Deep Black: Reloaded Review

Water. Y’know, that wet stuff that covers two thirds of our planet and. Unbelievably, there are still some gaming characters that struggle with a waist deep puddle. Such concerns are not a problem for the protagonists in Deep Black: Reloaded though, thanks to underwater combat making up about half of the gameplay in this third person shooter. Unfortunately, it’s the only half it does well.

  • Developer: Biart
  • Publisher: Biart
  • Reviewed on: PC
  • Release Date: Available now / later this year on PSN and XBLA

Players take on the role of Cyrus Pierce, a retired mercenary for the CHARON (Chief Amphibious Reconnaissance Operational Network) group, who has been brought out of retirement by his former Commanding Officer and been given the chance to exact some revenge on the terrorist network, Al-Azrad (presumably for crimes against humanity using the medium of clichés – Ed.).

The world of Deep Black: Reloaded is set in the year 2042, where Governments have been replaced by corporations, all of which are fighting for the planet’s diminishing resources. Pierce is tasked with infiltrating a research base where a bunch of scientists have reportedly been taken hostage by Al-Azrad; but shortly into the mission, Pierce discovers there’s a lot more going on here than he originally signed up for.

Being part of an amphibious unit, one of your key advantages is a unique suit, that looks like a mix between Halo’s ODST troopers and the Dead Space 2 RIG, and is not only designed for combat thanks to the handy built-in health monitor, but also has the ability to survive and move freely underwater. The underwater sections in Deep Black: Reloaded feel very similar to the zero-G sections in Dead Space 2, even down to the inclusion of jets that allow you a burst of speed for a limited time before a recharge is required. These jets are definitely a useful feature when having to fight against underwater torrents or sneak past motion sensors quickly, but using it at the wrong time can propel you straight into danger. Another tool at your disposal is the Harpoon, which can not only be used as your melee attack both on land and in water, but also used to pull enemies into the water for an instant kill, and even has the ability to hack switches and mechanical enemies from a distance.

The underwater sections of Deep Black: Reloaded is – as I alluded to earlier – the half of the game that’s been done well, and are definitely the most enjoyable segments of the game. The joys that you’ll find under the sea in Deep Black: Reloaded range from being able to take cover behind broken, submerged pillars, taking land loving enemies out silently with the Harpoon to a giant robotic crab. Sadly, there just isn’t enough time spent in the water during the first few levels for my liking; each early underwater section feels like just another path to get to the next ground area. Where, sadly, this game starts to sink.

More splash-splash than boom-boom.

The problem actually begins with leaving the water. Despite having the Harpoon, Pierce must find a set of steps that are partially submerged in order to return to land, and he never seems to have quite mastered the art of actually climbing up them . Every time I came to a staircase, Pierce would float about, unsure as to the correct procedure for walking on his own two legs. At best, movement on land feels clunky and awkward; this state of affairs is not helped by the wondrously rubbish cover system which guarantees that you’ll be constantly – and accidentally – crouching behind anything the cover prompt appears for, when what you were actually trying to do was combat your way out of the firing range of a pesky enemy turret.

The combat doesn’t come across any better. Whilst you can equip Pierce with a veritable bevy of weapons, the assault rifle can handle basically any situation and definitely seems to have the best mix of power and reload time; the usefulness of the shotgun is limited by its painfully slow reload time and short range. As the assault rifle outperforms every other weapon by a mile, you’ll most likely be using just that weapon throughout the entire game. You also gain EMP grenades early on in the campaign, but throwing them blind will throw them a lot further than you would expect from other games that have a similar function, and trying to aim the trajectory will get you killed more often than not thanks to the ferocious efficiency of the game’s enemies – who evidently don’t understand the term ‘easy’ when it comes to difficulty levels.

In fact, the ridiculous efficiency of Deep Black: Reloaded‘s enemies pretty much leads to constant brushes with instant death. Being out of cover whilst taking fire for just a couple of seconds gets you killed. Allowing the enemy to melee you, making you disorientated for the briefest of moments gets you killed. In fact, doing most things that other games will give you some slack with gets you – that’s right – killed.

But, in fairness, there are parts of the game when the combat feels (heaven forbid) balanced. Can you guess where?  Yep, that’s right, the underwater parts (a.k.a. the decent half of the game). In fact, if dry land wasn’t stuffed full of hundreds upon hundreds of explosive big red barrels (and some smaller but equally awesome blue ones) that handily take down most enemies caught in their blast radius, some fights would be unbearable.

It’s a shame that a such large portion of Deep Black: Reloaded relies on being above ground, as it feels like there’s a lot of potential lying there in the deep, waiting to be uncovered. While I found the game lacking in the amount of great underwater sequences, there’s a few more redeeming qualities to the game than I’ve arguably let on in this review. The game’s audio is great, but it’s a shame that the game’s great music is limited to just a few tracks. Visually, apart from the odd glitch during cutscenes, the graphics and animation are as solid as one would expect; also, in the underwater sections, the developers somehow managed to pull off the sensation of wading through murky, dark water whilst keeping all the important visual cues crystal clear. That’s not an easy trick to pull off, so is something I must genuinely applaud the developer for.

Great underwater action
Great visual, above and under water
Clunky controls on land
Generic story and characters

It should be noted that the game does have a multiplayer mode. However, as only a handful people were playing this game before it went on general release, I was unable to check this feature out. Deep Black: Reloaded will also be coming to both PSN and Xbox Live Arcade later this year and one only hopes that the game has a few improvements made by the time it hits consoles. For now, the PC version is available to buy direct from the developer’s website.

Review code provided by Biart
Deep Black: Reloaded – Official Game Site

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