Review: Touch of the Dead (DS)
Score: 78
Ah yes, Doom hits the DS. Or at least it's very much in the same genre. Apparently, this is a remake of an existing console hit, House of the Dead, but that's fairly irrelevant here as you'll quickly grasp what's going on.
Yes, the cover art is very ghoulish, as are most of the animations throughout, but they usually stay on the cartoon side of 'gory' rather than descending into bad taste.
Touch of the Dead at least makes good and sensible use of the DS's touchscreen (now how many games does that NOT apply to....) As you'll gather from the screenshots, it's a standard first person shoot 'em up, using stylus taps on the bottom screen to aim and fire your gun:
As with other games in this genre on other platforms, the elements are the same. You gradually pick up more and more powerful guns, more ammo and explore level after level (many of which have vertical elements), all the while being apprahced and attacked by a wide variety of zombies/monsters and gun-wielding robots. Sheesh, it's worse than Tesco on Friday evening....
In addition to the usual explore-and-fire gameplay, there are extra skill elements, such as timing reloading your gun (a stylus stroke from side to side), remembering where the spare ammo is and knowing how to take down the 'boss' monsters at the end of each level.
Cut-scene animations, generated in 3D in real time, add extra atmosphere and humour, thankfully. The graphics throughout are a bit grim, but then that's what you'd expect considering the title. Some environments (like this computer room) offer relief from the dim lighting though:
Although not spectacular, the graphics are competent throughout, with only some low-res textures and jerky zombie movement to spoil things.
The difficulty level is pitched just right, meaning that you'll be playing this for a while. There IS a multi-player 'cooperative' mode, but you and a friend each need a copy of the game, which is a shame.
Still, this is fairly well done for a shoot 'em up, with great sound effects and lashings of atmosphere. If you're into blasting arms and legs off zombies then look no further!