Deep Black Reloaded Review

The bar for arcade games is constantly being raised. With such great titles with interesting gameplay concepts like Warp or Braid it seems that arcade games are where innovation and creativity bloom in unexpected ways.

On the other hand arcade games are becoming graphically as appealing as full retail titles. If you think back about what an “arcade game” really was just a few short years ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if the following generations have a completely different view of what an arcade game is, compared to me.

That being said Deep Black Reloaded offers a nice blend of innovation, great gameplay, and stellar graphics. When I first installed it and loaded up the game, I literally minimized it to make sure this was being called an arcade game. It is, and it will be making its way to XBLA and PSN soon enough.

The graphics and gameplay were smooth and when you are going to throw another shooter in a crowded genre, little things like that make a world of difference. I am a console gamer first, but I found using the mouse/keyboard was easy to use and the controls weren’t too complicated. It is strange how rare that is nowadays with absurd control additions that have you realizing that you are going to get carpal tunnel AS you are playing.

Being the person I am though, I thrive for comfort. So I plugged in my USB Xbox 360 controller and I anticipated needing to map it so it would work, luckily I was greeted with a fantastic surprise that the game recognized it automatically. As an added bonus they even had the symbols for the  controller buttons appearing right alongside of everything to make the transition very smooth.

Deep Black Reloaded is not your typical 3rd person shooter. Biart submerges you into a underwater battle, your mission is to fight your way through 40 levels of land and deep sea action. There is enough variety to keep you pulled in and no tedious actions/quests that take away from the experience.

Like most arcade games that focus on one aspect and make it the primary part of their game, water plays a cool role in Deep Black Reloaded. Whether you are completing missions underwater and enjoying the physics that go along with it, or doing things like shooting pipes to flood a room, you will thoroughly enjoy performing actions that are really different than most games.

The sound effects in this game are amazing, you easily get immersed in the explosions and underwater sound of bullets whizzing by you. The game can seem a bit lonely at times though, you don’t fight more than 2-3 enemies at once. At times you get some vibes of a thriller  since you don’t know when something might pop out and Biart likes to throw surprises your way.

For those of you with a 3D ready video card and a compatible monitor, Deep Black Reloaded will allow you to experience it. With the graphics pretty great and water playing a major role, there is a definite appeal to watch water gushing through pipes and bullets rippling through water in the third dimension though.

To be honest though if I wasn’t looking at this title from the perspective that it was an arcade game, I don’t know if I would be praising it as much as I am. Don’t get me wrong, the game is solid in all aspects and even offers multiplayer for the gamers who won’t touch a title without it. That being said it is an arcade game and their is roughly eight hours of gameplay (not including MP) so if you are looking for a title with the depth of Skyrim this isn’t your title. If you are looking for a top of the line title in-terms of arcade games this IS your game.

The depth is the only thing that could possibly turn you off from this game and that would be solely because we are used to having a lot of replay value for our hard earned cash. If you can overlook that and are in the mood for a great adventure look no further, you will have fun, you will kill stuff, and you will experience something new.

You can download the demo here and see for yourself if I did not sway you one way or the other.

A copy of Deep Black Reloaded was provided to us on the PC by Biart and Reverb Communications