot and group with 3 other people. My only concern with the multiplayer feature is that nobody is playing this game, so you better know 3 other people on your friends list willing to put money on this game. You get to choose between the construction worker, the boy scout and the cop. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, so be ready to switch between them depending on the situation. The game isn’t very long, you can make it through single player in under 3-4 hours, but its a nice break from those AAA titles.

Fun Factor

This game was very humorous. When playing the construction worker, you immediately get hit in the face with the humor. You have to destroy things in order to make wood to board the windows. Destroy a couch? Wood. Destroy a desk? Wood. Destroy a dinner table? Wood. Destroy a freezer? Wood…what the hell? That doesn’t make any sense! Funny. Whether you wanna board up the windows or install interesting traps, you have plenty of options to keep the zombies away, my favorite is the atomic bomb trap…muahahahaha. Even once you find the all the guitar parts, this game moves into some sort of guitar hero like mode where you gotta push buttons in order to make the zombies rock out. Even watching that is funny as hell. Its not hard to review a game that makes you laugh, it makes it a whole lot easier.

Overall Verdict- Try before you buy

I had fun with this game, but due to the shortness of this game, I can’t tell you to run to your xbox/ps3/pc and purchase this game before trying it. Its just not sane. So what I will tell you is download the demo and give the game a shot. If you end up liking the game, its not expensive at all. So try it and make sure you survive the evening, because you’ll get a kick out of the rocking zombies.

Candygun Games today announced that their Xbox Live Arcade title Dead Block has received its first set of downloadable content (DLC). Dead Block puts players in the shoes of one of four individuals, as they try to eliminate and survive against waves of zombies. The first piece of DLC features four new locales to explore, including: a Motel, a Turkish Bath, an Office building, and a Slaughterhouse. All four new levels are available in both single player and four player offline co-op. The Dead Block DLC is available now on Xbox Live Arcade for 240 Microsoft Points.

Dead Block is available now on Xbox Live Arcade (800 Microsoft Points) and PlayStation Network ($10). You can read our review of the game right here. More screenshots of the new DLC can be found on our official Flickr page.

For more information, please visit the Dead Block website at www.deadblock.com, follow the characters on Twitter, subscribe to the YouTube channel and ‘Like’ the game on Facebook.

Anyways, I played two demos last week and finished Advent Rising. The demo for Catherine kept me interested in the game, while the demo for Dead Block was enough for me.

Now that I’m finished with Advent Rising I will focus on Grandia Xtreme for the PlayStation 2. Grandia Xtreme was a spin-off of sorts for the Grandia series; it plays more like a dungeon crawler than a traditional role-playing game where you go from town-town with small dungeons in between. I’ve enjoyed it so far.

I also played a little bit of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcey EP on my iPod. I bought it about a month ago and started playing it, but as I’m prone to do with iOS games, stopped. I took a few long breaks at work and will hopefully finish it soon.

As far as posts for this week go, I’ll probably have some demo impressions up, and maybe a review for Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

Dead Block looks awfully similar to Team Fortress 2...

Dead Block is a downloadable action-strategy game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; I played the demo on the PS3. It is set in the United States during the 1950s. Just as rock ‘n’ roll is coming to prominence, a zombie outbreak has occurred. Controlling three separate characters I had to survive a zombie onslaught while attempting to find all the pieces to guitar set. Once found, I would play a simple rhythm minigame to complete a stage.

The demo began with an introduction reminiscent to that of a TV show, and sure enough, each stage in Dead Block begins that way, as if each stage is a TV episode. I began playing as a construction worker named Jack Foster. I thought the camera was too close behind him, frequently making it hard to see things directly in front of him or on the ground.

He was inside a house and I first had to put wood over windows to prevent zombies from getting inside. I soon ran out of wood and had to break furniture for more lumber; I thought this was a novel idea. I was then tasked with searching the house. As I did so I came across much more furniture to break, windows to board up, and other objects that I could search inside of. Inside these objects I would find nuts (necessary for building traps), keys, and hopefully a complete guitar and amplifier set.

There are three total characters that I could control and switch between on the fly, although only two were present in the demo. Besides Jack Foster, I could play as Mike Bacon, an overweight boy scout. I was able to summon him to any area of a stage and he would proceed to break furniture and search for items. In other words, my ally was able to take care of himself.

Dead Block didn’t have the most original premise (remember Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse?) and really it didn’t have the most original gameplay. After all, it pretty much is the zombie mode from the Call of Duty series. But at ten dollars it’s not too pricey and I found the demo pleasant, but I don’t have any interest in playing any more of Dead Block.

In Candygun Games’ 1950′s inspired game Dead Block, you play as one of three characters: a construction worker Jack Foster, an overweight boy scout Mike Bacon, and a traffic warden Foxy Jones. Each character has a special set of traps and secondary attacks that you use as you move through a set of buildings that are being invaded by zombie hordes. Traps like Jones’ massive bomb are placed in windows and doorways while the other AI characters scavenge through items scattered throughout the level in order to find a speaker, amp, and guitar. Unfortunately, the set up for Dead Block sounds a lot better than how it actually turned out.

