Sometimes a game comes along that has you asking ‘where have you been all my life?’. A game released to little or no fanfare that unfortunately just gets lost in an ocean of releases, yet is so good that it should be considered a crime that nobody has ever heard of or played it before.

Those were the feelings I had after playing Deadbolt. I stumbled across its existence by pure chance due to seeing that it was made by the same people who made the Risk of Rain games. It looks like fun, but there were no reviews logged on SwitchScores and the eshop page leaved a lot to be desired. I took a punt for the low asking price, but I kept my expectations in check.

It ended up being one of the best gaming experiences that I’ve had all year.

DOOR TO DOOR REAPING SERVICES
Stepping into the shoes of the Grim Reaper, you are assigned to quell the recent increase in undead by a mysterious entity that speaks to you via the flames of your fireplace. Acting as an otherworldly hitman, you take on missions to eradicate these gangs and seek out the source of a new drug known as ‘The Ash’.

It’s a format that riffs on the general conceit of Hotline Miami, and for good reason: Deadbolt feels like a love letter to Dennaton’s classic duology despite playing out in only two dimensions. The reaction-based strategic one-hit-kill gunplay, combined with a dynamic soundtrack that gels with the environment it takes place in, really gives you that satisfying and addictive rush that few other games can match.

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Set over three chapters, each with nine contracts for you to fulfill, the Reaper arrives at his destination (by car, rather than the usual horse) where you can kit yourself out with the primary and secondary weapon of your choice. There aren’t many guns to choose from at first, as you will need to trade earned souls with the Ferrymen in order to increase your arsenal, but you can also pick more up in the level itself to help take out enemy creatures. Missions may require you to simply kill all of the undead present, sometimes you just need to eliminate a boss character, but then there are others that task you with simply obtaining information. There’s a nice variety of objectives available, but you’ll probably want to deal with most of the foes lying in your way regardless due to their ability to kill you in a single shot.

Doing so is easier said than done, as the undead have a tendency to hang around in groups, forcing you to think creatively using the environment to your advantage. Knocking on a door will draw curious enemies closer, separating them from their friends; turning off light switches can make you harder to see, but will also encourage foes to turn them back on – blowing lights out with your gun will help ensure the darkness stays, but it comes at the cost of precious ammunition. There’s loads of ways you can distract and deal with your foes, but none are as useful as the ventilation system. The Reaper is able to turn into a puff of smoke and quickly navigate to other rooms with ease to help get the drop on opponents or to evade them completely. The game has a lot of strategy in addition to the twitchy shooting, making levels feel almost like a puzzle box at times with you having to think your way through them.

This is made even more so by the diverse range of enemies with their own particular gimmicks and disposal methods.. There are vampire bartenders that store their souls in glass containers, allowing them to be resurrected unless you destroy their soul first;  zombie security cameras call out to their mates if they spot you, large hunched skeletal creatures with nervous tendencies and a love for explosives plan traps at the slightest noise; and so many more. Thinking of how best to dispose of enemies and in what order is a big part of what makes the game so fun. Do you go straight into the ventilation to take out the pooping vampires first before they get alerted, or do you go straight for the bigger threats first at the risk of alerting more to your presence? Do you sneak upstairs to take out the explosive-loving skeleton quietly, or do you make a noise so that he can place traps that you can later use to take out the demonic dogs a little easier? The choice is yours!

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It’s not all perfect, of course, and much like Hotline Miami the enemy AI is as dumb as a sack of bricks. Whilst having such stupid AI can help you exploit them to your advantage, it can also lead to them doing stuff that wasn’t expected or can’t be dealt with as easy. One major annoyance is when enemies that would be alerted to your presence end up clustering around the upper door of a staircase instead of going downstairs to your location, which can make them a little trickier to deal with. This can be remedied by going up and grabbing their attention before rushing back down, but it’s a risky strategy that may be fatal depending on what type of enemies are waiting for you.

But these AI discrepancies rarely become annoying enough to ruin the addictiveness of the overall gameplay. With its diverse cast of baddies and similarly varied environments (such as one great nightclub stage, complete with dancing vampires), there’s just so much here to love. And that’s before you start playing around with some of the excellent weapons on offer. There are grenade launchers, SMGs, a meaty sledgehammer, shotguns, and even a purchasable Scythe for the true Reaper experience. Nothing too surprising, sure, but they all feel very weighty and satisfying to use.

VERDICT
With a decently sized campaign and unlockable harder difficulty that remixes the levels (as if the game wasn’t already brutally hard enough!), there’s a lot of content here to keep you busy for the low asking price. It never goes on sale, but it doesn’t really need to either. Fans of Hotline Miami style games should jump on this one as the tough twitchy action combined with the satisfying stealth mechanics make this a must-own title.