The Post-Game - Deadfall Adventures (Spoilers)

Platforms: Windows, Linux, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Deadfall Adventures has been sitting in my game library for a while now. It was always a game I meant to play, but somehow never had time to. Well, I took the time - 12 hours to be exact - and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's a fun mix of shooter, puzzler, and B-movie Indiana Jones-style setting / action / dialogue. If that sounds appealing, the game is worth picking up when on sale for around $10.

Note that I only played the single player campaign. I will evaluate the multiplayer at some point in the future.
That is if I feel motivated to try it out before needing the hard-drive space for other games.
And that's if there is anyone in the multi-player lobbies to even play multi-player with.

Gameplay

+ Decent gun-play. Different weapons feel different. 

+ Well-designed levels. Though linear overall, the levels tend to be large with plenty of cover and opportunities for flanking. 

+ Destructible cover. Not all cover is destructible, but plenty is.

+ Environment kills. Shoot explosive barrels, generators and gas cans to trigger explosions. Or, even better: those Mayan traps you just spent five minutes avoiding? Trigger them to kill the enemies coming after you.

+ Great puzzle design. These are the kinds of puzzles that I wish were in the new Tomb Raider (2013). Mirror puzzles, the "tile" puzzles on the floor (put a foot wrong and you die), going up and down on a platform, trying to pull levers in the correct order - all are core elements of Deadfall Adventures, and are required to progress in the story. None of the puzzles are greatly proliferated, either - some are variants on a theme (I counted three bounce-the-light-on-the-mirrors puzzles). Helps keep things fresh and interesting.

+ Fighting non-human enemies is reminiscent of Alan Wake's "fight with light" technique. Shine a flashlight (or other light-source - there are environment triggers for this as well), heat them up, and they start to burn. Once the burn effect begins, shooting them will have an effect. 

+ / - No cover system. Crouch behind cover, but no "snap-to" cover system. Not an outright negative because it can be argued that the game doesn't need it.
+ / - Same for dodging. Not in the game, but Deadfall Adventures is not built around melee combat anyway.
+ / - Not too short. A short campaign is one of the primary criticisms of the game. I got 12 hours out of a single playthrough, taking my time with puzzles and looking for treasure. Speedsters can complete the game in a third of that time, but atmosphere and environment is one of the points of the game. If you don't take time to savor either, and play the entire game with a game-guide providing all the puzzle solutions, expect to be disappointed by Deadfall Adventures.

- Low replayability. Once you've played it, no reason to revisit it except for achievement grinding.

- Some levels are pure corridor shooters. Boring. Thankfully, there are not many of these.
- No manual saving of the game. Checkpoints are fairly frequent, but still annoying.

- The loot system. It is completely tied into the upgrade system. Find treasure, and use it to upgrade Quartermain's skills. Treasure is only found by exploring every nook and cranny of the (generally linear) levels. Taking time out of the main quest is something I like to do for fun if I am enjoying the game; don't force me to do it as a condition of upgrading my character's skills. Finding treasure became a chore. I missed out on several upgrades just because I couldn't be bothered to complete the puzzle to uncover the treasure. Completionists will thrive here, but those looking to maintain momentum in their game won't want to take time out to find all the treasure. Which will preclude them from fully upgrading Quartermain.

- Reflexes required. Not always, but there are a few puzzles that rely on a player's reflexes to pass through them. Something to keep in mind if you're playing with an old keyboard + mouse and have issues with input lag.

- Puzzles may have great design, but sometimes there is simply no indication how to solve them. The in-game notebook that Quartermain consults when faced with a puzzle is usually helpful, but there are several occasions where it was not - and one occasion where the notebook was wrong. 

- Sometimes there are no clues on how to progress. Not always a problem, but it comes up at a few crucial points. The easiest example is the final boss. (minor SPOILER) At the second stage of the fight, with lava being shot everywhere, the boss is invincible. I ran around in circles for fifteen minutes, shooting at the boss and his minions, unsure if I was actually damaging him with gunfire, or whether by shooting his minions he was taking damage, or maybe I had to kill several waves of minions for him to take damage... Nope, none of that. Finally, I looked up a game-play guide and learned that, upon entering that stage of the battle, I was supposed to shoot out some support columns high in the air to collapse the ceiling on him. Maybe I would have figured it out after a while, but things like this happened several times throughout the game. That's not poor design - the design works well enough - that's poor implementation.

