Introduction

Never will I lie to my readers and say I’m the bravest man in the world. I love horror games—give me a gun and a weapon and I can fight off zombies and hellspawn all day long laughing as I do. However, horror games with the only ability to either run or hide… those get my adrenaline pumping and you’ll see me flying off my seat or just screaming in fear but enjoying every second of it. That’s why I love horror and equally why I was excited for developer Surgent Studios’ newest game, Dead Take. Dead Take also has FMV—full motion video—which was once a dying genre but now has slowly been coming back in numerous games like Alan Wake 2. Is Dead Take the perfect horror escape room experience or should the director call cut the moment they were handed the script? You know I’m about to find out in my review of Dead Take for the PC!

Gameplay

What do you do if your “friend” doesn’t reach out to you after multiple texts? Obviously, you break into their mansion and search for them! That’s the premise behind Dead Take and while it sounds ridiculous—because it kind of is—I promise the reasons for your main man Chase to be searching for his friend are explained. However, Vinny—the famous friend—isn’t going to be found so easily and that’s where your adventure starts.

Dead Take primarily puts players into a mansion that clearly had some party happen and maybe more. Like most horror games, you can expect one of three things. Doors are not easily opened and usually require a lot of searching for clues/puzzle solving to open them. Rooms are often spooky and filled with lore. Lastly, jump scares… so many jump scares. Surgent Studios clearly learned from other horror games and implemented that in their game.

The good: Dead Take, despite the overreliance on cliché trope horror mechanics, is a fun title. You’ll be galavanting in this gigantic mansion looking for clues to piece together and find ways to reach where your friend is. Obviously too, with Dead Take being a psychological horror, you can expect rooms to never fully make sense and often be filled with abnormalities. I often loved entering an area thinking it would be straightforward only to discover that due to some psychosis our MC now sees a room filled with pictures or oddly shaped designs thrown about. Dead Take does an admirable job of keeping you always guessing where the next scare will be and what is real or just in your convoluted mind.

The bad: Dead Take again is very reliant on horror gameplay mechanics 101. Find a room, door is locked, uncover some strange puzzle, and then find a key to open the door. Then you’ll walk around and boom, something on the screen will happen or a loud noise will hit and the jump scares commence. If you love constantly walking with paranoia of what will happen next, then Dead Take has you covered. If you don’t like jump scares or hate puzzles constantly being thrown at you—literally there’s like three puzzles in the first ten minutes—you may have some gripes with the gameplay in Dead Take.

Graphics

Dead Take has the gameplay going for it, that much we’ve established, but are the visuals excellent too? Well… yeah, shockingly enough. The mansion itself feels like a Hollywood actor would live here, filled with random items, expensive wares, and security to ensure no one but the owner has access to it. The same can be said of the feeling that Dead Take is trying to go for: this world feels realistic, which makes the FMV segments run perfectly with it. The remnants of the party that went beyond wild, the disjointed mansion rooms that just scream overly compensating, and the sometimes abnormal rooms you’ll enter—these make Dead Take feel like you’re stepping into a movie where you are the central figure and now are going to find out why that isn’t as glamorous as it sounds. Dead Take did a fantastic job visually and I loved every second of it.

Sound

When I saw the plethora of recognizable faces like Ben Starr, Alanah Pearce, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, and Matthew Mercer—trust me there are even more in here—I knew I was in for a treat. I love these actors/voice actors and rarely does any of their work ever fail to deliver. Dead Take is empowered due to their presence here as they capture their roles without missing a beat. Alongside the phenomenal acting, the sound in Dead Take is phenomenal too. The mansion being as big as it is constantly makes noise and when you hear something that breaks the silence even a little it causes literal unease. From a random door closing—or did it—to a jump scare that slams at you, Dead Take has the sound working at full power here and I loved it.

Story

Without a doubt the story is what helps Dead Take survive the weaker gameplay mechanics. Following Chase, our “friend,” as he searches for the missing Vinny whose last whereabouts were inside a party in his mansion. There are a lot of darker and realistic themes that consistently present themselves in Dead Take, especially for those aware of the trials and tribulations of those wanting to be A-list celebrities. Dead Take has multiple endings too, with different end results of what fate awaits various characters you’ll meet in the story. Each ending I think does a good job of giving you some form of closure but that applies for the player… not so much for our cast…

Overall Impression

Dead Take is a surprising horror game that while not perfect has a great cast of actors and internet celebrities. Where Dead Take falters a bit is the overly simple horror gameplay which relies heavily on jump scares, common puzzles to open annoying doors, and exploring an often lifeless setting. Dead Take’s story will constantly push players to want to reach the finale and with several endings, there’s plenty of incentive to redo a specific chapter and see what would happen instead. Dead Take relies on common horror game mechanics but in the end is a solid game without a doubt.

Conclusion

Dead Take I really feel was quite overlooked this year. Had we not gotten a review copy of it, I probably wouldn’t have ever heard of it and that is a shame. While it doesn’t completely change the horror genre—especially in the gameplay department—Dead Take shines with a strong story, solid acting, great ambiance, and simple but effective gameplay. I highly recommend if you love traditional horror games but look for a story that actually has some substance behind it, you need to play Dead Take.

—Aaron