Two Stick shooters have become very popular in recent months/years. They’re regarded as two stick because on console games, the movement and shooting are done on the two controller sticks, most of the time, this is all there is to the controls. They generally have an easy learning curve for players, and programming ease for developers. It’s not that making a game is easy, but making one on a top-down scale, worrying about 2 dimensions and simple controls definitely ease the burden. Dead Meets Lead, from Swedish developer Keldyn interactive, takes two stick shooters to the PC, and pulls it off with a bit of style.
Dead Meets Lead follows the story of a shipwrecked captain set out to cleanse tropical islands of zombies. The Zombies range from simple walking dead with all the moans and groans you’d expect. Others seem more like tribesman with hunting capabilities and voodoo shaman with spells. As a zombie fan, these exceptions to the zombie rule of “slow and stupid” ring false.
While it isn’t much of a story (but really, how many Zombie annihilation games have a good one?) the gameplay is definitely worth a look. As the captain, you may obtain 3 different melee weapons and 4 ranged weapons, all of which have different play mechanics and challenges. Playing through the tutorial levels gives the player a good insight as to how the game functions and helps the player understand the game’s unique “Rage” system. While killing zombies quickly and rapidly, the captain gains rage, making him more powerful and faster, so he can kill even more zombies! The captain gains demonic powers from the looks of his 5th level of rage, he has demon wings, glowing eyes and an apparently very angry face. With all the power hs has, no wonder he looks like a demon. This seems like a broken system, as you’d expect him to get more and more powerful and soon nothing can stop him...not so. Throughout levels, the captain has to spend his rage to use a wide-spread stun move on the hordes of zombies. Without using this move, it’s near impossible to complete some levels.
