Dead Take Review - Turn Off The Dark
Dead Take, touted as a ‘psychological horror escape room’ is the next offering from Tales of Kenzera: ZAU developers Surgent Studios. It’s a tonal shift towards the dark and twisted; a critique of the entertainment industry and the creators we revere, as well as a commentary on the human condition. It’s an ambitious topic, and the game takes some big artistic swings and utilises some serious star power – and whether or not it succeeds in its ambitions may vary depending on the consumer.
You are Chase Lowry (Neil Newbon), who after receiving only radio silence from fellow actor Vinny Monroe (Ben Starr) following Vinny’s attendance at a big entertainment industry party (that Chase wasn’t invited to), decides to take matters into his own hands. But from the moment Chase steps into the party’s location – the sprawling mansion of renowned auteur Duke Cain – it’s clear that there’s something more sinister at play. As you investigate the mansion and start to unpack what has recently unfolded between its walls, you also start to learn more about its owner, his artistic process, and those desperate to be a part of his latest film – and what success in the movie and beyond might require from them.
Dead Take relies heavily on its incorporation of full-motion video (FMV) to tell its story, with a large part of the gameplay revolving around the collection of media drives that contain interviews and audition tapes starring the game’s main characters. Those media drives are scattered throughout the mansion’s many rooms, which will only open up as you solve puzzles to acquire keys and access hidden areas or compartments. The puzzles are mostly standard ‘escape room’ fare with a spooky twist, and most have relatively straightforward environmentally-related solutions – with the exception of a few that felt somewhat poorly explained. Once you have new footage, you’ll need to make your way to the projector room to load it up, where watching it will do one of two things – unlock the game’s next sequence, or prompt you to splice clips together using the ‘Splaice’ machine (but pronounced “splice”, it clarifies) to create a new clip to view before you can proceed.
As you move around the mansion, you’re able to collect pieces of evidence and information that will unlock clues to how you can splice together certain clips to unlock extra footage of some of the characters – or even, in some cases, the only footage of some characters. The problem is, it’s very easy to unlock this extra footage accidentally by just playing around a bit with the ‘Splaice’ machine and throwing together clips you might guess would work, making the clues somewhat redundant. I accidentally uncovered several of them while still throwing things together just to learn the splicing mechanic, and I wish I’d found them the intended way instead.
This footage, however you come across it, is the game’s greatest strength. The performances from the cast – particularly featured members Neil Newbon and Ben Starr – are teeming with raw emotion, presumably channelled from very real experiences throughout their careers in the industry that the game examines. Despite the game’s many other, perhaps more deliberate attempts to be “scary”, some moments of these performances are the most frightening parts. The mansion itself is awash with horror tropes – creepy sounds, somewhat cheap jump scares, and threateningly-posed mannequins – but the human condition is more terrifying than any of it. The performances are inspired, though you could argue that the role of some of the supporting cast members feels simultaneously a little indulgent, and like they are underused.
Dead Take is an interesting study of acting itself, but it’s let down by its gameplay loop, with the two core concepts – the clips and the exploration – never quite marrying together in a way that felt as engaging as I wanted it to. There was a constant sense of discomfort and tension when playing, but after a while the scares became predictable in their unpredictability. It’s creepy, and unsettling, and has moments of genuine horror – but then has other moments that feel like “safe” choices for the horror genre, but that are a little out of place in this context. There are interesting plot threads that are teased, but never quite explored, and others that feel superfluous or overexplored. The balance isn’t quite there, and it’s frustrating – because at the root of this game is a premise that is rife with fodder for instilling existential fear.
It’s an interesting game, and if its goal is to link thoughts of the entertainment industry with feelings of fear and tension, it does succeed in that goal – but it does so in ways that feel like they undermine the intention. It is a properly scary horror game, and it is a commentary on the industry of its creators, but it feels like there’s something missing. The performances are stellar, the quality is crisp, but… I don’t know. I’m completely willing to accept that it might just be that the artistic direction is not translating for me, and that others might think it’s succeeding where I’m finding it fails – that’s the point of art. And this game does feel like “art”. It’s certainly making a statement, and I commend the team for that.
And I do welcome the resurgence of FMVs – if nothing else, this feels like a future I can get on board with.
Dead Take was reviewed on PC using code kindly supplied by the publisher.
