Deadlight: Director's Cut
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Deadlight: Director's Cut
Tequila Works brings its hit indie survival horror game Deadlight, to the PS4 and Xbox One with Deadlight: Director's Cut, but the years haven't been kind.
Deadlight: Director's Cut looks fantastic and has a very intriguing storyline. Its platforming puzzles are also generally really enjoyable to solve. However, a few annoying gameplay flaws, occasionally awkward controls, and very short running time really take the edge off the experience, and ultimately the game falls short of its considerable potential.
A Director's Cut which adds little to a title anything but perfect, although definitely recommended to those looking for a little bit different zombie game.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Deadlight Director’s Cut combines classic puzzle platforming fun with an artistic direction and story that is able to create a bleak atmosphere.
While some of the big criticisms that people had with the original version of the game still stand, Deadlight: Director's Cut still feels like a fresh take on the zombie genre 4 years later. It probably isn't worth a return trip if you've already played the original game, but if this is your first time checking out the Deadlight world then this version is definitely the one to get.
A second chance to try Tequila Works’ side-scrolling zombie classic, but not essential if you played the original.
Remasters, remakes, and ports are nothing new, and Deadlight is one of the few games from last generation that deserves it. Releasing on Xbox 360’s Summer of Arcade in 2012, Deadlight later made its way to PC with little fanfare. Now, on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Deadlight: Director’s Cut has a chance to impress new players with its take on a zombie apocalypse. The art style helps to mask the age, but it can’t stop certain gameplay mechanics from feeling rough on these consoles. Those complaints aren’t enough to keep me from recommending this solid experience, especially given the additional content and low launch pricing.
Impressively updated graphical prowess for a unique visual styling isn’t enough to save it from a myriad of cheaply laid gameplay issues. Deadlight’s problem was never its graphics. Its issues are more inherent to the four-year old gameplay design that doesn’t allow the player to feel responsible for getting themselves killed. Handing the player an axe that barely does a thing. Launching them into spike pits they don’t know they need to leap over. And technical issues with platforming that either stick players to walls or drop them into the waiting hungry hordes. Deadlight could have been a good game, and maybe four years ago I would have thought that it was, but players today expect a little bit more intelligent core game design in which death is a teaching moment rather than a cheap trick.