- Minimal upgrade tree. There are five upgrade paths, each of four levels. Not enough variety.

The entire upgrade screen.

- No in-game indicator of how to proceed through a level. Not looking to have my hand held, no. I wanted to finish an area, then go back and search for treasure. Sometimes I would be digging around, exploring some passageways, and trigger the next area - which locked me out of the previous one. Bye-bye upgrades.

Characters

+ If you can accept Deadfall Adventures as a B-movie kind of experience, Quartermain is snarky and sarcastic, his side-kick Jen is hot but capable, and the villain is a real scumbag who gets what is coming to him. Quartermain is your strong alpha-male type who prefers guns and bullets to puzzles and finesse (at one point he actually says, "I hate pushing buttons!" Except I had him push the wrong one, so he died instantly!). Jennifer Goodwin is smart and savvy, who provides the sense to complement Quartermain's direct simplicity. Aside from the villains, there aren't really any other characters in the game worth mentioning.

- If you can't accept the game as a B-movie kind of experience, you'll notice that Quartermain's voice actor is not that good, Jennifer Goodwin sounds like a cheap rip-off of Rachel Weisz in The Mummy, and the villains do absolutely everything you expect them to do. How many male-stereotypes have been seen in movies or in games that prefer bullets and explosions over any other approach? And how many times have we seen the woman thrust into a complimentary role to the alpha-male, balancing him and supporting him on his journey? Both are over-played tropes that rear their heads here once again. 

Narrative

+ / - You've heard the story before. Nazis are after some secret artifact that will give them power over the world. If plays out pretty much as you would expect it to: initial exploration, discovery of more pieces of the puzzle, betrayal, follow the villain to the next important piece, he gets there first, girl gets captured once or twice, rescue girl, get the artifact, kill the Nazis, save the world. Deadfall Adventures uses the story as an excuse to visit some exotic locations, and these locations are wonderfully detailed, but don't expect original story-telling.

Graphics Etc.

+ Environment graphics are superb. The Arctic looks cold, with great water / ice effects and blowing snow. The jungles are densely populated with lots of foliage, and the numerous ruins we explore are perfectly rendered with that aged, moss-covered look. 

+ Weapon models are well designed and detailed.

+ Except for the fact that Jennifer Goodwin's clothes look a little tight, they are at least practical and fit within the story. 

+ The game was very stable, not a single crash in the entire play-through.

+ / - Heavy on system resources. I was surprised to find that Deadfall Adventures stressed my system as much as The Witcher 2 (60% CPU, 100% GPU load)(A10 6800k + R7 260X). The game does look amazing, though, so I suppose that is not a surprise.

+ / - Voice acting is hit-or-miss. Quartermain's voice flip-flops between "I'm bored but I'm awesome anyway..." to "Hell yeah! look how big that explosion was!" Blech. The main villain's voice actor hits all the right notes, though, and Jen's voice actress comes off well enough.
+ / - Soundtrack is good, but not enough variety. Some tracks get repetitive, depending on how much time you spend in a location.

- Character models are disappointing. Stiff and low-res.
- Over-priced. I thought Deadfall Adventures was fun, but $50 for the Deluxe Edition? even at 75% off ($12.50), that is still more than the game is worth. Drop the Deluxe Edition to $7.50-$10 at 75% off, and the game becomes a must-buy when on sale.
- At the time of writing, there is no option to upgrade to the Deluxe Edition in the Steam store. I liked the game, why not provide a Deluxe Edition Upgrade option? As a result, I'm missing out on some DLC, multiplayer skins, behind-the-scenes extras, and soundtrack. I can't get the Deluxe Edition by purchasing it - Steam says I already own the game. So... I guess there is no legitimate way to get those extra materials.