DEADCAM | ANALOG • SURVIVAL • HORROR

On the right side of the image is the text DEADCAM in red and capitals. In a similar fashion, the words ANOLOGUE. SURVIVAL. HORROR. Are below the DEADCAM text. The background is all black, and right of the text is a closeup of a young girl’s face, partly obscured by long black hair. Her face has blood splashed across her eyes and the bridge of her nose.

Read Time:4 Minute, 12 Second

I love me a good analogue-style horror game, and I’m always on the lookout for similar entries. That’s why DEADCAM | ANALOG • SURVIVAL • HORROR caught my eye. It doesn’t look like we get just one episode to enjoy, developer Joure Visser aims to have multiple episodes, which is a plus. DEADCAM has started its early access life cycle and is available on Steam for £6.09. But if you wish to try before you buy, then a demo is also on the store page.

Warning GIFs used may contain Flashing Images!

All your problems are fixable with a shotgun!

Short GIF from DEADCAM. The camera pans around an abandoned classroom, some of the cabinets are toppled over and heavy amounts of grime is shown around the walls. Desks where the students would sit remain undisturbed. — This place was probably hell even before it was abandoned.

Gameplay

Before you jump into DEADCAM, as mentioned, there looks like there will be options for multiple episodes. As of right now, however, there is only one, titled Onryō. This first episode is set in the 80s and has us playing a man named Kenji. He gets summoned by the ghostly voice of a girl named Hitomi, who lures him to a school. After walking around and seeing some paranormal activity, Hitomi begins her vengeance on Kenji.

Short GIF from DEADCAM. Kenji is swinging his katana at two ghosts who look like Japanese high schoolers. The ghost's clothes are torn and ripped, and they are wearing coloured blindfolds. One white, the other red. The ghosts' hair is long and black. — This Katana saved my life more times than I’d like.

Most of the game, you’re walking around looking for keys while be attacked by high schoolers’ spirits. There is combat, but you’ll have to find weapons to fight with, as they aren’t gifted to you. I think there are only four weapons in the game, and I obtained three. The best one being the Old Katana. Ammo and health packs are also littered around and won’t be hard to miss, thanks to the yellow outline. The camera itself works to aid in combat, but this wasn’t of any use to me. You’re able to use it to slow down both the ghosts and yourself, or pause time.

Graphics & Audio

DEADCAM nails the ideal look of a horror game. I like how dark and grungy the environments are, in contrast to a lot of modern horrors, where the environment is too clean and shiny to seem decrepit and abandoned. Character models (including the hands of the player character) looked a little dated, and the enemies’ clothes had a tendency to clip through them a lot. Overall, though, the devs did a great job combining the grit, and a long forgotten building, with the found footage style camera. I do also like that you can toggle things such as flickering lights, camera tilt, and head-bobbing, as I found the head-bobbing to be too much.

Screenshot from DEADCAM. A shot of one of the high schooler ghosts found in the game. She is wearing a black uniform with red tie and a red blindfold over her eyes. Her hair is long and black. — A close-up of one of the enemies.

Longevity

Since DEADCAM is aiming to be an anthology, you can’t expect that much length in each episode. As of right now, it only has one episode, but that could take a decent time to complete. Mainly because of getting lost and some backtracking. Probably on a second run, it takes about half an hour. There are two endings, one deemed the bad and the other the true ending. A survival mode is available but, I wasn’t a fan, so I didn’t spend much time with it.

Final Thoughts

DEADCAM is way too heavy on the combat, with not much emphasis on horror. That’s a shame, since the graphics of the school and environment are well-made. Combat seems a little slow and the using the playback feature didn’t help me, as swinging my sword and moving back was much easier. Enemies spawn too often and move rather fast, which doesn’t do well to build suspense.

The story was okay, but a little too predictable. However, since the game aims to be an anthology I wouldn’t complain, as I’m happy to see different stories, settings, and hopefully monsters, in the episodes released later.

I do want to note two major problems that appeared near the end of my run. One being when I tried to get the true ending — I had the password correct, but it wouldn’t open the safe. I don’t like giving spoilers, but to prove I had the right password, the code should be 9184 (highlight to reveal). How do I know this is correct? Well, luckily I reloaded my save and it worked on a second attempt. Unfortunately, this then caused the next issue. I couldn’t turn my character’s head left or right.

Saying that, the developers are very responsive, and a game in early access is going to have some imperfections. So overall, I wouldn’t give them a hard time over this, and this was just my experience. Hopefully, with more episodes and bug fixes, the full experience will be worth it.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.

About Author

Kyle McGrath

I’ve enjoyed video games for as long as I remember and I don’t think there isn’t a game I wouldn’t play. For reviews, I try my best to make them simple and easy to understand. With so many games released daily, I attempt to play them all.

See author's posts

DEADCAM | ANALOG • SURVIVAL • HORROR – PC Preview