Jack values his brain

One of the main side objectives is searching through globes and cacti to locate items (like keys and coins) that can be used to advance you through each level. You’ll find yourself looking through books for bolts (to build more traps) and obliterating a bathtub with a wrench (to collect more wood for blockades). However, the core mechanics of the game become too repetitive, too fast, ultimately making you do the same thing in each of the ten single player levels. There is no way around it, this will be the most action your B button has ever gotten, as you’ll be spamming it to break up all kinds of furniture. To search through items in the environment, you’re required to alternatively pull the left and right triggers. My biggest complaint is that none of this feels very fun. There are so many objects in each room that your main goal of finding the equipment to rock out becomes tedious and boring.

That’s not to say that Dead Block is entirely a mess. I actually found myself digging the vibe set up by the introductions to each level and the basic idea of a more goofy (and strategic) zombie tower defense game. For example, if you don’t keep a close eye on the windows and doors around you, an overbearing number of zombies will be creeping up on you in no time. I was surprised by how smart the AI is, though having them traverse around on their own would have been more helpful. There is some change in the game play when you are given the task of killing X amount of zombies before activating a giant zombie killing machine. I found this deviation to be more enjoyable than the main game, as I felt that I could pretty much experiment and play the level however I wanted. The inclusion of different traps, weapons, and a multiplayer mode (local only, unfortunately) may keep some players coming back until they explore everything the game has to offer.

Foxy is one bad mamma jamma!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Dead Block is a great example of an idea that sounds great on paper (or a story board), but fails to deliver when attempted to be fully realized. I feel as though the game could have greatly benefited if the campyness or zombie elements were better explored. More variation in the game play and better controls would have made the less interesting parts somewhat more bearable. The ending is abrupt and lacks any sort of climax to make the player feel rewarded for making it to the finish line. As it stands now, Dead Block suffers from a set of good ideas that drag along and are never fully brought together to make a core experience worth recommending for the asking price.

RATING: 4.0/10

Dead Block is available now on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). You can try the demo, purchase, and queue up your downloads here!

Check out this trailer for Dead Block.

Dead Block is an upcoming game from Candygun Games that is set to release on XBLA July 6th for 800 MS points, and PSN July 20th for $9.99. This game mixes tactical defense strategies with zombie killing. In the game, you get to choose one of three characters, and defend your stronghold while eliminating all of the zombies. Are you guys excited about this game, or tired of all these zombie games?

Dead Block on Facebook

Digital Reality announced today that it will publish Dead Block, the upcoming 3rd Person Action Defense zombie survival game developed by the Hamburg based studio Candygun Games.

Dead Block focuses on innovative defensive gameplay in which the few remaining survivors, Jack Foster (a construction worker), Foxy Jones (a traffic warden), and Mike Bacon (a perpetually hungry boy scout) have formed an unlikely alliance to protect themselves from the invading undead. Hiding in various shelters around town, they avoid Zombies by building blockades, setting fiendish traps or – as a last resort – using their weapons to fight.

In addition to 10 Single-player levels the game offers up to 4-Player, Split-Screen Multiplayer with an additional 8 Multiplayer co-op levels where players can fight side by side with their friends.

Dead Block was built on Epic Games’ award-winning Unreal Engine 3, which offers cutting edge technology and develops multi-platform products with great efficiency.

The game will be available in North America and Europe on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC platforms later this year.

Candygun Games delivers their first original IP, a unique and entertaining mix of arcade action and strategy gameplay combined with a spooky, cartoony visual style inspired by classic zombie movies.
United States in the 1950’s – Rock’n’Roll music was spawned directly from hell and caused havoc to western civilization. The music was so evil it even revived dead people, turning them into Zombies!

Digital Reality announced today that it will publish Dead Block, the upcoming 3^rd Person Action Defense zombie survival game developed by the Hamburg based studio Candygun Games.

Dead Block focuses on innovative defensive gameplay in which the few remaining survivors, Jack Foster (a construction worker), Foxy Jones (a traffic warden), and Mike Bacon (a perpetually hungry boy scout) have formed an unlikely alliance to protect themselves from the invading undead. Hiding in various shelters around town, they avoid Zombies by building blockades, setting fiendish traps or – as a last resort – using their weapons to fight.

In addition to 10 Single-player levels the game offers up to 4-Player, Split-Screen Multiplayer with an additional 8 Multiplayer co-op levels where players can fight side by side with their friends.

Dead Block was built on Epic Games’ award-winning Unreal Engine 3, which offers cutting edge technology and develops multi-platform products with great efficiency.

The game will be available in North America and Europe on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC platforms later this year.

For more information on Dead Block, please visit the
official website: http://www.deadblock.com
YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/DeadBlockGame
like our Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/deadblock
or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/deadblockgame